5 minutes of Happiness

II

The alleyways were long and narrow that it stretched further into the cluster of buildings. Inside, the sounds of the city were slightly muffled but it offered no protection from the chaos outside. In fact, Elsa saw the alleyways as equally dangerous as the highways. She had a heavy haul with her. It can attract anyone who are also like her, eking out a living by collecting garbage to sell. What Elsa remembered was a huge, surly boy who once hit her and stole her haul of Styrofoam packages once.

That boy was vicious. He slapped her so hard that her nose bled and dazed her for a full 15 minutes. That was a horror that she prayed she would never experience again.

But her heart stopped as soon as she took a left turn towards the noisy avenue. There stood her nightmare. That huge boy who once slapped her near unconscious and stole from her.

Instinct took over and she scampered towards the opposite direction, frantically searching the alleyways for a detour toward the highway. She was baffled whether the pounding that she felt was from her racing heart or from the heavy and menacing footsteps of the boy who was then running after her. She glanced back for a moment and caught sight of the evil glint in the boy's eyes.

He was 2 inches taller than Elsa with sun-baked skin and flabby arms. He had the strength of a grown man despite his youth but was prone to laziness. He bullied smaller street urchins like her and stole their earnings so that he can indulge himself in a small plastic bag of rugby. The last encounter with him left Elsa emotionally and physically damaged with blood trickling from her nose and tears running down her eyes.

She turned and ran toward the perplexing hallways. The once familiar crevices suddenly transformed into a meandering maze as panic surged through her. Stumbling through the concrete maze, her mind raced, desperately recalling every turn. Eventually, she found herself at a crossroad, one of them, she remembered, would lead her to a dead end.

She chose the way on her right and prayed for her safety. She glanced back at the bully who was already gaining on her when she slowed down to turn. He managed to grasp a handful of the ends of her hair but she succeeded to force herself free, albeit with sharp pains on her scalp.

The way she chose turned right further down at the corner. She held her breath as she made the turn and winced at the humid and bright highway before her. The scalding wind greeted her like an unlikely, yet reliable friend, ready to save her from harm.

She heaved her sack up and dashed toward the highway. She knew that her enemy was not fast and brave enough to surge through the oncoming traffic. She felt every warm current whip at her as she dashed toward the wire mesh fence in the middle of the highway. She threw her sack above her once more but this time, she purposely let the ends of her sack get caught on the unprotected edges of the wires sticking upwards. She then gingerly dug her fingers around the meshes and started climbing, not even bothering to look back if her enemy has reached her. When she dropped down on the other side and started unhooking her sack from the wire meshes, she caught the bully's eyes seething with anger, chests heaving, and sweat dotting his hideous features.

As she closed up her sack, she kept her eyes on her pursuer who was clumsily darting from side to side and trying to catch an opening to slip through the oncoming traffic. She looked at her bully with a sigh of relief and then ran toward the other side of highway into the safety of the pavement. The traffic light went red and the bully lumbered towards the wire mesh fence as soon as the cars stopped. By the time he propped himself to climb the fence, Elsa already vanished into another alleyway. 

The dangerous highway which was once her adversary suddenly became her vanguard and ally.