The Defiants: Part 1
Ishaan ran through the parking lot, cursing at himself for being late. The cold weather had set in at Illinois; temperatures were already dropping to the low 20’s. The icy air filled Ishaan’s lungs as he found it harder to breathe, but he couldn’t start walking. He was already 15 minutes late and Arjit would never forgive him if he missed even a single word. As a young but single dad, Ishaan had a difficult time juggling his residency with taking care of his son, but he never wanted to disappoint Arjit and wanted to be there for every step of his childhood. The Annual Elmer Elementary School Spelling Bee was today and Ishaan had promised to be there from start to finish.
He entered the school and heard faint applause coming from the schools’ large auditorium. He sprinted through the empty halls, the heels of his Bostonians’ making a loud clack with every step. Elmer Elementary School was no small school; around 1800 little children were studying here from Kindergarten to 5th grade. The school was vast in size and was widely recognized as having some of the finest teachers in the state. The Spelling Bee was advertised and promoted heavily, and some local news stations had come to broadcast the event. Unfortunately, Ishaan was on call the night before and had little time to arrive back home, change his clothes to look presentable, get a strong cup of coffee from his Keurig before dashing out.
He finally reached the auditorium, which was filled to the brim with anxious and proud parents, praying for their kids’ victory. He squeezed past some reporters and photographers at the back of the auditorium, all of whom were speaking softly into the camera in order to not disrupt the small geniuses on stage, and found an empty seat behind almost all the other parents. However, before sitting down, he made eye contact with Arjit on stage, shooting him a reassuring smile and a thumbs up. Arjit replied with a beaming grin, as his name was called for the next word.
Ishaan thought to himself, “Hopefully his first word is easy; something like ‘potato’ to get him started off easy.” He glanced around him hoping to catch the attention of some of Arjit’s classmates’ parents, but mostly it was Melissa who he wanted to see. Ishaan had been single for a while now and had seen Melissa at Arjit’s 10th birthday party a couple weeks back. He instantly admired everything about her. Being another single parent, Melissa was a dentist and a coach for the elementary soccer team, in which both Melissa’s son Frank and Arjit played in. He had finally worked up the courage to ask her out the weekend before and the dinner had gone great. As he reminisced about the date, Arjit was given his first word: ‘proposition’.
“A piece of cake for Arjit,” thought Ishaan as he relaxed and took off his coat, scarf and gloves. The man who was sitting in front of Ishaan shuffled in his seat a bit, before standing up and excusing himself to those around him. He walked down to the center aisle before making his way towards the stage.
“Probably getting a close up picture of the kids,” said someone sitting adjacent to Ishaan. The man walked all the way up to the stage and suddenly, did something no one expected. He hoisted himself on the stage, to the protest and jeers of many of the parents. Arjit had just finished spelling his word correctly and was on his way back to his seat when he saw the man get on stage. He turned to face the man as the walked closer to him. He knelt on the floor in front of Arjit and started unbuttoning his peacoat. As he did, Arjit’s face changed from an expression of curiosity into fear, as the man revealed a bomb strapped to his chest.
The man closed his eyes as he opened his hand to reveal a trigger. Parents were shouting and yelling in fear, and some attempted to run towards the stage to rescue their kids or subdue the man. But nothing mattered after the man pressed the button. All Ishaan heard last was his son screaming “Papa!”, as he got thrown back from his seat and the world turned to black.