Once again he saw himself walking down a street. He had an ‘easy fit’ jeans on and a white color T-shirt which fitted him quite well. And a pair of sandals that aided him with his journey. His hair was messy because he decided not to mess with it nor add chemicals to it that particular day. That also meant not combing it, for he was afraid that if he had did that, might’ve notice some flaws and be tempted into putting stuff on his head. He wasn’t a fashion victim but prioritized comfort. It was a subject of importance to him.
Cars were hustling and bustling all around him and people were going about with their own businesses. He didn’t really have an exact direction to head to. Looking at all these people somewhat amused him and he felt a little envious towards them. Although their objectives may not be as clear as how their actions perceive them at that moment. Nonetheless the last thought did nothing to him, doing something is certainly better than not doing anything. Heading somewhere with a purpose is better than not having one, no matter how self deceiving and far fetched the objective is to the self.
His short days of holidays were spent almost wholly in a café located nearby -- in the company of his friend. Despite it being a little expensive, the services it offered were equivalent to its price. They sat there for hours and hours making their money well spent. Wasting their time and just sitting in, indulging in the cozy couch and in the soothing environment and looking at people.
Having said that, today he was by all himself and although he didn’t have a destination, he was already headed towards the café. Noticing that, he thought to himself that he should try going to the cafe alone and see whether it would feel the same as it did when he was with his friend.
“Good morning, Heippo” the person at the counter said as he walked in. He smiled a little and almost heavily put up his hand in reply to her greeting. He got his cup of drink and sat at an empty spot on the soft sofa. There weren’t many people around at that hour. “It was much more relaxing and peaceful.” he thought.
As soon as he sat, despite the cozy environment and the tasty drink he was having. He started to feel bored, one for not having a friend to converse with and secondly for not being able to pour his thoughts out. His feelings sank and he felt insecure and was now looking around to see if there were people staring at him and if his uneasiness were apparent to others.
The waitress who greeted him before walked towards him with a full smile and dropped a few reading materials on his table. She said, “There you go” looking pleased with her self and left him before he could say thanks.
Thankful to the waitress he schemed through the materials and picked one that he was unfamiliar with, it was entitled, ‘The Present!’ He noticed that it was a monthly magazine that gives its readers an update on what’s going on in the world at the moment.
He went through the index, looked at it for a moment and skipped it. His hands then stopped at the first article. After going through it, he moved on to the next one and the next one after that. He only stopped momentarily if it was about something he never heard of before or anything that was interesting enough to catch his attention. Here is a little summary of what he read and how he perceived it to be.
Title 1: ‘War’ – it elaborated on how they hated and how they regret with loses of life but they continued killing and driving people out of their homes because it was inevitable in order to uplift peace.
Title 2: ‘The Economical Collapse’ - this one was about the hundreds of thousand of people getting retrenched all around the world, its effects and on the government being overthrown. And finally how everyone will eventually we affected by this phenomenon.
Title 3: ‘Natural Disasters’ - This one tells of the places being inflicted by natural disasters, the amount of deaths and the suffering of the people.
Title 4: ‘Global warming’ – this article started with how the North Pole was getting warmer and the change of climates in several countries around the world. It finished of rather pessimistically than the normal optimism that still gave a tinge of hope. It stated that it will be just a matter of years until something catastrophic happens.
Title 5: ‘Time’ – compared to the other writers, this one had his mug on the side of his article. He had this weird looking smile on his face, probably because it was fake or he was trying too hard...to smile.
Heippo was browsing through this one just like how he did with the other articles, however, this one caught his attention and he started to read it with proper dedication, “it is just the start of the New Year and I was still listing out my new year’s resolution only to realize that it was already February. What the hell, I questioned myself. How is this possible?
Everyday I feel the torture and the pain of being at work and being with people with no intelligence but with power and money. How is that a fair trade? I ask myself, my friends and even God. No one bothered to reply including myself. Back to the subject, I go back at home and sleep it off, trying to forget the place and the people. Only to realize that I am already, once again sitting here, trying to go unnoticed and hope that I remain invisible from their wicked eyes.”
He finished off his article with this, “It feels like time is chasing on to me as fast as Hussein Bolt. At this rate it would be a matter of seconds till I realize and say things like, ‘I am already too old for this shit.’ ”
Heippo had enough of that magazine, for some reason it scared the living hell out him. The word ‘apocalypse’ appeared in his mind several times -- followed by some disturbing images that he had related with the word apocalypse in his head. He looked at the magazine and wondered who would actually pay money to read this kind of stuff.
As he laid the magazine down on the table he began to hear a couple of voices bickering near him. Just a few feet away at the entrance of the café, it was what looked like a quarrel between a father and his daughter. The father was holding an ice cream cone with what appeared to be a long colorful ice cream stacked on the cone. His daughter, who was around 5 years of age, had her hands on her hips, and was looking at him angrily. She said with watery eyes, “how could you do this? I thought that the ice cream was supposed to be for me!!” She shrieked.
Looking at her unresponsive father…which added to her annoyance was licking and enjoying the cold colorful desert. She then said, “No wonder my soul is becoming darker and darker each day”. The father then looked at her and said, “Oh my baby, you’re finally maturing. I am glad that you’re finally taking your first steps into maturity.” He smiled at her genuinely and continued, “Well this is how life is, you know?” he said rhetorically. The girl now out of anger stepped on his shoe and caused him to slouch forward in pain. The daughter then jumped to reach the ice cream from her dad’s hand. Heippo without any shame was staring at them as if he was watching a movie and to his surprise, she managed to get it although in the process…spilling half of it in on the floor and on her dad’s shirt.
The father now smiled at her and congratulate her, “good! Move on with that hatred and fight in this cruel, corrupted world in order to survive” with that he patted his daughter’s head and they both smiled at each other and started walking out of the café’.
Heippo noticed that the waitress looked amused as she eyed them leaving and as soon as she noticed that he was looking at her, she smiled at him. ‘It’s time to leave.’ He said to himself. He returned the smile, nodded a little and had enough of what the day has already offered. The magazine, the weird father and daughter made him quite dizzy. He finally had a direction to head to, he headed home.
