Short story

On the street

Malon was sitting on the pavement of the Merryland Street, in a dark corner, eating a piece of bread with a little packet of jam he bought from the shop. The day has been a very bad day for him as it was raining all day and he didn't see much people who were willing to throw money to the beggars.

He looked at the food and gave a look of unsatisfaction. He often thought of the food they had at home. He was the only child of a middle class family. When his parents died he wasted all his money on drugs as it was his favourite past time since he left school. He was rehabilitated by the police.

It is one week since he came out of the rehabilitation centre. He had no place to go and his relations too refused to even admit that they know him. So he had no other option and was left with the only choice of becoming a beggar.

He was lazy ever since he was a child. He didn't do anything right, he took everything for granted. Even though he is around twenty eight now never in his life has he done a job or tried to earn a living.

He was used to living without doing anything. That is why he thought that it is easier to live begging and robbing than to earn money and try to build up his already torn life. He said to himself "there's no one, to be with me, or for me to live for and after all who's going to give me a job".

He never had a good academic report; he was always so careless and bad in his studies. No one ever wanted to give him a further education as they knew it was useless to do anything for someone like him. No one could advise him. He had a gang of his own kind of friends and he thought his friends were the world.

But now he sighed often whenever he thought of his friends, who in different ways either wasted their lives and died at an early age or have found their own ways in life. Any way they forgot him right after he was sent to the rehabilitation centre. He had no aim in life. He let his life sail in any direction the wind carried it and he was waiting till it crashed, or in other words till death set him free from life.

Suddenly while he was in deep thought, he saw a huge man passing him by. He with a big suitcase. He got an idea. He came out of where he was hiding and suddenly grabbed the bag and began to run away. He heard the sound of footsteps right behind him. But soon they faded away. He then stopped to open the bag. All of a sudden he felt a strong arm around his neck. The huge man hit him hard on the head and everything became dark.

When he woke up he was tied to an iron bed in a dimly lit room which smelled so weird, he soon realized that the smell of chloroform and blood was all around the room. He was so puzzled and was staring at the room when the huge man came into the room dressed as a doctor just about to perform a surgery.

He saw little sharp knives shining in a little basin next to him. When the man came near Malon, he pretended to be asleep. The big man took off Malons ragged shirt and market two circle on the two sides of his waist. The man was disturbed when a knock was heard on the front door.

Malon felt Adrenaline rushing through his veins, he now knew what was going to happen in another few minutes and the thought gave him a scary shock. He has heard of people who perform surgeries on poor or people and take away their body organs such as kidneys, heart and brain, to be sold to the rich who are in need of these for surgeries.

He knew that if he didn't do anything now it's going to be his end. He was waiting for death for so long, but now he felt a sudden desire to live. He thought of all the things he missed in life, all the nice things in the world and about a thousand things he should have done. He never in his life, loved life so much, neither did he appreciate or respect the gift of life. Now for the first time he wanted to live. He realized that he was too young to die. Never in his life did he value the things he already has, he blamed himself for being a big time idiot for so long.

Even though he hadn't prayed for years, a prayer came to his lips from no where and he asked God to help him get away. He asked God to forgive him and give him just one more chance. He promised that he would definitely change his life and be a useful, good person.

Thinking that Malon would not recover so soon. The butcher (the huge man) had not tied him so tightly. Malon had little time to do anything now. He tried hard to free his hands in a hurry, sweating all over with a greed for life. His wrists were bleeding. After struggling for about half an hour, he was able to free himself.

He ran to a dark corner of the room and hid there as he heard footsteps coming towards the door. The huge man opened the door and Malon was able to hit the man hard in the head with a chair in the room.He ran out of the room right into the street and kept on running with a mortal fear of death. He ran and ran until the sun rose for a new day in the city.

He stopped at a police station and reported it to the police as it was his duty towards his fellow beggars whose lives he thought were in great danger now. Though the police didn't believe it at first, they set out to catch the man with him.

When they went there everything was just the same as he left it except the man was nowhere to be seen. The police promised him they will carry further investigations. He then set off to go in search of a job. He felt that his life has just begun. A smile was drawn across his face as he looked towards the east saying a little prayer of gratitude.

He whistled the song of his heart, "I can feel the morning sunshine, I can smell the new born flower, I'm a bird flying freely in the sky and no one can take my freedom away."

by W. D. Amalka Goonewardene, Kandana.