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The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 1
The day Finian Relish found the coin, he had been stomping down Old Mucury Road, having just had a spat with his sister Odessa.The sun was high in the sky and scorching on that particular Sunday afternoon, but our main character was a bit what'd you say overdressed. His dark green overalls and chinos trouser stood out and made one wonder if he wasn't boiling up inside. The reason he had dressed for the wrong weather is still something that eludes me.Now, you see, Mr Relish, his father, had sent him to Big Mac's instead of Odessa, who already had that fixed role every Sunday afternoon. But lately, Odessa had been preoccupied with a stupid thing with her teenage friends and had faked menstrual pain so their father had to send him.So, where was I? Oh, yes. He was stomping down the road in his heavy jean combat boots. Perhaps if he hadn't been wearing the frown so intently, or if he hadn't been in a foul mood to start with, he would have been running down t
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 2
Later in the evening that day, when the sun had long since submerged behind the horizon, Finian pranced the front porch, rolling the coin between his fingers.He had discarded his heavy outfit and was in a simple sleeveless jersey and the chinos pants. Even the heavy shoes had been swapped for house flip-flops. The front door opened and Pippa stepped out, closely followed by Odessa, who smirked on seeing him. Pippa's attention was entirely on the small phone in her clutches, pressing at the backlit buttons rapidly like a typist.Finish smirked back at his elder sister and rolled his eyes at the younger. He wondered what was with her and the phone anyway. Mother had had to threaten to take it away forever before she stopped going at it at the dining table.For real and for true, he should have gotten the phone instead of Pippa. All his friends in school used the latest phones. But Finian hadn't wanted a hand-me-down from his parents. Especially si
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 3 {I}
The first incident that affirmed our main character's opinion about the coin's lucky abilities happened the next day at school.The first half of school had gone okay. He hadn't worn the coin as a pendant, after all. But by the time it was break time, about half of the boys in class J6 were convinced Finian Relish was a descendant of the bravest and most feared military general in the second world war.So, the child was in high spirits as he walked down the school corridor to his locker at break time. He could be seen with a pep in his step and a low whistle in his throat. Then the bullies came. The euphoria suffused from his face faster than a vacuum could have done. It was not that the bullies had been a surprise. No, they came regularly, at most three times a week (Once in a while he was lucky to see neither hide nor hair of them for a whole week). But, alas, he had been so self-absorbed in his recent rise to recognition that the thought of his normal bullies had been erased, fo
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 3 {II}
Warning: Triggering content in the chapter, including but not limited to bullying, strangling and pain.His hand clutched tight at his breast where the coin lay. A look of panic travelled over his face. I reckon it must have passed through his system too.I imagine you must know how it feels to not want to give up your very precious valuable, especially one that you just recently acquired and had started growing attached to. If you didn't have your share of bullies like most of us did at one point in time at school, then, surely, an elder sibling must have bullied you out of something that was rightfully yours.So, I think it's safe to assume that you understand how Finian felt. And if my assumption is correct, then you'd also know that he'd be reluctant to give it up, at the expense of his life at the bullies' hands. In the face of danger.And, unfortunately, his reluctance only served as fuel to Hansel's fire. He picked up our main character by the shirt collar. All of a sudden, th
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 4
When the boy stepped into the school tuck shop, the large room was abuzz and humming like the bingo room after an evening alfresco on July the fourth. Primary school students stood in groups and clusters, discussing what had happened in the primary six hallway.No doubt, the boys and girls who had stood behind to watch the bully fest were feeling good about themselves now. They obviously soaked in the attention of their transfixed peers as each told his own inflated version of what had happened.As he turned away from the crowd to walk towards the show glass of sweetmeats, one of the narrators must have pointed at him, because soon he heard a collective gasp level out the room. And when he turned back, about a hundred wide eyes stared at him in awe.Finian claims to have felt horror at first. Some weird conspiracy theorem had hopped into his still befuddled mind. He had wondered if, maybe the children were going to be enraged at him for being the cause of the downfall of The Bigs's le
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 5
On getting home that day, our main character was to get a rude shock.But let's slow down for now, for I shall soon reach that part.Finian Relish walked home alone that day. He had also gone and taken the longest route home so that it was almost three o'clock when he reached Number 12, Relish Residence.Normally, he and a group of primary five and six boys trudged to their houses together, chattering boisterously, exchanging boy talk and kicking debris ball on the walk home. On the days it was usually very hot for months, the boys brought their bicycles to school and had rowdy bike competitions to kill time as they journeyed home.Mrs Relish, his mother, usually took a short break from work to pick Pippa up and drive her to her various after-school lessons. All things Finian thought to be girly crap. Odessa took the secondary school bus home or joined other girls to carpool with a friend of hers who had a Toyota SUV.Finian had just emptied the mailbox of all of two lousy letters and
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 6 {I}
When I mentioned earlier that our main character was to get a rude shock on getting home I hadn't been referring to the reappearance of the coin, per se. No, sir.After a hearty game of football with the neighbourhood boys and an extended chat with a classmate with whom he had parted ways just before their cul-de-sac street, young Mr Relish was to get a severe shake-up as he walked up to Number Twelve, Merryway Close.As he crossed the wide road to the other side of the street, he wondered what the small crowd in front of the house was for. It didn't occur to him until he reached Number Nine that the house of the centre of attention was none but theirs-the Relish Residence.His heart picked up a steady bang in his chest as his throat dried of saliva. The boy knew a crowd, no matter how small like that, didn't mean good news.The casual stroll increased to something short of a gallop as the ground was practically a moving blur beneath him. He wondered what could have happened. His cor
The Third Side of the Coin Chapter 6 {II}
Finian, the poor boy. You and I both know it was not a nightmare, something he was to find out when a gentle splash of water on his face brought him to.The sadness that hung heavy in the air like water balloons descended lower and looked like it'd be bursting all over his face any second.He found himself lying on the long couch in the living room when his eyes opened. Fuzzy people lingered over his body and asked if he was okay. Ignoring them, Finian stood up from the couch and walked to where he saw Odessa sitting, staring into nothing. Wordlessly, he took the seat beside her and put his head on her shoulder.It was long after the crowd of sympathisers cleared out of their house that he was to learn what had happened.Pippa had gone swinging on the sets and had tried to balance on one of the sets still intact. Only it wasn't as intact as it had seemed and it had given out under her pressing weight. She had fallen into the broken pieces on the ground. The longest one had gone right
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