Astronomical Turbulence

Plu looked at me sideways.

“What would you like to do in your free time?” I asked.

“A hobby?” he shrugged his shoulders. He glanced behind me where the most ‘powerful’ gang in the school stood. “I like to be them. That’s my hobby.”

I turned my back. “Oh, those guys who keep revolving around Sir?”

“Not only revolution; they have power. They have a name. Everybody knows them. Everybody trusts them.”

“You trust me?” I smirked.

“Sure. I know you’ll always be there around me.”

"Hm, I guess it's a hobby? You should always strive to be the best in the system, then."

"I don't know... I'm not good enough."

"No, you are. That is why you are one of us. Keep doing what you love to do."

When I found Plu shivering in a corner, I ran up to him. He trembled and looked sick with fear etched on his forehead and palms. “What’s wrong?!”

“They’re gonna throw me off, they’re gonna cancel me…”

“Who, what?”

“They! I won’t be a part of you all anymore!”

“Who said all this, Plu?”

“Eri… Eri’s friends actually. I don’t know what to do. They’re not gonna let me walk with you all or talk with you all or- “

I kneeled down, grabbed him and hugged him tight. “I won’t let anyone take away your hobby. Trust me.” I got up. I actually didn’t know how I was going to do it. How was I going to face Eri’s shenanigans?

“It’s not about your liveliness; you participate well enough in class. You work after 5pm sometimes too. You are ever ready to take the place of someone who falls sick. It’s just- them.” I looked at his step brother and step sister.

“Well, what about Eri’s friends?”

“They are just her friends. They don’t really influence her. She is the one that literally gives them life. You- you just need to somehow lose them.”

“You know I cannot do that.”

I sighed. “I know, but you cannot keep bringing them with you in the school. They’re… kind of a nuisance.”

“My step dad doesn’t care, my mom works, so of course I’m supposed to be in charge.” His step sister tugged at his shirt. “Haumea, not now,” his irritated voice whispered.

I stared at him pitifully. “They can stay at my house for a while.”

“I cannot under any circumstances leave them. They won’t leave me either.”

I drank some coffee from the canteen filter. It tasted way too bitter. “Yo Nep, you look colder than usual.” He slapped my back and I winced in pain. He was massive; about four times bigger than me and only God knows how many times bigger than Plu.

“Save it for some other time, Jove,” I rolled my eyes.

I sipped as I watched Plu coming through the glass door, his hands tightly clasped around his ‘practically children.’

“Hey, Eri,” he mumbled. I looked behind me. Eri stood there wearing her special uniform- light blue shirt with a brown and green skirt. Everyone in the system had their own uniform. Plu with his ruffled dark grey hair greeted her just as he always used to- with respect.

“Hi, Plu.” Oh, she was blushing. Oh, I wish that much infatuation would be just enough to let Plu stay.

“Do you not know-” Plu stomped down on my foot, hard. I almost cried out in pain.

His eyes bored into mine.

“Yes?” Eri asked.

“N- Nothing. Just- be careful of your friends. They could harm you.”

“Oh, they’ll never do that,” she waved her arm and walked off.

“I’m enjoying my hobby as much as I can right now.”

“No one will snatch away your hobby, Plu. You will still be a part of the system. So, do not say all those things.” He just pursed his lips.

When we went out for a brisk walk, I asked him a question. “Tell me, Plu. What is an artist?”

“Someone who makes art?”

“What is a hobby?”

“Hobby is something you love to do.”

“So, when can I call a person an artist?”

He thought for a while. Haumea skipped around with her brother on her heels.

“When he does it well. When he loves making art.”

“What you just described is a career, Plu. Will you describe the same person as an artist if he does it badly, but still loves doing it?”

He thought for a long time on that one.

“It’s all relative, I presume. To others, no. To himself, maybe? Or… yes, to himself, yes.”

“To you?”

“Yes, to me too.”

Now was the time to spill out what was in my brain since a very long time.

“So, is it fine if you lose your place?”

He spun around.

“No! I have to be a part of your system!”

“Plu, you’ve always said your hobby was to be a part of us. Now, you might lose your position due to a few bad circumstances, like the artist. You will still work under us. It will still be your hobby, no matter how badly you are doing it. It just won’t be your- you just won't have that power anymore.”

“Are you- giving up on me? Is it just because of them?” he pointed out to his siblings.

“They are affecting you adversely. You cannot concentrate the same. Everything else is perfect- your body proportions, your speech, your intelligence, but-

We cannot work with children. I’m sorry. It’s our policy. You know that. It is affecting your confidence too. You are stumbling a lot. You haven’t been sleeping well. Your walking pattern has turned highly erratic.”

“You gave up on me a long time ago,” he whispered.

“You will not lose your hobby, Plu. You will just lose a high position. That’s all.”

But his hobby is to be working in the system as one of us, I reiterated to myself in the dead of the night. He’s losing his hobby right now. He won't have a hobby anymore. That’s the worst possible way to lead a life.

“I jumbled up everything!” I screamed.

Plu is the artist. He’s not performing well now. He’s not an artist to anyone else, but he is an artist for himself. He is still painting worlds.

Eri’s friends circled around him. “Oh, you’re done, you dwarf. That’s it. Pack up your bags and leave.”

I pushed past them. “Hey, the conference is yet to be held with the teachers. Get lost, you all!”

I helped Plu up. His siblings looked sad too. “I don’t care about my life if I cannot pursue my hobby. Remember that.”

“An artist cannot live without art, I know. You will not be losing your hobby. You will still revolve around Sun-”

He gasped as I said Sir’s real name. No one was allowed to say that aloud.

“You will still be fit and fine.”

“I will be a dwarf planet, Neptune!”

“You will always be a planet to me, to Earth and to yourself.”