I had this thought once, that out of the 7 billion+ people of the world, you can find one person whose back story is something you’d only hear about in fiction. Stories that seem so implausible or outrageous that you can’t believe they actually exist, but they do!
This series of short stories/scenarios will deal with exactly that. I will be posting a couple of paragraphs every other post (I hope) about a random person of the world, I might or might not have met, heard of, seen, thought of… you name it. I promise that whatever I write will not be exaggeration no matter how unlikely it may seem to the reader. BUT the world is a bizarre place, and humans even more bizarre. Note that names will be, for one reason or the other, completely made up.
What I would like from the readers, however, is to share their opinions, analyses, thoughts or even their story or someone else’s (of course remaining anonymous, if they’d wish to be). There will not be any judgement, nor bashing, nor shaming, only sincere objective descriptions of the situation each person might face in the story. Just try to empathize with the person in the story no matter how different from you they might be. Don’t judge, don’t hate, just imagine and listen.
I hope you like this.
Through the busy streets of Japan, a young man rushes from his apartment to his workplace. It’s such a busy city; skyscrapers, glowing non-stop billboards, the hustle of thousand of people, the choking stench of sewage mixed with car exhaust mixed with factories mixed with food mixed with that one smell that no one in this universe can identify. He doesn’t have time to deal with all these intricacies of whatever busy schedules the people have, or whether that man is dying because of the pollution or that woman is being raped in broad daylight. No! He has to get to work. He has to finish another day of tedious mindless labour. He’s is not your run-of-the-mill construction worker or even a high-end business man, he’s just an employee fresh out of internship. He believes he struck gold by landing that job that can someday, in his eyes, land him between the elite.
So he’s rushing, and shoving people aside, because he needs to get their early to impress his boss, and then maybe, just maybe, leave earlier to get back to his apartment. He’s got someone waiting for him, he’s got something waiting for him; a long beautiful weekend in his old village, away from this chaos, away from this meaningless existence of faceless, emotionless beings. He’s going there with his best friend, his dearest companion; his dog.
It’s been a while since they’ve gone out to the quiet, clean air of the village. It’s been such a long while since they’ve hiked their used-to-be regular trails, camped under the stars, and just listened to the purest existence of nature.
“It’s been a while.” That’s what he keeps saying to himself. “Because I can’t pray here, I can’t meditate here, I can’t focus here, I can’t live here.” Because he had no other choice, at the time. He had to take a job, to afford his goal, his plans, to travel the world, in search of the best forest, the most beautiful waterfall, the most spectacular cliff.
Out of nowhere, his eyes fix on one single scene. Something he could’ve easily passed just like he passed countless other scenes day after day, shove after shove. There was a Buddhist man meditating on the sidewalk, ignoring everything around him, shutting out the smell, the noise, the people, and the chaos. the man was there in peace with all, in peace with himself. A couple of footsteps past that, a child, not above the age of 12, begging on the streets.
Something inside him snapped that moment. he knew that even if goes out to the village for the weekend, something will be missing. So he stopped, and looked at the child and asked him: “will you still be here at 5?” The kid, in bewilderment, merely nods. “Are you an orphan?” Again, the kid nods. “I would be honored if you accept my offer of food and shelter for the night, and if you would be up for it, go with me to my village for a weekend of peace, quiet and more food.” not sure what to understand from this, the kid gave the man a raised brow and faintly said: “why?”
“Because no child should roam the chaos, no child should be left alone without love, and for some reason, I want to share my weekend with you, because no child deserves sad days with no happy ones.”
“Thank you, sir.” as the kid bows in respect.
“I will come back, yes?”
Another nod, a barely visible smile, and a tear were all the kid could offer at this point.
The man wiped off the tear and instructed him to be safe for the rest of the day.
That day, was the man’s least stressful day. It went by so fast. “It’s been a while.”
Evening came, and it was time to leave work. As he walked down the street, he tried to remember the exact place where he saw the kid, it all looked the same; same faceless, emotionless beings, same billboards, same smells… except for one scene: the Buddhist still meditating. The man came up to the Buddhist and politely asked whether he’d seen the kid that was begging earlier in the day. The Buddhist looked up and smiled: “Thank you for showing kindness when others never do. The kid is there,” pointing at the other side of the street, “he’s so excited to to have smiled today, and I thank you for sharing a piece of your personal joy with someone who lacks it.” The young man simply smiled, but before he could say anything, the Buddhist interjected with, “No my dear friend, reserve your invitation for some other day, for someone who needs it, I am fine here.”
The young man bows in respect.
“Sir, I was really hoping you’d come.”
E.
Spreading The Word 