5

A Chapter by Bob

“White rabbit” Jim asked John while they lay on the riverbank enjoying the sudden spell of good weather the town was experiencing. “Coniglio bianco” John laughed at Jim’s stunned face. He had brought Along a Italian phrase book and Jim was testing his Italian speaking skills. John had learnt Italian in one day and now he was trying to convince Jim that he wasn’t lying. First, they used the phrase book but now Jim was asking random words and using John’s cell phone to confirm his answers, so far he hasn’t been wrong once. “So when’s the Mothership coming to get you man” the q and a had been going on all morning and Jim seemed to be convinced of John’s new friend. “They haven’t contacted me yet so I’m just gonna keep having fun with this until they do.” “What does fun entail ?” “That’s the tricky part” “Don’t tell me you don’t know what fun is Johnny?” John could barely make out the words while Jim giggled them rather than spoke them. “Kind of, he only knows things I’ve read, heard, seen and experienced and you of all people should know how limited we’ve been.” “and to have real fun you first need to find out what real fun means rather than the G rated fun we’ve been having” again he laughed and John joined in this time. “Oh Jimbo only you would call what we do G rated.” John laid back and for once enjoyed the fact that only a single cloud was drifting through the blue sky today.

“John if you insist on sleeping in my class could you answer the question before I send you to the principal’s office again?” Mr Jarvis had that condescending smile on his face. The one he got when he knew he was about to make some poor kid look like a fool in front of the whole class. John stood up from his desk and rubbed his eyes, some kids in the class started laughing and you could see the annoyance on Mr. Jarvis’s face, “Surprise surprise guess who has to stay awake and do all the work?” John smiled which drew some quizzical looks from the class. “The cosmographical idea on which the poem is founded is extremely simple. First, within the centre of the universe the earth is a fixed point. Man or the race of Adam inhabits the northern hemisphere. In the seas of the southern hemisphere stands the isolated mountain known as purgatory, which was unexplored at the time at which the poem was written, that’s just a little fun fact for all of you. Extending one beyond the other are the seven heavens, also above the earth on every side. Oh and by the way, the seventh is infinite in extent. In conclusion, Hell is a central core of evil in the earth's interior.” John looked at the stunned face of Mr. Jarvis and decided to rub it in some more, “It aint really rocket science Mr.J so believe me when I say I can afford to take a nap bud.”After what seemed a whole ten minutes of shell-shocked silence Mr. Jarvis sent John to the principal’s office. Red faced and completely humiliated he stepped out with John and headed for the teacher’s lounge where they saw him light a cigarette.

“We sure did a number on him Johnny”

“It was partly your fault but I couldn’t help myself”

“Serves him right, besides we didn’t read that long a*s poem for nothing”

“We read the poem because it’s good literature”

“No bud that’s why you read, I read for revenge”

“Final warning huh?” Jim asked John who had left early after finishing in the principal’s office. He stood across the counter from where Jim was slipping notes into its correct slot inside the till. “Yep I don’t really think they can expel someone for sleeping in class and as far as ‘disrespecting’ a teacher is concerned I don’t think I’m the first person to do that.” Jim stood up straight and faced John, turning his face completely serious and gnashing his teeth “John one more time and I’m gonna knock your dick in the dirt.” John started laughing but quickly stopped and mimicked Jim’s impression of the typical Principal figure “Don’t mess with the bull, young man. You’ll get the horns.” Both of them burst out laughing. “So Johnny what new magic tricks have you learnt?” “I’ve got a couple more languages under my belt. I spent last weekend with our church’s gospel group” “Wow you hear the calling man?” John giggled, “Nah I was actually just learning to play some instruments. I’ve got the guitar, piano and saxophone down but there are some I haven’t quite mastered yet.” “Sounds like fun but to be honest man I thought you’d be doing crazier things.” “You know good friends aren’t usually enablers” he looked at Jim with a grin on his face, “You right though I have thought about other things so I read a lot and someday when I’ll need those things I’ll know it but for now I just want to learn some of the things that were on my bucket list.”

This went on for weeks. John was consumed by knowledge. From the things he learnt to all the things out there for him to learn. Like some kind of drug addict, they just wanted more. John always was the obsessive type, when he did an assignment he wouldn’t rest until it was thoroughly researched and then completed but now there was two of him. It wasn’t necessarily bad like Dr Frankenstein so he was still in the clear. He still visited Jim but their time together became less. Nobody was concerned with his behaviour not that anyone took much notice before. The two of them were a perfect couple although they only recently started communicated it was clear that they were together for a long time. The voice wasn’t or the sub as he was sometimes called was not a clone or just another part of John. He couldn’t just do everything one would expect a super brain to do but he needed John. John had a part to play too, he couldn’t just say “I’m gonna sleep and you do your thing.” John asked the right questions that enabled the voice to do his thing. John looked in the right places and always knew what to do and when to do it. They had learnt and done so much in such a short amount of time but somehow they knew there were more to learn and more to do. Most importantly, they knew they had to go out and find those things.

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