The Aladdin on the Toilet:Volume 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Cracks

No sooner had I got on the bus heading back home from school did I understood the seriousness of the matter.

There was a strange crack stretching at the west sky under the setting sun. It was a long black line accompanied with two shorter black lines at either side of it. It looked like as if a small crack on the sky. Nevertheless, the weirdest thing was that the black line extended to the setting sun, so the whole picture of the sky looked like a crack on a painting with the sun as its main theme.

I took my hand and waved it a few times in front of my eyes to see if it was a black line sticking on my hair or my eyelashes. Honestly, this small line was hard to guess its distance from me. It just hung on the sky, not moving an inch no matter how the wind blows it, and just somehow got there, even though it didn't really have any effect on your life.

"Hey! Can you see it?"

I lightly pushed the girl beside me. She was a female student of 160 centimetres with a ponytail. On her adorable face were limpid big eyes, long eyelashes, and a delicate nose. I thought if any boy were to stand in my position, they would become elated for standing near this beautiful girl.

This was the only problem: she was my sister.

"See what?"

My sister, with her head lowered to memorise English words, sulkily lifted up her head. Honestly, even though we study in the same school, we would avoid each other on the road back home if we could. There wasn't a special reason for this: we just simply want to be with our classmates. After all, we had talked about everything we need to after living with each other in the same house for so many years. So meeting her today was a rare occasion.

"That's it! Look closely. There's a crack on the sun!"

I pointed to the sun outside the window, but the scene stayed only for two seconds for the bus had travelled into a hustling street, and a high-rise building blocked the sun.

My sister didn't even want to respond to me and kept her head low, memorising English words.

I heaved a sigh and turned my head. I spotted a few male students spying at my sister. This was not uncommon, as this sister of mine, two years younger than me, had inherited the beauty and the white skin that my mother had at her youth—of course limited to her youth. If our school were to choose a few beauty queens, my sister would be the first, if not the third at the worst. It was only her bad attitude—at least to her sister, that is—that was inversely proportional to her beauty.

Be that as it may, our relationship when we were small was very close, like usual siblings. My sister had also once said that she wanted to marry her big brother when she grew up. However, when she was a bit older, I, her brother, had gradually become her sandbags for punches and kicks. To be honest, it was also hard for me to imagine that the little girl who always walk behind me and cry all the time was now a beautiful young girl with ponytails and a glamorous appearance.

Nevertheless, talking back to the topic where we had left off, what was going on with the crack? I looked behind me, but the oil lamp genie that came out from the toilet wasn't at my side now, for I thoughtlessly made a wish: "I'm so thirsty. I want something to drink." And after Ammonia gave me a cup of white gourd tea, he used up off his stamina and disappeared. I would have to to rub the toilet next time I go to the washroom for him to reappear.

Alas! If he was still here, I could at least ask him what was this all about.

Although that crack didn't seem to have any influence on the world, I couldn't help looking at it, especially when the sun was gradually setting and hiding itself beneath the roofs of a row of houses, the crack still stayed at its original position, as if there was a piece of glass floating in the sky.

"Why would anyone not notice such a strange thing?"

I scratched my head, and it occurred to me that it wasn't really that unnatural. From the view of most people, this wouldn't affect their normal lives. They may expect the media or the news to make a special report for it. Or even they may speculate that their eyes were deceiving them.

I suddenly began to regret making a dumb wish that made Ammonia to disappear. After all, today was Friday, and I would most likely not go to school in the following two days to 'scrub the toilet'. Perhaps letting that guy to stay at my side would make my weekend a bit more fun.

—

My home was close to the school, so I arrived to the station I needed to get off in less than twenty minutes' bus drive. I took my schoolbag, got off the bus and walked into an alley with my sister.

"Hey, you really can't see the crack in the sky?"

I couldn't hold myself from asking.

My sister furrowed her brow, lifted her head, looking at the direction my finger was pointing.

"Now you mention it...there's really a black line there."

She blinked her big eyes covered with long eyelashes, and stretched her hand to scratch her forehead a few times, much like what I did before on the bus.

Seeing her reaction, I said excitedly, "Yeah! It has been hanging there from just then."

"Oh."

"Oh? That's it?"

"That's it. What else could it be?" my sister seemed uninterested.

"Don't you think this is serious? It could be a space-time rift!"

A multitude of frightening scenes streamed into my mind: invasion of aliens, opening of the door that leads to another world, faults in experiments that scientists had made which produced a small black hole that would lead to armageddon...

"Bro, you've read too much manga." my sister picked up her pace to allude the message "walking with this guy is so embarrassing'. Then she continued, "It isn't a big deal. It won't be part of an exam. Moreover, things in sci-fi novels and fairy tails don't exist. By the same rule, there won't be any oil lamp genie in your real lives no matter how hard we rub an oil lamp."

"Is it so?"

I scratched my head, feeling helpless. I was unsure whether rubbing an oil lamp could call forth a lamp genie, but rubbing a toilet sure would.

But my sister was right about something—if this was as serious I had been thinking it was, wouldn't it be reported in the news? Nevertheless, perhaps there were already too many eccentricities in our lives that we had become used to seeing them.

When I was still running wild with my imagination, my sister and I had already arrived home.

Before I stepped into the house, I turned my head back to have a glance at the crack in the sky.

"If it was really serious, wouldn't it be reported in the news?"

I said to myself as I closed the door.

After that, it was reported in the news.

When we were having dinner, my father turned on the television. The anchor of the news report reported the news with a quick tone, "...Some citizens are claiming that there are strange cracks in their homes. The strangest thing is that these cracks float in mid-air! A reporter inquired the construction companies and they said these cracks have nothing to do with their construction work."

On the screen, a housewife with her face blurred led a reporter in front of a window in the living room. The maximized shot revealed a crack of fifteen to sixteen centimetres in length on the piece of glass.

"It's only a broken piece of glass!"

My sister couldn't help saying in front of the television.

The housewife pushed the window to a side, and a strange thing occurred: the crack didn't move along with the window and remained at its original floating position.

"Holy, this is too strange!"

My sister quickly amended her comment.

"Beside this resident, the reporter had also interviewed some other residents nearby, and discovered that these residents also had similar cracks that 'float in mid-air'. When the reporter inquired the neighbourhood magistrate there, he said that there were an increasing number of residents telling them this event since last night. There were also cracks in parks of small districts, some even in far skies."

After the reporter had finished saying that, the camera switched to the setting sun on the sky, and there was a vague black line in front of the red burning sun.

"Look! That's it!" I cried excitedly. My mum said while she bit her chopsticks, "This is so strange."

My sister picked up the remote control and switched to other channels, finding out other channels were also broadcasting this event. According to their report, these 'cracks' spread around everywhere like an infectious disease. However, these cracks weren't large and no one and no buildings had been hurt and damaged respectively. As such, the reporters didn't really report it with a sense of nervousness; instead, they took it as something funny.

"Look! I told you long ago!" though I tried to accentuate, no one in my family seemed to care.

"What a strange thing. Who knows what that is."

My sister turned off the television, took care of the dishes on the table with the family, and returned to her room. My mother and father went to the bedroom and the working room respectively.

"Ah..."

I looked at the blank kitchen, feeling dismayed. This was obviously a strange thing, yet why did everyone take it as something funny? Was it something so trivial that wouldn't leave a mark once it had passed?

"Forget it." I heaved a sigh and returned to my room to seriously investigate the reference books that were embedded with mangas,

—

And so, from Friday night to the weekdays, I lived like usual: watched the television for half of the afternoon, did two hours of exam papers which still left me at the first page, and played basketball in the evening. The world continued to rotate normally as if nothing had ever happened and no one felt something had gone wrong.