Chapter 8 - Good Old Days

Mike and Charmaine walked on the Villa street in Midar. Midar is a small town not farther than a mile from Hillsville. James was born and brought up in Midar, while Mike and Charmaine hailed from Batman town which is again a mile from both Hillsville and Midar - like these three towns formed an equivilateral triangle. Villa street ran through the center of all these 3 towns East –West and Newton High school was situated on this street where it made a cross road with Newton street..

Early in the morning, Mike and Charmaine had their breakfast in James' house.
"Did they make any demands?" Charmaine had asked.
"They said, they would call me back by afternoon with their demands"

"Do not worry about the money, we will help you out and we will get our boy back" Mike and Charmaine had assured him.
Mike and Charmaine were in his house on his request. James had always felt better in the presence of his best friend Mike.
"When are you guys getting married..?" James asked.
"Next summer" Mike said.
"Good, at last. Getting married before you hit 30”
“He is already 30” Charmaine said.
“You know, I got married when I was 21 and I have a 8 year kid.. Look at you, you still dating.”
"Alright, we had a few things to accomplish before we got married" Charmaine said.
"Like?"
"Like getting a job"
"That you got 5 years back"
"Well, we wanted to save some money before getting married"
"I wish, the kidnappers demand something that I can afford without troubling you" James said as he poured some beer in everyone's glass.
"Hey, do not worry about money, we are getting married anyways next year. That is decided. We decided to disregard our goals on savings. What are friends for, after all"
"I am lucky to have friends like you" James lifted his glass "For friends"
"For friends" Mike and Charmaine chorused.


Now, they almost reached the Newton Street and at one of the corners of the intersection majestically stood the 60 year old Newton High school. However, the school was closed down a few years back for lack of funds. The walls of the school were badly damaged.
"Can we go inside" Charmaine pointed to the campus gate that was not locked.

The iron gate screeched open and they both entered their childhood days.
As Mike passed through the different buildings, he recollected sweet memories.
Of all the buildings, the chemistry laboratory was his favorite.
The day when he first fell in love with Charmaine - The conical flask he slipped in a sink, started it all. The concentrated solution from the flask mixed with water, and filled the small lab with smoke. The broken glasses cut his fingers and he was bleeding. It was Charmaine who rushed to him with the first aid kit. "Are you all right?"

"She loves me, right?" Mike asked James during lunch hour after the lab session.
"I don't know, ask her" James said munching his sandwich.
"You are my best friend, you got to help me. What do you think? She loves me?"
"I really don't know" James still busy with his sandwich.

"You should have seen her, Tears filled her eyes when she saw my bleeding fingers" Mike continued with all excitement.
"You know what, you should have seen everyone's eyes. All were tear filled. It was not for your bleeding fingers. Learn Chemistry. The acid when mixed with water in the sink emanated tear gas" James finished his sandwich and grabbed the chemistry book so that he can prove that to Mike.
"Alright," Mike stopped James from referring to the book "May be the rest of the class...but I think she shed tears for me"
"People believe in what they want to believe, Mike"
"What are you saying?"
"I think she is already interested in that new guy in our class"
"Bill?"
"Think so"
"Please don't tell me that! Tell me it is not true, Tell me she loves me" Mike went hysterical.
"How can I tell that, I am saying what I think you should know" James argued reasonably.
Mike was clearly upset and left for his house immediately. He didn't turn up for school for a week.
Then James had to come to his home and convince him that he was just joking.


"Look at the Tesla Hall" Charmaine brought Mike back to the present, and took him towards that building. The building was surrounded by long grasses rising to their waist and clearly not maintained over years. This was a building with a cement basement, pillars and roof but no walls. It had a wooden stage on one of its side. The school usually used this hall for any school events like school day, or when the founder had to give some speech.
"You still remember this place?" Mike made fun of her.
"How can I ever forget?" Charmaine smiled as she recalled a funny convention that took place here to make her feel better as well as to tease her.
When the 12th grade lecturer mentioned that he wanted everyone to prepare a thesis, none of the students except Charmaine had taken that seriously. Thesis was not part of their curriculum and the lecturer was known for his unreasonable expectations from his students. He was also so forgetful, so no one but Charmaine really cared. Computers, Digital systems and Information technology always fascinated her and she thought she should do some thesis on digital security. However, her thesis was not very technical- to be exact not technical at all. She just took some surveys of people and derived or rather jumped to conclusions.
The lecturer was already irritated to know that none other than Charmaine prepared a thesis. And now he was so much pissed off to see a thesis which is not scientific and logical.
"And you call this bullshit a thesis?" the lecturer shouted at Charmaine, tore her thesis and threw at her. Charmaine sobbed and for many days she didn’t speak to anyone. Mike wanted James to help his girl and make her feel better. James and a few girls from the cheer leading arranged a student convention and sent out an invite for all the students of his class to assemble in this building one evening.
James had collected the torn thesis papers, cellophaned and read out her thesis in that meeting. The cheer leaders said that they represent the Newton school and that they officially approved her thesis.
Charmaine was both teased and made feel better. Finally, they highlighted three important points of her thesis and christened it as Newton's laws.
This made her laugh out loud.

"How can I ever forget that?" Charmaine looked at Mike " I should thank you very much for making me feel better that day. I was really upset with that lecturer"
"I didn't do much, James very well took care of arranging that. Hey, by the way what were those 3 laws"
"Why do you wanna know? To tease me again?"
"No..am just trying to remember how funny those laws were"
Charmaine stopped moving in the hall "there is nothing funny about those laws" her tone turned serious. "I had put a lots of effort in that thesis and I don't like anyone making fun of that"
'This is not the good tone, got to handle this well, Mike' he told himself.
"You still the same girl..still very sensitive about your thesis, sorry about that"
"Not just about my thesis, am sensitive about my work in general" Charmaine sat on the wooden stage.
Mike sat near her "Hey, see, 12 years have passed just like that"
"Yeah, isn't it unbelievable" Charmaine wondered.

"What did you think about me when we first met?" Mike looked at her waiting for her response.
"Umm..To be honest, I first thought, you were a bit weird"
"Really? how about now?"
"You are so cool now. I like that" Charmaine put her head on his shoulder "And what did you think of me at first"
"Do you mind if I am honest too?"
"No, go ahead"
"I thought you were a stupid, Umm..arrogant, Umm..a complete nonsense..a crack.."
"Enough enough...i get the picture" Charmaine laughed "What do you think of me now?" Charmaine was eager.

"You know what, I am amazed how things haven't changed much in these 12 years"
Before Charmaine could hit him, Mike started to run around the Tesla Hall with Charmaine chasing him. As minutes passed by, both were breathing heavily. The distance between them closed down and Charmaine fell over Mike in the grasses. With the long grasses covering up, the author can’t really say what happened but one could reasonably assume that she managed to finally hit him, if you care!