BLOG THE SHANTARAM ENTERPRISES BLOG by Shantaram the Magician himself!     Blog #9 Shantaram the Magician and the Story of Tami the Failure   "Come on Tami, you were three feet away from the basket ball hoop!" A whistle was blown, "Alright girls, go change and get ready for your next class." Tami was horrible at almost everything, from sports to arithmetic. She was failing out of school, and didn't have much going on for her. She stepped outside of the gym, after changing into her regular school clothes. The sunshine was glistening off of the cement, causing steam to evaporate the mist off of the pavement. The steam was opaque and reassuring that the sunshine was out to stay. Tami walked to her next class.   "Tami, did you complete your Spanish homework?" This was the first question asked to Tami as she entered her Spanish II class. "Didn't think so, that's a detention." After Tami's fourth period class, she walked to her detention class. She opened the door to the class where she was to serve detention. Her Spanish II teacher, whom was a female, with long dark hair, wore glasses, and was of medium height, with a slim figure, was awaiting Tami's arrival. Tami sat down at one of the random desks, and zipped open her backpack, she had a pin on her backpack, that said vote for Obama, the pin was unattached and poked Tami in the finger as she unzipped the bag. Tami cursed as the pin pricked her finger. A sense of pain entered her whole body. Not only from the needle puncturing her finger, but also the fact that she was in detention for the 20th time, and it was only half way through the school year.   The bell rang, Ring! Tami zipped up her bag, and exited the classroom. As Tami zipped up her bag she noticed something unusual, something strange and peculiar. There was a note in her back pack. She put the note in her pocket as she had to get to the next class before she got another detention for being late. Tami rushed to her next class; the building for the classroom was far away. Tami tripped and all of her items fell out of her backpack. The zipper had come undone. All her items fell over the ground. The other kids laughed at Tami, "Ha, Ha Tami you're such a klutz," shouted some of the other children at her. This was her usual day. She received another detention for being late to the next class.   Tami rushed home after school. "Tami how was school?" her mother asked her. Before Tami answered she ran up stairs, and slammed her door, and blasted rock music in her room.   "Tami it's time for dinner," Tami's stomach growled as her mother called her down for dinner. She hadn't eaten all day, due to the detention she had that day at school.   Tami waltzed down the stairs into the dining room. She removed her chair from the table, the chair screeched, as it was slid out from behind the table. She promptly sat down, and began to eat her dinner. "Say grace now honey, you need to thank God for that food on your plate." Tami was tired and hungry and didn't want to say grace, but she granted her mother's wish, and said grace. Then she wolfed down her food, and headed up to bed.   As she lay in bed, the crickets chirped, and the moon was shown brightly through her bedroom window. She could hear the hooting of an owl. The garbage truck came and got her trash, this kept her up for sometime too. She fell asleep at about 12:35 p.m. that night.   "Tami! It's time for school!" shouted her mother. Tami really didn't want to go to school that day. Her mother dropped her off at school.   As Tami entered her first period P.E. class, which she hated, she found out that they had a substitute teacher. "Where's Mr. Gates?" asked Tami. Mr. Gates was the P.E. teacher; he was one of the rudest teachers in the world. He was mean, and only liked the popular girls and boys.   "Didn't you read the newspaper Tami? Mr. Gates has been abducted." One of Tami's classmates handed her a newspaper. On the front page it showed a picture of Mr. Gates, and it said Paul Gates has been abducted! It was a free for all in the classroom as everyone was in shock that Mr. Gates had mysteriously vanished.   Tami had put on the same pants that she had worn the night before, and remembered about the note. She reached into her pocket, and retrieved the note; there was some grey lint on the note that was crumpled up and in her pocket. She un-crumpled the note and it read, “be at 1322 Shantaram's way tomorrow!” She realized that tomorrow was actually today. Tami was curious about what was happening at this particular place. Shantaram's way was a poorer part of town, where low income people lived.   Tami went to her detention, and didn't get anymore detentions that day. Tami asked if she could use the phone to call her mother. Tami was granted her wish. She dialed her mother's number, and lied to her mother, and said she was going to study for a Spanish test with one of her colleagues.   The end of the day school bell rang and Tami rushed out of school. She got a taxi and said, "Sir I need to go to 1322 Shantaram's way." It started raining. The rain pelted down on the windshield. The wipers were working overtime to eliminate the water that was accruing on the windshield. There was a loud bolt of lightning that rattled the “Jack in the Box” ball on top of the antenna on the taxi. The taxi stopped at 1322 Shantaram's way, she opened the door to the taxi and stepped in a puddle. Her shoes were saturated in water.   "Thanks sir!" she gave the taxi man his money and proceeded to walk up to the door of the house. She walked up to the porch, a spider was moving closely to a fly in a web. The fly's wings were flapping and could be heard as a buzzing sound. The spider's legs moved creepily, and caught the fly and started tearing it to pieces. Another bolt of lightning was heard, and a flash of lighting struck through the air. The rain was pouring down in the street behind Tami. A small fluffy white cat had a baby kitten in her mouth carrying her baby kitten to the rest of her kittens underneath the house. Tami stepped up to the moldy, musty, mystifying door.   The door was opened, and out stepped a lady, so grotesque and utterly ugly. She had bumps all over her face and down her neck. Puss was coming out of some of the bumps on her face. She was small and had glasses on. Tami smiled at the lady. The lady said, "Welcome, can you please enter my home?" Tami proceeded to walk into the house of the old woman. The house smelled of cat urine. The rug was covered in stains. There were books, and cd's cluttering the house. The house was distasteful in every imaginable way.   "Please sit down," the woman asked Tami to sit. Tami sat down in front of an old television.   "I go for walks in your neighborhood that is how I know you. I trust that you will find this to a suitable person." Tami was handed an old vhs tape. "What's on this tape?" asked Tami. The old women took the tape out of Tami's hands and proceeded to put it into the vcr. As the tape entered the vcr, and played the screen was a little fuzzy, she picked up an busted up, brown stick, and slammed it on top of the vcr as to get the signal right.   The tape showed Mr. Gates on his break at fourth period, he was eating a sandwich when all of a sudden a man took his Mr. Gate's head and slammed Mr. Gate's head down hard on the desk. It then showed the man's face who abducted Mr. Gates, in plain view.   "How did you get this tape miss?" asked Tami "Never you mind that, just make sure this tape gets to the proper authority." Tami exited the house, the door squeaked shut behind Tami. Tami had the power in her hands to save Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates was utterly horrible to Tami, had given her many detentions. The picture on the tape would instantly pin point who was behind the abduction of Mr. Gates. Tami knew this. Tami stuffed the tape in her bag.   ... ... Tami made it home, and put the tape in her vcr at home. The tape continued to play where it had left off, with Mr. Gates' getting dragged out of his office. Another man opened up Mr. Gate's desk, and it was shown on the video that the man pulled out a vile filled with some kind of substance. Tami observed the vile being pulled out of Mr. Gates' desk, the man took the vile, and tilted it upside down, to make sure whatever was inside of it would remain intact.   Tami did the right thing and called the police, and showed the police the tape the next day. The men on the tape were instantly targeted, they were known in the town. They were Mormons and would walk door to door teaching people about their religion.   "Two men were caught today, after a young girl whom we can't name, released video footage of Paul Gates' abductees. Gates is at home now with his family. His nose is bandaged up do to an injury, but he will be fine." The local news was playing on everyone's television in the local town.   3 months later . . .   "A serious virus has infected the entire nation. The cause is unknown and people are dying at an increasing rate."   You see if Tami would have never pricked her finger on the needle on her backpack, noticed the note, lied to her mother about where she was going, entered the taxi, found the old lady, got the video tape, released the video tape to the police, Mr. Gates wouldn't have released a deathly toxin into the earth's atmosphere killing off half of the population.   Tami you're just a FAILURE!!   Regards Shantaram Laurence Jones     Choose another Blog Back to Blog Central