He is the first boy I spoke with on my visit to the MAYEIN library. He was deeply engrossed in the book he held firmly in his hands. I crouched beside him but he didn’t look at me, he kept reading. I stayed there, crouching. Finally, he thumbed the page he’s on and turned his head towards me and greeted me. Then we had this conversation.

———

“I see you’re engrossed in your reading,” I begin, he smiles. We then proceed to other small talks. He tells me his name and he tells me he is a student of Ojoo High School. His class – he is in S.S.1.
Then, I ask him:
“How is your reading was coming along?”
He replies shly: “I’m enjoying the book…”
I smile at him, he smiles back.
I ask: “How often do you come here – every Saturday?”
He nods firmly: “Yes, I come here every Saturday – except when my Aunty and I have to go somewhere, or she has things for me to do. I don’t like to miss the chance to read so I try to come here every time I can. I stay with my Aunty and so I have to do whatever she wants me to do.”

A few seconds of silence passes between us, there’s something incomplete about his last answer. His faces wrinkles into displeasure. “What does reading do for you?” I ask, a little curious as he emphasizes his love to read. Isaac sets down the book and answers: “reading gives me the chance to leave my past behind and everything else I don’t want to remember. I put them all behind at home.” He tries to put up a smile but the smile is contaminated with the color of pain as he looks away and finally casts his gaze on the floor. It feels like he is escaping something…something he cannot put in words. I put an arm around him and then he looks at me, again. “Here, at the library, I can really be me and I really love that; that’s why I come.”

I ask him what he’d like to be when he grows up, he says:
“I want to be a Mechanical Engineer.”

[END]