Sherlock Holmes Found the Sign of His Future

Sherlock Holmes found the sign of his future

“ Jo. You are up”. Ms. Hui, my class teacher, shouted out my name.

When Ms. Hui fetched me the DSE results notice, the tension was so agonizing I was practically running a 10 mile on the treadmill. I looked at the paper in awe, as if witnessing a miracle. My heart was flickering with joy, the heat of pressure finally faded away, thank you God.

A few minutes later, Erin bursted into tears and banged her head to the wooden desk back and forth. She then sat there frozen in despair, Erin was trapped in an endless abyss with darkness looming around her. Suddenly, this girl who I have known for 6 years, appeared to be so pointy and unfamiliar to me.

There was this tingling sensation inside my brain, as though a butterfly was trapped inside. Should I go and comfort her? Will she reject me? I held my breath for a fleeting second, then before my courage disappeared I gently patted her shoulder. One hand masking her twisted crying face, Erin shoved me off and stormed off the classroom. She was so wild with rage, such a transformed girl, she seemed capable of killing any living thing within an arm’s reach.

My heart fell down a bottomless shaft. I can never experience the way she felt, when having to walk into school, read that and walk straight back out when many classmates were celebrating in front of you is like drinking bitter herbal tea. Her world must have shrunk a lot, when facing the puncturing of the university fantasy. Nobody could understand the claustrophobic reality she was living through. Erin must have hated me to an extent that could get my genome mapped- she had studied from day to night during the 3 whole years, yet I did not bother to study. She would spend her eternity weeping if she could not get good grade- I know her too well.

In the following days, I had left a thousand messages in her voicemail. Please, please, please, God, don’t let my prayer seem so little to you. I just needed to check if she was alright. Her silence was like a constant clenched pain strangling my inside.

Or maybe I should resign, I thought. Calling Erin would only increase her agony and resentment towards me. Perhaps time is her only anecdote.

This morning, a sudden succession of shrill rings cut the emptiness of silence at home. I picked up the phone insistently with my hammering heart. 69584459, Erin’s phone number.

“Hello...Erin?”. I was so desperate to hear her voice.