CHAPTER TWENTY: POWER OF LOVE
R10.
RADJAN.
Another day, another pain. The longer it goes without seeing Mirjana, the more I worry that I will never see her again. Maybe I’ve seen her for the last time ever few nights ago, and I wasn’t even aware.
What motivates a person to keep going after losing someone who meant everything to them without a warning?
I’ve been trying. Last night, I spent my day signing up on every social media site people use these days, hoping to find her there somewhere. Hoping to connect and speak to hear again. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I couldn’t find her. There are a few Mirjanas but all of them do not look like her at all.
“How was your test, Radj?” my father says, taking me out of my reverie.
“It was okay,” I say, sounding disinterested.
“Don’t say okay. I know you. Your standard is way higher than okay,” he corrects, chuckling mostly to himself. “Aren’t you going to ask how my job application is going? “
“How is it going?” I ask. I am finishing getting dressed for school. Today, Coach Wade is busy with something. We don’t have morning practice.
“The head of the sports department of your school looked into my credentials and believes I am qualified to take on the assistant coach position. He said he would speak to Coach Wade about it. Your current assistant coach apparently has too many loads in his hands, teaching Physical Education classes here and there,” my father explains, eyes lit up all the time he is talking.
He was a banking magnate before our lives turned upside down, but he used to be very involved in my basketball career. This is way better than being an alcoholic who survives his day-to-day through government paychecks.
It is horrifying to imagine the disappointment on his face when he finds out I failed the eligibility test and I am not playing in the TBA at all. Maybe I need to get it together for his sake. He is the only one in the world who has always been with me from the day I was born, until now. My mother leaving put a permanent damage in his soul, but he’s still here trying to get through life with me. Maybe I should do the same. I will keep trying to reach Mirjana, but I won’t forget that I still have him in my life.
“If it turns out that I’m not eligible to play in the TBA, do you think I could still apply for the NBA draft?” I ask him, matter-of-factly.
“You never fail at anything, Radjan. You will be eligible,” my father says calmly. “I’ll see you at your basketball practices soon.” He means as an assistant coach, I know. Too bad our lives seem to be going in different directions.
I heard from the other guys that later today is the result of the eligibility test. They are all excited, maybe because they are sure that they passed. I am a little sad about it, but I have no regrets. They need someone like Daniel Wade to keep motivating them to go for their dreams.
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I go to my Religions of the World class feeling like I am forcefully dragging my feet just to step into the classroom. It is the same class I walked in on my first day with everyone including the teacher sobbing and grieving for someone in class who died of hit-and-run.
Mrs. Agnesia Koppel, our teacher, eyes me as I enter the class more than five minutes late. She stops talking for a while but goes back in the discussion shortly.
“During the 15th century, there was an old folklore originally believed to have originated somewhere in the Baltic region. People during those times believed in the power of love medicine to enchant a person of their choice to love them back,” Mrs. Koppel discusses.
“I think this is going to be our most interesting classroom discussion ever, Miss,” a student named Jenna exclaims excitedly. “Too bad I can’t get ahold of Isabel. What a bad timing to be absent!” There are few chuckles from the girls, but no one else interrupts the teacher.
“In one version, it is believed that a person can attract someone by sewing a coin into their clothing. In another, it is said that a girl can make a guy fall in love with her by taking a piece of her own hair, burning it, putting it under her armpit, and afterwards, sprinkling it in a tea, then making the guy drink it,” Mrs. Koppel continues.
The class roars in laughter. I can’t blame them. It is such a funny folklore to hear.
“Is this some kind of sorcery, Mrs. Koppel?” asks Vladimir, who is seated in front of me. I can see him taking notes on the lecture Mrs. Koppel has on a projector.
“Sewing a coin into a girl’s clothing is easy enough. I think I know what to try now,” Dimitri jokes. Mrs. Koppel gives him a disapproving stare.
“I think I wouldn’t drink tea with an armpit hair in it even if the girl is extra hot. I have higher standards,” Shane adds, which produces more laughter from the class.
“What about the other way around, Mrs. Koppel?” Akio asks. “I mean, does it only work for girls? You specifically said “to make a guy fall in love”. Is there anything from this folklore that can make a girl fall in love with the guy instead?”
“Now that you asked, Nakashima, yes, apparently, it worked for men too. If a guy wants a girl to fall in love with him, he should sprinkle tobacco on the road she would pass on,” Mrs. Koppel explains.
“I better order loads of tobacco soon, then,” David jokes, which naturally earns a death stare from his girlfriend, Brittany.
Suddenly, I feel Eeli nudging me lightly. I notice him holding a note. I take it from him and read what it says.
You never replied to my texts. We really need to talk -Celeste
I glance behind me and see Celeste seated in the back row. She made an effort to look nice today but there are visible dark spots under her eyes. She hasn’t been sleeping well, just like me. Maybe I should try to care that she’s being haunted. Even though she’s pushy and she seems to think inserting herself into my life is such a normal thing to do, she’s really not a bad person. Maybe she just tries too hard. Way too hard, if I’m being honest. But maybe a friendship between us could work, as long as there are no other added benefits. No kissing each other in the shower when one feels like it, for example. I signal her an OK sign. “Later,” I mouth.
It’s funny the way the lesson today is going. It seems to be encouraging desperate people to do desperate things. Drinking a tea with armpit hair? Yikes. Who even wrote all these folklores?
“…love is so powerful that it can conquer even death. There was a myth that if someone can still see the ghost of the dead, it means the ghost hasn’t moved on to the afterlife yet and can still be saved,” Mrs. Koppel’s voice drones on. “This ritual, which is considered dark magic, is known as the adquisitionem animae ritual, or “soul saving.”
“What did you say?” Daniel, from my left suddenly speaks, as if what Mrs. Koppel is discussing momentarily takes him out of his internal musings. Mrs. Koppel raises an eyebrow at him in response. “When you said conquer death, did you mean someone dead can come back to life?’ Daniel asks again.
The whole class goes quiet, as if they can feel the tension in the air. I, however, am trying to remember where I heard the word adquisitionem animae from. It sounds too familiar. It is Latin, but I have never studied the language before. So why does it sound so familiar?
“This is a myth, Daniel, in case you are wondering. It means there is no substantial evidence that any of these are even real,” Mrs. Koppel explains.
“Some people claim there was this scroll which contains all the instructions on how to properly do this ritual,” she continues. “This scroll has apparently been stolen from its original dwelling place, and has been passed on from generation to generation.”
Something about a scroll is triggering a memory in my brain.
“Does anyone know what the instructions said?” Celeste asks.
“No one knows for sure, except that two people will die within 24 hours if someone does the ritual just out of curiosity. A person can’t just try this ritual to revive an ancestor from a thousand years ago, for instance, or there will be serious repercussions.” The class erupts in laughter again but something suddenly flashes in my memory upon hearing ‘repercussions’.
This is a timeless ritual that needs to be taken seriously because it has very grave repercussions. For instance, if you are just making up a ghost or hallucinating because of hallucinogens, do not proceed with the rest of the instructions. Those who dare will lose their own life, and a loved one’s life within 24 hours.
I remember it clearly now. These are the words written in the black notebook from my dream recently. An English translation of the Latin instructions that are written in the old-looking scroll. In my dream, the English translation is written in the man’s handwriting. The man who had a son called Sergio. The man seemed to have figured out how to translate Latin, and wrote the English words down.
This is so weird. I remember this part of my dream so well because I found that particular instruction so creepy. But why am I having prophetic dreams now of future topics in class?