Seasons' Harvest

Spring: 

It was one of those moments, those surreal magical moments they say only happen in dreams, perfect temperature, humidity, sunlight, gentle breezes stroking my fevered cheeks, like a deja vu movie scene kept on looping through my daily ecstasy. 

Mr Sun’s exceptionally tall and athletic figure was standing on the podium like a statue of god as usual with one arm pointing straight out at a boy at the back of the class who just got shaken awake by his seatmate. ‘You, yes you, come on, stand up! How do we solve this equation, hm?’ He tapped at the equation on the blackboard with an eraser covered by chalk dust in his other hand.

‘Uh, I, I can’t remember.’ The boy looked down at his feet and shuffled left and right like an ant on a hot pan.

‘Of course not, you were sleeping behind the book fort you towered in front of you! Now I think you should stand for the rest of the class to keep yourself awake.’ Mr Sun’s eyes glared at the boy as if they were boring into his guilty conscience. Then he looked down at me with a smirk and quick wink. I felt like getting hit by a 2000 watt lightning and quickly looked down in such a panic that I froze and stared at the back of my hands laying numb on the top of the desk. 

OMG, did he just? No, he didn’t. Not in front of the whole class of people staring at him. What do I do, what do I do? Is everyone looking at me now? No no no no no, this is not happening.

I stole a brief glance at my seatmate with my peripheral vision and she was smiling at me with a mischievous facial expression as if confirming what I was suspecting. The silence in the classroom was deafening and the tension palpable, I could hear my quickened heartbeat maniacally pounding on my ribcage and my laboured breathing having trouble taking in enough air. 

What’s happening, why isn’t he talking? Is he still staring at me? Is he waiting for me to respond? Should I do something? God, this stillness is unbearable...

Knowing that I would never get into trouble in his books, I braced myself and looked back up. Yes, he was definitely still staring at me, with a deep, enigmatic penetrating gaze. As soon as my eyes met his, I knew I was locked in his mesmerizing enchantment and could never look away again on my free will. It felt as if time had stopped and the space between us just disappeared. My inside was melting and I felt like fainting. Luckily I was already seated or I’d have made a fool of myself. 

God, I hate it when he does this. Always catches me unaware and put me on the spot in front of everyone’s scrutinizing eyes with his taunting and teasing. It’s as if he’s so confident of his antics that he doesn’t even care what those little plebs think. Well, what about me? I am stuck in the middle. Does he even think about how it would make me look? Huh, maybe he thinks I like being in the centre of all his undivided attention. On the other hand, it’s true that his audacity excites me to no end, it’s the sparks of life, the elations I longed and lived for.

After a 5-minute staring ceremony which felt like forever, he looked away and carried on his lecture as if nothing had happened. Suddenly, I started to realize how heated my body was.

Summer: 

It was Summer holiday again. The days were long and the nights were brief. The heat was literally melting the tarmac and the cicadas were constantly wining in every tree. While holidays were supposed to be the time of relaxation and leisure, however, as high schoolers facing the toughest university entrance examination we couldn’t afford such luxuries. 

My grades were falling behind. My obstinate cousins reckoned it was because I was all look and no brain, they called people like me flower vases, look nice as a decoration but entirely useless otherwise. My parents reckoned I was not studious enough and needed to work harder. To some extend they were right but they didn’t know the whole story, especially they had never seen Mr Sun in the living flesh. How could I improve my grades when every time I picked up the maths books I instantly thought of his divine smile and fell into self-induced trances. My parents accepted my suggestion of doing extra tutoring sessions with Mr Sun. As a matter of fact, they were delighted, so was I.

I entered his flat as he attentively held the door open for me. 

‘Nice place.’ I looked around mindlessly as I scanned the furniture.

‘Only nice?’ He closed the door with a mischievous smiled.

‘No, it’s fantastic!’ I jumped on him and embrace him fervently. 

Autumn: 

Time flew by fast, suddenly, the masses of the leaves turned all shades of red, yellow and brown, hanging helplessly on the fragile branches like children who were struggling to let go. The chilling winds were sweeping them off the branches effortlessly, tumbling them around in the air and spreading them back down on the ground everywhere like trash. Something was in the air. What was it? It was somewhat mysterious and I couldn’t put a finger on it but I could feel it in my bones that something was definitely up.

‘You look overworked and sad, what is it?’ I asked him.

‘Nothing. Nothing that concerns you.’ He looked away with melancholy in his eyes.

‘Well, does it concern you?’

He didn’t reply and didn’t look up either.

‘If it concerns you then it concerns me.’ I shook him and furrowed up my brows.

Still, more depressing silence…

Soon he started avoiding me and evading my questioning gazes. When I walked up to him he would just walk aside and carry on like I was a roadblock he needed to navigate around. Days later, someone told me he was married, to another maths teacher from another high school.

Winter: 

He looked up with a shocked look as I entered his office, ‘It’s you. How are you?’

‘Same old. How’s married life treating you?’

‘Good. My wife and I are trying for a baby.’ He nodded with a cup of steaming tea in his hands and his fingers fidgeting with the lid.

This time, it was me staring at him. He looked away as if trying to avoid being burnt.

‘My visa has been approved. I’ll be leaving very soon.’

‘Yeah? That’s um, that’s good news.’ The rims of his eyes went red and tears glistened under his glasses.

‘Good news? For who?’ I put my fingertip on his fidgeting hand.

Still looking down. No reply.

‘No words? Ok, I will do the talking so you don’t have to. This is the last time you are seeing me. Have a good life. Goodbye.’

I walked out of the suffocating heat from his office and into the snow-filled sunset.