Wearing dirty torn clothes, he roamed the city on this
dark cold night in search of a place to rest his weary body. He had lost
everything in his life, family, friends, money, health, wealth and dignity. It
was hard to believe that he had once been a multi millionaire and had been
surrounded by beautiful people; well at least on the outside they were
beautiful.
He walked and walked quite calmly because he had
nothing to worry about. He wouldn’t be attached for he knew he stunk although not being able to notice the smell and it was
clear to see that he didn’t own a thing. So he calmly walked along the streets
looking for a place to sleep that night.
Ahead of him he noticed some people under an overpass.
It looked like a pigsty because of some cars that had stopped and dumped some
leftovers for those homeless people to eat. Besides that, there was the stench
of urine. He didn’t want anything the other homeless were fighting over, for he
had gotten used to eating just once a day and he was always blessed enough to
find a good soul who would by him some lunch.
He managed to spot a place where he could lay out the
cardboard box that he had been carrying with him throughout the day. He did
just that. Some people looked at him but no one came over to kick him out of
there or even to talk to him, so he stayed.
As he was laying back trying to fall asleep, his
thoughts wandered to the past and he recalled what his life had been like a few
years ago before his brother had set him up.
Rage started to fill his heart. His older brother,
together with his wife had planned the whole thing. The hatred that he felt
wasn’t towards these two, but towards his stupidity. He couldn’t believe he had
been so blind and trusted them so much. He actually loved them and how could he
have ever imagined that his own flesh and blood would one day betray him. With
this one his mind, he managed to fall asleep.
On the following morning, it was quite early, the sun
was just barely showing itself in the sky; he was awakened by a strong gust of
water. He coughed and choked and started to roll down the street. The water was
truly powerful.
When he finally managed to get a hold of himself, he
could see what was going on. There was a gigantic city water truck washing the
streets. The city workers did not care whether there were human beings among the
litter. With the powerful gush of water, they just swept everyone and
everything away. Right behind this truck there was another truck with a big
scoop that just scrapped up the trash and threw it into the opening in the rear
of the truck. The people scurried like mice to get away and not be hurt by the
scrapper.
All you could hear was the sound of the water gushing out
of the hose, the scoop scrapping the concrete ground, children crying and men
and women screaming and yelling. It wasn’t a war scene but there was horror in
the sounds those humans were producing.
As he walked away in tears, he remembered that it was
election year and the government needed to clean up the city and it did just
that.
Author’s note: I actually witnessed the city water
truck cleaning the streets in downtown SP the other morning and it was a
horrible scene.
(Written: September 13, 2012)
copyright ©2012 - Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.
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