THE SKY IS BLUE: STORIES (My New Book)

 

Check the book here 

 

My book is published! There are seven stories inside. Here is my favorite story -the one that gave the book its name:

THE SKY IS BLUE

LEIB’S BEEN EXERTING ALL HIS WILL TO KEEP HIS EYELIDS OPEN. How could something so thin and small feel this heavy? Such a waste, too. All this effort to stay awake… It could be used for something productive… like sleeping. Even the wooden bench he was sitting on wouldn't bother him. He could just curl up and… No, maybe it would bother him. The bit right in the middle that's been poking at his leg would probably ruin his sleep. He wished he'd taken the instructions more seriously, and carved the wood evenly. That’d seemed like a waste too, making your own bench… Why can't we use the benches of the graduating students, he'd asked. Something about not taking anything for granted, the instructors had said.

    Speaking of instructors… What's the old goat been yapping about? Leib could see Instructor Jeram’s wrinkled lips move, but the sounds wouldn't register. Instructor Jeram… He’d been the bane of Leib’s existence ever since Leib’s first day at the compound. Admittedly, scaring off the instructor’s donkey—yes, the instructors had donkeys as mounts, which were more suitable to the mountainous terrain than horses—and making him fall off on his old bones warranted scolding. But you’d think he’d forget it by now, after two whole semesters. The whole thing was a mistake anyway. But, no. He’d leer at Leib whenever he saw him, with his long goatee and narrowed eyes, like a stubborn goat. The guy was vindictive.

    Leib forced himself to focus. After all, there was always the risk of being asked a question. He didn't fancy carrying ten buckets of water from the lake up to the compound through the winding rocky mountain path.

    “The sky is blue,” the old goat was saying.

    Pff… what a joke. Of course it's blue, I could see that myself, so what?

    This was getting out of hand. His bench might not be suitable for sleeping on, but the grass beneath his feet was looking softer by the second. It was a good thing the pine trees provided shade, sun on his face would've simply made staying awake impossible. The cool mountain breeze was the only thing pleasant about this torturous lecture.

    He looked around to distract himself. The other students seemed alert and listening. Not Cholem, though. He looked like he was in even worse shape than Leib was. Not to mention the mistake he’d made by sitting all the way back. Rookie error. If you wanted to sleep during a lecture or cheat in an exam, you did it in the first row, right in the front. The instructors always treated those who sat at the back with more suspicion. That’s to say, more than the considerable amount of suspicion they already had towards all students. These things, you learned through experience, and Cholem was about to have his. Though, Leib wasn't sure Cholem would learn the lesson. He lived in his own world. One time, when they were all camping in the forest as part of the first year curriculum, Leib and a few other students had pulled a prank on Cholem by faking wolf howls at night, right outside his tent. There was a big campfire in the middle of the camp area where some students were burying potatoes in the ash, and brewing tea, but the tents were fairly spread out around it. The light was on inside Cholem’s tent, and he was probably reading, as usual. A few moments after the wolf howls, the light inside had gone out, and the tent's zipper had been opened. Cholem's hand had appeared, and feeling it's way in the dark, he had snatched his shoes, and zipped the tent back up at once. He was a ridiculous person, and Leib liked him for it.

    The usual four were in the front, scribbling furiously. Yeah, make sure you write down that the sky is in fact blue, lest you mistake it for red, Leib thought incredulously. He was willing to look past all their oddities—and there were plenty—but when they behaved like they got struck by some calamity after exams with the apprehension of having done something wrong, only to get full marks later, well, there was no excuse for such behavior.

    It was no good. Nothing interested him. In truth, it was determined right from the beginning that this day—not just the lecture—would drag. Leib looked at the empty bench right in front of him. Talia wasn't here. She had a cold according to the other girls, and was resting. Leib wouldn't, of course, be allowed to visit her in the girls' dormitory. So he had no choice but to wait for her to get well.

    Talia. She'd turn back every now and then during the lectures, and look at him. Intense. Deliberate. Playful. Leib had long suspected that she just sensed when he was drifting away, and her face would yank him back into the present. He could even listen to the old goat Jeram all day if she were here, looking back at him every now and then with that face of hers. And that was saying something. Time had two different speeds of passing for Leib, when he was with Talia, and when he was without her, and they were wildly off.

    Talia was absent for two years, at least, that was what felt like to Leib, it was just two days for other people. On the third day, she was sitting on her bench, talking to the girls near her when Leib arrived in the open classroom beneath the trees. She glanced at him without breaking the conversation when he walked past her, but didn't turn back during the lectures.

    When the bell rang announcing the lunch break, most of the class ran to the compound for lunch. Talia was taking her time gathering her stuff, and putting them in her bag. When she was done, she turned back, and said, "You wanna walk?”

    Leib nodded. They walked away from the trees, towards the open field surrounding the compound which was built on a small plateau, the last level ground on the mountain before the summit. She was hopping and zigzagging and smiling to herself.

    “Did you miss me?” she asked, finally walking straight.

    “You were gone?” Leib said with a fake puzzled expression.

    She made her dangerous face, and Leib grinned.

    “I would ask you what you covered in the lectures, but I actually want to pass, so I asked the girls. Did you know that the sky is blue?”

    Leib froze. He looked up. And the sky was blue. Wonderful, wonderful blue. He looked at Talia who was watching him curiously, “I… didn’t know… It really is blue.”