A Scholastic Past and a Serendipitous Future!

“All My Life’s a Circle,” by Harry Chapin. Writing to Lyrics – Never Forget, Always Remember, 5/25/14 – Creative Writing prompt from high school Creative Writing I class with Mrs. Dowling. The second section is a prequel from ENGH 396—A GMU course with Prof. Mincks. Author: Eugene S. Pierson, a senior at GMU, with catatonic schizophrenia.

“Excuse me?” said Luke, as he lightly touched the shoulder of a woman in front of him. The lady turned, a look of estrangement conveying her disposition. Luke apologized, “Sorry. Never mind.” 

Hastily, the lady left without uttering a word.

“She has to be here. She just has to.” Deflated and dejected, Luke lay down in the grassy expanse. A tear fell across his cheek.

Ever so slowly, white fluff rolled across the clear blue sky. Luke smiled, his spirits lifting. One cloud appeared to be a panda, while another looked like a monkey. Laughing, Luke reminisced, closing his eyes shut – letting the memories take hold again.

The D.C. National Zoo—that was where Luke and Lucy visited when they were only teenagers. The year was 2000. Clouds with great variety painted the horizon line. 

Luke had asked Lucy out a week before, promising to go to the D.C. Zoo, for Lucy loved animals. She had a pet gerbil, two pet hamsters, a dog, a cat, a snake, three parakeets and, well, basically the whole Animal Kingdom. She was what you would call a 'cat lady,' except she had more than just cats. 

And Luke? Well, he was what you would call a 'tree-hugger'. Spruce, apple, orange, cherry – any tree, you name it, Luke had it. He accumulated different soils and fertilizers to sustain various trees. In addition, tulips, roses, pansies, azaleas—and all kinds of flowering plants—grew in abundance on his house's front yard. A greenhouse, a garden, and even a little bonsai collection—Luke had it all. His parents hardly minded, for Luke was responsible for taking care of each and every plant. His green thumb matched well with Lucy's animal fever.

Luke and Lucy had observed almost all the animals, when Lucy suddenly had had the urge to turn back and see the panda again. 

“It's going to wake up this time,” Lucy reassured, walking hastily toward the south section of the zoo.

Luke laughed, following closely behind, “That panda is the laziest animal there is.” 

“Actually, a sloth would—”

“Yeah, a sloth is actually lazier.”

Lucy frowned, stopping dead in her tracks.

“What?” asked Luke.

Tapping her feet expectantly, Lucy waited.

Luke repeated, “What?”

“You always cut me off when I'm speaking! Can't you just wait 'till I finish my sentence?”

“Oh, you're gonna go on about that again?” sighed Luke.

Lucy had exclaimed “Ugh!” and took off in the panda's direction. 

Luke rushed to catch up to her, but then gave up, walking wherever his feet took them. He just moved, not wanting to stop, but not really going anywhere either. 

Yet, in the midst of his endless wandering, a noise erupted: “OOO-OOO! AAA-AAA!” It was the monkeys. 

Howling and grunting they were, jumping and swinging, too. Smirking, Luke observed the active creatures. The monkeys wrestled with one another, while never actually hurting each other. After their roughhousing ceased, the monkeys picked bugs off one another, and then subsequently ate them. They may have had a fight, but the monkeys always made up; the monkeys may have fought, but they were too close-knit for their relationships to sever.

Luke nodded his head, as if the monkeys were his math teacher and he were a young student, just then learning how to count. 

Quickly, Luke composed himself and ran to the south section of the zoo. With a sliver of hope, and a sprinkle of luck, Lucy was still there. She had to be. 

When Luke arrived at the panda enclave, however, Lucy was nowhere to be seen. She had left. And Luke had screwed up. He had to accept it. Or did he?

With formidable celerity, Luke sprinted to the zoo's exit. As he neared it, a sound caught his attention again. But this time, there were no belligerent yet amicable monkeys. It was Lucy. And she was crying.

Her face was buried in her hands, and her tears had streaked down her arms. 

Luke opened his mouth slightly, as if a word of comfort would spring forth from his lips with the capability to solace Lucy's crestfallen state. Instead, he sat down beside Lucy on the bench. He reached out his arm tentatively, as if an act of comfort would cease Lucy's sadness and bring a smile to her tear-ridden face. Instead, he thought of what to say, and what to do—how to make Lucy happy, how to fix his problem.

However, Lucy stopped crying. She wiped her tears and said, “I'm sorry.”

Luke jumped out of the bench in surprise.

“I was so stupid. Our relationship is more important than some dumb little fight about whatever. I apologize. Really, I'm sorry.”

Luke was taken aback. “You—you're sorry? I'm the one—it's my fault.”

“Let's promise to never fight again,” said Lucy, with furrowed eyebrows and adamant eyes.

“Okay!” Both Lucy and Luke crossed pinkies. 

And so, Luke and Lucy made up. When they grew up, the two married and lived a joyous life as husband and wife. They would have continual fights—some petty, some significant. Nonetheless, Lucy and Luke stayed together for what seemed like the longest of time: thirty years in fact. The two seemed like a match made in heaven, but their differences proved too many, tearing the couple apart.

Luke still searched for her. The zoo where they met, the downtown animal shelter, Lucy's favorite animal venues—he went to them all. All to no avail.

Lucy married another man, somewhere where the critters always scurried, where the birds always sang, where bugs always chirped, buzzed, and crawled. She was there. 

Yet, even to this day, she thinks of Luke and the promise they made, and a tear always manages to fall down her face.

Luke and Lucy went to high school together, before going to the D.C. National Zoo as college students. Hylton High School, where they studied AP courses, did innumerable worksheets and tests, did countless essays, read several novels, and annotated said novels. Both of them were dating someone else: Lucy was dating Henry, and Luke was dating Rebecca. With the insurgence of dating apps, romance had become a staple, so commonplace. Still, they met the traditional way: in-person. Being in the same class as someone you like helps.

“I can’t believe I guessed incorrectly for the question on the 19^th century America’s socio-economic status relative to other nations,” said Luke.

“Too bad,” said Rebecca, “honestly, you should have known that. We studied the economics of America in a previous chapter.”

“I guess, but I still can’t wait for AP Comparative Government next year as a senior. Then, I’ll be done studying lousy America, a country that has so many issues.”

“Hey! Speak for yourself. I love this country, especially because my parents are immigrants.”

Meanwhile, Lucy and Henry were talking about their Chemistry class.

“Molarity, mass numbers, scientists, balancing equations, experiments, significant numbers—we’ve covered a lot of material so far,” said Henry.

“Yeah, it appears so,” said Lucy. “I just hope I’m prepared for the AP exam. I really need credit for this if I’m going to work in science, maybe for the government or in research or both.”

“I’m not getting my hopes up, even though I’m good at math and want to study that in college.”

“Yeah, you have to also know reactive qualities, the periodic table, pH, and stoichiometry (which is math). Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. We’re already in January, halfway through, and I feel confident.”

Both couples were in the same English class, which was the next period.

“Okay class,” said Mrs. Carneli, “we’re going to read more of The Crucible, do a worksheet on it, and next class we’ll watch the movie. First person reading volunteers. Then you pick on someone to continue reading.”

The students hurriedly got out their textbooks. They took turns reading. First was Cathy. Next, Susan. After, David, and so on. They learned the dramatics of a tense time in American society and history. A girl who has feelings for an older man, but she blames an elderly woman and a few others for issues that arise. Next was Henry, and then he picked on Lucy to read. This is where things got interesting. Lucy picked Rebecca, since there weren’t many people left to read. And of course, Rebecca picked Luke to read afterward.

The class then worked on the worksheet, where they had to identify key elements of the play, including connotations, denotations, intrinsic values, extrinsic values, imperatives, purposes, audiences, syntaxes, and styles. Yet, Henry talked to Rebecca after that. He said how she has a nice voice. She laughed. They exchanged numbers, and from then on, both of them stopped seeing Lucy and Luke respectively.

It was then May, time for the AP exams.

Luke, Henry, Lucy, and Rebecca each used almost all the time allotted to take the exams. Luke ended up doing well on the AP U.S. history exam, although Rebecca did better. Lucy did just as well as Henry on the AP Chemistry exam. Yet, Henry felt bad for Lucy, since he wasn’t talking to her as much. During the summertime, Henry gave Lucy Luke’s number, so that she could have another friend. From then on, it was as if her animal fever and his green thumb were a match made in heaven. To continue the idioms, they lived happily ever after.