Lappola Part 1
(Lappola)
His body sore and complaining, his mind furious under the oppression, his lungs scowled while his throat burned. He was exhausted, but he persevered. He didn’t know why he was getting tired this quickly but he was reaching the strip-mall soon.
Whenever Randolph found the time to jog, he never felt the need to stop. Jogging had always cheered him up and calmed him down.
His attention was drawn towards heaven under the trees, entranced by its beauty. Forget about the strip mall today, he had decided to stray from the usual route. The jogger eventually slowed down a little as the trees greeted him, running under the rows of trees as the strong sunlight filtered and beamed through the foliage. The blinding rays of light engulfed Randolph as he squinted, pushing his legs forward. It felt like an adventure for him to know what was behind the curtains of white light.
Soon the blinding light diffused and Randolph’s vision was restored. He stopped and stared ahead, finding himself in the plaza. A place of nostalgia; where the sounds of music, the chattering of people and the smell of baked goods lingered in the air. He breathed in deeply, enjoying the fresh air and pleasant aromas that were floating by.
Then the memories of the performing people, they all got back into him. The choir from the local theatre, the groups of people and the woman with the perfect voice; those surreal memories made Randolph smile.
The sounds of music drew him to a crowd by the fountains, and there stood a violinist. His music happy and energetic, complimenting along with the violinist’s passion. Everyone was clapping for him, even for Randolph. The violinist was getting into the zone, allowing his instrument to sing.
“All right…this is it, the finale!” The violinist exclaimed, slicing the violin frantically, the rendition getting livelier as the seconds past. Randolph was grinning back at the man; Jason Dunnam was such a fun person. It was such a vivid performance.
With a quick zip of his bow, he ended his rendition. The onlookers all cheered and showed their appreciation, including Randolph. Jason then saw Randolph; he nodded slightly to acknowledge his presence.
It was time for Jason to take a break as he sat down together with Randolph by the benches. Randolph had started to twiddle with his thumbs while Jason sighed.
“How have you been pip?” Jason finally said. Randolph responded with a word of “fine” and they held their silence once again.
“Time flies, I still remembered the times when I bullied you.” Jason grinned to himself. “We change overtime as we grow older. I want to apologize for what I did. I regretted doing those horrible things to you in the past.”
“We don’t know what’s right or wrong back then.” Randolph said while Jason gave an oblivious yawn. “You know, my mother used to sing at that very same spot you’re performing. She was a crowd pleaser like you. It was also exciting and enthusiastic like yours.” Randolph finally got to what he was trying to say. Jason could only manage to utter an “Oh”.
“But your mother is…” Jason said.
“She’s dead, but it’s okay to talk about her; it’s been almost eight years now.” Randolph grimaced with a pitiful smile, feeling lonely just by mentioning her.
“I’m very sorry for your loss and I don’t want to talk about sensitive issues if you don’t want to.” Jason said.
“Do you know of the saying “Father and Mother I love you”? If you take out the first letter of every word and then put it all together, it spells FAMILY.” Randolph added, entranced by what he said.
He had always loved that phrase, because it resembled his messy and dysfunctional relationships with his mum and dad. The jogger didn’t know if that was god’s way to separate him and both his parents.
“That really was a great saying, why didn’t I think of this before? You must really love your parents huh?” Jason said as Randolph snickered.
“Definitely, parental love always runs deep in me.” Randolph said with a shy smile. He wondered about it for a while regarding this issue. Only a few people knew this, and his mother was frightened of what he did to her. This dark secret must be kept inside and it must stay within him forever.
The awkwardness had returned, that was when Randolph stood up.
“Well I have to get going now. It was nice to hang around with you for a short while. Maybe we’ll have a cup of coffee some other time if we meet up again.” The jogger said, still reminiscing about s mother. Jason nodded.
“All right, I’ll see you later, pip...” But Randolph had left.
My mother…Randolph thought as he grimaced. The jogger started to run again, heading out of the plaza and onto the main road once more.
Be it thee’s fling or be it mere rife? Randolph started to mumble.
End of part 1
