The second hand moved in smoothly unlike the more popular skipping motion that most watches use. He had a particular dislike for the skipping second hands used in most watches. It made him feel jittery. The face of the watch was black with silver numeric markings and the similar silver-colored hands were in ‘Dauphine’ style.
Issac waited at the bus stop and watched the seconds tick by. He planned to meet his friends for a day out.
“The number 7 should be coming any second now,” he tapped his feet to the ground. His cheap earphones were plugged in and blasting music though he lowered the volume so the noise didn’t leak out from them.
Being near a hospital, the bus stop was packed. He was one of the earlier ones to arrive and get a seat but he gave it up for an elderly woman. He had no problems standing anyway.
Soon, a green bus with a large black ‘7’ on a white circle pulled up. As people walked off the bus, he counted the passengers with his eyes. A total of 16 people got off. He looked beside him, 16 people were there excluding him. Issac sighed quietly. Looks like he’d have to stand today as well.
“Eleven years of using the ‘7’ yet I can count the times I got a seat on one hand.” The elderly woman beside him slowly and shakily got up from the bench as another younger woman; presumably, her daughter helped her up and onto the bus. He boarded the bus behind them and saw that aside from the seat marked for the elderly and handicapped, there were no other seats. He couldn’t use those, right?
Shaking his head, he and the remaining five people, grabbed the handgrip as the sound of pressurized air rang out and the bus doors closed. With a slight jerk and smoke coming out of the exhaust, the bus began moving.
With constant scenery of buildings and storefronts, with pop-music blasting in his ears, he rode with a steady balance. The bus was quiet without a hint of gossip. Seems like it was a bus full of strangers, except the elderly woman and her daughter but they didn’t speak much either. Everyone was immersed in their thoughts and so was Issac.
“I wonder how they’re doing…?” they hadn’t been together in one place for almost half a year. So, he could barely suppress the smile on his face as he reminisced about the better days.
Time ticked by with his head in the clouds, and unknowingly, he had reached his destination. He got off the bus with some others and looked around. The towering buildings made him small but he wasn’t here for those. They had agreed to meet in Abraham Park and that’s where he went.
Leaving the bus stop that was just outside the park, he entered through the gates and was met with the sight of children playing, lovers spending time, and families having fun. The pleasantly sweet yet sharp smell of grass tickled his nostrils. Brick-paved paths lay on the ground with benches placed periodically on each side.
He took out his phone and got out of the messaging app. The last text on their group read, “Under the clock post in Abraham Park at 12:00 p.m.” It was 11:45 a.m. There was plenty of time.
He unplugged his headphones and walked leisurely, making sure to take in every sight and every sensory input. The song of birds nestled in the trees, the playful giggling of the children, the warm looks of parents, and the sugary sweet atmosphere among couples.
“She would love it here…” Issac murmured bitterly and shook his head afterward. “No, I’m here to have fun. Let’s not get the mood down.”
He sped up slightly. And in fifteen minutes he reached the clock post. It was a green post with a four-faced clock on top. All four had white faces with black numerical symbols and black ‘Fleur de Lys’ hands. The second hand had that infuriating skipping motion.
He could hear the ticking of the clock. Tick tock tick tock. Every second seemed to become longer.
Tick tock tick tock.
Unable to bear it any longer, he moved away from the clock and stood under the shade of a nearby tree. The sunlight pierced through the gaps of the leaves and lit the ground. The rustling of leaves with the calm breeze soothed him. He unlocked his phone’s screen and looked at the time. There were still seven minutes left to go before the designated time.
“Yahallo!” He looked up to see a woman with fiery-red hair wave at him from afar. Issac smiled and took out his earphones before stuffing them in his pockets. “It’ll be a pain in the ass to untangle them later…”
Despite his thoughts, he walked up and hugged her. “Janet! It’s been a while!”
“Way too long!” Janet agreed. She beamed seeing an old friend. She let go of Issac and touched his body. Issac smiled bitterly as though he was used to it. After a while, she said in surprise, “Hey, you’ve gained some muscle! You’re hitting the gym?”
“As if!” Issac scoffed. “These are muscles gained from the power of menial labor!”
“Labor?” Janet narrowed her eyes, “Are you still doing those gigs of yours?”
“Just part-time; I’m an accountant now.”
“Really?”
“Honest to god!”
“Fine, I’ll believe you. So, any hotties in your office you can introduce to me?” She grinned mischievously.
“Don’t pull that on me!” he hit her playfully and laughed. “By the way, congratulations on getting engaged. You look really happy with her.”
“Thank you,” Janet stopped playing around. Her eyes were warm and sincere as she fiddled with the engagement band on her ring finger, “I’m happy too.”
She stopped and peeked at his face. Cautiously, she asked, “Is Lucy still…?”
“She’s…” Issac paused and bit his lips, “better than before, I’d say.”
“That’s still not saying much,” Janet swallowed her words. She squeezed out a smile. She felt guilty for souring the mood.
“Don’t worry,” as if reading her mind, he waved his hands dismissively, “I’m rather glad you asked about her. You and the other guys should visit her once in a while.” He looked into the distance, “And speaking of the other guys….”
Janet turned around and looked towards where Issac was facing. A beautiful smiled bloom on her face. The two of them walked forward to meet two more of their friends.
“Ray and June!” Janet ran up and hugged the two of them. Issac also greeted them with a smile and hugged them.
“It’s been a while, eh?” Issac said after hugging Ray.
“Yeah, man. Too long!” Ray laughed. He tucked away a strand of his blonde hair behind his hair. His green eyes seemed to sparkle at the sight of meeting his old friends.
“Congratulations on getting married, Janet,” June held Janet’s hand in hers and said sincerely. “You and Victoria look really happy together!”
“I am happy with her!” Janet emphasized and smiled.
“Ah right,” Ray smacked his forehead, “You did get engaged. Congratulations on that!”
“You forgot about it, didn’t you?” Issac laughed cheekily.
“Wha- no!” Ray elbowed him in his side. “How could I forget- ahem, something as important as this!?”
“Does not sound convincing….”
“Okay, Issac. Stop teasing the poor guy.” Janet put a stop to it.
“Issac, do you still do your magic tricks?” June asked playfully. Her straight long black hair swayed slightly in the breeze. She moved her bangs away from her eyes.
“Ah, no. Just an uninteresting accountant now.”
She frowned and said somewhat angrily, “Are you just going to forget-”
Issac cut her off, “No, I won’t.” He smiled helplessly, “It doesn’t pay the bills now, does it? I just want her to be healthy.”
June closed her mouth, and Issac sighed. He patted her shoulder and said, “You should drop by once in a while. She asks about you, you know? I think she’ll feel much better after seeing you.”
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“…I will come by next week.”
“Thank you.”
“Me too,” Ray chimed in.
“That will be nice. So, we’re just waiting for Ethan now?”
“Yep,” Janet nodded.
Ray scoffed, “Watch this bastard be late again.”
“C’mon, man-” Issac chuckled, “if he ain’t late, he’s not Ethan.”
“You bunch of morons are chewing me out behind my back, huh?” A gruff voice startled the four of them. They turned around and saw an African-American man with curly black hair, looking at them with faux anger.
“Ethan!” the four ran up to hug him. Ethan loosened his frown and laughed. “How are you guys doing?” he asked with a tinge of nostalgia.
“Good.”
“Great.”
“Just fine.”
“Better than you.”
“You just had to get a jab in, Ray?”
“If I didn’t, would I really be me?” Ray had a smug look on his face.
Ethan shot back, “Yeah, you’re still the dipshit I remember.”
“Can you guys stop shitting on each other?” Janet came forward and put the two in a headlock. “Let’s go out and have fun!”
“Ow, ow! I give up! I give up!”
“Damn, why are you still so muscly?” The two protested in vain as Janet dragged them forward. Issac and June glanced at each other and smiled helplessly before following them.
They soon began to slip into their past selves as they talked about what each of them had experienced recently. Among close friends, their worries soon melted, and their moods brightened.
They had walked into a restaurant to eat since it was already lunchtime. Inside the fast-food joint, they took a table and sat down. They had been here countless times in the past, so the familiar red and yellow color scheme, the cheap metal chairs and tables, and the smell of grease and fried food brought about a wave of nostalgia for them.
Issac took the menu, “So if I remember correctly, a No. 10 for June, No. 22, 30, and 56 for Janet, two kid’s meals for Ray and Ethan.” He quickly turned around and called a waiter.
“Bitch!” Ray and Ethan cursed in unison while the girls giggled.
“All right, all right, I’m just joking,” Issac laughed and calmed them down. He correctly relayed what each of them wanted to the waiter that came. The waiter wrote it down on a notepad and repeated their orders again to see if he missed anything. Once he was sure he hadn’t missed anything, he returned to the counter.
“So,” Issac spoke up, “what do you guys wanna do next? Where do you want to go?”
“Let’s go to the Batting Cages!” Janet suggested excitedly.
“How about bowling?” Ray fiddled with his hair.
Ethan disagreed, “I say we go to the arcade!”
“Cool, two sports and arcade,” Issac made a mental note. “And how about you, June?”
“I’m fine with wherever we’re going.”
“I recall you not being that good at either baseball or bowling, so I’ll put you down for arcade.”
“Wha- how dare yo- that’s true….” Under Issac’s gaze, she sheepishly admitted it. However, she quickly regained her composure and asked him, “Then where do you want to go?”
Issac said without hesitation, “Karaoke. Haven’t gone there in a while.”
“Do you even know if it’s open or not?” Janet said and stared at the waiter, who seemed to be coming to their table with their food. But the waiter just passed by their table and placed the food to the family behind them. Janet clicked her tongue.
“It…-” Issac took his phone out and searched the place in the GPS. After seeing that it was still open, his smile brightened, “-it is still open. Well, at least, Maps says so!”
“Why don’t we visit all of them?” Ray chimed in. The other four looked at him silently. Feeling awkward, Ray was about to open his mouth, but Issac sighed and said, “That’s a great idea….”
June agreed, “Yeah, we’ll be here all day, so it shouldn’t be impossible.”
“Then let’s do it!”
“Hell yeah!” everyone replied excitedly, and the waiter finally brought the food over as well!
After wolfing down the food and leaving the restaurant, they visited all the locations they wanted to go to, just as they had planned.
In the batting cages, Janet seemed to be hitting home run after home run, displaying her ‘rustiness’ from having not played in a while. On the other hand, June stood aside and just simply watched. All of them knew how low June’s endurance was. This had caused them problems beforehand as well.
James and Janet were on one team in the bowling alleys, while Issac, Ray, and June were on the other. Janet sulked on a nearby bench, having rolled her eighth gutter in a row.
“Haha,” Ray mocked her, “You’re all brawns, no brains. Bowling is a game about finesse! Watch how masterfully I do it!”
Ray put three fingers in the bowling ball and, without a run-up, delivered it. The ball rolled slowly but on steadily. Following a straight line, the ball hit the front-most pin, and like dominos, all the other pins fell as well. A clean strike!
Ray held his head high in front of Janet; his nose was about to reach the sky. Janet sent him a glare that threatened to kill, but that couldn’t pierce the arrogance he built up from gaining one over her.
“Damn, you fuckers still haven’t changed,” Ethan held his head and sighed.
As the sun began to set, they headed into a nearby arcade. Ethan immediately started playing Dance Dance Revolution. His legs seemed to fly on the input as upbeat music blasted from the speakers. The screen score seemed to keep rising as he got all the inputs successfully.
Nearby, Issac and Janet got to play one of the shooters. It was the sixth installment of ‘House of the Dead.’ Elsewhere, Ray and June were doing something less violent and more relaxed. A simple claw machine. June was eyeing the big bunny plush inside, so Ray was trying to get it for her.
The sky was dark when they left the arcade. The crescent moon gently shone overhead; stars surrounded it like fireflies. Yet nothing could diminish the grace of the moon. By this time, Issac and his friends were no longer bouncing around like before. They simply conversed slowly and walked towards the karaoke bar Issac mentioned previously.
They booked a room for 1 hour and even got refreshments to be sent in the room. Issac took the screen and chose a song. Issac sang as soon as the music started, and lyrics began flashing on the screen. The others sat on the sofas, talking and occasionally clapping to the beat.
All five of them took turns singing. And almost all genres of songs were sung. They even took an extension for the room.
Issac sat down on one of the sofas after finishing his turn. Slightly sweaty and out of breath, he looked at June, singing a hit Japanese song, and turned his phone on. Apps covered the wallpaper of him, his mother, and his sister. He took the picture when the three of them went to visit the wisteria gardens. It was the first time in a long while that his sister was able to move freely, and seeing her smile made it all worth it.
“Hey, Issac,” Ethan called him. He turned to look at him, and Ethan gestured at his wrist, “What time is it?”
“It’s, uh…-” Issac looked down at his phone again, “-9.35 p.m.”
“Let’s leave after June’s done!”
“Uh, yeah.” Even if he was reluctant, he still needed to leave. After all, they each had their lives to live. “Huh, I think all five of us got our dream jobs.”
“Dream jobs?” Ray scoffed. “I’m still a long way from that, dude.”
“At least you’re on your way there,” Ethan sighed, “I’m a damn hydrologist, man. I study water. Water.”
“It’s the job most suited to you,” Issac laughed. “You were all about science experiments. I mean, you liked science so much that you even picked science as a whole in college and university, right?”
“Loving science is one thing, and having a talent for it is another matter altogether. Speaking of talent-” Ethan and the other two looked at Janet quietly, sipping her drink. When she felt the three pairs of eyes on her, she stopped sipping and looked at them apprehensively.
“What did I do?”
“Man, somehow being a batter, really…suits you somehow….” Ethan muttered.
The other two agreed instantly. Janet smiled; however, her eyes weren’t. “Are you implying something?”
“I am. A musclewoman like you is a batter for a women’s baseball league team. The only thing that suits you more is being a wrestler. You should go there if you get scouted.”
“Fuck that!” Janet snorted, “Those are just a bunch of prim and proper princesses afraid to get their hands dirty. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that it was all fake?”
“I did know. But even if it’s all an act, they’re a bunch of muscular prim and proper princesses.”
“I am not like that.”
“Of course not,” Issac chuckled. “If you were in professional wrestling, the women there would be in scandal after scandal!”
The music in the karaoke room stopped, and June slumped back into the sofa. Her bangs stuck to her forehead from all the sweat. After she drank some water to quench her throat, she pouted slightly. “You guys didn’t even pay attention to my singing!”
“Don’t worry,” Ray patted her shoulder, “you sang K-On’s opening really well.”
“Thank you.”
Issac got up, “It’s time to go, guys. We’re almost at the end of our extension here.”
“Yeah, let’s go!” the others agreed, and they all left the karaoke bar. Under the bright moon, they walked to the nearest bus stop.
“Man, today was fun,” Issac muttered.
“It was,” June agreed.
“Wait a minute; don’t you have to get to the news station like very early tomorrow?”
“I do. And?”
“Then are you going to go there with a shit ton of DOMS?” Janet chimed in.
June frowned, unable to understand.
Ethan explained, “She means- will you be alright with muscle soreness tomorrow? Since you know…we moved around a lot today?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m just going to be presenting the weather, and besides-” June rolled her sleeves back and flexed her arms. Her biceps bulged slightly. She smirked, “-I work out.”
“Please, not another Janet. Please not another Janet,” Ray, Issac, and Ethan began chanting their mantra.
“…fuck you guys,” Janet cursed helplessly.
“Stop bullying her, guys,” June huffed and went forward to link arms with Janet. She stuck her tongue out at them, “At least we’re not weak chickens like you!”
Ray, Issac, and Ethan all looked at each other. After brief eye contact, they decided not to tell the two girls anything. Conversing all the way, they finally reached the bus stop.
“I guess this is it,” Issac sighed. He looked at his phone- it was 10:01 p.m.
“Yep,” Ethan agreed but seemed equally sullen.
Janet slapped them on the back, “Why are you guys like this, huh? We can always just see each other again. If not now, surely later! Hell, we’ll be seeing each other at my wedding!”
Issac hugged her, “Yeah, I won’t miss that for the world.”
“We still have to visit Lucy, too, right?” June added.
Ray, who was silent, suddenly spoke up, “Do…Do you guys hear that?”
Everyone looked at him with puzzled looks. “Hear what?” Issac asked.
“Those whisperings!” Ray seemed to get more and more uncomfortable.
“Wha-?” startled, everyone fell silent. Ray was right. Like numerous voices whispering, their hushed voices began to get louder and louder. With a spooked expression, June looked around. There was no one close enough to be doing this.
As the volume peaked and their nervousness began to show in their actions, the ground underneath them lit up in iridescent light.
With wide eyes, they snapped their eyes to the ground to see strange symbols and patterns glowing underneath their feet.
Ray seemed to conclude as he muttered incredulously, “I-Is this a magic circle?”
“Issac?” hearing June call him, the others glanced at Issac. His body was fading as particles flowed off him like sand grains. The man himself was silent. He was shocked beyond belief.
“No, wait!” Ray screamed, “It’s all of us!” And that was the case. Just like Issac, all of them were fading away. Before he faded away completely, Issac grabbed the phone in his hand and threw it out of the magic circle. As the phone landed on the ground, the magic circle disappeared, and so did Issac and his friends.
Soon after, a man stumbled on the sidewalk. His body reeked of alcohol and cheap perfume. Unable to maintain balance, he fell to the ground but broke his fall with his hands. As he looked at the ground, he found a phone lying there. Picking it up, he unlocked the screen. There was a long scratch in the middle of the phone and two women on the wallpaper.
He decided to drop the phone off at the nearest police station.