Tale Zero: Screaming Scorpion (3)

Her face completely contorted into one of fear.

I didn’t blame her.

I couldn’t blame her.

Because I had already known.

As an acquaintance of the whole family and Claudia’s long-time friend, I had known – her grandmother, now entering her eighties, had been in pretty bad health since her husband had passed away some time prior.

And so this news didn’t come as a surprise – but that didn’t make it any less worrying.

I too was concerned.

I couldn’t imagine the possibility of someone I’d known just… dying.

Maybe I was naïve in that way.

But I really couldn’t stand the thought of a person ceasing to exist.

So, when I looked Claudia in the eye, I’m sure I came off as being more worried than I had any right to be.

Even so.

Seeing how, even now, she was having a hard time leaving me alone and running off to her house, I took the initiative myself.

“Go. Don’t make your family wait. If she sees you, I’m sure she’ll recover quicker.”

“B-but…!”

“There’s no time to worry about nonsense, damn it! Just go! I’ll be waiting in the usual place until you come back. You can tell me whatever it was then!”

With this, she seemed convinced. Or perhaps just scared of my aggressive reaction.

Regardless of which it was, the important part is-

She ran.

She ran as fast as she could, as far as she could, now with a very clear destination and purpose on her mind.

I couldn’t do anything other than keep my promise and patiently wait for her in the ‘usual place’.

The 'usual place', huh...

As suspicious as that might sound to some, it was nothing more than a small playground area where we used to play as children. We didn't really know each other by then other than from casual encounters – or maybe we did, but neither of us would remember. We were four years old.

What I did certainly remember, though, were all the later memories I had in that place. Our group of three friends, always sitting down in the same exact bench, to talk about whatever had happened that day to each of us.

In the weekends, we sometimes brought our handheld game consoles and played together for a while.

The trio formed my Claudia, Oliver and me…

Though Oliver had moved away last year.

It was not the same without him anymore. Though that doesn’t mean I was discontent. Claudia and I had never gone anywhere, and we could still have plenty of fun on our own.

… Though apparently, it seemed Oliver was coming back this week.

Perhaps what Claudia had wanted to tell me was related to that… tough in that case, one would question why she needed tackle it in such a roundabout way, when it was obvious she’d been meaning to say whatever it was for a while.

And as I thought about this.

I heard footsteps approaching, so I looked up.

And there, my gaze met a boy’s – one I knew well, but one I hadn’t seen in over a year.

“Yo, Oliver! Already here? I’ve missed you, mate!”

“Goddammit, James, I can’t even come visit this place without bumping into one of y’all!”

We hugged each other, and laughed together like we had never spent a single day apart.

“So how’ve you been, James? Got anything tasty to tell me? Did anything happen while I was gone that I should know, hm?”

“Uh… I don’t think so? And also, haven’t I been texting you regularly? If I had anything to say I would have already, sheesh.”

“So you say, so you say… But I just saw Claudia running to her home half crying, and I can’t imagine you know nothing about it.”

Oh.

He’d seen her…

She was crying?

She certainly wasn’t when I’d seen her run away…

I had already been worried, incredibly so – but after the brief moment of happiness upon reuniting with Oliver, now I was even more concerned for Claudia’s wellbeing.

It must have shown in my face.

“Hey, man, what’s up? Did you not know? Have I said something I shouldn’t?”

“N-no, it’s okay… Claudia had to go to the hospital because her grandmother’s really ill all of a sudden. I imagine she’s just really stressed out, but everything should be okay.”

“Oh, I see… I shouldn’t have been so insensitive. I thought… Well, never mind that. Come on, James, cheer up, will you? You said it yourself. Everything will be fine. Now stop worrying and go back home, it’s already late.”

“I can’t. There’s no way I’m going back there, with those people. Also, I’ve promised Claudia I’d wait for her right here. I can’t just break that promise, now can I.”

“Hm. I understand. I’m really sorry, man, I would stay here to talk with you, but I have to go now. We’re still unpacking things, and my parents will get angry if I stay away for too long. I’ll come here again if we finish soon, though, so keep an eye on your phone ‘cause I’ll tell you the minute I’m done. Sound okay?”

“Yeah, thank you, Oliver… See you later then!”

I tried to force a smile for a second.

But there was no way that would have fooled him.

He’d known me for years.

Claudia, Oliver and Nick…

The three people closest to me.

The three people I never wanted to lose.

…!

“Hey, Oliver!”

I called out to him as he walked away.

How had I not noticed before?

“Huh? What’s up?”

“Those injuries in your right arm… Where-?”

That stone-cold look in his eyes.

I knew it all too well.

“Sorry, man, I really have to go now. We can talk later, okay?”

And now for real, his steps multiple times faster and longer than before, Oliver went away.

He… ran away.

And I once again was left alone.

My worries ever increasing, my brain overworked and by body exhausted.

But I really did have nothing to do until Claudia came back. So I took out my phone, opened the PDF of the book, and read.

Words, and words, and words…

I lost myself within the pages of that book. A world I could only admire from the other side, dreaming of what it would be to experience something like it.

Some say that in recent years, escapism has become a serious issue for the new generations, who use the internet and videogames to get away from their sad reality.

But hasn’t it been like that for all of human history?

Hasn’t art always tried to provide an escape from the ordinary, a way for the spectator to imagine themselves inside those different worlds?

Literature, paintings, sculptures.

And in more modern times, movies and videogames.

Aren’t they all… just the same?

If we humans hadn’t always been more attracted to fiction and possibility than to the empiric reality we could touch…

Why did we make art? Why did we make religion? Why did we keep creating it and praising it and admiring it? There must be a reason.

…

No, this was bad.

I couldn’t start to think like this.

Reality was real, fiction was fictional.

Nobody could change that, no matter how hard I wished for it…

After a while, I finished the book.

It was just as amazing at the end as it had been at the beginning.

I couldn’t wait to read all the other volumes in that series – but that could wait for the next day.

I was tired.

I rested my head on my right arm, my body lying on the bench.

I was sleepy, and nobody would care if I took a nap here.

So I did.

I slept away my sorrows on that bench, knowing full well that they would come back to haunt me the moment I woke up.