Distant Friends

social tussles and huddles.

SCHOOL; CAMP ARCADIA

                     Camp Arcadia was slightly a wide school, surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Jay Mars made his way in, in his mind knowing he was back to hell.

                     “Excuse me boss, could you come over here please?” It was the school’s gate man.

                      “No, thank you. I have no contraband if that is what you think of.” Jay Mars replied, a little bit annoyed.

                     The gate man again pleaded emphatically, “It is important, a matter of the school’s security and regulations.” It was not Jay’s first time there, but today, he had intended to cause trouble if anyone would cross his line of patience.

                  In a moment, he found himself wanting to curse everyone for everything that was messing up, including the innocent gate man who was only in the line of his duty. He had to be frisked for any outbound item, and nothing would stop him from getting frisked, but today, Jay wanted to prove a hard algorithm to bypass.

                The gate man stood up and impatiently said, “the administration of this school needs to put their trust somewhere. There are a lot of good and bad students in here. We have to access all of them and filter the right from the wrong. That is our job. That is our duty. Whether it displeases you or not, it is our duty to do it. We are the guards of the school’s gate, we have to guard it.” He ended in a most convincing way.

             Jay nodded thoughtfully, slowly letting in. He found himself smiling when he thought of the mischief he was doing, unsure of how to respond. The gate man smiled back, and did what he had to do, and gave Jay the authorization notice; “Welcome back to the Centre of Excellency.”

 

SCHOOL SECTION; DORMITORY

               A cold wind blew, Jay Mars shook as he walked in his pants and a towel on his shoulder to take a shower. The mood in the school was dull, which as well worsened his current situation. Everybody was on the mercy of the holiday hangovers. The emptiness that was taking full control of him was now at the peak.

                It was night and he felt tired, everybody was tired too. His joints ached feebly as he tried to take a nap.

                             Early in the next morning, he woke up to prepare for CAT exams that he would undertake the day after tomorrow. Indeed, education is sweet. It is the movement of darkness to the light. But the path to success is not always a smooth one. In Jay’s mind, he knew that every successful person has a painful story and every painful story has a successful ending. So he should accept the pain and get ready success.

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