Summer Rhapsody

Helen 黄富莎 220111226

Once more, I was pulled back to that time with such vividness—the desk and chair beneath me, the classmates beside me, the blackboard and chalk on the teacher’s podium. Everything was so meticulously detailed and utterly real. How could I have spotted the flaw, realized it was all just a dream?

This marks the third year. The third year since we, my high school classmates and I, finished the college entrance examination and scattered to separate paths. Every year, the college entrance examination descends with such overwhelming energy: families, each with their own distinct habits, atmospheres, and circumstances, unite and mobilize with enthusiasm, preparing together for the exam.

This time, I would ride the time machine of Doraemon, transform into that pen from the college entrance examination classroom three years ago, and relive the examination in 2022 from a third-person perspective.

It was on June 7th, 2022, a sweltering afternoon. A girl’s hand gripped me tightly. I could feel the atmosphere crackled with tension—her palm sweaty, her heartbeat rapid against my plastic body. As long as the bell rang, she grasped me instantly and began writing furiously across the exam paper.

Yet, when she reached a certain math problem, she froze. I felt her hand turn cold, holding me suspended in mid-air, quite still. Dread washed over me. But then she began twirling me. Though it made me dizzy, it seemed to calm her slightly.

Time raced. Sweat silently streamed down her face and dripped onto the paper, blooming into a small, dark bloom. However, she was not affected. She gripped me tighter and kept writing, her answers flowing steadily beside the damp stain. The bell rang again, and the exam was over. Looking at the mingled traces of sweat and ink on the paper, I suddenly understood: This little pen, that was me, had recorded her calmness and conviction in the face of pressure. What else could I be but her comrade-in-arms!

Summer cicadas still buzz,

Seasons roll on as seasons must,

Life persists through dust and rust—

Whatever the outcome may be,

Let’s set out on a journey to the mountains and seas, wild and free.