The Veracity

Veracity

The outside air was naturally cold as it usually was in January, after an artificial air conditioning induced cold two hours in English class and as a young man, a first year freshman a few months shy of 17 years, walked out of the sparsely crowded classroom and into the lonely college campus, he thought randomly, how horrible it would probably be to freeze to death. Just as swiftly as the thought pop in his head, it slipped out, then he bit down on his chapped bottom lip almost as if in an instinctual reflex to keep the thought out for good. He let out a deep sigh and placed his nearly frozen fingertips into his tattered jean pockets after running them through his thick curly black hair. The cold could be terribly annoying at times, but he definitely preferred it over the sweaty hot Bahamian nights that were so bad at times he have to resort to sleeping in the nude. Island weather was just unpredictable that way. With the days being so hot, he didn't think he'd need to leave home with a jacket, but now the thin lime green cruise ship souvenir shop "Aloha Hawaii" T-shirt he had thrown on earlier that humid day did little to nothing against the chilly sea breeze of that windy night. As he steadily made his way towards the exit in the campus' foreyard, all he could think about is the warmth of the inside of a moving vehicle. He released his clenched teeth that were so tight his jaw muscles were beginning to hurt and let out another anxious sigh. His pace quickened and perhaps the increased friction would serve to generate some warmth. Light from the foreyard brought some mental relief and in his excitement of being so near to relief, he stumbled on a pebble causing a notebook to shift in his backpack, that up until this point, he'd even forgotten he had on due to it being virtually weightless.

Luckily as he approached the entrance of the foreyard the doors were already opened, so his hands that were shoved deep in his pockets in their desperate search for warmth, didn't have to come out. Coming from the night drenched exterior of the campus and into the florescent light soaked interior of the marble floored college building felt slightly like an outer body experience as he walked through the inside foreyard to the front parking lot so fast that he was trying to convince himself that he didn't just experience teleportation.

Finally, he had made it to the front of the campus hoping to retrieve the warmth he was so mentally fawning over to unfortunately discover that his ride home had not yet arrived. He looked down at his wristwatch that was peculiarly dangling from his right hand; It was about 8:06 pm. His class is scheduled to end at 7:50 PM, so at the latest his pickup should be aiming to arrive at least 8:00 PM.
Why weren't they there yet?!

He walked out further, placed his backpack down, leaned up against one of the pillars that held up the patio shade outside the inner foreyard, threw his head back and let out an exasperated sigh for what seemed like the thirtieth time that night. The foreyard was completely empty as these classes were the last sessions in the evening and everyone who was there had already left, parked in the student lot at the rear of the campus or the student parking lot was also where they arranged their rides to pick them up from instead. So of course, he would have arranged just the opposite. How typical.

It was dark he thought as he caught a glimpse of the sky. Not many stars were out and inexplicably that seemed to take his mind from the fact that now that he was in front of the campus was even colder than he was before. With his back pressing up against the pillar so hard that he imagined if he released his stench the whole building would collapse. He began to wonder if he pushed his hand down into his pockets hard enough would it burst through and create a hole in his jeans? Wait what?! What was he thinking? Was he starting to get what those people got when they were stranded out in the desert too long but instead the opposite because he was too cold? No, that can't be right? He wasn't even out there that long. His feet kicked at some loose gravel that he happened to be standing and was beginning to annoy him through the worn-out soles of his sun-bleached army green Converse. He lifted his arms slightly out his pockets to take another quick peek at this watch. 8:09?? Three minutes had felt like thirty. Now his feet began to kick themselves and his impatience was showing itself in his chaotic fidgeting. All the blood had now left his fingertips and not even his pockets could distract from the nearly unbearable pain of the numbness. A urge of frustration splashed over him and he spun around angrily letting a violent kick swung out and just a he was about to release a cathartic yell, he caught something move in the corner of his eye and he immediately came to a halt. His heart was racing as had stood frozen moving nothing but his eyes secretly trying to catch a glimpse of what it was that had startled him. Was it a dog or a huge raccoon? The campus was known for having raccoons he was personality very afraid but curious at the same time of those creatures as he had never seen one in real life. Then suddenly, it moved again. His heart stopped and he had to focus. Whatever it was, was still there and as far as he knew, he was completely alone in that cold foreyard. Fear had his vision distorted but he had to focus in on the figure moving rapidly in his peripheral vision. Finally, it all became clear and he was able to see it. A thin stringy arm was stretched out from behind one of the stone pillars swatting back and forth until it came to a sudden stop as if it finally caught what it was chasing. Then the arm retreated to tuck a dangling stray bang of curly chocolate mousse colored hair behind a double helix decorated ear, revealing that is was not a raccoon at all.