1. Describe an important family celebration and how you felt about it. (weddings are really boring)
2. There is a lack of freedom given to teenagers today. Do you agree?(i dont wanna write about oppression for my spm)
3. Why are animals important to human beings? (er. meat?? and cute cat pictures online to coo at when you're depressed)
4. Write a story about a fisherman beginning with: "The wind blew strongly. Out at sea..."(huh, i can make a plot twist out of this)
5. 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' Describe how a friend helped you in a difficult time. (once, elysa told me to calm the fuck down???)
They bloody left out the one-word essay and didn't compensate for it in terms of excitement. But I guess, it was a test to our imagination. I wrote number 4. Here it goes:
Bane
The wind blew strongly. Out at sea, there was no such thing as stagnant air. The sound of the wind would sometimes be deafening to ears that were not used to it. Bane stood at the bow of his small, old, motorised fishing boat with its anchors down. He balanced himself on the rocking vessel as his mind buzzed with hopes that the catch today would be abundant. Due to safety reasons, he usually did not go fishing alone but his partner, and bestfriend, Felix, was down with the cold. His family depended on the income he would get from the market when he sells his catch, so he couldn't afford to miss that one day of fishing.
Bane was 40 years of age, had specks of silver in his hair, and calloused hands. For a man his age, Bane was still very fit and healthy, as his quotidian rituals involved physical strength. He thought that being poor was a gift. Most of the rich in the cities weren't as healthy as he was. Exposed to smoke from the industrial sites and motored vehicles, as well to fast and processed food. He couldn't afford any of those, but he didn't mind. He heard that the chemicals in their food made them sick with cancer. The rich were also too caught up in the materialistic world, that they didn't have time to sit back and enjoy nature, whereas he saw the picturesque vista of the big blue every day. He appreciated the sound of gulls and the smell of salt in the air. He heard that the rich were so busy, that sometimes they couldn't see their families for months on end.
Caught in his own reality, he jumped at the unexpected flash of blinding white light followed by the vociferous sound of thunder from above. He looked up and witness the heavens opened. Quickly, he raised the anchor and made way to steer the boat back to shore. He tried to steer the boat starboard but the currents were already taking control of the vehicle and pulled it away from the shore, further into the perilous storm. The boat was rocking violently, spinning. He saw, further up, a colossal whirlpool, a maelstrom about 10 kilometres in diameter. He knew that he was going to get swallowed by the vortex. He prayed one last time, to any higher sentient being listening in. He has accepted his fate as the boat approached the abyss. He was not going to close his eyes. Bane expected darkness soon as he felt the vessel turn, and threw him about, but au contraire! He saw a plethora of effulgent colours almost blinding his vision. And soon, he realised that the world was not spinning anymore, and that the sea was calm, and he was breathing. He rubbed his eyes and looked up.
He was looking at the most beautiful sunset he had ever seen. The cerulean sky was tinted with dancing warm colours that radiated a kind of subtle heat that he felt on his skin. The light made the ocean sparkle like gems reflected in firelight. He witnessed the sun set with eyes sequestered behind pools of tears. As the last ray disappeared on the horizon, again he expected the night to fall like a black sheet, and again, he was wrong. As the sky was now exhibiting a light show by the milky way. The stars illuminated the world around him so brightly, it was as though the sun was still in the sky. The most accurate description of the night sky was an animated version of Vincent Van Gogh's piece, 'Starry Night'. He sobbed as he basked in the arcadian atmosphere. I must be dead, he thought, as no living man would have been able to witness such beauty and not boast of it for decades on end. There would have been paintings and stories, although I know that none of that would do this creation justice.
After what seemed like hours of staring at the heavens above, he finally brought his eyes down to the ocean, and fell back in surprise after seeing the thousands of bodies floating in the water. No, not bodies. They were all incorporeal, like ghosts, wafting in the ocean, dissolving in the salt water. Men, women, and children were all present. They weren't holding hands with each other but seemed to all be clutching to things. Some were toys, cellphones, briefcases, money, and jewels. They were more concerned to not let go of their possessions rather than the fact that they were disappearing into foam by the semblance of harmless water. Their faces were pale and at unrest. Bane had no choice but to continue sailing on, until sunrise came and he cried once again at the disappearance of the sky above him and the ghosts beneath him. He sailed on until midday, where he found that he was back at his familiar waters, and stopped at the shore. As soon as he wanted to dock his boat, it started sinking into the water, bubbling away into the sea. He didn't care, for he was back at his small village beaconing to him in welcome.
Except, it wasn't his village, his home. It was, but it wasn't. His village hard turned into an industrialised city, where there were tar roads and skyscrapers. People weren't wearing the simple, tattered clothes anymore, but fancy, tailored suits. He couldn't find his home, nor his family. He couldn't find Felix, and he found it difficult to breathe in the air.
After dealing with the confusion and fear of losing his family, he discovered that he had traveled a century into the future, with no means of going back.
