Before Leaving Mars
The clock strikes thirteen, the moon sets followed by a breeze as cold as a penguin’s chuff, enveloping Andromeda compound, school of elitist Martian. The buildings embossed an enchanting Jade with a hint of amethyst, flaunting its oddities of Penrose stairs. Today marks my final day on Mars, yet I’m still captivated by the brilliant and sophisticated architecture design. The hustle and bustle in our specialised compartment jolted my mind off to reality.
“Salutation, homo sapiens of Earth!” as Mrs. Gamora, the green-coloured Martian bow her antenna to greet us. “Much obliged for selecting Andromeda to educate the younglings about intergalactic communication, the English language. I thank thee for thy noble services.” A series of fierce handclaps and applaud dances across the room.
“As a token of appreciation, Andromeda administrators will deliver the Great Red Ruby of Mars with your credentials to your verified accommodation on Earth. Now, kindly proceed to load your personal belongings to be teleported back on your planet. If you have any queries, I shall be standing in left wing corner of this room to monitor” Mrs. Gamora said and excuse herself out of the room.
“Hey, do you think the token will turn us into billionaires back on Earth?” Anna chipped in while loading her belongings on the INTELLICAR. “If we were to, I will personally purchase INTELLICAR off the shelves first. Heavens, did you see how it teleport our items back to Earth, it’s as simple as ABC!” I cried. “Well, count me in. The gems on Mars isn’t going to order themselves a space cab and parallel park in front our garage.” Anna bark out a laughter. No doubt, the advanced machineries on Mars is one of the reasons why I chose to take up Andromeda teaching offer, despite being fully aware at potential dangers, notably asteroids.
“This may sound sudden,” Anna dust her desk and shifted her focus on my perplexed face, “ but can you lend me 5 dollars? I need to munch on something before I am cursed for turning into one of those gross-skinny-gooey-lizard creatures we saw this morning.” She asked as she rest her arms on her slim hips. “Only if you stop mocking my space pet, then I will consider it.
By the way, it’s 5 quasi for Mars, Respect the drift, Karen.” I retorted with a cheeky smile. Of course, Karen rolled her eyes and extend her right arm followed by the infamous “puppy eyes” and pouty lips.
I peer into my pockets in search of my INTELLICARD, which is a digitalized purse that holds all my important cards and of course, the greens. As my fingers fumbled the inside of my pockets, a stiffening posture, rigid muscles and a sudden dread hits the core. I was filled with trepidation; my body was trembling as if it could shake every nooks and crannies of Mars. A torrent cold sweat trickle on my furrowed eyebrows, but my head was as hot as a burning coal. My heart throbs, thumping loudly that I can hear it almost crush the cages of lung into ashes. There was just one question hollered on top of my throats:
“Where on Mars is my INTELLICARD?”
It was so loud that I could feel all head turns and glares pierced through my skin. A mouthful of chattering and whispering began dancing across the room. My imagination was running wild like rough waves with the endless thought of being cornered and trapped, unable to fly back to Earth: the thoughts tumble angrily, pounding the shores.
How could I not? I have become Earth and Mars fugitive which is the price for losing INTELLICARD along with identification card, teaching license, and a 400 quasi! I was stunned to the point that all I could remember is the sharp pull coming from my left arm. The next thing happened is that I was standing dumbfounded beside Mrs Gamora, with Anna squeezing my arm tightly.
“I understand the tribulations you are facing right now, Willow. Please only think of calming thoughts as I have already informed the Guardians of the Mars to investigate this matter closely.” Mrs Gamora speak gracefully. “As for the time being, I shall interrogate you with some inquiries. Tell me, Ms Willow, where is the last location of your INTELLICARD?”
“Apart from class T20, I only lavishly spend my time in this office, since it’s our final day,” I pause, “T-the idea of leaving for Earth without a decent parting with class T20 is horrendous, so I decided to bid them farewell.”
I explained while trying to sustain the dam of tears from collapsing. “Class T20? Isn’t it the one located on Floor 88? Wait don’t answer, I’m not risking my Jimmy Choo either way.” Anna complained.
Mrs. Gamora nodded and swiftly pulled the sulphuric-yellow remote control designed with a cliché red button on top that has been properly latched onto her back. With a gentle push of the red button, opens a menu of [HOME], [MAP] and [SCAN]. She taps on [HOME] and it immediately flashes a jaw-dropping holographic map in front of us, exposing the details of every possible place of Andromeda University.
She zoomed in and clicked on class T20. The device then yelped out a resounding ‘ZZZIP’ and behold an arched obsidian portal.
In a split second, all three of us floats in mid-air before standing abruptly in the middle of Class T20. As far as my life goes, this has been the most awkward encounter the students, who are by the way the selected Martian elitist, for the first time ever had a genuine puzzled look. Tear-jerker.
“Salutations, students of Class T20! There has been an unforeseen event.” Mrs Gamora greet while analysing each of the student’s reaction, “Therefore, I wish your obedience to place your Enix box on the table.” she commanded firmly and all of them did as told.
Once again Mrs Gamora flaunt the yellow device, but this time she clicked on [SCAN] and the whole class turned into a series of binary numbers including us. “Look! There’s a strange inkling coming from Binary-12!” Anna’s voice echoed through a room. All of the student gasped and were exchanging agitated stare. That’s it! All INTELLICARD had bionic 900 micro-chip installed, resulting in a bright purple glow when tracked down!
Mrs. Gamora press [HOME] and the class went back to its previous state. Now our eyes were all fixated on seat 12. Chimera, the snob rich kid from Region 51.
Sigh. I should’ve known.
I mustered up the courage to walk straight towards Chimera, who know looked petrified followed by the glare from the other T20 students. I would not blame them, the probability of theft in Andromeda is critically low, but it’s never zero.
“CHIMERA BAL ANTILLES, care to explain?!” I raised my voice while staring sternly at him. Anna snatched Chimera’s Enix before he gets to say a word. She diligently twists and turn it a millionth time but to no avail.
“Do you wish to know the punishment of those who steal, Antilles from Region 51?” question Mrs Gamora, still full of poised with hints of disappointment in her tone.
“I-I’m sorry Mrs. Gamora. It’s just that-” with a crestfallen face, Chimera lay his head and antenna down, pressing his palm against his face.
“It’s not his fault Mrs. Gamora!” Dejah suddenly protest, then another voice erupted “Actually, it’s all of Titan 20’s fault!” supported by a bunch of yeahs and hoots. What kind of evil geniuses are they? Do they think confessing to plot a theft together is supposed to be a tear-jerker moment?!
God bless Anna and Mrs Gamora for solving the stubborn Enix, revealing a heap of items and, my precious INTELLICARD! I picked it up and were thankful that all my important documents (and 400 quasi) is still inside.
Content, I turned to my T20 class that I have been teaching English for the past 3 months. “Younglings of T20, I would not spend time thinking for what has been in the past. Rather, I would like to understand what’s the outcome you’d like to choose for your action?” teases Mrs Gamora. Her lips upturned observing their reactions.
Eurydice, the reserved child suddenly speaks. “ Dear Mrs Gamora, you asked which punishments you’d like us to gladly accept. We requested to be exempted from every future event,” she hesitates, “a-and a verified INTELLICARD to fly back to Earth with Mrs. Willow!”
The classroom fells into a deafening silence.
“Wait, whaaa-?” I baffled.
“It’s not that we like Mrs. Willow or anything, spaceships are just cool.” Chimera wipes his snot and laughs mischievously.
“I’m not buying it.” Anna hissed and rolled her eyes.
“What we’re trying to say is that, we in fact, enjoyed your lessons Mrs. Willow. I learned a lot about English. My personal favourite is idioms, don’t count your chicken before it hatched, correct?” Dejah adds.
“Mine is adjective,”
“I prefer figure of speech, fantastic elements,”
“Try literature, Mrs Willow just showed this awesome sci-fi short story called Before Leaving Mars,”
Aww, everyone…
“I like noun. I like the word annihilation,”
“Okay! Okay! We get it, Shrek.” I let out a deep sigh, “The point is, you guys want me to stay because you love English
right? There will be more future teachers from Earth to come with marvellous games to play! I guess by then you won’t miss me that much.”
“We can have new teachers, but we will always go back to the old ones, especially you Mrs Willow! Please, don’t leave us! Or take us with you to Earth!” Dejah pleads. The whole T20 started swarming us, tugging on our clothes and hugging us from behind.
Mrs Gamora shoot an awe look at the children.
Titan 20 made me realise the true meaning of education. Lord, these children has got the brain and heart at the same time. Truly elitist of Mars.
“Alright everyone! Straighten up!” Anna commanded. All the T20 positioned themselves in a perfect straight line.
“Willow?” she calmly said my name and wait for my decision.
“Well, I actually have 2 more days before my take off. So, before leaving Mars….” I pierce into their eyes and shouts:
“Let’s do something fun!”