The Frozen

by Panchamee Hewavissenti

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Marc Wang was overwhelmed with happiness when he was informed that he’d been selected to work as a railroad yardman in Los Angalese, after a long quest for a job whatsoever to sustain his family. He worked earlier as a Seaman of a Spanish ship.

Maria was an old fashioned, heavy bowed broad beamed craft with thousand tons in weight. Forty-five jail birds, twenty one crew, fifteen soldiers, two captains, four mates and a doctor, a captain and six warders sunk together with her.

Three chummies and Mark had a narrow escape from the catastrophe. Marc and his remaining crew had swum for fourteen days at the Atlantic ocean and were subsequently washed to the land by a sea current.

Half dead Seamen then rambled about to find something to eat. Fortunately they met a waiter of a restaurant on French beach. After satisfying their hunger, they had a long slumber of one and a half days on the beach under a shady tree.

With the help of the waiter they met on the French beach, and the French government, the Seamen could safely leave for their mother countries.

Marc’s children were happy to see that their father was back in LA with them once again. Marc’s wife had died of diphtheria, two years after their third child’s birth. He married to his girl friend, his classmate, two years after dropping out of his secondary school. At the age of nineteen.

The fate was callous enough to deprive him of his wife, and then the job which was the only way to feed his children and himself. He went on an ordeal with his three children begging for food, clothes and shelter from his relatives. His equally indigent relatives didn’t deny to help them. They did so as they were affordable. He could hardly fill his three children’s stomachs with three meals. Little ones had to very often skip their meals due to the unavailability of food. Marc seldom took meals for meals’ sake. Though he was physically wizened owing to lack of energy, his versatility was most admirable.

He was almost exhausted after making a small hovel at a countrified place in LA for his three little children to sleep at night. He was happy for at leat his children had a place to stay without rambling hither and thither in search of a shelter.

One day he was on his way to one of his relatives’ places to bring some barley for his little ones. He saw a very familiar face browsing hurriedly through a newspaper sitting at a railway station. Instantly Marc could make the person out.

“Ronald....” The person raised his eyes from the paper, but was unable to recognise the careworn stranger’s voice calling him by his name.

“Ronald, can’t you make me out. It’s me Marc”.

“Marc, mmmm, Marc” The person tapped his chin with his index finger, looking at Marc crinkling his forehead.

“I was one of your classmates at Lea Valley...can you remember,...at least can you remember Clare..... Clare Gill, the remarkably tallest girl in the class... I was her boy friend, and I got married to her after we dropped out from school.

“Oh, my goodness...! You Marc, so long.....! You’ve changed a lot after all these days. That’s why I couldn’t recognise you at once, by the way how’s Clare doing? She was very famous of her height, wasn’t she? Have you got any children?

Marc’s melancholic eyes miserably fell on earth. He started pinching ground with his toe. He drew a long breath and closed his eyes. He started speaking with a great sigh of remorse. Marc explained his friend how devastating and detrimental his fate had been.

“I can help you my friend. You’re still capable of greater muscular feat. Come with me”. Ronald accompanied Marc to his place of work and introduced Marc to his foreman. The foreman was extremely kind enough to offer a job at his railroad yard, to that feeble looking man with a weather beaten face, shock of grizzled hair and dark brown eyes to the verge of hopelessness.

The young twenty-nine year old man, but apparently forty five years in age had a reputation as a diligent hard worker. Marc was ambitious, strong and had many friends at work. He always respected his foreman and loved the job that breaded him and his family. He dedicated himself to work, because he knew how difficult it was to find a job to survive. He worked overtime to earn some extra money to comfort his children. The foreman was pleased and satisfied with Marc’s work and therefore increased his salary so as to compensate for his effort. One midsummer day, Marc rose early from bed. Got himself dressed with the finest dress he had. He sat for half an hour and prayed to God.

“Thank you God, today I live in comfort. I can be happy by looking at my three children’s better lives. Thank to you God. Today my children don’t have to go begging for food or clothes. I can fulfill their requirements on my own. I am a successful father today. God, today is my boss’s birthday. He is the one who helped me to come up in my life. God, please shower your choicest blessings on him”.

He made a cross with his finger in the right hand keeping them on the forehead and chest. He stepped towards the bed where his three children were sleeping. He kissed their foreheads even gently lest it would disturb their sweet slumber. He stepped towards the stile, looked back at his little cottage. Drew a slight smile on his dry lips. Looked up at heavens and uttered some words and jumped over the stile and walked towards the street.

An announcement was aired as he started work at the rail yard. “Over to all the train crew, you can quit work an hour early in honour of the foreman’s birthday”.

Marc was happy that he could go home an hour early. “Boss has given us a wonderful gift on his birth day”. Marc chuckled, taping on one of his fellow crew’s back.

“A gift...? He hasn’t given us even a piece of cake...” The fellow crew remarked in derision.

“No, no, I mean he has granted us permission to quit work an hour early. Other days we work till late. Don’t we?” Marc kept a full stop for their chat and spearheaded working. He appeared happier than other usual days.

He felt a bit drowsy after the heavy lunch provided for them especially for the foreman’s birthday. Dazed for a little time in a railroad car boxer and got up to work for the evening session. They were given a cup of green tea and butter cakes in the evening. The crew too seemed very happy that day. They worked zestfully than other days, energized by the special treat given to them. While performing one last check on some of the railroad cars, Marc was accidentally locked in a refrigerator boxer. When he realised that the rest of the workmen had left the site, Marc began to panic with horrific fear.

He shouted till his voice became gruff and banged the boxer door until his fists were split and bloody only to lose hope for outer succour. He checked the temperature index, though he didn’t know to read the manual indicator, he predicted the temperature to be zero degrees.

“I can’t get out. I ‘ll freeze to death here”. He left all his hopes to live. He prayed to God as it was the last thing left for him to do. He realised that there was no purpose in shouting because all crew had left the site already. Tear drops were falling off his eyes keeping them in pace with sorrowful sighs.

Wanting to let his relatives and the staff know what exactly happened to him, he started etching words on the boxer’s wooden floor by a knife found in the boxer itself.

“It’s so freezing, my body’s getting numb. If I die out of terrible cold, these would be my last words”. But still Marc was keeping hopes about his life. He thought of his children’s state, in case if he dies. The following morning, crew slid open the heavy door of the boxer and found Mark dead. The post mortem examination indicated that he had frozen to death. The crew check on the refrigerator. Everybody was amazed at the real cause for Marc’s death, if there were proper conditions inside. The psychologists and doctors said that a person can kill himself by the power of his or her own thoughts. Therefore they concluded this was a natural death caused by strong negative thoughts. The frozen negative thoughts of his, killed him making everyone flabbergasted at his demise.