The Invisible Man

It was when I was in class four that the year was 1992, and krackjack biscuits were all the rage that I fell in love with a girl.

At the age of 12, one’s heart is still tender with your brain still knitting its lobes that you discover an extraordinary taste for biscuits. In 1992, krackjack biscuits went very well with our class four taste buds.

Students with rich parents would buy krackjack biscuits and send them over to their best girls. And the best girls, in turn, would give them their best smiles that made the boys think they owned a fraction of the world, which was hardly true.

Boy, that was some age! For the rich little guys, though…

On a Tuesday afternoon with the sun high up in the sky, class four students were out in the open with the Dzongkha teacher telling tales of pancakes and old folks.

I, for one, didn’t agree so well with the sun and the heat. I would go all red in the face and sweat to some acceptable degrees that I almost hated my Dzongkha teacher.

A girl named Rinzin in my class was quite a beauty that eased my hatred towards my Dzongkha teacher during such sun-outings.

I always dreamt of buying her krackjack biscuits… only money saved me from doing it…

One day, a rich friend of mine called me, pushed a packet of krackjack biscuit into my gho, and whispered in my ears to give it to my beautiful Rinzin from him.

And there, my dreams of buying her krackjack biscuits faltered like a thousand bees in agitation in my ears and saw stars on broad daylight...

I walked towards my Rinzin, gave her the biscuits, and pretended to whisper something into her ears. She looked at my rich friend and smiled at me.

And that is how I earned my first krackjack smile…