Haig
The sun is going down on the horizon. I can hear my own footsteps while walking down the street. I just came from our school. The very old and wrinkled structures are aligned on both sides of the streets. Some people are just sitting calmly on the chairs outside their huge houses. After a few minutes of walking, I arrived at the front of our house. Our house is just simple, and we are just as simple too.
My mother is just a vendor in the market and my father is a peasant. They have both not completed their schooling. My mother had only finished her elementary days, while my father was in high school. Because their families are very poor, they were forced to stop schooling. But though we are poor, my parents are rich in love. They always provide my necessities, such as shelter, food, clothing, learning, and love.
Sometimes I dream of becoming rich. I am envious of my classmates whose parents are giving them everything they want. I am envious of the other people who are living in these huge houses and doing nothing but sitting on their chairs and playing Mahjong with the other wealthy people.
The door thuds, and I notice my mother wearing a plain, green shirt with a stain in the center; when I was younger, I mistook the stain on her shirt for an eye, and I was afraid to look at it. My mother is wearing old leggings and sneakers too. I know she’s hard to buy her own things, she’s just always wearing her old clothes.
My mother and father work every day, though sometimes they can’t eat their meals just to get to work early. My father is a farmer who owns a small piece of land for cultivation, and my mother is the one who’s selling the harvests from our farm.
For me, my mother is the most beautiful woman in the world. Her brown eyes seem to tell me how much she cares; her pointed nose, brown skin, and pink lips that never become dry. Though she’s always working, she still has time for herself, for me, and for my father. For me, she is the perfect mother.
My mother looked at my forehead and asked, “Oh! Son, what happened to your forehead?”
I touched my forehead and felt a bit of pain. The thing seemed wet. As I looked at my finger, I saw a dark, red liquid with an inexplicable smell. I know that it was made by the boys who can do nothing in their lives but watch for their victims in the streets. But even though there are many bullies that are watching me in the streets, I never tell my mother and especially my father, because he will surely find a way to punish them.
“Nothing, I just bumped myself on the pole,” I lied.
“Come in and we will heal that,” she replied.
Though I made too many mistakes, my mother never became angry. She’s always telling me that we cannot go back in the past and change what we have done wrong. Let us just live in the present time and get our lessons from the past so that we can’t do it again.
“Aw!” I exclaimed. “Mother, please make it easy. It hurts.”
“Sorry, but it is just a small wound, so stop emoting,” she replied.
“Hey, what happened to that child?” My father asked while going inside the house. He hung his pointed hat on the peg and sat down on the wooden chair beside us. I know that he came from the farm, because he looked exhausted and the moisture in his face and arms had diffused. For me, my father was the most handsome man in the world, though sometimes he was unkind. He has a high nose, brown eyes, clean face, and brown skin. He is also tall, but I know that I can become taller than him.
My mother replied, “He said that he bumped himself into the pole.”
“Birdbrained, and you also believe in your child? He maybe fights with the other children out there, because a mark that came from the pole is not the same with that wound that maybe came from a sharp object?” he asked.
My father is a very strict man. He does not want me to fool around. I know that even though he is so hard, he still cares about me and my mother. I just cannot be free from his cage, because he is so inquisitive. He was so brave that he’s fighting for our rights, and he’s also defending those people whom he believes right.
My mother said, “You are not an investigator, Jay. I know that our child won’t fool around; he is already big enough to know what is right and wrong. Am I right, Haig?”
“Yeah, I am not doing anything wrong, I just came from school,” I replied.
“Good, but if we know that you are doing something wrong, we will not show you any sympathy, instead we will add your wounds,” my father remarked.
“Jay, can you stop threatening your child?” My mother asked. “He is already big, and soon he will have a girlfriend and start his own family.”
“You will never do that thing as long as we don’t give you permission. You need to finish your schooling first before you can have a girlfriend. You are just sixteen, and the responsibility of being a father is not as easy as you think,” my father said.
“Don’t worry, I will help my parents first, before making my own family,” I replied.
“You don’t need to do that, son, just do the things that you want. As long as you are not hurting others, don’t feel sorry for them,” my mother said.
“Leona, maybe that is the reason why your child is getting stubborn: you are just letting him do anything that he wants to,” my father replied.
“Jay? Why are you always angry even though there’s no reason?” She asked.
My father replied, “I am just telling the truth. I am hoping that you will realize it.”
“Telling the truth? I am hoping that you can realize that whatever you say to Haig, he is still our one and only son,” she said.
“Please stop this. If you will just fight because of me, maybe it is better if I leave this house, so that you won’t fight anymore,” I said.
A day when many things that happened had elapsed, and maybe that day is the worst day of my life, because I got a wound from the bad boys, and not only that, my parents were also fighting because of me. How can I stop the discrimination of the other people? Those who will rejoice if they see others suffering from pain that they have caused. What is it in me that they are doing this? Maybe it is because I am poor and they are wealthy, maybe it is because I am nice and patient, maybe it is because I don’t fight back.
Sometimes I am discouraged from going to school because of those bullies, but I also think that I can’t be successful if I don’t continue my schooling. How can I help the poor and innocent people who are oppressed by those wealthy and wicked people if I can’t be successful? I would rather hurt than feel nothing at all.
My mother is already in the kitchen at this time. My mother wakes up early every day to prepare our breakfast, while my father is still lying in his wooden bed. I jumped from my hard bed and rolled my sleeping mat. I donned my white slippers and went towards the kitchen. I am not mistaken, because I saw my mother preparing the vegetables to be cooked.
She is wearing her old coat and fitting jeans. They seem to fit, but I know that she cannot fit into her jeans anymore because she’s worn them for many years. If her size has not changed, then she is not a human. I am hoping that my mother won’t go hard with the thing that she’s doing. Though I know that she has other loose clothes to wear, maybe she chose to wear a very fitted one rather than a very loose one.
I go towards my mother and hug her from the back. Just to make her feel how much I love her, and to give her hope. Her untied hairs seemed to creep and tickled my face.
The memories of my childhood are coming back. I remembered when my mother was always playing with me. With those games that never disappeared from my mind until now, it is just making me more confused if my mother is hiding something from me. Because every time I played with her at that time, I was so confused about why her hair was creeping, and it made me laugh as it tickled me. At that time, I was just playing with my mother’s hair because I didn’t have anyone to play with. When I grow and grow, I am thinking if it is possible that a woman like her can control her hair if she wants it to do so.
I am not an inquisitive boy. Though I have many questions about my family, I am just keeping them in my mind, and after many days have passed, I will forget those questions, especially if there’s an opportunity to ask my parents.
She removed my arm around her. “Good morning, child,” she greeted. “Do you want to eat something?” She asked while groping the chopping board on the wooden lapboard above her head.
“Good morning too, mamma,” I replied. “I can eat anything that you have prepared. I will just go to the bathroom to bathe myself.”
“Okay,” she said while chopping the vegetables on the wooden chopping board.
I went towards the bathroom and take a cool bath. After I took a bath, I get the towel that’s hanging on the clothesline inside the bathroom, I dry myself and wear my uniforms.
After a few moments, I went outside our house and started walking down the quiet street. I saw my neighbors cleaning their yards, trimming the tall, green grass, and watering their plants and flowers. The streets are shaded by the tall and huge structures that block the lights of the sun. There is just a limited amount of transportation in our place. There are no vehicles, just carriages. Though our place is not influenced by the modern world, everyone here doesn’t feel any difficulty in life, except for me and my family.
As usual, the bad boys that are seen in the streets are here again. I am not lucky today because they are so many and big. Two of them were going towards me and trying to push me again. I tried to punch one of them, but he was so big that he could not feel any pain from my punch. He was going to punch me back when there’s an old man who is going towards us.
The old man is wearing old and porous clothes with some stains on them. I’m just looking at him, just like he’s mesmerizing me. I came back from my consciousness when the boy slapped me in the face. “Aw!” I exclaimed.
“Hey, why are you looking there?” the boy asked. “Are you waiting for someone that can help you?”
The old man raised his hand. Suddenly, the boys disappeared from the place.
“Who are you?” I asked, curiously. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“Don’t worry, I will not hurt you,” he replied. “I am here for an important reason.”
“What is it?” I asked while holding the straps of my backpack.
“Do you want to be a hero?” he asked. “Do you want to help those innocent people from the bad people who are oppressing them?”
“Hero? Help the other people?” I asked. “Are you joking?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” the old man asked seriously while opening his hand. “Look at this, this is the power that I am going to give you.”
I saw a bluish cloud that was floating above his palm, and it mesmerized me again. I just came back from my consciousness when the old man suddenly closed his hand. I realized that he was not joking, that he had power that could make my dream come true, to be a superhero.
“Okay, I will accept your offer. I want to have that power,” I said. “To become a superhero, so that the bad boys will not bully me again.”
“Whahahaha!” he laughed like a demon. “I will only give this to you if you agree with my condition.”
“I agree with everything. Just give me that power!” I replied.
The old man opened his hand again. The bluish air floats towards me and it enters my ears and nose. I felt pain and it made me look down and hold my head firmly. I felt that there was something that was creeping down my veins. After a few seconds, I feel no pain anymore. Instead, I feel like I’m full of vitality. As I looked up, the old man had already disappeared from the spot where he was standing.