''

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Johmnee's Holiday Weekend

                                       ( Dedicated to Joao Arthur )


            Johmnee was a strong blue fun fish who lived all by himself in a quite comfortable but downsized tank. Since he was a loner, he didn´t need much space. He had been brought up to be by himself and take care of himself. In fact, he was trained to fight whenever another fish showed up that is the reason why he was separated from the rest of the world of sea fish. His whole breed was that way. He comes from the line of fish called Betta  Splendens  or better known  as Siamese Fighting Fish.
Photo by Meire Marion
Little Johmnee was owned by a small two-and-a-half-year-old boy named Johnny. When Johnny saw the Betta for the first time at the pet shop he turned to his dad at the speed of lightening, and said I want him, I want him.
His dad could not resist that little face that had lit up and clapped and spun around in the shop while he was non-stop saying those three words: I want him. So, he bought him.
When father and son arrived home with the new family member and introduced him to the mother, she turned to the little boy and asked him: what his name was. He smiled and said “Johmnee”.
Johnny took good care of Johmnee by feeding him once a day usually after dinner. Johmnee patiently waits for Johnny to finish his meal before he gets fed. When Johnny feeds Johmnee he always says the same thing: eat everything so you can grow up and be strong.
Many days went by when Johmnee saw the mom and dad talking and pointing at him. He could understand the little boy, but these two used words that he could not decode. But then they turned to Johnny and Johnny smiled and jumped up and down really happy, so it must have been good.
The next day, bright and early the father lifted Johmnee´s tank and off they went to an unknown place. He was placed on a soft surface but the object moved so much that some of his water spilled out.
Photo by Meire Marion
He wondered where they were heading. The only trip he had taken was from the petshop to the house and now there he was again going somewhere.
After an hour or so they arrived in a beautiful house where surrounded by trees, a swimming pool and lots and lots of bright sunshine. Johmnee was happy although the water in his tank was starting to get a bit warm.
Photo by Meire Marion
The mother put Johmnee´s tank down on a shelf at the entrance of the house on the inside and there he stayed for six days. There was much to do but he did get to watch the trees sway, see the birds fly by and also watch those other people he didn´t know walk by.
Photo by Meire Marion
Photo by Meire Marion

There were only two of them who noticed he was there when they walked by, little Johnny and Johnny´s Godmother. These two would walk by and say hello, good morning, good afternoon and good night sleep well when it was bedtime. The others went on with their busy lives and didn´t even notice he was there. It made Johmnee a bit sad. Also little Johnny didn´t play with him once so he was not able to perform his daily stunts, no one stopped to watch. At least they remembered to feed him, but still it was not at the same hour and it was always the father who did and not little Johnny.
When the six days were up he was put back into the vehicle and after a couple of hours he was placed in front of the TV and he knew he had arrived home and at last  would have little Johnny´s attention all to himself once again.
He could not understand why all these people wanted to go and do their daily chores in another place; why they had taken him with them if they simply ignored him. All he knew was that, for him, those were the loneliest six days ever.
Photo by Meire Marion
(Written: November 22, 2012 All the pictures were taken by me and the fish belongs to my Godchild - JA)
 copyright ©2012 - Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

The boy who tried to cheat AGAIN



He hadn´t studied for the test again. He so much preferred to play on his Xbox and then a bit of chatting on Skype. All this technology nowadays was really distracting him and my, did he love all these gadgets. So for these reasons, he just decided that he wouldn´t study and he´d cheat on the test again.

He knew that the teacher was one of the toughest and he also understood that later on in his studies he would have big holes in his knowledge, however, he also couldn´t avoid not cheating. It made him feel good, strong and gave him a high, somewhat like the effect of a drug.

He sat in his usual spot between the two best students in the subject, the best students that belonged to his group of friends of course, not necessarily the best two of the entire class. He took out his pencil, pen and eraser and got ready for the test.

The teacher handed the tests out and asked everyone to count the number of pages to see whether the test was complete because sometimes the photocopy boy gets things mixed up and makes mistakes, who doesn´t. Therefore, this specific teacher always asked the students to check, unlike the language teacher who always ended up giving students the points needed to make up for these errors.

All the tests were ok so the teacher told them that they would have two classes to complete the test and that they should take their time and do their best. He also reminded them that if caught cheating, he´d take away the test and give the cheater a zero.

Cheater, it sounded so harsh but at the same time it triggered a feeling inside him that made him want to take that risk. Nonetheless, today he really had no choice for he had not studied a bit, nor had he paid attention during the classes. Not that he cared, he really didn´t because he knew that in the end his dad would come to school and threaten them, like he had done the previous years. Yeah his father was some hotshot who worked for the government who knew his son was a scum who eventually would end up being supported by his dad until the end of his days.  The boy really didn´t care. His father was loaded and he had already been told by his mom that he would inherit his dad´s place in the governmental office, lots of corruption there. If you think about it the boy couldn´t be to blame, he really didn´t have any good role models around him for him to know how to be any different.

He went back to his test. Panic struck. He really did not know a thing that was being asked. He looked at the teacher and this time the teacher was staring right at him. If he was caught cheating there would really be no way his dad could help him, he knew that much and for sure he would get a zero. He could sense that the teacher was exhilarating with this thought and he could tell that it would be a glorifying moment for the teacher if he were caught red handed.

He tried and tried but the teacher kept on looking at him. Sweat started to drip down his forehead. He was getting nervous. How was he going to cheat?

He tried covering his eyes by holding his head up by placing one hand on his forehead as if the sunlight were stinging his eyes and he were protecting them; that way the teacher wouldn´t know for sure where he was looking. But it didn’t work. The teacher walked over to the window and closed the curtain, there was actually sunlight coming in but not in his direction. He was sure that the teacher could tell he was up to something.

In the middle of the second class the first student who had finished was asked to go and call a sub to sit in for a few minutes while the teacher had to leave the classroom. Now was his chance.

Little did he know that while the sub was in the classroom the teacher was peeking into the room through a small window in the door. From where he was seated, he couldn´t notice. He looked at his friend´s test and copied a few of the answers. Well, at least he wouldn´t be getting a zero.

Suddenly the teacher called out his name.

He tried to make believe the teacher was crazy by saying that he felt bullied by the teacher, pressured by the school and that in every class the teachers thought that he cheated. The teachers at this school were horrible, they didn´t give a shit about the students and they didn´t know how to teach.

The teacher simply said “I just wanted to tell you that you dropped you eraser”.

What a loser he was. He had given away that he had been cheating after all.

(Written: November 22, 2012)

Google Images

 copyright ©2012 - Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.