Part 6
Green Curvy Road
Thomas and his lovely friends rode the shuttle. Passing every store and recreational places by the road. But the glorious buildings around him did not bring his guard down from marveling at the water park by the far distance. His right hand held his chin by the knuckle, while his right thigh supported his right elbow. His head—tilted slightly to gaze upon the water park.
“It looks so beautiful when it’s far away…”
He spoke to himself whilst staring at the long horizon of blue curly slides.
“It is, isn’t it?”
His heart replied softly, as if it had gently placed a hand around his shoulder.
“I really wanna go there…”
“Then stop looking and don't stare.”
He then looks away in a flinching way as if he saw a ghost without any delay. Staring at the back of the seat with the will not to take a peek.
“I will not look…!”
He thinks hard, doing his best not to move his head to face the wonders on the horizon. His face did not form any weird expression or any discomfort from his inner battle. Just him, staring at the blue colored back seat without any expression formed.
“Thomas, are you okay?” Jason asks as he tilts his head to examine Thomas' face. He wasn't concerned about his friend. He always knew that Thomas would commonly phase out from time to time.
“H-Huh?” Jason's question made Thomas tap out of his mind. “Oh! I'm fine, Jason—Damn it!” Thomas’ head instinctively faced Jason to the right as he answered, which was the view of the water park.
“Wut?” Now, Jason is definitely confused. “What's wrong? Did I do s-something wrong?”
“No, it's not you. I was playing a game to look away from the water park.”
“Oh.” Jason faces the view on the right before looking back at Thomas with a smile and a follow-up question, “How’d ya came out with these games?”
“Well… I… Hmm… I don’t know, actually hahaha.” Thomas responded with a peal of nervous laughter. He has never been asked that particular question before.
“It’s weird. Because the view is quite nice here. I mean, just look at that!” Jason’s voice squeaked a bit when he pointed towards the water park from afar.
“Huh? Where?!” Thomas shot a quick look toward the horizon, but he wasn’t fast enough—his view was now blocked by a group of pine trees, which gradually thickened into a cluster as the shuttle continued forward.
“Aw man..”
“Hahaha. Don’t worry, Thomas. Besides, we’re going to that place after we visit this one.”
As the blue commercialized shuttle continued with its journey, the road ahead began to change. The precisely decorated buildings lining the roadside gradually gave way to a sweeping mass of pine trees—carefully tended, to be exact. The shuttle driver then slowly but carefully moves its vehicle more to the right, before gradually slowing to a halt and stopping right at the stop.
“Passing Trees. Next stop; (???)” The bus driver spoke through the shuttle's small speaker in his bored tone.
“Alright, guys! This is our stop!” Mr. Arlon notified them as he stood up from his seat. His students—one by one—exits the shuttle as told. Thomas, who was excited—not because they were going to visit The Secret Village, but because he wanted to get it over with quickly so that he can go and play in the water park.
“C’mon c’mon c’mon—Woah!”
“Gotcha!”
Guess Thomas was too excited that he almost tripped and fall by the boarding steps. Thankfully, Mr. Arlon was beside him to prevent his fall by catching him with his arm.
“Be careful, Thomas!” Mr. Arlon remarked as he let Thomas go.
“S-Sorry, Mr. Arlon!”
“It’s okay, Thomas. Just watch your step.”
Mr. Arlon exits the shuttle after all of his students stepped out from the vehicle. The driver then slowly pulls away to its next stop while the students were greeted with the entrance to The Passing Trees. The road wasn’t layered with paving blocks or even simple, cheap concrete. It was just… a dirt path, surrounded by tall, densely packed pine trees. And by the side of the entrance, there lies a sign, hanging by the lamp post.
“FWEEEEEETTT!! Line up again, guys!” Mr. Arlon ordered as he stood tall. His students immediately lined up, following his command without any distractions or mischief in their minds.
“Just to make this fast…” Thomas muttered to himself while joining the line with his friends. They all lined up neatly along the side of the entrance, allowing other visitors to enter first. These visitors are mostly elderly people with their grandkids.
“Told you this place is for grandpas and grandmas…”
“Hihihi~...”
An exchanging whisper between Ray and Basil was heard by Thomas in front of him. He couldn’t help but gave out a small and silent giggle for himself.
“Mr. Arlon?” Suddenly, Al asks his teacher from the very back of the line.
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“Yes, Al? Is there something wrong?”
“Is this dirt road going to be one of those hiking things?”
“O-Or.. Is the road going to be slippery?” Alex joins the question.
“Oh, no it’s not.” Mr. Arlon answered. “This road is completely safe! Sure it looks like one of those paths in the wilderness, but I assure you, it’s safe.”
“Alex, even grandpas are entering the road!” Thomas commented playfully with an unreasonable high tone with a follow-up laughter by his friends, except for Al and Jason. Alex was embarrassed in between his line. He couldn’t talk back because the laughter was too loud to fight back.
“Hey! I heard that!” An old man heard on what Thomas joked about on the side. Thomas’ friends’ laughter struck back from Alex to himself. Which makes him nervous and embarrassed.
“S-Sorry, sir!” Thomas immediately apologies as the wrinkled old scoffs away with his walking stick.
“Thomas,” Mr. Arlon spoke in his serious tone. “You shouldn’t joke things like that. Someone could get offended on what comes out from your mouth.” His words were gentle but strikes true.
“Yeah. Sorry.” Thomas replied, his words empty of wonder—just a dull apology as his humiliation strikes back at him. His teacher’s eyes were staring at him without causing any tension to Thomas, before his teacher nods slightly and returns to lead his student.
“Alright, students! Follow me—into The Passing Trees!” Mr. Arlon said with forced cheerfulness and excitement, trying to shake off the discomfort of his earlier scolding.
The students and their teacher began walking down the narrow dirt path that was densely packed with a sweeping pack of pine trees around them. It was dense enough to make people unable to walk past each other.
“This road is so thick…” Gio spoke, stretching his neck to look past the line of his friends and other people in front of him. Thomas, who wasn’t over with the recent scold by Mr. Arlon, tries to break free from this humiliated thought. He began to realize that the air he breathed was the same as back at the parking lot, where many trees surrounded that area. But this one was noticeable.
“Nature air.” Thomas suddenly spoke after he took a breather. He noticed that none of his friends heard him, even though their were close by. While they kept walking down the path, he decided to poke Jason’s shoulder, who was behind him.
“Jason.” Thomas spoke to him with a smile. “Nature’s air. Try breathing it in.”
“H-Huh? Oh, yeah.” Jason then followed by taking a sniff of the air and nods. “Yeah, it smells like… leaves!”
“Told ya.” Thomas replied with a smug smirk, clearly proud of his newfound discovery! Or whatever it was he thought he uncovered.
The path ahead began to curve and bend, and the trees around them gradually changed into tall green bushes.
“Woah…”
“That’s beautiful.”
“Meh, it’s nothing.”
Many of the students’ minds spoke up about the scenery around them.
“Did they make this?” Thomas asked, fascinated. It was astonishing how the path that was once lined with pine trees had now transformed into a stretch of tall, bright green bushes. And it wasn’t just the path—the entire area gradually followed suit. And these walls of leaves aren’t too compact with each other. Light can pierce through in small specks that can make out what’s behind it, and that’s exactly what Thomas saw behind these bushes.
“What is that?” Thomas mumbled in his mind as he squinted his eyes, trying to see through the green bushes. He saw something moving behind it, decided to stop in his tracks, and pressed his face against the wall of leaves. What he saw was something weird—something out of a fiction.
“!!!... A… cat with red fur… Walking with two legs! Wearing shirts!” He mumbled loudly.
“Thomassss, get moving!” Al groaned in frustration as he couldn’t understand what Thomas was doing right now. “You’re hogging up the line back here!”
“Yeah,” Jason added, backing him up without any annoyance in his expression. “What are you even looking at?” He then walks up to Thomas to see on what is so interesting behind the bush.
“I-...I see nothing.” Jason said as he kept scanning the area behind the bush. “I mean… The forest behind this is quite beautiful, Thomas.”
“No…!” Thomas replied with a loud whisper. “There was something weird behind this bush…!”
“I don’t see anything, Thomas. It’s just a forest.”
“There was something moving, I swear! The moving thing was like a red cat walking with two legs!”
“Well… I don’t see any cats behind this.”
Al, now seeing both of them observing the same thing, let out a louder groan as he was tempted to do the same.
“Ugh! Let me see!” Al grumbled as he stomped toward them, following suit. He stared with an intense glare as he tried to make out what was so interesting behind this wall of clumped leaves.
“It’s just a forest!” Al commented with annoyance in his voice. “And a pretty inaccessible one, if I do say so myself!”
Thomas, who seemed to believe in what he had just seen was true, replied to his friend.
“Then why would there be a walking two-legged cat in the fores—”
“There’s no cat!” Al cut in with a frustrated smile creeping across his face. Followed by an escaped giggle from Jason, before Al continued on with his words. “Believe me! If I were to see one, it’ll probably just be an alien walking around or teleporting.”
“Hey! I believe in aliens too, Al!” Thomas shared his thoughts after hearing the word ‘alien’ come out of Al’s mouth. The three of them continued chatting as they walked down the narrow path.
“I believe aliens are the most intelligent aliens that the world has seen.” Thomas spoke his thoughts out. Clearly invested in this new curious chat. A ‘theory’, he’d like to call it. “It’s also the reason why we can’t get a full proof of aliens’ existence.”
“We? Who’s ‘we’?” Al replied.
“Humans, alien hunters, theorists.”
“Aren’t theorists and.. alien hunters humans too?” Jason asked.
“Well… Just in case if being an alien hunter is just a hobby, hehehe..”
“You’re one weird kid, Thomas.” Al spoke with an amused smile across his face. To Thomas, it wasn’t an offence, but rather a compliment given to him as if a trophy were handed to him.
“Thanks!” Thomas closed his eyelids as he spoke with gratefulness, spiraling in between his tone. He opened his eyes once more as he soon realized that they were left behind by their class due to this fun mystery conversation. His other classmates were seen walking forward along the curvy road. His view of their presence was slightly blocked by the bushes on the side.
“Oh shoot! We should get going—Al!” Thomas nudged his friends as he spoke, but Al was already two steps ahead by running towards his friends to catch up.
“C’mon, Thomas!” Jason said, tapping his shoulder as he followed Al, with Thomas following suit. “Mr. Arlon is going to be angry if we’re not there!”
“I don’t care. I just want to be with you guys.”