Friday, October 26, 2007

Urban Legend - The School Teacher

This story begins at an elementary school in one of the most populated cities in Southeast Asia. The school buzzed with activity all the time and it was the usual grind for the school kids day after day, all through the week. There was one thing these kids heard over and over again from their teachers: homework, homework and more homework; it just sucked the life out of them. Most teachers were very severe on the kids, one such teacher was in-charge of 2nd grade - the one whom we shall call Evans; he was in his late thirties and was unmarried. If there was anything that ever meant anything to Evans then it HAD to be the school. Evans was one guy who always went by the rules and had a procedural approach towards life; he was also ruthless and unforgiving. A typical Monday morning scene that one would expect to witness, if one were to pass by 2nd grade was: weeping kids kneeling down on the floor, facing the classroom wall after being caned, - a punishment commonly given by Evans to kids who did not complete their homework.

Most kids did their homework but there were always going to be some who didn't; one of them was Laura. Laura never did her homework, she didn't like to, and even Evans was tired of punishing her. She silently took her punishment and was so used to it that she no longer cried. She always put on a gloomy face and hated the mere thought of going to school. Laura wasn't interested in anything else either; she never mixed much with other kids in her class nor did she like to play with anybody else. In short: Laura was a very dull and disinterested girl, not like other kids of her age. One glance at that morose look on her face would put almost anybody off for the day. But all this changed one fine day - a day when Laura DID her homework. Evans was checking the homework of all the kids and when he came up to Laura, he took the cane out expecting the usual but he was surprised to see that instead of stretching her hand forward she handed out her homework to him and even had a smile on her face. Evans took the book from her in utter disbelief; somehow he believed she could never do it; he opened the book to see if everything was in order. Suddenly a strange look transpired on his face - a look that said that something in the book had scared the living daylights out of him. He stammered and asked her: "Did...did YOU do the homework?". To which Laura didn't reply; she gust gave him a blank expression. From then on, Laura did her homework regularly. That something in Laura's notebook began to torment Evans, was obvious. He was SO scared that he didn't check her homework any more; it bothered him all the time; even other teachers started asking Evans what the matter was.

Evans could no longer bear it; whatever it was. He called for Laura's mother Dorothy. She came the very next day expecting that her kid had done some mischief or was not faring well in her tests. He asked her if she or anybody else helped Laura do her homework, to which she said no. Evans said that Laura never did her homework earlier but now she does it, to which Dorothy replied: "Is THAT the problem?". Evans told her that Laura drew a cross on every page of her homework notebook; to which Dorothy replied: "Why, what's wrong with it? most kids do such things, now what exactly IS the problem?". Evans didn't know what to say, he apologized for wasting her time. Dorthy thought Evans was a little disturbed mentally and left.

Now Evans was even more disturbed, he went to Laura's home late at night that day, jumped over the walls, went near Laura's bedroom and started peeping inside. Suddenly, Dorothy spotted him in her backyard and was startled. She asked him how he got in and what the hell he was doing at her house at that time of night, to which he replied: "I only wanted to watch Laura do her homework"; as if that justified his lunacy. Dorothy thought Evans was mad, she said she'd call the police which made Evans run. He began asking himself: am I going mad? am I going mad? Slowly...a small figure emerged from a dark corner of the street; it came under the street light to show itself; it was a school boy; still in his uniform. He sat down on a flag stone and said with a mischievous look on his face, "You are not mad, Evans, but you soon WILL be!".

Evans was later found writing all kind of illegible equations, symbols, words and other meaningless stuff with chalk on roads, walls and practically every where until he was no longer heard of.

Clark's Story:

Evans had a childhood friend, called Clark. Clark was very smart; he was better than Evans in almost everything. Everybody liked Clark better than Evans (something Evans could never stand). One day when Clark was flying a kite on his roof, Evans pushed him off; Clark fell three floors down to his death. Everybody thought Clark slipped while flying the kite.

(The Above Urban Legend was Adopted for an Indian Movie 'Darna Mana Hai' (Do Not Be Afraid)

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