Page 100 - Musings 2021

Russell confided in them despite not knowing them personally and told them about the things
he had been going through at home. Russell’s father was very strict and used to beat him
whenever he got low marks in school. But he explained that the reason he got low marks in
school was because his classmates used to bully him and because of that he was not in a good
state of mind. They used to steal his lunch and abuse and beat him in school. He tried to tell
his parents, but they would not listen to him. He even tried to reach out to a teacher, but she
went on to inform his parents and nothing came out of it. He had no friends with whom he
could share this and no siblings who could stand up for him. He was caught in a dreadful
cycle which made him feel as though life was not worth living. His only escape was this
game which helped him forget all his worries.

The two boys, barely teenagers, on hearing this, did not know how to react. They knew that
the life of someone was at stake so they could not act irrationally. Somehow, they had to deal
with the situation and offer help despite having zero knowledge about how to do it. Nate,
being the more understanding of the two, proceeded to encourage him to try to see how life
has so much beauty in it. That there is so much more for life to offer besides all the hardships
Russell has had to endure. He tried to think of every movie which had some similar event in
it and copied the encouraging lines from that, hoping it would help bring about a change of
mind for Russell. He stayed up the rest of the night keeping Russell Company because he
knew just how fragile the situation was.

He kept the conversation going for about 2 hours, desperately trying to keep Russell’s mind
from wandering into darkness. They talked about their hobbies, favourite food items and
anything else that came to Nate’s head. Upon reaching the end of their conversation, Nate
told Russell that no matter what the circumstances, nothing is worthy of warranting death and
that, in case Russell ever wanted a friend to talk to and cry with, he will always have one, all
the way across the world in Kochi, India. On seeing that, Russell felt ecstatic and thanked
Nate for the company and for being a good friend. They both said their goodbyes and logged
off their devices. The time was 4 AM and Nate was beyond sleepy, but he knew he had done
the right thing. Keeping this in mind, he shut his heavy eyes, eternally grateful to God for
having given him a beautiful family and an amazing set of friends.

Nate proceeded to go about his normal life but did ponder many times how Russell was doing
and if his situation had improved or not. But to his surprise the next day, Russell had deleted
his Instagram account and was not to be found in the clan chat in the game. Nate hoped his
friend was okay but there was no way of finding out. To this day, Nate hopes he did his best
in preventing certain misfortune to a certain someone and that this someone leads a truly
different and better life now.

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