CHAPTER 42

                                    

                                          
XAVIER ROCKWELL
Mr. Huang entered the office tightly clutching his walking cane. There was an intense moment of silence as Principal Sanders and I awkwardly watched the old man slowly brought himself to the chair adjacent to me. The assistant would've helped him walk faster but he insisted that he could walk on his own. It took him almost a while and by the time he settled down, Principal Sanders cleared her to throat to reestablish the flow of conversation.
"Hi, Mr. Huang, how are you doing?" Principal Sanders greeted, her tone seemed to have drastically changed from her usual professional vibrato.
"I'm doing very well madam. T-this was the longest walk I've had since the last time I walked my deceased dog." Mr. Huang spoke unhurriedly. You could clearly determine how time has aged him pretty well with the fine wrinkles in his skin and how his hair had turned from that jet black Asian hair to grey. I could also see a pair of reading glasses hanging on the pocket of his dirty white shirt.
"I-I'm so sorry about your dog." Ms. Sanders trailed off adding such a layer of sympathy to her tone.
"Oh, it's fine. Life is for creatures to live; it would be atrocious if my dog hadn't lived a full life of his own. Willi was such a good boy and he's already old as time. He just turned eighteen when he perished. He lived a full life of his own although my late wife hated him to the point that she wanted to butcher him and cook him." Mr. Huang went on speaking very calmly and it felt as if it took him a whole ten minutes just to say those things. In retrospect, he basically told his life story in such a small amount of time and that made me feel guilty.
I suddenly remembered the memories that I have spent with my dog Muffin. We were buddies before and because I'm an only child, he sort of became my best friend growing up. I don't even want to cry right now but I do miss Muffin like the way I miss Jordi.
"Mr. Huang, I just reviewed the footage of the surveillance camera that you gave me and I just caught the culprit." Principal Sanders went on and gave me a snide look. "First of all, I'm going to apologize for the delinquent action of my student. I, will personally make sure to deal with this with an appropriate action."
"Is this him?" Mr. Huang pointed right me. I quickly bowed my head down in utter shame. I wished for the ground below me to just open up and eat me alive.
"Yes, that's our little culprit."
"I know him." Mr. Huang chimed and that was the point I felt even guiltier. Of course Mr. Huang recognized me, I've been buying stuff at his store for years too.
"I-I'm sorry Mr.—"
Before I could even finish speaking up, the door behind us opened once again. "Ms. Sanders, Mrs. Rock—" The assistant showed up but before she could even get her sentence out, she got cut off by someone.
My mom suddenly showed up out of the blue and nonchalantly nudged the assistant with her shoulder. "Ms. Wilson. Please, call me Ms. Wilson, I'm a single woman now."
"Dayanara!" Principal Sanders cheered up unwittingly acknowledging my mom's appearance.
I just remembered that Principal Sanders and my mom used to be roommates during their college years which just escalated things even higher than I was expecting. My mom was still wearing her unkempt uniform from the hotel that she just got hired for. I have heard my mom talk about Principal Sanders at one point but she was drunk and high and for that, I didn't believe her the first time.
"Imelda!" My mom squealed with blithe excitement, her arms were wide open and she ran towards Principal Sanders like she's never seen her for the longest time.