Caelis and Pablo

"Life is so beautiful that it frightens. (...)
This fascinating and thrilling fear of curiosity that makes
the young feline follow ahead scenting the wind
as he leaves, for the first time, his den."

Mario Quintana
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Caelis couldn't make it many times. He had been trying for several hours, since midnight or so, to throw the old ball inside the basket, and realized that during the interval between his goals it would have time enough to perform more than one concert of Johann Sebastian Bach, preferentially the Brandenburg n° 3, which was the music he had in his head then. He couldn't blame the absence of light of the court at the desert street, for his cat eyes could see quite well in the dark, and it wouldn't be a valid point to explain a disastrous toss of impatience and anger to the top of a roof. He had to climb a tree and hang on a branch by the legs in order to recover the ball.

In fact, he had more practice in climbing than in basketball. He didn't think he had enough height to play, but, indeed, he could consider himself tall for his age of fourteen, and he even could leap better than most of his human opponents, not much for his feline characteristics, but for his practice jumping walls. Since he was quite thin and his muscles weren't too strong, as his sleeveless cloth showed, the speed was his most contributor factor in any sort of adversity.

Anyway, his moral wasn't higher than the angle of the sun in the horizon when dawn broke. When he got tired of that, he threw the ball against the metallic fence and sat down on the ground for a couple minutes, thinking. The fact that no one was there to witness his awful performance didn't make the situation feel less humiliating.

He stood up and looked at the time in his pocket watch. His class was near to begin, and he was still hanging around. Ah well. He slowly walked to where the ball was lying, took it in his hands, and in a last and desperate try, ran bouncing the ball towards the basket, somehow feeling that he would achieve a great toss this time.

Before he could do that, someone took the ball from him and threw it right through the basket.

Caelis sighed in resignation before he faced the reason in person of all that nocturnal training. Pablo seemed happy that morning – as usual, which made Caelis feel almost ashamed for being gloomy and irritated, so he had the decency of saluting his human friend with a reluctant congratulating smile.

– Haven't you learned it yet, bro?– laughed Pablo when he shook hands with the demi-human feline.

– Yeah– grumped Caelis.

He allowed Pablo's embrace, trough he would like to drop him on the floor and cover him with a half dozen kicks.  Maybe physical combat was the only thing in which they would be almost equal, because Caelis had the impression of being by far the second place in any other thing they would dispute, from basketball to chess, and even school grades. Not that Caelis was so deviously competitive, but all of this summed to the fact that Pablo was extremely sociable, while Caelis was avoided and hardly could keep a conversation by having unusual habits, uncommon interests and not talking much anyway, made him to sometimes see as a rival the one who was practically his only friend. Besides, he thought that, since Pablo had many other friends, he would never be on their level, unless he showed that he could be as good as him on something.

– So, are you going to stand here and be late for school again, or you're coming with me?– asked the human boy.

Caelis didn't know if he was late or not, for Pablo's triumphal entrance made him to forget what time was it, so he needed to verify the pocket watch again.

– You look like some kind of a noble with this watch, bro.

– It's because I've stolen it from one– said Caelis. It wasn't true, and Pablo knew it, but Caelis had never told him the origin of that expensive watch, the only remotely aristocratic object he possessed.  

Caelis wasn't concerned with looks, but he couldn't help feeling uncomfortable to see that Pablo, in spite of not using new clothes all the time, was so much more presentable than him. At least so it seemed, because Pablo had always someone to compliment his looks, while Caelis had a huge void in this aspect.

He put the ball in the backpack and the two of them walked together to the school, Caelis laconic and with the hands in his pockets, keeping several steps of distance from his friend, kicking little rocks to the puddles and answering "uhn… yeah" when Pablo commented something. Two or three blocks ahead, his rivalry feeling had diminished, and his mood became softer when they started talking about movies. A few minutes later, Caelis was numbering reasons for Pablo to watch David Lean's films as soon as possible. When they reached the school, it was Caelis who had one arm around Pablo's neck and cheerfully commented "Lawrence of Arabia".
---

If there was something in which Caelis was worse than in basketball, it was mathematics. Because of that, when he gave up of trying to follow the logarithms lesson, he started to scrap in his copybook, trying to draw something. He wasn't very good in that either.

First He tried to draw a zeppelin, and hadn't success. Without inspiration to try another drawing, he tried to pay attention to class. Logarithms? Lógos, the Greek language. He returned to the copybook and scribbled λóγος in the blank page. His calligraphy wasn't so pretty even in the Hellenic alphabet, truth be told.  Nonetheless, he tediously continued scribbling: 'Eν 'αρχñ 'ñν 'o λóγος. That didn't go bad. So he got spirited to follow on, καì 'o λóγος 'ñν  πρòς τòν... and then he found an obstacle.

– Caelis! Why aren't you paying attention? – called the teacher, who was just before Caelis' desk.

– I'm listening, and all– dragged the boy lazily.

– Are you sure? Then what was the last thing I said?

– You were saying that the origin of the term are the Hellenic words lógos and 'arithmós.

– I said that twenty minutes ago!

– You did? Hell, then it proves once and for all that time is indeed relative.

Because of that, he had to stay after the class was out, but since the teacher also gave physics, she settled score making him study the theory of relativity instead of logarithms. However, he soon started to daydream again, because the example of the trains used by Einstein in his text to demonstrate the principle of simultaneity led Caelis to turn his thoughts to David Lean's trains. He tried to scrap a train crossing a bridge over a river. Lógos. Einstein didn't think in words, and Caelis couldn't follow him in abstraction so well.

– All right, Caelis, you may go– announced the teacher, when she was herself wanting to go.

– Go where? I've got nothing to do out there anyway. And I liked this book. Now I've started reading, I've got to finish it.

– You may take the book if you want, just bring it back in the next class. And you can study the other physicists as well.

Caelis would still have a lot of physicists to study anyway... Einstein, Zweistein, Dreistein and the others. Klasse, einfach wunderbar, he thought. He borrowed the book, but it was truth that he didn't feel like leaving the silent and empty classroom to a yard full of students. If he had left in the normal time, he'd have hope of finding Pablo somewhere out there, but at that time his human mate should be probably gone. Without choice, he put his copybook and Stephen Hawking in the backpack and went out. He wasn't hungry, neither wanted to go back to the institute and spend the rest of the day locked in his room. On the other hand, he had no pretext to stay in the street.
---

For his surprise, he found Pablo waiting for him at the street. He disguised with an indifferent hand shake how he was happy to see him.

– You got grounded after class, bro? What did you do this time?

– Nothing, I just proved the theory of relativity to professor Simplicia. Nowadays it gives you a half hour of grounding instead of a fuckin' Nobel. And you, hun? I thought you were gone long ago.

– Nah, I've decided to wait. You still want to play?

– With you? I don't know. You've probably seen that I can't hit even playing with myself.

– C'mon, I'll teach how to do it. You won't be doing anything for the rest of the day, will you?

– Yeah– grumped Caelis, and accepted.

It was nearly 14 o'clock and it was an extremely hot weather, so they took off their shirts while walking to the court some blocks ahead, and didn't change many words. Not that Caelis was moody again (even after he realized that Pablo's muscles were more defined than his), just intrigued that Pablo had waited for him instead of going to play with somebody else.

When they got close to the court, Caelis cursed by perceiving that there were people playing already, and on top of that, the players were the gang of Hector, a troublemaker with whom Caelis didn't have the most polite treatment.

– Crap. The last thing I need is to step in a court with that guy a second time in life.

– Don't say you're afraid of him– provoked Pablo to see the reaction.

– I would have trashed that piece o' leachate's damn snout if he didn't always have more than five watching his back. I'd like to know how much he's paid to bust my balls, because I can't imagine that he would do something with such dedication for free.

– He busts everybody's balls, don't worry about him. He's not as bad as you may think.

– So, you're his lawyer now– replied Caelis with some hostility.

– No, I'm just saying that you're over reacting a bit, bro.

– If it was before he threw my books in a puddle, or locked me up in a room and tossed away the key, I'd agree I'm fuckin' over reacting. When should I conclude that he's not worth a tiny piece of wet shit, when he stick my head in the toilet and pull the flush? He tried to do it last week, y'know?

– I didn't know these things. Why didn't you go to the headmaster?

– You wish. If I did, it's most likely that the headmaster would personally open the bathroom door and put on a red carpet in Hector's next try, because he's friend of the guy's father. Besides, everybody would stand by his side, like you now.

– Wha? Me?

– Course, he's your friend, I suppose.

– He is, but that's different. If I knew...

– Doesn't matter. Truly, it's none of my business, I don't even know you as long as he does. But I think I must say, you better watch out for that kind. It's like this…– But Caelis intuited that Pablo felt more like playing than listening to advices, so he jumped to the end of the subject: – Crap, I forgot what I was going to say. Now, I'm going to take a walk around. See you tomorrow, man.

He extended his hand, but Pablo, instead of shaking it and saying good-bye, started laughing, hit Caelis with a slight punch in the shoulder, walked away and said when Caelis followed him:

– I don't feel like playing now, you know. Want to do something else?