Three months has passed and yet there is still no chance of hope at all. Been locked up for an accusations which is so bleak of proof or evidence, churning Ezekiel's heart like a frail dead carcasses with no tomb to be named. Looking straight in the mirror, his eyes and cheeks were hollow...too many sorrow significantly written clearly in his iris. His head has been shave...so is his humanity. How he hated himself...how he loathed this look."I'm turning more and more like you father...!!!" whirls his mind yet again and again.
"Hey, come on, the guard is waiting for us." cried one of the inmates Saiful. Ezekiel took one last glance on his looks as he shuts his eyes in anger before he left.
Carpentry activities, were simply dragging on that scorching burning hot afternoon. The sun was right in the middle of the sky and the guard had told few of the boys, with their tools to be station at the open basketball court area. Ezekiel and the rest of the boys, were wiping and swiping off their sweats from their forehead and neck.
The boys, including Ezekiel seems to have left with no other choice, but to follow and hit the orders. Ezekiel, grab the sand paper from his tool box and soon he begin his task, scrubbing with all his might. Deep down in his thoughts, it seems like a comfort bliss, though the afternoon sunny rays is beaming it's might, right upon his head, but after seeing the rust been peel off vigorously away from his saw, it's like peeling himself away from his own being.
In the midst of their current labour, suddenly another guard came forward towards the loud siren warden and they both seems to be engross in a conversation. The loud siren frown, as he had his sight towards Ezekiel, who was looking nonchalant, while pushing his dark ash brown frame glasses further up his nose bridge.
"Ezekiel, pack your stuff and follow this guard." barked the warden.
"When the noun name hope, seems to be snapping away from it's rope. When the sun could no longer shines it's light of trust upon the valley, when the rain took away the dew life of courage, sweeping them away to the mud....was it me to be blame, was it me to be shamed? Will the door be shut on me, yet again and again...or will the road be braided with thorns for this callous being to walk upon ? I'm taking it with a placid mind...keeping my hope,fear and trust only to the One..the One with no close doors...the One with abundance Light of Sustain...cause I belief.- Ezekiel Akhbar Bukhari." Riley, was simply impressed after reading the significant note, which has been displayed on the notice board. He realised that Ezekiel had indeed a hidden talent...of being a potential poet or who knows even a writer. Thought Riley to himself with a smile.
"Sir upon your request." utters the guard, bringing Ezekiel along by his side. As he set his hazel brown eyes upon Riley, Ezekiel look of displeasure, fall upon his features.
"I have come to take you home." exclaimed Riley, with a smile of hope and courage.
"I don't know what, or who to belief anymore." sigh Ezekiel, as he too his leap towards the door, much to the guard's and Riley's surprised.
'I've read that note..the note which you have written, displayed significantly against the wall. I was feeling like that once, in my life, but now...I belief." cried Riley.
Ezekiel stood froze. He begins to feel confused and numbed, not knowing what will his current status of life going to be like. And the worst thought of it all, is his mum.
Oasis had his tiny head laid resting upon Ezekiel's finger. He seems to be missing him alot, missing being pet, talk to, being caress, in almost everything. thought Ezekiel to himself with a small grin. "Thanks Riley, you have done well for baby sitting him, while I'm gone."
"Anytime. It is certainly, a very well experience for me." grinned Riley.
Ezekiel remains on the couch for almost an hour with his pet turtle without moving an inch, he felt kind of awkward and uneasy. "Where's my mum?" shoots Ezekiel, with a frown of anguish on his soul. A question, which he can't be keeping hiding inside his timid heart. No matter how angry and disappointed he felt for his mum, no doubt he still loves her.
"She's off station. Don't worry about that, she will be home soon. Anyway she send her love to you, saying ..well ehhh...welcome back home..yup. That's what she says." said Riley, shrugging his shoulders with his hands hiding inside his pockets, looking innocent.
"She said that huh?" retort Ezekiel. " You know what, you are pretty bad in telling lies...cause, for one thing, your eyes can't lie and another thing, you look like a freak." gasped Ezekiel, with a smirk.
"Just trying to help." utters Riley, feeling dejected.
"You have help me alot. Really, I feel touch. Thank you." reply Ezekiel and this time with a genuine smile, of a new found courage. "But still curious, how? I meant what exactly happen ?" asked Ezekiel, placing Oasis's bowl back onto the mantle place.
"Failed suicide attempt, that had led Jessy into all this mess." replied Riley, with so much intensity in his voice.
"I still can't get the picture." utters Ezekiel, shaking his head as he gave a wondrous stare, expecting more account from Riley.
Riley, pulls the chair away from the dining table as he sat on it. "Well, it seems she's having a deep relationship with her foster daddy." begins Riley, sounding monotone. Ezekiel decides to remain unspoken until, all the details were flushed out for him to comply. Riley, begins to fiddle with the top portion of the cream satin table clothe, running his fingers to and fro by the edge of it. "They were both in massive shit, when she finds out, that she's having his baby. Jessy, been afraid of going back to yet another juvenile home, and the fear of her lover, been put up in jail, for having consensual sex with her, cause she's a minor, the daddy soon came out with a plan, that unfortunately had involved you." said Riley, as he stop fidgeting with the clothe and had his eyes on Ezekiel's instead. Ezekiel remains motionless, but from the look on his face the cast was simply cloudy. Riley, decides to move ahead with the details cause, he knew Ezekiel was expecting more. "Jessy, somehow know Qareem or Qareesma from Face Book...and that's where the three of them had set up a indecent trap. But things just goes weary, when she lost her baby due to miscarriage, I guess God is Al-mighty...wants to show the truth, behind all their sickening deceptions. Her dead foetus, were sent for forensic test, and justice was done, cause the blood sample and all those medical stuffs results shows, her sweet daddy is the father of the child. So end of the story, daddy's girl tries suicide, but failed...now she's back in a juvenile home and daddy was sent to prison." grin Riley, widely as he putting it all in such a happy ending. However, Ezekiel still looking perturb. "Hey, this supposed to be, and we live happily ever after?" whine Riley, as he felt kind of dismay seeing Ezekiel looking like that.
"And why the hell, she got herself involved, with her sweet daddy then?" retort Ezekiel, a million dollar question.
"She claims, that she's in love with him. Only sixteen, and getting herself involved in this kind of beheading gallows. She has given herself a name...trouble." answered Riley with a smirk.
"Wasn't that how, you had always felt about my mum? Way back when you are barely seventeen, when you came into our picture and mess up the puzzles." snapped Ezekiel, the confused and duplicity of his crippling past, came back in such a quick notion to plague him.
"Oh, Ezekiel, come on, we have both been through this before!" utters Riley, as he felt kind of distraught. "He's killing her spirit, even before, you were born for your info!" rants Riley.
"And the foundation of love, which both of you have profound ? It is still, a riddle in my head, I just can't figure out how, why and what?" snapped Ezekiel.
"The cafe, which I've told you about, the place where the beginning mark of my tale for success, is the place where, I first met Eva. She was trying to make her selling, of her cup cakes in our cafe." utters Riley, as he had his vision towards the lilac lace curtain, which was swaying gently by the window. "The boss had eventually, puts me in charge on that day. She seems in so much distress and persistent, wanting so badly to sell her goodies. Well, those cup cakes, does looks too good to be eaten though, but still I shove it in my mouth. The taste was splendid, and since then, our cafe begins taking orders from her. And sooner or later, both of us, not only talking about business, we both begins to open up more about our lives, hopes and dreams. She was carrying you in her womb and she has so much significant faith on you. We talk almost everyday...almost about everything. Our spirits lift up, and she does know how, to make things right, with the words she says, the deeds which she's commit with, and finally I begin to realised, I have fallen in love with her, despite my age been half junior of hers. Her husband was not aware about our platonic relationship, because I have been concealing this deep notion of love for her, a secret within my soul. After you were born, things were not getting any better for her, he's becomes so much worst. All I can see from her eyes were pain, battered and anger. She's suffering and I know." revealed Riley, feeling remorseful.
Ezekiel hung his head low, as he begins to listen while fighting so hard, not to let his tears fall. "I've told her and persuade her several times, for her to move on and get away from all this, but she had you in her mind, she was afraid of losing you. One day, she stop coming. I became frantic and worried, worried for the worst instalment upon her status. So I came by your home and true enough, I saw him hurting her, while she was carrying you in her arms. The worst point to come, when he accursed you, of not been his child. Really, weird sickening dejayu on my part. I step in to intervene, to stop him from carrying on tormenting her with his fists. That must have driven him mad, as he shove her towards me while, please forgive me Ezekiel...your grandma, ransacking her closet and threw out all her belongings. She was literally, thrown out from her own home and strange thing though, your grandma had forcefully grab you away from her frailing arms. Your mum was begging and crying so much, just to embrace you for another second or more, but it was all in vain. Therefore, that's how I took her in." continue Riley, with this wreaking incident which seems to happen only yesterday.
"And the fact is, me becoming like him, is simply disastrous. Riley, I just hated being me..being like this and looking like this." utters Ezekiel sorrowfully, a statement which he had often mention to, Yasmeen.
"Eze, been looked alike, doesn't meant that your fate will turn out like that. Does a mirror speaks upon the image of a being, which has been projected ? Well, of course it does..but how about the inner part of it, can a mirror tells what lies in a heart? No, definitely not. So think about it ?" grinned Riley as he wink an eye.
"Yeah, may be I should not be too absorbed with these hollowness of being....not me." state Ezekiel.
"Well, it's normal, to have that angle kind of perception, about ourselves once in a while, trying to find the right note, the right frequency to fit in with the rest of the channel. We are learning, almost everyday, new things, new stories." replies Riley with a smile. Ezekie,l nods his head as his face, was beaming with so much new found hope, love, trust and courage with this noteworthy friendship. "Wow, I guess..we are back as normal." exclaimed Riley excitedly. "Come, get your coat, let's go lunching somewhere." said Riley, as he removed his hands from his pockets and walk towards the mantle place to get his car keys. Ezekiel nodded with a grin and soon both of them hit the road, to Riley's desired destination.More and more assignments coming along Yasmeen's schedules, and not forgetting her project presentation which she needs to give, in three days time. With her always on the go and rushing date lines, Yasmeen soon begins to realised that, all this tasks were indeed a significant blessings in disguise, because, the more she occupies herself with projects, the further away her thoughts about her moaning past could haunt her. Making new friends in college, can be quite disastrous.. where you can't be too cool and hip or you can't be a nerd or looking like a freak either. Yasmeen decides to look normal, no more curling lashes or succulent kissable lip gloss...but beauty of Yasmeen has speaks itself. She glows more radiantly even without all those extra improvisations.
"Thanks Riley for this lunch. Finally, get to tucked in my favourite fish and chips that goes along very well with diet coke." trails Ezekiel with a beaming smile.
"Anytime..for my friend and a.." utters Riley.
"Ahh..ahh..not the son..please." pleads, Ezekiel as they both giggles. Suddenly, Ezekiel begins to feel shudder, as though another piece of a puzzle, is missing in his blue print photo. "Hope?" that word just sprung on his mind and he knew, it was Yasmeen, the missing puzzle which he for so long forsaken.
"Hie, Yasmeen not around at this moment. Please, leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I could. Thank you." Ezekiel has been trying for umpteen number of times, however it was too no avail.
"Yasmeen right?" asked Riley casually, as he plays around with the straw of his glass of coke.
Ezekiel nodded in silent of disclosure emotions.
Not only Riley, but both Eva and Ezekiel himself were quite surprised with his own decision, of going back to the boarding school to continue pursuing back with his thesis. Two and a half years more to go..well, time travels fast these days, therefore in a nick of time, a cert will be in his palms. To be a writer, that's had cross Ezekiel's mind and that dreams, seems to be getting stronger in each passing day. Saif ,was glad seeing Ezekiel been back with him, as his room mate and so are the rest of his others school mates. Qareesma, quit college, as he was feeling too ashamed to be facing Ezekiel..ashamed with his horrid and deceitful friendship which he had with him.
"Oh! Eze, I'm so excited about this whole deal." exclaimed Saif as they both were busy setting up their booth for the opening of their very own garage sell which was held in the city expo during their summer school holidays. And the interesting matter was, this garage was open to all intern college student on that city state.
Ezekiel give him a smile of courage."This won't be happening if it wasn't for you that has been pushing me along with this idea." said Ezekiel. Ezekiel was looking fresh with his new crew haircut, his dark rim glasses has been forsaken, as he decides to go on with the lenses. He had his ears piece, much to his mum annoyance..wearing ear studs, to portray his self identity of just been him.
All was set, old paper back and hard cover books, were neatly arrange on the display table. "Saif, I get ourselves some coffee, do you want anything else?" asked Ezekiel as he walks few step away from the booth.
"Coffee with some curry puffs, will be a great leisure." reply Saif with a grin. Ezekiel snap his fingers, as he giggles and took his phase, towards the nearest cafe that he could find.
As he came closer towards the cafe, he was startle, for the queue was pretty long and it seems this is the only cafe, which was available. Ezekiel decides to wait, as he follows the queue, while he place his hands in his pockets, to get his notes and cents. Accidentaly, a dollar coin drops out from his pocket and begins to roll away, towards the edge of another feet. "Damn." sigh Ezekiel, as he walk closer towards his dime. The feet ,had felt something brushing against it and decides to check what it was.
"I'm so sorry." utters Ezekiel and suddenly he stood numb and was set in daze. His heart was pounding in such an amazing trance. "Yasmeen." mutters Ezekiel, feeling uncertain about his own emotions. Like the pouring of the torrential rain, sweeping away the puddle of mud, to make the path come undone again.
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