A Road To The Life I Want

Chapter 15 : The Stranger

I opened my eyes and I felt no pain in my body. Actually, I felt okay. I looked around, there was no one there and I was the only one standing in that place. I heard someone shouting and I started to run towards the direction of the sound. The sound suddenly stopped and the sound came from my back. I turned around to see who it was. Under the tree, Vinoth was sitting with a knife in his hand.

He looked at me and shouted, "You betrayed me. Now you have to die, my friend."

I screamed, "Please Vinoth, don't put the blame on me. I did as we planned." He took his knife and pointed at me. I started to run and the whole place became dark. There are lots of people around me and all the faces were blurry. I dashed on someone. I closed my eyes in fear. Someone took my hand and lifted me. I opened my eyes to see who it was. Camp was standing with my parents. He gave me an angry look.

Camp shouted, "Get away from me, You Traitor!!!"

I said, "Camp you are the one who planned the escape."

He replied with anger, "No you used me and escaped the orphanage. You let us to rotten in the orphanage."

I called out towards my parent's, "Mom, Dad, help me!!!"

My dad shouted, "You are not my son."

My mom cursed, "You are a disgrace to our family."

My parents started to walk with Camp, leaving me alone. I shouted, "Don't leave me alone."

Camp turned and said, "You are not alone, turn around and see." When I looked back, the white lady was standing there smiling at me.

She asked, "Can we go now?" My heart ceased to beat. She was looking at me with eagerness and said, "Come to me, dear. I will take care of you."

I shouted, "No get away from me!" I started running away from her.

Again I heard a voice, "You can come with me, John." The voice is so familiar.

I questioned, "Who is it?" My uncle came out from the darkness.

I shockingly said, "You!!!"

He smiled and whispered, "Let me tell you a story."

I ran towards him in anger and he slapped me. I closed my eyes and fell on the ground. I opened my eyes and a boy was talking to me

He said, "Wake up boy!"

I asked him, "Who are you?"

He replied, "Just a passerby, what's your story? You were screaming like hell."

I replied, "I am sorry. I had a bad dream."

He asked me, "Explain to me. Why are you sleeping on the road?"

I explained, "I actually fainted."

He said, "Hmm...That explains a lot. Here, have some water." He gave me water and I drunk it. He was having some chapattis in his hand and I was staring at it.

He asked me, "Are you hungry?" and I replied, "Yes, I am starving to death."

He said, "Let's sit under a tree and eat." We went under a tree.

He sat near me and gave me few chapattis. He also started to eat with me.

After we finished eating, he asked me "So where are you heading boy? I know that you are not a South Indian. That I am sure, you must be from the North side."

I don't know what to reply, but I said, "Yes!"

With doubt, he asked me, "You don't look like a beggar. Who are you?"

I elaborated, "I have forgotten the way to the city and I was struck. I come from the...."

He concluded, "From the orphanage."

I denied, "No!!"

He looked at me and questioned, "Which means you escaped the orphanage?"

I said with fear, "No, never why should I do that?"

After thinking a while, he asked me again, "Hmm... look into my eye and say to me, you didn't escape the orphanage."

I was in fear and I didn't know, what to say. I remained silent for some time.

"Of course you escaped... so where are you heading?" he shouted.

I admitted, "I don't know."

He offered, "You can follow me if you want."

He started to walk and I followed him. He looked a little bit older than me, maybe two years.

I asked him, "How did you know that I escaped the orphanage?"

He replied, "A wild guess. And of course, your dress and the look on your face."

He remained silent for a few seconds. I don't know, what topic to talk about. There was a long silence.

After a few minutes, he again started to speak, "that orphanage is one of the worst places I have ever been."

I was shocked to hear what he said. I asked him, "Did you escape the orphanage too?"

He started to speak again, "I was the first to escape from the orphanage, two years back." 'Hell out of fire', he was the guy that Camp was talking about. He seems to be a clever guy and I think, he can help me to live outside the orphanage.

"What do you do for a living?" I asked doubtfully.

He smiled at me and started to speak "When I escaped the orphanage, I didn't know what to do. People don't want to help me and I was starving for food. I went to many shops and asked for work. But they rejected me, thinking that I was a thief. I thought that orphanage was better than this. A lady near the hotel was standing and was eating something. I went and begged her to give me some food. But she never even looked at me. I was so starving that I fell on her foot asking for food, but what she did made me very angry. She kicked me and I fell on the road. She started to walk away as if nothing has happened. My mind froze that second and my eyes were focused only on the food.

I stood up and looked at her. My mind told me to steal the food. I pushed her and took the food from her and ran away without looking back. I ate the food and after few hours, I became hungry again. I started to think. Why should I beg for food? Or Ask for work? Nobody is going to give me food. I learned that it's better to earn the food, by myself. After that, I started to steal the food from the people and eat. Simple Ha?"

"What? Are you a thief?" I screamed with confusion.

And he replied to me "Yep, a thief is what I am. If you want, you can join me. We could be partners or you can die, starving without food. You won't even last for a day."

Let's be honest, John. He is right, I have nobody and if the orphanage finds me I am dead. This boy survived for 2 years without anything. Without him, I am nothing here. I looked at him and accepted "OK, we could be partners. My name is John," and he said "Nice to meet you, John. I am Mani."

We walked for a while and then he said, "We can stay in the trees for this night." I started climbing the tree and he was already on the top.

He looked sympathetically at me and said, "You are very slow, boy. You need to catch a lot." He gave me a hand and took me up. The place was very cool and quiet. As soon as I got on the tree, I fell asleep due to tiredness.