Chapter 2 - Another World
Another year passed - I was still in my own relatively silent world. Of course, I still spoke occasionally, but as little as I could. However, contrary to the general belief that I was developing slower than normal kids my age, I had actually finished reading the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica that strangely enough happened to be kept in my room. After all, I was not really an autistic child but had developed the habits of one. I preferred to be left alone in peace where I could work out new ideas in my head or simply be listening and learning from the conversations around me without appearing to do so. It was at this point in my life that I first met Tsukasa, Soujirou and Akira. It was my fifth birthday and my father and stepmother had strangely enough organized a birthday party for me.
"It's time you introduced him to some kids his age." I overheard my stepmother saying. "Moreover, if you recall the last party when we were talking to the Doumyoujis, Mimasakas' and Nishikados, we all agreed that we should introduce our sons to each other so that they would have suitable playmates around their ages."
"But you know Rui . ." Father's voice died away.
"I think all he needs are some friends to break him out of his shell. Remember what the doctors said? He would probably grow out of it. He may communicate more readily with kids who are his age . ." I crept away, knowing that my stepmother would have managed to convince my father before long. Although I was still contented to be in my own world, I thought it would not be too bad getting to meet people my age. This was my chance to test my theory with regards to whether I was different from others or not.
When the big day arrived, I walked into the garden dressed in one of my best suits, only to be greeted by a spray of water in my face. Taken aback, I simply stood there with water dripping off my face as I stared at three boys my age. One of them was scowling at me and the other two were laughing their heads off. The boy who was frowning held a water gun in his hand and had black curly hair. One of the laughing boys had wavy brown hair with a reddish tint, whilst the other had dark brown hair, a few shades darker than mine. Finally, the boy with the dark brown hair straightened up and smiled me.
"Hi, I'm Soujirou. This is Akira," he nodded at the wavy hair boy next to him. "And that's Tsukasa over there. You must be Rui." Both he and Akira smiled at me. I simply stood there quietly, staring at them.
"Hey are you alright? Can you hear me?" He looked rather surprised and a little worried as he walked up to me and waved his hand in my front of my face. "Tsukasa didn't scare you too much did he?" I blinked but kept quiet as I continued to look at him.
"Leave him alone if he doesn't want to talk, idiot!" Suddenly, Tsukasa shouted loudly. "You and Akira talk too much!" I had automatically turned when he started shouting and found him looking straight at me. Then his eyebrows drew together in a frown when I continued staring without saying a single word.
"What are you looking at?" His dark eyes were hostile again. However, I was not put off by his show of anger. Somehow, I could see that beneath all that bluster was a scared little boy who was trying to protect himself by hiding behind a tough mask. How like me behind my shell. Then I turned and looked at Soujirou and Akira. Again, I sensed the same thing from both of them, except that they did not use violence but instead sought to hide their loneliness through fun and laughter. Yes, even at the tender age of five, our personalities had already started forming. I could tell, however, that none of them were "like" me and they definitely didn't act like me.
"Hi." I finally said softly in my monotone. They all stared at me.
"He talks!" Akira chirped as he came bouncing over. "Here," he passed me a white handkerchief. I took it hesitantly from him, wiped my face and passed it back. He stuffed it carelessly back into his pocket.
"Hey, come and play with us." Soujirou grinned at me. Somehow, both he and Akira grabbed me and I was pulled along with them. Although I was in their company all afternoon, most of the time I was sitting there and simply watching them play, refusing to participate in their games. I did not mind playing sports, but certain games like police and thieves were too juvenile for yours truly. I could tell that Tsukasa did not enjoy certain of the games as well. That young boy was (and he still is) really violent and it was pretty obvious that he had problems with anger management. However, I could see him making an effort to control himself where the two boys were concerned. Almost automatically as I sat there watching them, I hugged my knees to my chest and started rocking myself slowly to and fro to a song that I was humming mentally. I did not realize that someone was standing next to me until I felt a hand on my shoulder. However, from the force of habit (or my excellent acting skills), I simply continued rocking slowly as I continued staring ahead, not turning to see who the person was.
"Hey, what's up with you?" The gruff voice could only belong to Tsukasa. For a moment, I was taken aback and stopped rocking. Cursing myself for this slip in my armour, I simply stilled under his hand, pretending that his voice had "calmed" me down.
"You're a strange one. Stranger than me," I heard him mumble under his breath. I turned slowly and looked at him. To my surprise, I saw the concern in his eyes that he was trying to hide as he sat down beside me. However, at this moment, a servant walked up to us.
"Young masters, it's time for tea."
"Yay!" That was Soujirou. He and Akira immediately jumped up from where they had been wrestling. I mentally smiled as I took in their enthusiasm and climbed up from the floor. It was my birthday party after all and I still had the responsibilities of a host.
"Come," I said to Tsukasa holding out my hand. He gripped it and in one smooth motion tried to pull me to the floor. However, I managed to remain upright. A sudden grin lit up his face replacing his habitual scowl as he got up and faced me.
"Let's go." He clapped me on the shoulder. From that moment, we became friends. Strangely enough, it took me longer to accept Soujirou and Akira as my friends. However, they were so easy going and full of laughter and pranks that it was also not long before I was officially part of their gang. I had thought that they would be the ones that would have a problem with letting me in. However, although they thought I was rather weird, they accepted me readily enough, even before I accepted them. I guess in a way our parents encouraged our friendship. We only had each other and never played with other children because they did not like us to associate with children from families with a lower social status. Call them snobs, but that's the way things were, and still are.
Other than my first meeting with my now closest friends, another event made my fifth birthday memorable. After the guests left, my father brought out an expensive looking violin case tied with a large ribbon. He laid the tiny violin case in my arms as I looked at it silently.
"It's a violin, Rui." I had to refrain myself from rolling my eyes at him. Obviously it was a violin. "Your mother always loved the violin . . She wanted so much to teach you herself." I stiffened - this was news. I never knew that my mother loved the violin. I had never ever heard her play. Then my father held my hand and I followed him still clutching my violin case. He stopped in front of a door that I had always assumed led to a storage room and unlocked the door. My eyes opened wide when I followed him into the room.
Although it was evening, the rays of the setting sun shone through the numerous glass planes that spanned an entire wall, covering everything with a rosy pink glow. The thick windows overlooked a huge pond in the garden. When I managed to look away from the magnificent view, I noticed that there was a large cabinet that covered almost one of the remaining walls, several different types of musical instruments in the room including a huge grand piano, and an extremely high-tech machine that resembled the most sophisticated hi-fi set I had ever seen. Father walked to the cabinet and opened one door, showing me a few dozens of CDs.
"These are records of your mother's playing. She was extremely talented and could play all types of different types of musical instruments. She especially loved the violin and was always practicing in this room until she became too busy to play much. Music was in her blood and I believe in yours too. You take after her in so many ways, Rui . ."
And I never knew. Mother, why didn't you ever tell me? Almost unconsciously, I put down the case gently on the table, undid the ribbon and opened the lid. A most beautiful violin lay against the velvet lining. My fingers stroked the violin almost loving before taking it out of the case and lifting the little bow. Then I looked at my father as he adjusted the violin, laying it on my shoulder and correcting the way I held the bow.
"I know a little of the violin - your mum taught me." He walked me through the motions of playing a few simple notes on the violin. To my surprise, it felt so natural to be holding the violin and to scrape my bow gently across the strings. In fact, it almost felt like I was continuing something that I had once been familiar with, and for some reason had to stop for a while. Surprise flittered across my father's face as I imitated his motions perfectly and started playing a series of chords that sounded like scales.
"You are indeed your mother's son," his voice was strangely hoarse. When I glanced at him, I saw that his eyes were wet. Then, he left the room abruptly, leaving me alone with what came to be my favourite instrument. He hired a famous violinist to give me weekly lessons and to my embarrassment, my teacher proclaimed me a child prodigy almost at once. I was fortunate to have such an excellent teacher though. It seemed that in no time I was composing my own songs and able to play any piece after listening to it a couple of times. One of my favourites was this song that I learnt from one of my mother's tapes. When I first played it for my father and stepmother, his eyes became wet again.
"This is your mother's favourite song. You play it exactly the same way she did. However, I do believe that she was much older than you when she composed it." I soon found a different world to lose myself in - the world of music. However, in spite of my musical abilities, my father hired personal tutors for me (just as Tsukasa's, Soujirou's and Akira's parents did for them) shortly after I turned five, and made them followed what was meant to be an extremely grueling schedule. I was often quite bored when they kept drilling facts into me that I had known for years (ok a few years - I was five after all). So I started revealing some of my abilities - just enough to be deemed brilliant but not too much so that they would suspect. Till today, they believed that I was just a "normal" gifted autistic child. A paradox eh? Well, it's simply that certain autistic children are gifted in certain ways, and they had me categorized as such . .
Toinks: Hey there! Thanks for commenting - it makes my day. I do hope it's been convincing so far (
Pure Innocence: Thanks so much for reading and highlighting that to me! Really appreciate it! I've always had problems with my commas - I'll try to look out for them this time round. Strangely enough my grammar check doesn't appear to pick 'em up ;)
Drina: Hi! Of course I remember you "Girl" ( I don't go to winglin that often either. However, this time I am posting this story at both sites because I realise that different people are reading it. Thanks so much for leaving me a comment!
Opal Soul: Ah ha, another Rui fan? ( I think I will be torturing him a little more *ducks for cover in case anything is thrown* But this the reason why we adore Rui - we feel sorry for him too eh!
Lian: Wowee another comment here as well? Thanks so much for reading - made my day! (
Another year passed - I was still in my own relatively silent world. Of course, I still spoke occasionally, but as little as I could. However, contrary to the general belief that I was developing slower than normal kids my age, I had actually finished reading the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica that strangely enough happened to be kept in my room. After all, I was not really an autistic child but had developed the habits of one. I preferred to be left alone in peace where I could work out new ideas in my head or simply be listening and learning from the conversations around me without appearing to do so. It was at this point in my life that I first met Tsukasa, Soujirou and Akira. It was my fifth birthday and my father and stepmother had strangely enough organized a birthday party for me.
"It's time you introduced him to some kids his age." I overheard my stepmother saying. "Moreover, if you recall the last party when we were talking to the Doumyoujis, Mimasakas' and Nishikados, we all agreed that we should introduce our sons to each other so that they would have suitable playmates around their ages."
"But you know Rui . ." Father's voice died away.
"I think all he needs are some friends to break him out of his shell. Remember what the doctors said? He would probably grow out of it. He may communicate more readily with kids who are his age . ." I crept away, knowing that my stepmother would have managed to convince my father before long. Although I was still contented to be in my own world, I thought it would not be too bad getting to meet people my age. This was my chance to test my theory with regards to whether I was different from others or not.
When the big day arrived, I walked into the garden dressed in one of my best suits, only to be greeted by a spray of water in my face. Taken aback, I simply stood there with water dripping off my face as I stared at three boys my age. One of them was scowling at me and the other two were laughing their heads off. The boy who was frowning held a water gun in his hand and had black curly hair. One of the laughing boys had wavy brown hair with a reddish tint, whilst the other had dark brown hair, a few shades darker than mine. Finally, the boy with the dark brown hair straightened up and smiled me.
"Hi, I'm Soujirou. This is Akira," he nodded at the wavy hair boy next to him. "And that's Tsukasa over there. You must be Rui." Both he and Akira smiled at me. I simply stood there quietly, staring at them.
"Hey are you alright? Can you hear me?" He looked rather surprised and a little worried as he walked up to me and waved his hand in my front of my face. "Tsukasa didn't scare you too much did he?" I blinked but kept quiet as I continued to look at him.
"Leave him alone if he doesn't want to talk, idiot!" Suddenly, Tsukasa shouted loudly. "You and Akira talk too much!" I had automatically turned when he started shouting and found him looking straight at me. Then his eyebrows drew together in a frown when I continued staring without saying a single word.
"What are you looking at?" His dark eyes were hostile again. However, I was not put off by his show of anger. Somehow, I could see that beneath all that bluster was a scared little boy who was trying to protect himself by hiding behind a tough mask. How like me behind my shell. Then I turned and looked at Soujirou and Akira. Again, I sensed the same thing from both of them, except that they did not use violence but instead sought to hide their loneliness through fun and laughter. Yes, even at the tender age of five, our personalities had already started forming. I could tell, however, that none of them were "like" me and they definitely didn't act like me.
"Hi." I finally said softly in my monotone. They all stared at me.
"He talks!" Akira chirped as he came bouncing over. "Here," he passed me a white handkerchief. I took it hesitantly from him, wiped my face and passed it back. He stuffed it carelessly back into his pocket.
"Hey, come and play with us." Soujirou grinned at me. Somehow, both he and Akira grabbed me and I was pulled along with them. Although I was in their company all afternoon, most of the time I was sitting there and simply watching them play, refusing to participate in their games. I did not mind playing sports, but certain games like police and thieves were too juvenile for yours truly. I could tell that Tsukasa did not enjoy certain of the games as well. That young boy was (and he still is) really violent and it was pretty obvious that he had problems with anger management. However, I could see him making an effort to control himself where the two boys were concerned. Almost automatically as I sat there watching them, I hugged my knees to my chest and started rocking myself slowly to and fro to a song that I was humming mentally. I did not realize that someone was standing next to me until I felt a hand on my shoulder. However, from the force of habit (or my excellent acting skills), I simply continued rocking slowly as I continued staring ahead, not turning to see who the person was.
"Hey, what's up with you?" The gruff voice could only belong to Tsukasa. For a moment, I was taken aback and stopped rocking. Cursing myself for this slip in my armour, I simply stilled under his hand, pretending that his voice had "calmed" me down.
"You're a strange one. Stranger than me," I heard him mumble under his breath. I turned slowly and looked at him. To my surprise, I saw the concern in his eyes that he was trying to hide as he sat down beside me. However, at this moment, a servant walked up to us.
"Young masters, it's time for tea."
"Yay!" That was Soujirou. He and Akira immediately jumped up from where they had been wrestling. I mentally smiled as I took in their enthusiasm and climbed up from the floor. It was my birthday party after all and I still had the responsibilities of a host.
"Come," I said to Tsukasa holding out my hand. He gripped it and in one smooth motion tried to pull me to the floor. However, I managed to remain upright. A sudden grin lit up his face replacing his habitual scowl as he got up and faced me.
"Let's go." He clapped me on the shoulder. From that moment, we became friends. Strangely enough, it took me longer to accept Soujirou and Akira as my friends. However, they were so easy going and full of laughter and pranks that it was also not long before I was officially part of their gang. I had thought that they would be the ones that would have a problem with letting me in. However, although they thought I was rather weird, they accepted me readily enough, even before I accepted them. I guess in a way our parents encouraged our friendship. We only had each other and never played with other children because they did not like us to associate with children from families with a lower social status. Call them snobs, but that's the way things were, and still are.
Other than my first meeting with my now closest friends, another event made my fifth birthday memorable. After the guests left, my father brought out an expensive looking violin case tied with a large ribbon. He laid the tiny violin case in my arms as I looked at it silently.
"It's a violin, Rui." I had to refrain myself from rolling my eyes at him. Obviously it was a violin. "Your mother always loved the violin . . She wanted so much to teach you herself." I stiffened - this was news. I never knew that my mother loved the violin. I had never ever heard her play. Then my father held my hand and I followed him still clutching my violin case. He stopped in front of a door that I had always assumed led to a storage room and unlocked the door. My eyes opened wide when I followed him into the room.
Although it was evening, the rays of the setting sun shone through the numerous glass planes that spanned an entire wall, covering everything with a rosy pink glow. The thick windows overlooked a huge pond in the garden. When I managed to look away from the magnificent view, I noticed that there was a large cabinet that covered almost one of the remaining walls, several different types of musical instruments in the room including a huge grand piano, and an extremely high-tech machine that resembled the most sophisticated hi-fi set I had ever seen. Father walked to the cabinet and opened one door, showing me a few dozens of CDs.
"These are records of your mother's playing. She was extremely talented and could play all types of different types of musical instruments. She especially loved the violin and was always practicing in this room until she became too busy to play much. Music was in her blood and I believe in yours too. You take after her in so many ways, Rui . ."
And I never knew. Mother, why didn't you ever tell me? Almost unconsciously, I put down the case gently on the table, undid the ribbon and opened the lid. A most beautiful violin lay against the velvet lining. My fingers stroked the violin almost loving before taking it out of the case and lifting the little bow. Then I looked at my father as he adjusted the violin, laying it on my shoulder and correcting the way I held the bow.
"I know a little of the violin - your mum taught me." He walked me through the motions of playing a few simple notes on the violin. To my surprise, it felt so natural to be holding the violin and to scrape my bow gently across the strings. In fact, it almost felt like I was continuing something that I had once been familiar with, and for some reason had to stop for a while. Surprise flittered across my father's face as I imitated his motions perfectly and started playing a series of chords that sounded like scales.
"You are indeed your mother's son," his voice was strangely hoarse. When I glanced at him, I saw that his eyes were wet. Then, he left the room abruptly, leaving me alone with what came to be my favourite instrument. He hired a famous violinist to give me weekly lessons and to my embarrassment, my teacher proclaimed me a child prodigy almost at once. I was fortunate to have such an excellent teacher though. It seemed that in no time I was composing my own songs and able to play any piece after listening to it a couple of times. One of my favourites was this song that I learnt from one of my mother's tapes. When I first played it for my father and stepmother, his eyes became wet again.
"This is your mother's favourite song. You play it exactly the same way she did. However, I do believe that she was much older than you when she composed it." I soon found a different world to lose myself in - the world of music. However, in spite of my musical abilities, my father hired personal tutors for me (just as Tsukasa's, Soujirou's and Akira's parents did for them) shortly after I turned five, and made them followed what was meant to be an extremely grueling schedule. I was often quite bored when they kept drilling facts into me that I had known for years (ok a few years - I was five after all). So I started revealing some of my abilities - just enough to be deemed brilliant but not too much so that they would suspect. Till today, they believed that I was just a "normal" gifted autistic child. A paradox eh? Well, it's simply that certain autistic children are gifted in certain ways, and they had me categorized as such . .
Toinks: Hey there! Thanks for commenting - it makes my day. I do hope it's been convincing so far (
Pure Innocence: Thanks so much for reading and highlighting that to me! Really appreciate it! I've always had problems with my commas - I'll try to look out for them this time round. Strangely enough my grammar check doesn't appear to pick 'em up ;)
Drina: Hi! Of course I remember you "Girl" ( I don't go to winglin that often either. However, this time I am posting this story at both sites because I realise that different people are reading it. Thanks so much for leaving me a comment!
Opal Soul: Ah ha, another Rui fan? ( I think I will be torturing him a little more *ducks for cover in case anything is thrown* But this the reason why we adore Rui - we feel sorry for him too eh!
Lian: Wowee another comment here as well? Thanks so much for reading - made my day! (