[FIC] A Pause In The Monotony Of Life
Felt randomly inspired by today's events, and just trying out a funky way of writing. Feel free to ignore.
When she was on the way out of school, a rainbow had made itself visible in the (darkening) evening skies.
Of course, it wasn’t anything too special-but its silent beauty was more than enough for her to pause in her tracks, put down the toolbox she was holding (engineering class) on the bench in front of her and spent the next three minutes looking at it as a single word ran past her mind: beautiful.
The moment was soon over though, and she left as soon as reality called back to her-though not before using her phone to shoot a picture of the rainbow in order to preserve those three minutes of wondrous Mother Nature. The Great Revival (2009 Remix) was abruptly cut short as the MP3 player function was forced to stop in order for her to use the camera; a loud ‘click’ signalled her capture perfectly, and the song played through her earphones once again as she fumbled around in pocketing her phone, restarting the while song from the beginning by mistake. Not that it mattered though, since the song was quite nice to listen to.
Her playlist of various songs (all from Ace Attorney, of course) continued on while she made her way over to her grandmother’s place-she stopped in the middle of Gyakuten Saiban 4 Court Suite when she had arrived and spent the next hour eating dinner and watching the usual (somewhat melodramatic as always) Chinese drama that was airing over the television. She skipped the her playlist past The Steel Samurai and over to Objection!, the song playing in her ears as she bade goodbye to her grandmother and started on her way home with some letters and a pack of fried rice for her mother and brother.
Heading back home was as uneventful as always (aside from the part where she ran for the bus when it turned around the corner), the phone continued to play, skipping songs when necessary until it was playing Gyakuten Saiban 3 Epilogue when she alighted at her stop. Like always, she started to walk down the path on the left, making past the front of the apartment block where her (now passed away) aunt used to lived. Thoughts of school and lazing off tomorrow were abruptly cut off when a young boy (just somewhere around ten maybe, she thought) walked up to her and started to speak to her in Chinese. “Miss, would you want to buy some ice-cream?”
Despite herself, her brows furrowed and she shifted her hold on her toolbox. “Ice-cream?”
The boy didn’t respond, but he turned around to the cart next to him and pulled out a box of ice-cream. “This is the latest set of mini-ice-cream bites, all machine processed. It’s being sold at supermarts for thirteen-fifty, but I’m selling it at twelve. Would you buy one? I’ve been here since six and I’ve only sold two boxes.”
There was a pause after that question as she frowned more, face expressionless of any other emotion save for said frown. Her mind rushed back to memories-memories of her and her deceased aunt, of how kind and caring and absolutely wonderful she was. How she would never abandon anyone even though she was so sick and weak herself all the time-and most of all, how she was a second mother to her. She knew… she knew, had she been here with her, she would have bought a box in a heartbeat regardless of the fishiness of the whole thing (as far as she remembered, it was illegal to have kids this young working like this-especially when he was all alone).
Then she remembered the rainbow she saw earlier, and the horribly cliché term of ‘a rainbow after every storm’ (was that how it went?) came into a mind.
Still, that was enough to bring a smile to her lips as she finally responded. “What flavours do you have?”
The sky was already dark by this time (it was past eight after all), but the kid did seem a bit happier at the question. He opened the carton next to him for her to look in (it did seem pretty full, she noted) while he listed off the flavours in the cart. “There’s raspberry, durian… chocolate chip…”
“I’ll take the chocolate chip.”
Her choice picked, the deal was sealed and she was made to walk home with twelve bucks less in her wallet. But somehow, she really didn’t feel all that bad-after all, this was what her aunt would do, had she been alive still. It was a rather lame thought, but it did feel quite nice. She couldn’t help but smile to herself in amusement at that thought as she stumbled past the supermart near her home as The Fragrance of Dark Coffee started to thrum in her earphones.
Once she was back home, she went to put everything in place (dinner and letters on the table, the ice-cream in the freezer) and settled down her things (bag and toolbox) properly before calling out her brother who was hogging in his room (as usual)-the cologne that assaulted her nose when she opened the door though was something else altogether.
“…dinner’s ready,” she started, after taking a moment to recover from the very unneeded olfactory assault and trying not to stare at the sight of her elder brother hugging what was clearly a Winnie The Pooh pillow thing.
As usual, all her brother did was to make a hum of acknowledgement in response. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she started to make her way out for a shower but then paused halfway. “Oh, and I bought ice-cream too.”
“Ice-cream?” echoed her brother as he finally tore his gaze away from the laptop before him and looked at her questioningly.
All she did was to shrug. “Yeah, ice-cream. Just decided to buy something for the freezer, that’s all.”
When she was on the way out of school, a rainbow had made itself visible in the (darkening) evening skies.
Of course, it wasn’t anything too special-but its silent beauty was more than enough for her to pause in her tracks, put down the toolbox she was holding (engineering class) on the bench in front of her and spent the next three minutes looking at it as a single word ran past her mind: beautiful.
The moment was soon over though, and she left as soon as reality called back to her-though not before using her phone to shoot a picture of the rainbow in order to preserve those three minutes of wondrous Mother Nature. The Great Revival (2009 Remix) was abruptly cut short as the MP3 player function was forced to stop in order for her to use the camera; a loud ‘click’ signalled her capture perfectly, and the song played through her earphones once again as she fumbled around in pocketing her phone, restarting the while song from the beginning by mistake. Not that it mattered though, since the song was quite nice to listen to.
Her playlist of various songs (all from Ace Attorney, of course) continued on while she made her way over to her grandmother’s place-she stopped in the middle of Gyakuten Saiban 4 Court Suite when she had arrived and spent the next hour eating dinner and watching the usual (somewhat melodramatic as always) Chinese drama that was airing over the television. She skipped the her playlist past The Steel Samurai and over to Objection!, the song playing in her ears as she bade goodbye to her grandmother and started on her way home with some letters and a pack of fried rice for her mother and brother.
Heading back home was as uneventful as always (aside from the part where she ran for the bus when it turned around the corner), the phone continued to play, skipping songs when necessary until it was playing Gyakuten Saiban 3 Epilogue when she alighted at her stop. Like always, she started to walk down the path on the left, making past the front of the apartment block where her (now passed away) aunt used to lived. Thoughts of school and lazing off tomorrow were abruptly cut off when a young boy (just somewhere around ten maybe, she thought) walked up to her and started to speak to her in Chinese. “Miss, would you want to buy some ice-cream?”
Despite herself, her brows furrowed and she shifted her hold on her toolbox. “Ice-cream?”
The boy didn’t respond, but he turned around to the cart next to him and pulled out a box of ice-cream. “This is the latest set of mini-ice-cream bites, all machine processed. It’s being sold at supermarts for thirteen-fifty, but I’m selling it at twelve. Would you buy one? I’ve been here since six and I’ve only sold two boxes.”
There was a pause after that question as she frowned more, face expressionless of any other emotion save for said frown. Her mind rushed back to memories-memories of her and her deceased aunt, of how kind and caring and absolutely wonderful she was. How she would never abandon anyone even though she was so sick and weak herself all the time-and most of all, how she was a second mother to her. She knew… she knew, had she been here with her, she would have bought a box in a heartbeat regardless of the fishiness of the whole thing (as far as she remembered, it was illegal to have kids this young working like this-especially when he was all alone).
Then she remembered the rainbow she saw earlier, and the horribly cliché term of ‘a rainbow after every storm’ (was that how it went?) came into a mind.
Still, that was enough to bring a smile to her lips as she finally responded. “What flavours do you have?”
The sky was already dark by this time (it was past eight after all), but the kid did seem a bit happier at the question. He opened the carton next to him for her to look in (it did seem pretty full, she noted) while he listed off the flavours in the cart. “There’s raspberry, durian… chocolate chip…”
“I’ll take the chocolate chip.”
Her choice picked, the deal was sealed and she was made to walk home with twelve bucks less in her wallet. But somehow, she really didn’t feel all that bad-after all, this was what her aunt would do, had she been alive still. It was a rather lame thought, but it did feel quite nice. She couldn’t help but smile to herself in amusement at that thought as she stumbled past the supermart near her home as The Fragrance of Dark Coffee started to thrum in her earphones.
Once she was back home, she went to put everything in place (dinner and letters on the table, the ice-cream in the freezer) and settled down her things (bag and toolbox) properly before calling out her brother who was hogging in his room (as usual)-the cologne that assaulted her nose when she opened the door though was something else altogether.
“…dinner’s ready,” she started, after taking a moment to recover from the very unneeded olfactory assault and trying not to stare at the sight of her elder brother hugging what was clearly a Winnie The Pooh pillow thing.
As usual, all her brother did was to make a hum of acknowledgement in response. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she started to make her way out for a shower but then paused halfway. “Oh, and I bought ice-cream too.”
“Ice-cream?” echoed her brother as he finally tore his gaze away from the laptop before him and looked at her questioningly.
All she did was to shrug. “Yeah, ice-cream. Just decided to buy something for the freezer, that’s all.”