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"Tomorrow the world will still be broken" these words echo in his mind, they become a naked conscience in a man who has already lost even his name. He walks the streets of the city ignoring everything that goes on around him, the rags that hang for clothes surely weigh more than the armor of a knight. He stops from time to time examining trash cans, maybe he will find something that can give him another day of life and although he gave up a long time ago, he is devoted to a penance that only in his mind, also covered with rags of memory, has reason to be.
People dodge him, some stop to give him a coin that he does not ask for. However, he keeps it in a small leather purse that rests in the bag he carries on his shoulder, a bag that once had color and now it is impossible to tell which one it was under all the dirt that covers it.
That day he crosses the park on the side less traveled and heads for his refuge in an old house in the south of the city in the old Chinatown that now lies almost deserted except for a few neighbors who have nowhere else to go. The economy and its things, he thinks to himself as he reaches for his purse in a second of lucidity.
Stumbling around the corner, he notices that the old Chinese antique store is taking garbage out into the alley, hesitates for a moment and thinks about waiting for the workers to finish to take a look. As the men leave, he approaches with his usual cadence, one step asking permission from the other or perhaps convincing himself to walk. He peers into the container and begins to rummage through the debris. It looks to be a promising lot when he lifts a box and sees a small antique radio, he picks it up carefully and immediately knows it is something special as he examines it, turning it over and over as if he were an expert. He wrapped it in a piece of cloth that he also took out of the container and looking sideways as if fearing to be stripped of his new treasure, he continued on his way to his shelter.
A few meters away from the old house a mongrel dog stops barking to wag its tail at the man who is approaching heavily, he bends down and making affection on his muzzle tells him that today he has been lucky and taking a sausage out of his bag he offers it to the rickety dog that devours it without stopping wagging its tail. They enter the house together through the side. Outside the night curtain is drawn.
While a can of soup is heating up on a campfire, the man, taking advantage of the firelight, unwraps a package. "No, it's not for you, little one," he says to the dog who looks out curiously, and takes out the old radio to examine it better. It's made of wood with some metal plates that were once gilded on the corners but he can't find where the power or battery compartment goes into it. Mmm maybe it's just an ornament he whispers to himself as he moves one of the two knobs on it. Too bad it would have been nice to have some music he whispers again as he sets it aside and checks the soup. After eating he lies down using his bag as a pillow and falls asleep. Sleep is a blessing enough for this man.
In the middle of the morning, the radio began to make sounds as if it was trying to tune until it into to a news station., the man wakes up to the noise, with mute astonishment he picks up the radio while they talk about a multiple car accident in the vicinity of the park in the afternoon. He did not pay attention to the news, perhaps looking for how on earth it was turned on and where it feeds from, until the commentator simply turned off when he finished giving the details of the accident.
The next day, after doing his usual tour of the city, the man decided to head back to his refuge in the afternoon, taking the road to the park again. When he got to the main street in front of the park, just before crossing the street, a car lost its brakes and ran the red light, causing a big accident with several cars. The news heard on the radio fell on the man, he remembered all the details given by the man, the number of cars, the models, the place, the time. It was not news of something that happened, it was announcing what would happen. For someone like him walking on the verge of dementia it was easier to doubt everything. Was it a dream, he asked himself as he felt in his bag for the shape of the radio. Yes, I'm probably worse than I thought, he insisted whispering.
That night, as he lay down to sleep, he put the radio close by, torn between the curiosity of whether it would happen again and the fear of it happening. He fell asleep. Like the early morning before, the radio began to tune until it stayed on the news station.
The authorities still haven'thave not found the whereabouts of the little girl who was last seen leaving her home in the eastern neighborhood in the morning on her way to school. The only clue is that a girl with her description was seen getting into a gray sedan with a middle-aged woman. If anyone knows of her whereabouts or has information that may be helpful they should contact the authorities immediately.
The man, upon hearing this, immediately sat up. It was not his imagination, he never had that capacity to imagine things. He was not crazy, although for the last five years he wished he had been. After losing his family in that accident, his wife and little daughter. After losing everything, he only plunged himself into the misery of the streets as penance for his guilt. He wouldn't let another father go through that. Something had to be done. All that was going through his mind when at dawn he left the old house heading east, walking with a determination that had long since left his feet.
Behind him he left the grimy bag, a semi-lit campfire and his mongrel canine friend sniffing at the radio which was tuned back to the news.
Yesterday morning an attempted kidnapping of a little girl on the east side of town was heroically thwarted by a homeless man who exposed his life to protect the little girl. He was hit in the chest by a bullet and still did not let go until help arrived and the kidnapping couple fled and were later captured by local police. The man was taken to the medical service where he is out of danger. The mayor has said he will award him the city's highest decoration. The man, whose details are still unknown, only asked for his dog and his radio.
THE END
This is an original story for The ink well community in their weekly prompt #54: Tomorrow.
Image courtesy of Pixabay
