Holy Shi

Ken woke up with a start and his sheets wet with his sweat, probably from a nightmare, he ignored it and instead he eyeballed at the dark brown sealing—with white sprinkled all over it, giving it a cool effect. The room’s walls had the same effect but with yellow on green, which made him feel as light as a feather and would open up his mind to new ideas. His apartment was on the top floor (38th). This floor had a hot tub, a swimming pool, and even its own gym, which was really really huge. His apartment had three bedrooms. He stayed in the smallest one—he liked living in small congested places.

His girlfriend would quite often crash at his place, and his wardrobe was very small—which he had to replace with the one in the master bedroom after the constant struggle and pushing off each others’ clothes, to get more space. Whenever he went to the bathroom to apply some lotion—all he found were her toiletries and would say “You do realize that it’s my apartment, right?”, to which she would jeer while imitating him at the same time “And you do realize that I’m your girlfriend. right?”

They would laugh and blush, then kiss every time—more passionately than the last.

Ken seldom went to parties, he just wasn’t interested in making new friends. He'd rather spend his time learning. He didn’t trust people easily, he always had his guard up and never talked to anyone about his feelings. He barely ever opened up to Sarah.

He clutched his favourite and the only sipper from the floor and gulped some warm water, which felt good—as he was cold from all the sweating.

He took a few more sips and placed the sipper on the side table, sat up erect on the bed, reached out for his phone which was on an old wooden carved side table—which looked like it had served its time and was being punished for some inconceivable crime. He stretched his other arm to unplug the phone. There were 7 missed calls from Sarah.

Shit, I’m so dead!

He looked at the clock which pointed the shorthand at 2 and the longer one in between ‘5’ and ‘6’.

He winced.

He thought about how exasperated would Sarah be as he had forgotten to meet up at the usual spot for her help as she wouldn’t be crashing at his place because she had to pick up her parents and would be staying with them. She had been way more anxious about the speech than he was and he knew that if he were to mess up the speech, she would kill him.

He smirked and decided not to screw up.

Even as a child, ken showed precocious aptitude, but public speaking was never his strong suit, however, he always had a way with words.

Graduation would begin at 9 am sharp. Sarah had already picked out a red silk shirt, a black colour tie and a belt, with grey coloured pants with black ceremonial shoes, she often helped him with his outfits—after he had shown up on one of their dates in a white shirt with big green checks and a green pant and grey sandals.

What would I do without her? He thought.

Now that everything was ready and in place, all that was left was the speech.

He grabbed his backpack, which was wedged between the table and the bed. It was tiny, black on the back and had blue waves and plain beige—just like a beach. This backpack meant a lot to Ken as it was a gift from his parents when he received an acceptance letter from the best university in the world.

While handing him the gift which was wrapped in a silver-ish and golden gift wrap—it looked very attractive that Ken almost snatched the gift from his dad.

His dad said, “Son, you’re a man now and life ain’t gonna be easy when I was your age I had…..”

“oh enough already….let him be happy, at least for today, save your lectures.” interrupted his mom.

“Okay—okay, Kenny the mama’s boy you can open the gift and be happy.” After saying that, his dad made a neutral expression, and enacted the famous gesture of zipping the mouth and throwing away the key—they all laughed or so his dad had expected. His mom rolled her eyes and walked away, his dad grinned foolishly at ken and then ran after his mom screaming “I’m sorry honey”. Ken took no notice of what had just happened as he was too eager to open the box.

Therefore, the backpack always made him feel safe as if his parents were looking out for him and reminded him that he could achieve anything if only he put the time and effort into it, it was a perfect memory and whenever he looked back at it, it made him giggle.

He pulled out his Mac and opened it—typed in the password and propped it by the backpack which was partially resting on his right shin.

His desktop had a picture from his birthday party, his favourite one, where he was wearing a long, blue cap which read “The birthday boy”, his mom holding his hand ready to cut the cake—waiting for his father to blow off the remaining candles, while he was laughing and jumping. This always made him smile and would take him back to that day.

Ken was really bummed about not having a birthday party because he had an exam the next day. On his birthday eve, ken sat on his study table which was too tall for him, just like most things in his house. Because his mom thought that why waste money when in a few years ken would outgrow all his stuff. His head propped on the palm of his left hand as he was absorbed in his birthday party. He sat up straight and started scribbling something in his notebook just as he heard the footsteps approaching.

The door opened and ken turned to see his mom come in. She stood in front of the mirror admiring herself, staring in wonder—as if the ghost of Queen Grimhilde had entered her. She was wearing an orange dress, which ended like a frock—short in the front and long at the back, she wore black heels and black bands around her wrists. She was looking beautiful.

“Hey sweetie, we gotta go, so ge……”

“Where and why?”

“I have told you a billion times not to ask where or why—you know That I am a bit superstitious about these things.” his mom explained.

“Your dad is waiting in the car, you know how angry he gets when he is made to wait”.

I don’t care, you literally just asked to me get ready and I ain’t no speedster, damn only if I was one…..

“Get in the shower fast, I’ll pick out the clothes for you”.

He didn’t move, he was too busy thinking about what was happening, the phone buzzed, his mom grabbed the towel—put it around him and nudged him and he ran into the bathroom.

She pulled the phone out of her red purse and she carefully held it up to her right ear—trying not to mess up her hair.

“Will be out in a minute”.

A long pause.

“Yeah-yeah, I know everyone one’s there already”.

A long pause.

“Oh good lord! I’m coming, will ya take a chill pill. I gotta go. Bye now”. She put the phone down, stared at the ceiling as if thinking hard and left the room.

Ken entered the room in his undies and the towel around his neck, while his hair was still wet, shiny and sticking to his forehead like the long blades of a saw. His mom walked in with a smile on her face, a tux over her left arm while texting from her right hand. She put the tux on the bed next to her purse. She noticed that his hair was still wet.

“You never dry up your hair”. After saying that she seized the towel from him and rubbed it hard on his head and then tossed the towel back to him. And said, “Don’t forget it on your bed—put it out for drying”.

“Don’t worry, will do”.

She took his hands into her own and said: “Oh my dear Kenny boy, I don’t want you to grow up”. Then pulled up his hands closer to her and she bent slightly and gently placed her lips on them.

“Sure thing! Now all you have to do is just learn to manipulate time” He laughed.

“I love you, my little bear, will you still love me when you grow up and get a wife and have kids too. Whom am I kidding, you probably won’t even have time for me”.

“Shut up Maa”. She gave with the coldest stare. He gulped and waited for her to speak, but as she opened her mouth he spoke. “Not a day will go by when I won’t think about you. I love you more than anything in this world and no one can ever, and I mean ever replace you.

She let his hands drop and before they even moved an inch she put her arms around him and placed a kiss on his forehead. The phone buzzed again, she sighed and let him go, she picked up the phone from the bed and cancelled the call with a custom message that said: coming!

She looked at ken.

“Put it on Kenny, you will look really handsome”. She again went to admire herself, checking where would the purse look better right or the left hand.

Ken sighed and nodded left and right while watching her lost in the mirror. He wiped his eyes clean with his hands and started dressing up.

“Looking handsome, ma boii!”. His dad said as he was closing the car door after him. Ken mostly sat on the back seat as he would only keep his eyes open for 15 mins and also that his mom had called shotgun for eternity. He looked in the rear-view mirror—saw his dad observing him, he was wearing the same tux as he did.

“Thanks dad, not so bad yourself”. Ken said with a huge smile.

He gave him a smile and was about to say something but as usual, his mom interrupted. “Can we go now?”.

“okay-okay, who needs the chill pill now?”

She gave a short laugh and pecked him. The engine roared to life and they started moving.

Ken rested his head in between the head supports of the adjacent seats—as he always sat in the middle. He looked up at the trees which swooshed by him and the stars that followed him.

I’m gonna share the same bond with my children as mom and dad do with me. He thought.

He closed his eyes.

Ken pushed the thoughts out of his head, harrumphed and wiped his eyes clean and clicked on the pages. While the application loaded—ken took another sip of water and played a soft instrumental music playlist. He took a deep breath, then exhaled all the air out of him—till the last bit and started typing.