He was a secondary student, heading to take the O-levels in the year. And he abhorred to take the O-levels. His parents' interminable harsh badger of acquiring good academic results to get into a good junior college had irked him so much. It was almost impossible to assuage both of them when they found faults on everything he did no matter how hard he had tried. Feeling vexed and hankering after freedom, he ran away from home.
He stayed at a train station building for a week until his father found him there. His father was intensely incensed, his face was creased in anger and he spewed vulgarity through his gritted teeth. He clutched Don's arm so tightly as if he was about to break his bone and raised his other arm to aim a slap on his face. Don was very scared by him and thrust him away before the attack. He raced through the crowd and slid into a train just before the door closed while his father was barging through the commuters.
After 3 months had past, he was now living in the alley between the backside of a massive shopping mall and the brick wall with the arms of the tree overhanging to shelter him from the scorching sun and rain. He would go out to street to beg for money from the shoppers or salvage something out from abandoned materials like the mattress and always slept or rested at the alley.
Few metres away from him, there was the blind man, sitting on newspapers. He always wore a cap, a mask, a singlet and a pair of sunglasses and trousers. He came to the alley since a month ago. Strangely, at the alley where few people passed, he could collect large sum of money. His tray in front of him was invariably full of notes - sometimes even 50 dollar notes while all Don earned on the street was a few
coins. He could be said to be the latter's life-saver. As he was blind, Don could take some money from the tray without noticing him and buy meals whenever he was hungry. On these days, he even bought some proper clothes and went to swimming complex to take shower.
However, all the money in his piggy-bank was from his own work. He did not want to take advantage of the old blind man for everything and thought he could provide himself with transport fees at least.
He was going home, tomorrow.
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<part 2>
--------------------------------------------If he reached home, he could end this rueful vagrant life finally. He would beg his parents for forgiveness and retake the O-levels to start a new life. The can was almost full but Don was afraid that it may not be enough if he would get lost in the sophisticated transport system. The sun had settled down and he got up to go to the street again.
He knelt down on the street with his two hands gathered together on the ground. Abruptly, he felt his shoulders being pulled up. He faced two policemen and a furious manager.
"We seek you for cooperation," one of the policemen said.
At the police station, the manager complained that despite of the constant warnings to stop coming to the street in the vicinity of the shopping mall, the vagrant continued to beg the shoppers for money and that deterred them from the mall. Don was aware of the warnings but took little notice of them as it was only work that a vagrant could do. He wanted to argue but felt too impotent to do so.
Don was charged of disruption of business and was to pay $300 of fine or be jailed. He was in distress. I want to go home! I want to go home tomorrow! The same thought raced through his mind. But there was still a way out.
He went back to the alley and hooked fistful of notes from the blind man's tray. He bought a penknife and a portable lamp. At that night, he planted the lamp adjacent to the blind man and waited at the blind corner of the alley for ambush.
Around midnight, he finally spotted a silhouette of a woman refilling the tray with handful of money.
When she was leaving, he sneaked behind her back. He slipped the penknife around her neck to threaten her to surrender her money but was thwarted by a shout behind his back.
"NO, DON!"
The blind man pounced on him unexpectedly. Startled Don swung the knife involuntarily to fend off the sudden attack. The man's heavy body collapsed onto the ground. As the latter's head hit the ground, the sunglasses and the cap overturned from his face .
The light from the lamp shone on his father's face.
Blood dyed the alley red.
His mother's scream rang in his ear from behind.
Whoa..that was a shocking twist at the end.
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