“Where’s the money?”
Leland Burns fished out $210 from his pocket, a crumpled wad covered in cement dust.
The man snatched it from him and counted, “Only $200?” He pulled Leland close and reached into his pockets, but found no extra money.
“Just this little money, and it’s not enough for me to buy liquor to drink. How am I supposed to support you and your mother?”
Leland was clearly used to the man’s daily taunts. He walked ahead, with the man’s cursing following him.
“What a useless thing you are, just like your mother, a money-drain. With this little money, do you still think you can afford to take your mother to the hospital?”
Take her to the hospital? Leland scoffed internally. Did his mother even have hope of receiving treatment? Every time he came back, his money was forcibly taken by the man.
The two-bedroom house, barely sixty or seventy square meters, was cluttered with liquor bottles in the tiny living room. Cigarette butts littered the table, and the narrow room, coupled with poor airflow, emitted a nauseating stench.
Enduring the smell, Leland walked towards the innermost bedroom, turning on the light. Even in there, it was filled with various clutter. A woman laid on a wooden bed against the wall, her emaciated body draped in just a dress, with her lower body exposed.
The woman was paralyzed, unable to move for years, resulting in muscle atrophy. She couldn’t even take care of herself. When Leland was home, he would promptly help her with daily needs, but when he wasn’t, she was left to relieve herself on the bed.
The man didn’t care for her, finding her dirty and smelly, refusing to tend to her. She would go hungry all day and couldn’t even have a sip of water. In the man’s words, the less she ate, the less she would excrete.
Leland’s expression was numb. He had long grown used to the woman’s dirty and messy conditions. He fetched a clean basin of hot water, cleaned the waste on the bed, wiped her down, changed her into clean clothes, and placed a blanket over her.
“Mom, have you eaten today?”
The woman on the bed didn’t speak, tears streaming down her face.
Clearly, she hadn’t eaten again.
Leland first fed her a cup of warm water, as she seemed thirsty the whole day, and she drank it eagerly.
“Slow down, don’t choke.”
She was really light. Even a ten-year-old child could easily lift her up. But she drank too fast, and water dripped from the corner of her mouth, dampening her grey hair.
Leland had thought more than once, if his mother wasn’t ill, would he be attending school like other children? Without the hardship of earning money, without enduring the beatings from his alcoholic father, without being “confined” in this narrow “black hole.”
Leland wiped the water from the woman’s face, “I’ll go make some food.”
Placing the woman down, he left the room, looking at the man asleep on the sofa, hugging a liquor bottle, and suppressed the desire to kill him.
He entered the kitchen, gazed at the nearly empty refrigerator, and the little leftover vegetables. After the meat was gone, he’d have to buy more. Leland took out the last two eggs and a pack of noodles, and made some egg noodle soup. He brought it back to the room.
Breaking the noodles, he fed the woman in small bites.
“Xiao Hang…” The woman mumbled something unintelligible. Since her paralysis, these were the clearest words she had spoken, “Eat.”
She wanted Leland to eat too. He was malnourished, as thin as a stick.
Leland began working at the age of eight, doing various jobs like delivering flyers, wandering the streets in the scorching heat, and later, washing dishes and sweeping floors at some rundown eateries. But being too small, the boss had fired him after just two days. He then worked at the docks, hauling cement.
The work was dirty and exhausting, and he only received a fraction of the pay. After a whole day’s work, he could only take home a little over $200, which was then snatched away by the man when he got home.
Leland had thought about running away, but he couldn’t leave his paralyzed mother behind. So, he had to obediently earn money to support the alcoholic father.
Despite being clever, Leland was still just an inexperienced child, and couldn’t come up with a good plan. He could only inwardly curse the man to die from drinking.
Leland didn’t speak, feeding the woman and only eating the leftover noodles after she couldn’t eat anymore.
Watching her son eat, the woman’s eyes blurred, realizing that lying here unable to move was worse than death.
After eating, Leland quickly washed up and did the household chores, including the dirty laundry, and by the time he finished, it was almost dawn. He couldn’t communicate with the woman in the room. The house had thin walls, and the man would hear them.
The bed was too small, so Leland made a makeshift bed on the floor with old clothes he couldn’t wear.
Turning off the light, the room was plunged into darkness. The woman couldn’t sleep and she would deliberately nap during the day, just so she could watch her son a little more at night.
“Xiao Hang, leave… don’t… worry about me…” She wanted Leland to leave and start anew. He was still young with a long future ahead of him. Only by leaving could he make a fresh start.
She was accustomed to the darkness, but she didn’t want her child, who she had carried for ten months, to grow up in the darkness, unable to see the light.
The woman watched her son’s slender body move a bit, wondering if he had taken her words to heart.
After a long time, Leland finally spoke, “If we run, we run together. I won’t leave you behind.”
The woman sobbed, afraid to make a sound and wake the man outside.
He went to bed late and woke up at six the next morning. Despite his young age, Leland already had heavy dark circles under his eyes. He quickly cleaned up the floor, helped the woman use the toilet, washed her, made breakfast, and fed her a few mouthfuls before leaving.
“Boiling plain water for noodles again today?” The man was awake now. He did nothing at home, just ate, drank, and awaited money. If Leland brought home more money in a day, he would be in a better mood and help the woman with her needs.
However, the man was rarely in a good mood. Most of the time, he would do exactly what he did yesterday-expose the woman’s lower body and leave her lying in bed, without a shred of dignity.
Ironically, in the eyes of outsiders, the man was a devoted husband to the paralyzed woman, even caring for her, while also supporting an idler.
The man fingered the $200 in his pocket and planned to spend it on alcohol. As for the mother and son at home, who cared if they were hungry or not, as long as they didn’t die.
Watching Leland put on his shoes to leave, the man spoke, “Carry a few more bags of cement today. Don’t bother coming back if you don’t bring back at least $300!”
He added a threat, “If you dare to hide money, I’ll break your mother’s fingers!”
The man had arranged the cement work at the docks for Leland. He knew everything about Leland’s day. They were familiar faces around the neighborhood, and a child like Leland couldn’t disappear easily, which made the man feel confident.
Leland lowered his head, but as he turned to leave, his eyes flashed with a fierce glint.