Fan Fiction |
by vietnies
As Chilam walked towards the band room, he suddenly realized he was really stupid. In fact, if anyone were to look up “stupid” in the dictionary, his picture would be there, and the definition would read, “stupid: behaving in the manner of Chilam Cheung.”
What was he thinking when he wrote that letter? In his defense, he only had fifteen minutes to write it and it took him three rough drafts to finally figure out what to write. His poems didn’t even take that many drafts. But with the whole letter issue, he just couldn’t have told her everything over the phone… that was pathetic…
Not sure of what to do, he instinctively chose “flight” over “fight”, metaphorically that is. Chilam chose to get away as far as possible, because he couldn’t tell her over the phone, it wasn’t genuine enough. He couldn’t face conversation with her over the phone either, not with everything that he was thinking (or not thinking, rather). Heaven forbid of course, that he has a normal conversation with her, as he has had in the past.
Wanna get away? Chilam asked himself in the manner of the Southwest Airline commercial as these thoughts passed through his mind. He decided he did. And so, he turned off his cell phone and drove to Hart Park: he was in the mood for a jog; it would clear his mind and perhaps his heart a bit.
~*~
Charmaine opened her music theory books, studying diatonic chords.
“Retrograde: A form of contrapuntal imitation in which the arrangement of single tones in a meaningful sequence is played backwards.” Charmaine read the definition again, trying to get a grasp of it. A third time she tried, but to no avail. She moved on to the next term.
“Isorhythmic: a device used in motets in which the rhythmic pattern is replicated in the tenor line, in which the rhythm is replayed several times in diminishing note values, according to a strict scheme.” Charmaine didn’t even want to read it again because trying once had given her a massive headache.
She decided she needed a break. Walking into her kitchen, she opened the pantry to grab a bag of chips. She noticed a book lying on the kitchen counter, The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Her brother had probably taken it without asking her again. She suddenly had an idea and reached for her pocket. Pulling out the letter, she reached for the phone and dialed his number.
“Hey, you’ve reached Chilam Cheung. Sorry, I can’t talk to ya right now, but I’ll give you a ring as soon as possible, so leave me a message, yeah? Bye!”
Charmaine felt disappointed. She glanced up at the digital clock in the microwave, 5:15 p.m. Where could he be? Shouldn’t Chilam be home already? Charmaine questioned herself mentally. Maybe…he’s avoiding me…he probably changed his mind…
Charmaine was suddenly very motivated to study. She was too confused because it seemed as though Chilam was avoiding her by not answering the phone. Of course, she was far too logical to fathom that perhaps his batteries were low or anything of the sort. So, she threw herself into reading the entire 20-page chapter on Diatonic and Submedian
Theory.
It was her way of fighting in life, the only way she knew how to fight, by avoiding everything.
~*~