March 1998

The loud, raucous cry of locusts echoed in the still, silent night; their incessant chatter was as if to rebuke the rain gods for their tardiness in heralding the rainy season. I wondered how they could all chatter at the same time, when the the inmates of number 33, St Mary's Lane, Mt Lavinia, didnt seem to have a word to utter to each other. We' ve all been sitting out in the verandah after a heavy dinner, to escape the sweltering heat inside the house. My household believed in a heavy dinner, as none of us generally had time to grab a decent breakfast or lunch. I wished we could have a big breakfast instead of dinner. I only had my glass of milk for breakfast today. No wonder I can't concentrate too hard at school, my mind is always wandering, especially during history lessons. I blame it on the dietary habits or the lack of supplements to keep me going during day time. My mind wandering habits, leading to bad grades, therefore is a causal reaction of having less breakfast and more dinner. I wonder what'll happen if I voice this opinion.
From where I was perched, I could see my brother, Codey, dozing off on his chemistry book. Everybody in the household thinks he is brilliant and I am always encouraged to follow his leadership. This is a task for me, because I didnt hold the same opinion as others on the IQ levels of Codey. Don't get me wrong, he has brains and all, but my argument is that he doesn't have enough to be in the region of 'brilliance'. Besides, where I come from, intelligence is relative. It's relative to how the neighbour's son performs or to how your cousins perform in relation to you. So if all of these so called benchmarks are underperformers and one performs better than them, then one is considered brilliant. This is how Codey gets his ratings.
The sounds of silence was suddenly interrupted by my mother, who got up from her sewing and while on her way to the pantry asked everyone if they wanted coffee, quite as an after thought. I don't understand how anyone could have steaming coffee at a time when beads of perspiration oozed out of every known gland in your body. Everybody wanted coffee, and they looked at me with a quizzical look, that I felt I was under silent duress to nod in the affirmative. It is quite a clan thing, if one wants something or does something in this household, all are expected to follow.