Blitz Generation : Home

"Heilen"

OK. Teacher is doing it again. *sigh*

I slid further back into my chair as Mr Fuad starts to narrate to us about his 'nostalgic adventures'. This is a history class, but we're not supposed to study about our teacher's history. Looking around, I noticed that Asad is paying sheer attention to the story. Brilliant people are usually like that, aren't they?
I felt a sharp jab from the back.
I glanced back. Amar, who is sitting behind me smiled slyly.
"Same stuff?"
I sighed again. "Looks like it."

*  *  *

He has already dribbled the ball pass three defenders. Now, the only one that is separating between him and the goal is the goalkeeper. The keeper looked nervous. Aqeel kicked, the keeper dived. A hoax! The ball was still at his leg. Turning his direction, Aqeel kicked the ball hard into the back of the net.

The game ended with a 3 - 1 score, and the winning team was Aqeel's. I was sitting at the bench, and I gave him a bottle of water, which he took it gratefully. I'm not really a skillful player like him, but I could still give a good challenge, even with one score.

"That was a good game. As usual, Aqeel." I smiled.

"Nah, it was mostly my teammates who did the most contribution. I just merely stuff the ball into the goal." We both laughed.

The rest of the team and our coach were already making a move towards the main building, but me and Aqeel took our time to pack our things.

As I was standing up, I spotted a little kitten at the corner of the field. Right, I'm not really an animal lover, but I just can't resist myself to a cute adorable kitten. I went over to the kitten, bent down, played with its ears, stroked its soft fluffy fur, tickled its belly,... alright, getting more exaggerating here. The main point here, I spent quite some time with it there. Aqeel just stood there, shaking his head in amusement at our game. He started off towards the others, leaving me behind enjoying my sweet time.

Suddenly, the little kitten hissed and scampered away. Startled by the sudden action, I got blank. By the time I turned my head around, I felt a searing pain at my calf. I let out a short shout of pain as my eyes caught the sight of the snake that has just bit me, slithering backwards out of view. A prairie rattlesnake. One of those poisonous snakes in Nebraska.

"Aqeel,..." I was too weak to say anything.

"Hold up, Aiman. I'm getting help ASAP!" He ran towards the main building to get aid.

I felt too weak to respond. As I watched him run, I felt my eyesight getting dimmer and blurry.

"Stay awake, Aiman. Don't black out!" I shouted to myself.

The echo of my inner voice rang unusually in my head and for a moment there, I thought I was imagining it. Everything around me became a solid white wall with weird imprints that are alien to my knowledge. Out of my consciousness, my right hand started hovering towards the spot where the snakebite was and it wrote there, using a pen which was magically already in my right hand, a single word; "heilen".

*  *  *

"Here he is, sir. Quick, he's in a bad condition!" Aqeel stood motionless at my standing figure, healthy as if nothing had happened to me.

"He looks a fine lad to me. Are you feeling well, boy?" Our coach looked at Aqeel quizzically.

We walked back to class together after that incident. Aqeel was still deep in thought of the whole situation.

"I don't know what you did, dude, but it was definitely a snakebite back then, wasn't it?" Aqeel tried to reassure his stance.

"Yeah, it wasn't an imagination." Honestly, I wasn't quite sure what has happened either. It was sort of... dreamy.

I looked at the spot where the snakebite was supposed to be and found nothing as evidence that it was once there. Only one thing remained to tell that the whole thing wasn't a mere fantasy; the pen is still in my pocket.



The pen and the pencil

At the back of my mind, I felt that this is a beginning of something new to my life. Definitely.