The sky was dark. Rain poured down heavily, and there were several thunders, accompanied with flashes of light. The streets were deserted. No one was out. No one except a glum teenage boy dressed head-to-toe in white. No occasion. It was just his favourite colour.
You'd wonder why he was out in the cold, sitting on a park bench, staring at the sky as he got drenched in water.
Felix had had a huge argument with his mother about a month ago. He left home and settled in with one of his friends who lived in a flat in the city centre.
He had always been curious and adventurous, spending most of his days as a child "treasure hunting", which meant digging through earth to find something sparkly. Anything sparkly. He'd return home to his parents covered in dirt. And what followed was a scolding. He'd start to cry, but his face would instantly switch to a smug look whenever he spotted his twin sister, Felicity.
Felicity was more of a reserved type, sticking to cartoons and books. Her grades, however, were average, inferior to her twin brother's, even though she was the older one. Felix would always tease her.
"Hehe. I'm the better one and you know it!" He'd say.
A joyous child indeed. All until his parents got divorced. Then everything went south.
The kids had no idea what had happened. They just woke one morning to find all their things packed. Their mother was grabbing at their father's feet, weeping. They rushed towards them.
"All of you, out!" The father barked. But the mother still struggled. In the end, he dragged her out, onto the suitcases packed outside. Felix and Felicity tried to speak on their mother's behalf, even though they didn't know what was going on. But their father heard nothing of it. He rose his left hand and took of his wedding ring. "Those are not my children. And you are no longer my wife." He spat out in the mother's face, and slammed the door before them.
What happened between his parents? Felix wondered, as he walked back home from school with his sister. They no longer attended the private school. His mother could not afford it, not while her only source of income was her small provisions shop set up along the streets of the city. So, they went to a public school instead.
After getting kicked out of the house, their mother requested to stay with her closest friend. She knocked on the door, and, in few seconds, they heard a voice.
"Lucy, is that you?"
"Yes." Their mother answered, in a voice so broken that Felix felt a chill. That didn't sound like the woman who scolded him over every little thing. At that moment, he only felt hatred for the man who caused this.
The torn family lived with the mother's friend for some months. But today, they had to leave.
The friend's family was moving in and there was no room for Lucy and her children. But Lucy assured she had found a place to live. Her friend was relieved.
Right when Felix and Felicity got back from school, they hopped into a taxi with their mother, to the place that would be their new home.
Felix wondered where that could possibly be. He was a bit excited. But as the taxi made turns, going into narrow streets with little to no developed infrastructure, his face grew pale.
The ride was bumpy. Felix looked out the window, and there stood a small building, it's walls made of rough mud bricks. It wasn't very big, maybe just three rooms. There was a small shack next to it, something of a warehouse.
The taxi came to a stop, and the family of three alighted. Felix dreaded it, but he would be living in this ramshackle old house from now on. Tears ran down his face. He broke into a sprint and ran in any direction his feet took him, ignoring the shouts of his mother and sister.
He hated this. Why did his father decide to move them out? Did he find a new woman? Felix stumbled on rocks, tripping and falling multiple times. He eventually came across a lake and stopped. There were many people around, buckets in hand, fetching water. Felix sat under a tree along the lake. The ground was muddled but he didn't mind, or rather, he didn't care.
He moped for a while. Then he was joined by a man. With his unshaved beard and sluggish walk, the man seemed to be a little over forty, or maybe in his late thirties, if he was better dressed.
"What's troubling you little boy?" The man asked, half-expecting Felix wouldn't answer.
Felix, however, threw into a fit. "It's my dad!" He shouted. "We were so happy, the four of us. But then, one day, he just kicked us out! Me, my mom, and my sister! Now we attend some stupid public school. I haven't seen any of my friends! We stayed at mom's friend's place, but then she kicked us out. Now here we are…" His voice shrunk. "I hate this place…"
"Hm…" The man inhaled. Then he sighed. "That sounds like an awful lot. For a kid."
"I'm nine." Felix mumbled.
"Your point being?"
Felix didn't reply.
The man felt it was his turn to tell his story.
"I have a wife and a daughter here…" He started. "We don't have much. It's difficult to take care of them, honestly. But—" The man coughed loudly. He tried to speak, but he coughed even more.
"Are you okay?" Felix asked.
The man assured he was fine. He cleared his throat and continued. "But…" He said softly.
"But…?" Felix asked, interested, in spite of himself.
"But… I believe good days are coming soon. Very soon."
"How so?"
The man coughed again. He ignored Felix's question and continued. "But good things don't come without sacrifice. We'll pay for it. All of us." Now the man began to cough uncontrollably. Felix ran to the lake. Luckily, a woman saw what was going on and handed him a small cup of water. He ran back to the man.
"Drink up." Felix practically shoved the water down his throat. "Do you need more?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine," the man said. Then he chuckles. "Look at you. No longer moping." He was right. Felix looked much better now. "The thing about your family. It must be difficult for her too. Your mother, I mean." Felix was disheartened. The man was right yet again.
He got up with a great surge of energy. "You're right," he said. "It's up to me to make mom happy again. After all, I'm the better one!"
The man smiled. Then he took a closer look at Felix's behind. "Those trousers," he pointed. "You might want to change out of them. They're dirty."
"Right…"