Hatrack River - The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card
	Print   |   Back

DHEEPAK CHANDRAMOULI

Walking down the city of New York sucking on my Roll Up, looking at the tall building, imagining what I would be doing in India. Reached my dad's friend's house.

This was our first time in the States. We came here for our vacation, my semester break.

I just came yesterday and took me an hour to reach my friends from the airport.

"Hey Dheepak. Got your Roll Up hey from the store?" asked my friend Ram.

"Yeah I sure did, it tastes different from the ones at Jakarta," I exclaimed.

My friend was 15 and I was only 12. His family used to live at Jakarta. I knew this guy from 3 but he left when I was 6. My family knew each other for at least 10 years. Ram has a brother called Ajay, he is in college, and Ram is in 9^th grade. We used to play all the kids games together; they were like my brothers. Then we became strangers to me now they are half friends with me. For the next one and half hours, we were talking about school, teachers, homework, girl friends, etc. We also talked about our childhood day's experience. Then he said he had to go and do his homework. So therefore I sat down and turned on the television. These were brand new channels but cool channels. I liked watching these; this was my first time watching these. I had a vision glimpsed through my mind, it was something horrible of terrifying or something nasty would happen. I just wiped off.

I glimpsed at my watch and it was 5 already. Two hours of watching television. The doorbell rang

"Get it," shouted Ram from his room. I walked slowly to the door and opened it there stood four big stud type like guys.

"Hello my name is Rob and I would like to see Ram," exclaimed Rob.

"Ram, it is your friends," I said in my terrifying voice.

"Tell them to come into my room," said Ram. They came into the house and they ran to their room. They walked into his room and slammed the door behind them. I watched through the keyhole. There I saw Ram talking some a crystal ball and some type of powder.

"Who shall we cast a spell on today?" questioned one of the guys. As Ram put on his black coat and scratched his face and turned and saw his friends. He looked like my great-great-grandpa. I though even my great-great-grandpa he would look better. They all did the same thing, there beautiful faces turned into revolting faces.

"We shall cast a spell on the guy walking down the barn. But what spell?" questioned Ram. This sentence freaked me I laid my back against the wall and hearing more of their voices.

"THE LEG PAIN," exclaimed everybody together. I had to do something not just sit there and watch them. I have to be brave. At school I speak in front of audiences about all type of violence, I had to do something. I had to save one of my childhood friends from this awful situation. They took a powder before the cursed the spell on the guy. I heard the awful sound and knew it was the old mans.

"Now who shall we cast a spell on now?" questioned a short and muscular guy.

"That guy!" exclaimed another guy. They took the same thing as last before casting a spell on the guy. They already had done 7 to 10 spells in no time. But I noticed something that repeated in their pattern. They took a powder before casting a spell on a person. But as they threw each spell at a time they got older. Now I couldn't stand this, I just had to come in the right time before they could do anything more. So I decided that I would stop and spill their powder. I peeped through the keyhole, I saw them standing up and chatting I thought they were going to attack their next rivalry, and I was right. I took a deep breath and bashed through the door and crashed into a table and I tripped all of them down. The next moment I opened my eyes I was on the couch, surrounded by Ram's family and my family. I was about to tell something and suddenly they said, "It doesn't matter." Then I glimpsed to Ram, who had a smiling face.

http://www.hatrack.com/research/student-papers/jakarta/dheepak-chandramouli.shtml