The Repenting Rose

‘The worst and the best things in life happen by chance’ �" this is the moral of every movie you see, every book you flick through, every true occurrence you witness; literally, this is what life mirrors. But I know a coincidence with two teen girls; which settled a remarkable feature to this moral. I would love to share that anecdote �" well, let me begin…

The engines revved, warning the students to board the bus quickly. Alice was huddling in one corner of the seat in the school bus by herself; as usual, clutching at her schoolbag, baffled by the rumors thumping confusingly against her brain. She squizzed the kids in the bus; some sitting, some scurrying to find a seat; but all were nattering and giggling with one another. Her mind itched to join, but she couldn’t think of how to begin, when she eyed Mandy boarding the bus, escorted by Sally and Ann. Alice shivered, who knew how they would irk her then. Mandy and Ann whispered something to each other, while Sally sneered at Alice when they passed by her. Alice attempted to focus on something nice �" she only thought of her mysterious friend; whom she had known for only two months online - Rose. Alice knew some things about her - making small talk. She was the only one ‘outsider’ who admired Alice’s write-ups at CreativeUp.com and then commenced to send her 'praises' at the “chit-chat corner” of the site. That was how Alice got to know about her. Her profile picture was two crisscrossing red roses. How did she look like? Obviously, she wasn’t a rose flower!

Mandy, the girl whom I introduced a few minutes ago, though seemed cheery, actually she wasn’t. As soon as she sat behind Alice, she peeped out at the sky. Her aunt’s scolds whacked against her brain.

‘You always used to achieve full marks in all subjects, what’s wrong with you now?’

She retorted to herself in her mind, ‘What’s my fault? Since she appeared, though I couldn’t get full marks anymore but at least got “A”.’ A spasm of utter jealousy ran through Mandy as she narrowed her eye towards Alice’s beautiful braided silky hair cascading down her slender neck. ‘She’s so slim, beautiful and intelligent,’ Mandy thought to herself, envy chewing her away. She seriously required cheering her up. Her brain shredded with ideas of how to humiliate that girl, when her ears picked up a snicker from her. At once, Mandy found out a way for her own ‘amusement’.

She craned close to Alice’s neck, elbowed her rudely and bellowed, 'See, the nerd is tittering by herself,' followed by cheeky chuckles.

Mandy unzipped a small portion of her backpack, and rummaged to find a black-ink marker. A mischievous smile wiped her face as she hastily uncapped it and applied a stain on Alice’s white sleeve.

A laughter out broke among all the students. Relief washed Mandy. She provoked her sidekicks to chortle too.

‘What are you going to do now, freak? You’ll cry?’ Mandy teased.

This was no good to Alice, for she was already shamefaced. She concealed the mark with her hand, ignoring everything. Such events were regular, but her heart burned. A screech of the tires signaled the vehicle had reached Street 7; where almost all the students lived, including Alice and Mandy. Alice struggled not to allow tears dart down her eyes, embarrassing her more. She arose grabbing her bag and dashed out of the bus as quickly as she could, flushing as the guffaws and insults battered against her eardrums….

Mandy was certainly comforted, but knew that it would not last longer. She embraced her school cronies a ‘good’ bye and trudged out of the bus. Her aunt would welcome her with a puckered brow, forcing her to go to her room and flip through her notebooks until 8 pm struck, when she would be allowed to have dinner. What she had conceived had occurred, as wonted. Her chest lurched as her eyes moved through each word, each homework. But her stomach grumbled. She was so unfortunate that just her grade had stopped her evening snacks. She quivered with resentment over Alice.

‘Mandy! Should we remain hungry for you?’ banged against her eardrums. She was startled to see it was already 8:45! She rumbled downstairs to assist her aunt with dinner.

After scrubbing the pile of dishes; the remains of her ‘grave’ supper, she was free to return to her room. She flumped on her bed and eyed her laptop lying idly beside her. She exhaled as she recalled when she last saw her parents; waving as she sobbed hysterically and embarked the train with her mother’s cousin sister years ago. Her aunt promised to keep her in her home so that she could study at the popular school. She never got a chance to converse to her parents on phone and even if Mandy e mailed them, her aunt would always make certain that she wrote everything ‘positive’ about her. Well…what was the use of disappointing her Mom with the hardships she was plunging through? The only memorandum of them was that laptop; her Mom’s old one. She reached out for it, dangled from her bed and placed it on her lap. Her aunt wouldn’t spy on her at that hour, and it was the only time she could sit with her laptop; when her uncle turned on the Wi-Fi for his work. As she opened her favorite reading site; CreativeUp.com, a notification flipped up that her best online pal; Hope was online. It was very odd that she was always online when Mandy was, but it casted a bit of joy in her broken heart.

‘Hi! Yesterday I read your story “The Inseparables”; it’s great!’ Mandy typed at the “chit-chat” corner.

‘Thanks!’

‘Don’t thank me! You’re the one who deserves admiration!’

A few minutes passed, but no reply arrived, so Mandy scribbled:

‘Hope?’

‘Sorry, I was thinking about the incident on the way from school, when that bully, whose name I detest to mention, stained my T-shirt. You see, similar things happen every day just because I’m introvert and…’

‘What else?’

‘I…have difficulties in real-life social talks, and I can’t look directly into my speaker, I get seized by another imagination and get tracked off!’

This disconcerted Mandy, and she assumed that Hope scrawled it from desperation. Strangely, Mandy’s heart weighed up. Her fingers fidgeted as she typed back:

‘Don’t worry about her criticisms. You’re smart.’

‘Thanks! Guess it’s sleeping time?’

‘Good night!’

Indeed, twelve struck, and Mandy moved the laptop aside and dropped on bed. She convulsed from agony. Hope always complained that she was bullied, and anyhow, what she faced had a link with how Mandy taunted Alice. Mandy assumed that it was a happenstance; anyone could probably mock her in the way as she did to Alice. But Alice, too, kept much to herself; like Hope. Also, a memory of her own knocked on Mandy’s brain like indecipherable signals. Mandy strived to solve that intricate puzzle into which her relationship with Hope had twisted into, but failed. She could hardly feel guilt well up very deep inside her heart.

Now, I guess I should go back to Alice…

Alice was, of course, not undergoing the same plight as Mandy. She was happy; staying with her parents, allowed evening snacks and permitted to do whatever she wished. Her parents told nothing when she sat with her laptop every night to see who ‘liked’ her story, as well as for chatting with Rose; for she was always online at that hour too.

Alice coiled on her bed, visualizing the afternoon’s predicament. She had just divulged what happened to Rose. For some reason, she felt she had babbled beyond the limits. But she calmed herself by imaging Rose’s profile picture. Abruptly, Mandy’s face interrupted the roses in her mind �" the way she looked like a pig with her pudgy face, corpulent stature and her pinkish complexion. A pang laced through her skull and tears scuttled down her eyes. ‘Why would she always tease ‘me’?’ ‘Why can’t I warn her sternly not to bully me again?’ her mind played. Alice yearned for Rose to be present at school with her.

The next day, at the school cafeteria during lunch-break, Alice chose a hamburger from the bar and rolled her eyes around the canteen for her tormentors, when they sauntered in front of her. It was pretty eccentric that Mandy was neither in mood for exasperating her nor did she talk to her friends. Alice’s feet trembled as Sally mockingly jabbed her to lure Mandy to play a joke, but Mandy only smirked and walked away to the table where they usually sat, astonishing them.

Alice was glad. Ellie; the irregular senior student who prattled with her was present too, but ‘gossiping’ was something she resented. Alice didn’t presume her as a friend either, because, ‘friend’ is someone who understands your feelings, not cringes at the way you speak nervously; impaling your heart because of your occasional improper expression.

Ellie commenced:

‘You are a reader at CreativeUp.com? You know, yesterday, I found this writer; Hope and read her story “The Inseparable…’

‘“It was “The Inseparables”, right?’ Alice mumbled, rolling her eyes round the busy cafeteria.

‘You read it!’ Ellie exclaimed.

‘Actually, my profile name is Hope and… I wrote “The Inseparables”.’

These words were enough to make Mandy’s heart leap out from her mouth. She was staring at Alice the whole time, not eating, but eavesdropping on their conversation. She observed Alice keenly, and noticed that she rarely looked into Ellie’s eyes. The memory that made no sense to Mandy last night became a mixture of such words of her preschool teacher:

‘Your daughter doesn’t look at me when I call her…her expressions are improper…I would suggest that you admit her to our therapy classes…’

Mandy’s mother interrupted, ‘No. She must learn to grow up in a normal school environment and she has to learn to face the world.’

This was the reason Mandy was sent to live with her aunt; learn to survive alone in what the world is, and overcome her social lacks.

‘Err…Mandy, you okay?’ Sally snapped Mandy out. She and Ann were both staring at her with furrowed brows.

‘I’m fine,’ she retorted and shot up. She eventually sympathized with Alice. She understood that her scores were the reflection of her destiny’s defects, but not Alice’s fault and that she shouldn’t really have tormented her like that. She wildly searched around for Alice, but there was no sign of her.

I don’t think there is requirement for mentioning what happened then, but I will skip to the ‘special’ moment…

After school, Mandy saw Alice traipse toward the school bus alone, when she ran towards her and hugged her snugly until her heart lightened.

‘You okay?’ Alice asked her with a breaking voice.

‘No…I’m not,’ was the emotion choked reply.

Mandy pushed Alice back and collapsed squatting on the ground; paying no heed to the grime that smeared her navy blue frock. Many eyes were riveted on them; particularly on Mandy. Even Sally and Ann were gawking at her. Alice could not understand how she herself was feeling; only sensed that her cheeks were sore.

‘Hope, I eavesdropped on you and Ellie at the cafeteria, and…’ Mandy said through stifled sobs.

‘Wait…Hope? How did you…’ Alice faltered.

‘Actually…I am…’

‘Are you Rose?’ Alice inquired, without judging her words.

Mandy nodded slightly.

‘Hope…I don’t think that my tears today are worth the insults, with which I speared you for so long,’ she slurred, masked her reddened face with her hands and continued sobbing. Alice gazed at her, thunderstruck.

Mandy’s swollen cheeks gleamed with a rosy hue…and in Alice’s eyes, she looked like a rose…a repenting rose �" that contented Alice with her ‘real’ pulchritude but simultaneously wounded her with her external thorns.

© 2017 Ayesha Binte Islam

Author's Note

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Reviews

Sara Lufrano

Hi Hi!

I like the plot and how it all comes together. I will say that I got confused on which girl was which and that action is slightly confusing making it hard to follow.

Thanks for the read!