Truth: Black Panthers Are Not Immortal
Waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep.
Waking up too late and missing the bus.
Having a merciless urge to pee during an exam.
Sitting too close to the professor’s table and being caught off guard by a wet sneeze.
Having a bully with access to Miranda.
Sumer’s haven was the library. That’s where you could find her between classes. Reading. She had met good people between pages. Better people than those swarming the playground. Her kingdom ended at the library’s doorstep; that’s where their kingdom began.
“Well. Well. Well. Guess who it is.”
She instantly regretted walking out of the library. She started walking faster.
“Where are you going?”
She heard their footsteps. Faster. Louder. Closer.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
They snatch her books away from her and drop them on the floor. She silently picks them up. Wondering what to do once there were no more to pick up.
“Come back!”
She runs.
They run behind her.
She hides in the bathroom.
They wait for her behind the door.
“We’ll be here.”
She waits.
They’re quiet.
Did they leave?
She slowly opens the door. No movement. She opens it a bit more. They’re gone. She steps out. All clear. Then she feels cold as if someone emptied a bucket of icy water on her head. She has to close her eyes. She smells oranges. She tastes Miranda.
They’re laughing.
She rushes back with her sticky books inside the bathroom.
She washes her hair, her face, her arms.
It has happened before. It will happen again.
That was the first time she saw it.
Her anxiety took the shape of a majestic black panther. It was standing next to a bathroom stall, silently staring at her, the girl that smelled like oranges. Then it walked towards her, without taking her golden eyes off her.
It blinked. A silent promise of never leaving her side.
Sumer was officially anxious.
The black panther would sneak up on her during exams, stare at her while she was presenting a project to her class, accompany her in her school’s corridor, play with her food during lunch, take up over half of her bed while she was trying to fall asleep.
She was always waiting for something bad to happen.
The black panther just silently stared at her, until one day Sumer picked up a black pencil and started scribbling on her scratch-book. Her scribbles slowly took the shape of the black panther, the same black panther that was staring at her as it faded away. With each stroke of her pencil, the panther lost a bit of its color… until it disappeared.
Whenever she was drawing, the black panther would go away.
Black panthers live in jungles and pretty much everywhere else. They’re much more common than you think; even though you’re not always able to see them. Black panthers do not make good pets. There are a lot of things that you can do instead of looking after it; or having it look after you. Do things that you enjoy. Painting. Wall climbing. Beat boxing. Anything. Or, talk to someone about it. It will go away, sooner or later. Black panthers are not immortal.
