Story Time: Part 2

Feb 14th 1990, Mike was seven years old then. He was a bubbly boy whom everyone loved. Whenever he visited his relatives, he would greet them very politely and gave them his biggest smile. The smile alone will melt many hearts. It was also when he was seven, he got to know a boy name Tim. Tim was a shy boy and rarely speaks. One fine day, as Mike was returning home from school, he saw Tim alone at the playground. He knew they were from the same school and he felt a special affinity to Tim the very moment he saw him. He approached Tim and offered to play with him. As it was the case for many children, the ice was broken very quickly and within minutes, they were playing the swings and merry go round in the playground. When it was time to go home, Mike bided Tim goodbye. Strangely enough, Tim left without a word. For the next one week, Mike did not see Tim in school. He wondered why but was too busy with his own studies to care.

It was after a week that Mike saw more of Tim in school and around his neighbourhood. He approached Tim again and asked him what happened to him. Tim replied saying he was sick but was well again. ‘Let’s go play!’ exclaimed Tim with a big smile on his face. From that day onwards, Mike became very good friends with Tim and their friendship would last for the many years to come. Tim would usually come to Mike’s place to chat with him but would often do that when Mike’s parents are out. They spoke about many things. However, when Mike asked Tim about his family and stuff like that, Tim would always reply saying ‘please do not ask me that, I don’t really wish to speak about my background, I hope you can understand. If the time is right to let you know, I will ok?’ Being a sensible boy, Mike understood and did not probe further. Both of them grew up and went to the same secondary school and after to poly. Mike made it through to university but Tim did not. However they are still very good buddies after all these years. Well, good things don’t last and what happened in 2005 when they were 22 years of age and with a bright future ahead of them changed Mike’s life forever.

Feb 14th 1990, Laura was a bright six year old girl. She was identified having a high IQ at an early age and was placed in a special program to develop her gift. Her parents were very proud of her and she is the envy of her many relatives. Laura spoke fluently for a six year old and can play the piano really well at such a tender age. As she grew up and became more sensible to the world around her, she realized that actually, having a gift is not a very good thing after all. Every day, she mixes with people having the same gift as her and they do not really communicate well with one another. It was like everyone is trying to outdo one another to be the best in class. She do not have any time to socialize and make new friends as her daily schedule was jammed packed with activities and she hardly have time even to watch the TV or go shopping like most other teenagers. Although she was used to this dreaded routine everyday, a part of her still yearned to be just like a normal teenager, go on shopping trips with friends, chatting on the phone, watching TV and go on dates etc.

When Laura was 15, she began to feel depressed over her life and cruel schedule. She felt like her mind was going to explode and she really wanted to escape, to free herself from the world. However, she was afraid that her parents would be worried and she herself would feel guilty if she ran away. She virtually became a slave to her punishing schedule and every morning, she felt like she was a robot, repeating her routine of activities over and over again. One day, while cutting an apple, she accidentally cut herself. She did not feel the pain as the blood oozes out from her finger. Instead she seemed to like it. Her mum saw her smiling to herself watching the blood flows and rushed to bandage it for her and scolded her for being so careless. Laura turned a deaf ear to the scolding because she already had something in mind, something fun!