The little island had two major divides.

The first was the community that depended on the sea for their source of income. Part of them were fishermen, who went into the sea, caught what they could and sold them to the factory which processed seafood and exported. The remaining part worked in the factory preferring the manual labor to the arduous sea trips.

The second was the community that depended on coconut farming and export. Same as fishing there were two groups, one group farmed and other group worked in the factory that processed the coconuts and exported.

Close to the shore, the farmers and fishermen families lived. The center of the island had the schools and shops and the factories. The surrounding areas are occupied by the factory employees and other assorted public.

Xie was from the assorted public, his dad was a pilot who manned the plane for the coconut factory –Nuto. His mom was an elementary school teacher. He was also an only son to the couple, who decided that they couldn't handle more than one. But that had made Xie, who he was. He was always looking out to make friends. He often watched his friends with three or four siblings and got an ache in his heart, and that made him get more friends. 

Most of the boys in his grade were his friends. Few boys from other grades too. But it never satisfied him. He didn't even know why he kept trying to befriend everyone.

But Xie was happy with the outcome of his decision to give a ride to Weang. Xie knew him, he was in a different class and never stayed back to play after school like other boys. So Xie never got a chance to talk to him.

Not anymore. 

When they reached the school, the first bell went off.

"Thank you." Weang said with a slight smile. He was glad his shirt was longer. The urge to pump had reduced but he didn't want to stay here and give the other boy any reason to find out.

"You got it. Wait for me here after school. I'll give you a ride home." Xie grinned while parking the bike.

"Oh, I..no.. it's alright." Weang didn't know how to say no without sounding rude. But he couldn't repeat this. It's better if he walked alone like always. So that if it happened again he could hide somewhere and pump.

"No... no... see you later. Bye, Wei..." Xie took off, not giving Weang any opening to reject his offer.

****

"Can we walk? I like walking." Weang said with a small hope that Xie would agree to roll his bike and walk. In truth he didn't like walking that much. The bike ride had been really cool, if only not for his disease, he would prefer it.

Xie was more than happy to agree. Walking meant more time to talk and befriend Wei. "Sure. I like walking too." In truth he didn't. But that's how he made friends. Agree with the other person's interests and likes and dislikes, that's the secret to making friends. 

So both the boys started walking, even though they both disliked the activity, they were content with it. They walked along the side of the road, where the foot traffic was more and the going was slow.

"You're always alone. Why?" Xie asked curious to know how anyone could be alone in school.

"Donno." Wei shrugged. It's a sour subject and he didn't want to talk about it.

"Don't you have friends?" Xie continued, not satisfied with the reply.

"Some. My friends don't come to school, they go to the sea." Wie said. He was the only boy in the whole grade from his side of the town. It made him feel odd and out of place. He longed to go to the sea instead of school but both his parents were against it. They wanted a better life for him. Now Wei wondered if he had any life left, better or otherwise.

"Oh, you from the east shore town?" Xie asked, finally connecting the dots. 

"Yeah." Wei said and ducked his chin, embarrassed. He didn't know why he felt ashamed but the boys at school made him feel lesser than them. After they figured out he was an east shore boy, they smiled at him weirdly and stopped talking with him. Elementary school hadn't been this bad, he had friends from his street. But none came to middle school. Now that he knew, Xie would stop talking too.

"Did you hear about the ghost in restrooms?" Xie asked, sensing Wei's discomfort.

"What ghost?"  Wei asked, relieved that Xie still wanted to talk with him.

"The girl ghost? Don't you know?" Xie couldn't believe that someone didn't hear the story. It was all anyone talked the whole day.

"No. What happened?" Wei was suitably curious. He loved ghost stories.

"This ghost is a girl of our age when she died. One of our school boys took her on a boat ride and pushed her into the sea. Now she is taking revenge on all the boys by hiding in the restrooms and screaming at them and stopping them from peeing." Xie himself was scared to go to the bathroom now.

Wei laughed. His upper body shook and his mouth was wide open. Xie's gaze landed on the gap after the top left canine of said mouth.

Somehow the missing tooth made the laugh more genuine in Xie's opinion. If he didn't have a tooth he wouldn't laugh at simple jokes and show the hole in his mouth voluntarily. Which meant the scary ghost story was not scary at all for Wei.

"What's funny?" Xie asked, smiling a little, that he made his new friend laugh, albeit for reasons unknown.

"It's not a ghost. Someone's playing a prank." Wei said surprised that Xie had fallen for a flat story.

"How do you know? Don't you believe in ghosts?"

"You have to be eighteen to take a boat into the sea. Do you know of anyone who was eighteen and still was in eighth grade?"

"Maybe long back, when there's no such rule, he took the boat." Xie said.

"Well, do you know when the school was built? The rule was made a hundred years ago. It's there in the public library gazette. My dad took me to show it." When Wei had cried that he wanted a boat.

"Um.. I don't know. But what if that's where the bad boy's house was? Before they built the school?" Xie wasn't ready to accept that a boy had played everyone a fool by telling a stupid, logically unsound story. He prided himself for his analytical skills. This was a hit to said pride.

"Ok. Where do you live?" Wei asked, feeling superior and important. 

"Middle town."

That explained his lack of knowledge to Wei. Middle towners didn't know a thing about the sea or ghosts it seemed. "Have you ever gone on a boat?"

"No."

"Then why do you think someone whose house was in the smack center would have taken a boat out alone with a girl?" Wei asked, spreading his hands and shaking his head.

"Huh. So you don't believe in ghosts?" Xie asked deflated.

Wei chuckled. "I believe in ghosts. I just don't believe your fake ghost story." 

"Do you know a real ghost story?" Xie challenged.

"Yes. There are many. I can even show you one."

"WHAT!" Xie was genuinely shocked by the statement, which didn't sound like a joke.

Wei laughed again. "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

"Are you not?"

"They're mostly lost souls. I'll show you the friendliest of the ghosts. Okay?" Wei was thrilled with the idea of finally having a friend from school with whom he could spend time with. Maybe that would take his mind off of his disease. All his play mates were busy and he rarely got to see them. What with them leaving in the evening and coming back in the morning.

"No way. No, no, no." Xie shook his head frantically, dislodging his neatly combed hair in all directions.

Wei patted his shoulder, entertained. "Relax. I won't."

"It's not that I'm very afraid. I just don't take unknown risks. Or... oh I've to go this way. Can I drop you off somewhere?" Xie asked, he didn't even realize they had walked this far. The road was deserted, no school students around.

"It's alright." Wei wasn't getting on the bike.

"I can pick you up tomorrow?" Xie wasn't letting him go without cementing their friendship.

"It's alright."

"Why? We can ride together daily. You can tell me ghost stories." Xie wiggled his eyebrows, "real, non fake ghost stories."

Wei liked the idea for many reasons. He was badly in need of a friend. Telling ghost stories was his favorite pastime. Especially to kids who were afraid of ghosts. "Um... mornings won't work. What about evenings?  Can we walk like this?" It wasn't bad, walking with Xie.

"Done." Xie gave a thumbs up and grinned before pedaling away.

That night both boys thought of the other.

One was alone in his room, bundled up in his bed. He thought about his laugh with the missing tooth and smiled.

One was squeezed between his parents on the floor mat and thought about the middle town boy who went out of his way and made Wei–an east shore boy his friend.

**** End of Chapter Two ****