Monday, February 15, 2016

Inside the refugee's heart

He stepped off the tube to find 20 different faces with 20 different sets of features that represented 20 distinct races. He came from a place of war to a place of existential battle.
 
His soul would not forget that sight. It was going to have a lasting impression on him. He adjusted his bad that slung to his shoulders & wearily scurried out of the train station.
 
There was a red headed destitute staring into him from afar at the corner of the long pathway that led him out of the train station. Only a year's savings that amounted to a few hundred dollars in this country stood between him and the red head from sharing the brotherhood of destitution.
 
He wandered aimlessly to find a place that could let him call it his home. He had long gotten used to the idea of shifting places to escape bombings. But this was different. Here he didn't know where his search could marginally end up.
 
He ended up at a drab burger joint with bland walls to have his first meal in two days. Having come from southern Africa with poorly bartered local currency, he pulled out a wad of notes to pluck out a five dollar bill to buy a steak roll.
 
The wad did what a wad does. It drew a bunch of young thugs - this led to a melee between him and them. One of the thugs could eventually grab the wad from him & dashed out of the burger joint. The swarm let him loose and the thugs ran behind their partner to have the wad apportioned among themselves.
 
The feeble yet resolute legs of the man chased down the wad grabber & yet another brawl began. This time, outside the burger joint - out in the open.
 
This caught a patrol officer's attention who was patrolling close by. He, alarmed and flummoxed by the brawl, pulled out his .45 mm revolver and the bullet found its new nest inside the refugee's heart.