~ by Adeel Ahmed
“Zise must hate school,” thought Hua, “I hate school too. I hated it on Earth. I hate it now.”
But even on this tropical prison planet, children still needed education it seemed; most especially within the walled-off colony deep within the east. The collection of buildings was protected by a wall, patrolled by sentries whose job it was to keep the children and everyone within the colony safe.
Zise certainly loved being outside. She and Hua’s robust teacher would lay out a large tarp, resting it upon vertical polls just in case it rained. A chalkboard would then be placed underneath it; providing a covered space where the children would do their math equations and writing, scratching their answers into the dirt using sticks. That morning though, Zise’s purple hair shook all around her as she ran about the compound, drawing random pictures upon the ground, while the other children wrote letters and did equations as they were supposed to.
“Zise. Please, get to work,” whispered Hua as he did every day. Zise was eleven years old, and Hua was fifteen. He had promised her grandfather that he would look after her and keep her in line during school.
“I try,” She complained, “but each time I get started, all of these pretty pictures come into my head.” She sighed. “They are never pretty when I draw them though… say, that’s a pretty big sword you’ve got there on your back. Can I play with it?” Zise’s slanted eyes rested upon the weapon slung across his back. Her eyes had irises just as vivid a shade of purple as her hair. She was just as Chinese as Hua was, but he had never met a girl from China with naturally purple hair and eyes. He had once doubted that the colour of her hair was real, but on one occasion his brother had spied on her while she was bathing and had confirmed with an unrepentant grin that she was ‘all-natural’ from head to foot. Hua, of course, had hit his brother for what he had done; a maiden’s honour must be defended even if that maiden was a little wild. He loved James, James was his brother and the only family he had left, but wrong was wrong.
Does she cut her hair with a knife? Does she ever comb it? She looks like a wild stray cat. Why is James so enamoured of her?
“No. You cannot touch my sword; it was my father’s gift to me. Only the clan leader can have it,” said Hua sternly.
“Come on…,” she pleaded.
“No.”
“Hey, look. Look! Doesn’t Mrs Sherwick kind of have a moustache?” said Zise pointing.
“Focus, Zise. Focus,” whispered Hua. “We don’t want to bring unwanted attention to ourselves now, do we?” Mrs Sherwick was meters away, bent over helping some other students with their sums.
“I’m too old for this anyway,” Hua thought to himself, “I don’t know why Master Wong is making me attend these classes?”
Just as predicted, Mrs Sherwick plodded over to Zise with a frown on her face.
“Zise, once again, you draw pictures instead of work?” said Mrs Sherwick sternly. She was a large matronly woman.
“I tried, but I forgot all those numbers and stuff,” said Zise, scratching her purple-maned head.
“You are a spoiled brat,” Mrs Sherwick scolded. “You think that just because your grandfather rules this colony, you don’t have to do any work. Look at Hua and James here – brothers, destined to run the Northern Colony. So much on their shoulders, and yet they are such wonderful students!”
“I dunno. Maybe they are smart. Hey Seanchai! Seanchai! Let’s go hiking up the mountain afterwards. I put a couple of rocks on the bridge to throw at the bandits – they won’t know what hit ‘em,” screamed Zise across the open-aired ‘classroom.’
“Zise. You are disturbing the class!” Mrs Sherwick snapped.
“Aww, come on – this place is like a prison isn’t it, Mrs Sherwick? We didn’t do nothin’, we’re just kids. But you did something. My gramps did too. We don’t need math for this place, we need kung-fu and rocks. Say… can you teach us how to spot really nice rocks, Mrs Sherwick – nice flat rocks that travel really far?” Zise smiled, displaying teeth that appeared cleaner than they really were. Hua suspected she did not brush her teeth very much.
“Listen Zise. You have gotten away with much in these last few weeks. It was your grandfather’s idea that these schooling sessions take place, yet you have disrespected it each time,” Mrs Sherwick’s tone was low and menacing.
“Ah, come on… hey guys. Guys! Do any of you wanna be here? Wasn’t it better when we learned to punch, kick and grapple? I love martial arts. I wanna fight! Say… Hua, you and I never fought for real before… come on! Let’s go!” Zise raised her fists.
“Zise, I’m four years older than you are and nearly a hundred pounds heavier – I’ve already killed men. Stop it!” Said Hua reprovingly.
“Aww. You’re no fun. Say, Mrs Sherwick… can you fight?”
“Stay focused Zise! You are not going to fight anyone. You are only going to get hurt,” said the teacher.
“Oh, no.” Hua cringed.
“Zise. Apologise to Mrs Sherwick at once,” said Hua frantically.
“For what? I’m not gonna lie. This is how I feel. Your sword is so shiny,” said Zise, smiling. Even the flesh of her lips was purple.
As he feared, Hua saw Mrs Sherwick lift her paddle up.
“I saw you were the emperor’s daughter, so I looked the other way at your indiscretions, but I already see other students following your bad example – so I will make an example out of you!”
Zise looked at the paddle with wide-eyed curiosity.
“Whatcha gonna do with that?” She said, smiling.
“She’s going to hit you with that thing, Zise. You’re going to be in a lot of pain.” Hua’s heartbeat quickened. She was a filthy, rude, disobedient girl; a very very stupid girl – but she was still just a girl. She did not deserve this.
“Hua,” said Mrs Sherwick, “Zise is as agile as a weasel. Hold her hands. James, you will lift her skirt up and hold her feet – we can’t have her running away, can we?”
The students gathered around them beneath the tarp. Hua noticed that James was smiling, apparently happy with his current task.
“I’m going to have to have a talk with James – stupid little perv!” Hua tried not to be too hard on his brother, though, he was the same age as Zise and had a lot of learning left to do.
“Honoured Sifu, please don’t make me do this. I promised her grandfather that I would protect her; guide her. I don’t want to have a hand in hurting her,” said Hua softly.
“Master Wong promised me that you would obey anything I said. So far, you have complied and have been a tremendous help to me, but now, you must comply in this too,” said Mrs Sherwick.
“Ah Hua, don’t worry. I wanna see what she’s gonna do to me,” said Zise, boldly walking out from the shade of the Tarp.
Mrs Sherwick laid Zise belly first upon the dirt, Hua grabbed both of her wrists in his hands, and James lifted her skirt, clutching her ankles with a smile.
“She’s not fighting right now,” Hua thought, “but she will. She will when the beating begins. I will never forgive myself, but I will obey. I promised. I promised.”
Mrs Sherwick raised the paddle…
Whack.
Whack.
Whack.
The teacher raised the paddle high, bringing it down swiftly and aggressively from a great distance, dropping down upon every strike. Hua suspected there was bruising, maybe even broken skin, but the girl did not struggle. Did not fight. She didn’t even scream.
“She’s in shock,” He thought, sickly.
“Release her!” Mrs Sherwick lowered the paddle, panting lightly. Sobbing quietly, Zise lowered her skirt as she stood. She kept her head down causing her shaggy hair to spill over her face, forming a veil, as tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped upon the damp ground.
“Poor girl. She can’t help it. Now she’s sad.”
“Wow, Mrs Sherwick, do you like beating people?” Zise asked. “James tells me there are some people that like hitting each other. Do you even like children?!” Zise smiled as the tears continued to trickle down her face, her expression uncharacteristically mocking.
“Man, she’s tough.” Hua thought, reluctant admiration rising within him.
Mrs Sherwick snarled, charging toward the skinny pre-teen girl. But, just as the teacher reached her, Zise jumped high into the air and clutched the top of Mrs Sherwick’s hair with both hands vaulting over her head with a front flip. Almost as if she were skipping, Zise scurried away, moving several meters before the woman could even whirl around.
“Catch her! Somebody catch her!” screamed the teacher.
“You’re not going to catch her. She’s very fast,” said Hua, “She’s probably going to grandfather right now.”
“Then go and find her Hua! Tell her grandfather what she did, so that he may punish her accordingly. That child is a freak,” cried Mrs Sherwick.
Hua and James broke out into a light jog. There was no point in trying to catch up to her, they would be better off simply going straight to Emperor Wong.
“She’s stupid. She is disobedient. She’s dirty and talks far too much… yet I have a hard time disliking her, James. I really do,” Hua sighed deeply, holding his round-brimmed hat upon his head as he moved.
“Everyone likes her Hua. I like her a lot,” James replied, his long hair whipping in the wind.
“You have a crush on her. She’s one of the few girls around your age. Of course, you like her!”
“No, big brother. Everyone likes her. She has nothing in common with the other girls, but they like her. She beats up the other boys, but they like her. Me? I love her,” said James smiling.
“Don’t put your heart into her, James. I suspect she’s one of those… special people. I don’t think her grandfather will ever marry her off – even in this place.”
“What about love?” said James wistfully.
“Love may exist here, but it doesn’t run things. Power runs things here. Besides, on Earth, people abhor marrying off people who are touched in the head like she is. We aren’t even adults on earth like we are here. On Earth they’d call us teenagers, but this planet… you’re on the cusp of manhood.”
“Brother, maybe we can go to earth one day?” sighed James, “Can’t we still be kids? Even you… you’re fifteen – you’re going to be emperor. Don’t you wish we could just… be our own age?”
“Now you sound like Zise. All fantasy and possibility and no realism. No James, we’re never going to earth; we’re stuck here. You need to grow up and face your responsibilities,” said Hua.
For more fantastic articles from our latest magazine issue ‘Space’, please click on the below link:
F&F Fall 2019: Space