Page 39 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

Dinner was served at 8:00 pm. The potatoes tasted bitter and saltless. Even the rice was half-cooked,
but nobody complained. I gobbled up, for hunger gave me the taste and relish.
The next day, Coach took us into town.
“Uncle, this is Lungtenzampa,” said Baggio. “It’s a long bridge, isn’t it?”
I glanced over the stretch and arched my eyebrows in pretense. “Yeah.”
“And you won’t believe how big the town is,” he said.
“Really? How big is the Thimphu town?”
“See it to yourself.”
More than the bridge and the buildings, I was concerned about where I was stepping. Back then, there
was a rumor that the ruthless gangs would dash and bash innocent people.
Coach turned back and whispered, “Don’t even try to quarrel with anyone, okay?”
“Yes, Coach,” we whispered back.
I paced faster to keep up with my friends whenever cocky boys approached.
People had told me that the clock tower was towering, but it didn’t surprise me. Maybe, I had
overestimated its size.
We walked downtown and to the Lugar Theatre. The thunderous sound boomed out from inside the
hall, piercing my ears.
I had not watched a movie in the theatre before. So, I grinned at Baggio. “How much would a ticket
cost?”
Baggio shrugged. “Maybe thirty.”
“It’s fifty,” corrected Lhabchu. “Do you think we should watch a movie?”
I whispered, “Maybe.”
“Boys, let’s go to Changlingmethang,” said Coach. “Our match is the day after tomorrow. So, we must
see the pitch.”
“Yes, Coach,” we said and plodded after him down the aisles, and to the football pitch.
Back then, we could enter the gate even at night.
“Gosh, it’s huge,” I said. “Full of sand.”
“Yeah,” said Baggio. “We played last year. It’s hard to play in the sand.”
“Don’t worry, boys,” said Coach. “We will do our best.”
After dinner, the captain whispered to us, “Let’s go for a night show.”
“Night show?” I said. “You mean a movie?”
He looked around and said, “Let’s go.”
“But Coach told us not to go anywhere,” I said.
“Who cares?” he said. “He is not with us tonight.”
Everyone changed their dresses, so I put on my faded jeans. In the theater, people whistled and
clapped. I felt dizzy as illumination from the projector hit the screen.
A young Japanese man in a kimono dress carries away his mother in the mountains in a bamboo basket.
There, he abandons her amidst vultures tearing flesh from a heap of human bones. The poor farmer sobs
as he returns home.
But the scene didn’t move me. So, I returned to our place and went to sleep. They returned late at
night.
The next day, Coach gave us a hundred ngultrum each and said, “This is your expenditure, don’t spend
it at one go.”
“Yes, Coach.”
But I spent it in two days. We lost to Jakar High School in the first match and returned home in the
same DCM truck without Coach.
One week later, the principal called us to her office.
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