German Boy

Chapter 5: Encyclopedia

They went home that night and I watched them get out of their orange car. The three girls first went out and Ven followed them.

His hair was held down, and his skin was as bright as the clouds above us.

Though it was nighttime, I realized at that time that I liked him so much only for his looks.

But I reminded myself that because he was very grumpy, I hated him.

Partially.

The way he ignored everyone and everything around him was just so cute for a kid. He looked my age, but because he never played with us and never talked to my playmates, they thought he was old.

Like ten years old or nine.

But he was the same height as me.

It was wonderful to see how nice his family was except for him. But that didn't matter. Because of all those times, he had no choice but to be nice to me as well since his parents wanted him to.

It was a consequence of having a very kind family.

****

Sofia and I were supposed to be in our summer class our parents signed us up for saying it would have helped us to get familiar with the lessons the other day to that but instead, we were playing outside our house. So they had no options left but to cancel and adjust it to some other time.

But, Sofia went home early since they had a visitor so I was left there all alone. I played by myself with my dolls and houses on the bench in front of our home. I was there for a long time until my eyes widened when I saw Ven getting out of their house and sitting on the staircase of their garden.

He was holding a book that had a hardcover. It was blue. And I saw pictures of animals with flowers drawn on them. I was curious so I left my toys and walked to his spot.

Just as he saw me walking toward him, he immediately frowned and then rolled his eyes. I sat next to him. No one permitted me to be in their surroundings, but I was a little innocent kid who knew nothing about trespassing stuff and such rules, so I couldn't care less.

He set off all his attention on the book he was reading. As a child, I didn't think if I would look like a fool or if I would do something embarrassing. I looked at the cover of it by tilting my head.

The look on his face showed how annoyed he was with what I did. But for me, it was nothing. It was very normal in my opinion.

"What are you reading?" I asked with lines drawn on my forehead.

"Encyclopedia." I frowned; It was the first time I heard that word.

I thought it was a coloring book, storybook, pop-up, or something like that because of the animals, and plants on its cover.

He turned it to the next page and laid his eyes all on it. The way his eyes moved showed how fast he read all the long sentences written on it. "What's an Encyclopedia?"

I guess he was completely annoyed by me which made him roll his eyes again and shut the book which almost made me fall for it startled me.

"Do you even go to school?" He grumpily asked. I nodded.

"Yeah-" he cut my words off.

"Then why don't you know what a freaking encyclopedia is?" Should I have taken that as an insult? Because I didn't. I thought he was asking me a serious question just with a grumpy tone of voice.

"It's the first time I heard of it." I partially smiled throughout his grumpiness.

"Ugh!" He reacted.

"Tell me what is it then!" I requested.

He looked at me with the eyes telling me something such as 'why are you asking me this stupid little question?'

It wasn't a question.

It was an inquiry.

There's a difference.

When you ask a question, it means you don't know the answer or you're concerned about it. But when you inquire, you ask for confirmation of your knowledge.

And I inquired.

"Fine: An encyclopedia is a book filled with factual research information about animals, plants, humans, biodiversity, climate change, and more. Now, do you get it?" I nodded though I didn't understand a thing about those he mentioned.

He was like a human Google after saying that statement. But a little bit of a crankier version, I guess?

A little less friendly than the voiceovers we hear on Google.

"Great!" He emotionlessly said.

I scratched my head.

He got me there for a moment.

I looked like an uneducated kid because of the amount of knowledge he had.

"Can we play?" I asked out of the blue.

I couldn't relate to the current conversation because I knew nothing about encyclopedias and clever stuff at that time. So I tried to change the topic and leaned it on something I was interested in.

"Can't you see? I'm reading here!" He complained with a shake of his head as a show of disappointment.

"Come on! You can read that some other time! We should play first before summer comes to an end!" I convinced him.

"Play by yourself, I don't even know you!" He kept reading as if I wasn't there beside him.

"You don't know me, huh?" I smiled. "I am Jaraiah, six years old. Now you know me! So can we play now?"

I guess I was also smart for doing that.

"Well, you don't know me," he was so much smarter.

"Let's try to make it work out. Ven, right?" He looked at me from the book with a frown. Probably wondering how I got his name.

"How old are you?"

I got him there for a moment. I was able to make him answer. "Eight."

Then I became the one to frown. "Wait, what? You're eight? So you're older than me?" He nodded. I fixed my glasses and asked another question thinking it was the first and last time he would answer me for being too cranky.

"Why are you here in Australia when you're German?"

"I'm here for summer with my grandparents." Another lesson about him that I learned.