A Little Orange in Black

 A Little Orange in Black

It was a rainy day. The sky was very gloomy and dark. John was devouring a very hot freshly baked meat bun like a hungry wolf. He sat on the roadside near Aa non-motorized lane. His face was sunburned red and black, being peeled by the sun. His forehead was full of wrinkles that looked like sea waves. His cheek was spotted with freckles. He had a scruffy beard which was like a tangle of dead grasses. He wore crumpled bright yellow raincoats with a little hole on it. A few calluses were protruding on his palm.

        “Bzzt...... Meituan Delivery is calling you! New order is coming!” His Nokia was ringing. He hurried to swallow the last mouthful bun and took his Pikachu Hamlet on his head, and then sat in his battery car. A black box with a kangaroo pattern and yellow labelling “Meituan Delivery” was fixed on the rear of it. He turned the handlebars in and started the engine. His left hand held the handlebars and controlled the direction. His left hand held his Nokia. He took a glance at the map and put his Nokia into his left pocket on the raincoat. The Nokia had slipped into the pocket through a small slit inside the coat and fell down on the bottom of it. However, John didn’t notice that.

         He rushed to the Roast Chicken restaurant and put the tasty chicken into the black box carefully and gently. Staring at the delicious roast chicken, he licked his lips and forgot the time. At that moment, the Nokia was suddenly ringing again “Meituan Delivery is calling you. The consumer is messaging you!” He was feeling in his pocket for his Nokia but he found it was empty. He looked down and noticed something was shining in the bottom of the coat. He grabbed it and saw the calling from the consumer. He was worried in a hurry. He tried to slip his hands into the gap in his pocket to reach the Nokia, but his hands were too big to get into it. He grew more anxious. Without any words, he cut his coat with the knife that was used to cut the roast chicken. He grabbed the Nokia and answered the phone. The cook was hurling accusations 

on him but John didn’t care too much. He rushed to destination as quickly as possible. He was continuously speeding up on the traffic and even repeatedly attempted to run across red traffic lights. The police at the crossroads shouted at him to let him stop several times, but he just drove faster and faster passing by them.

      The rain was getting stronger and stronger. Puddles on the roads were getting deeper. Near the destination, he braked suddenly. Since he was driving too fast, The wheel of the battery car skidded in the puddles. He fell down on the puddles. His Pikachu helmet was knocked crooked. His face was smeared with dirty water. He scratched the skin on his arm. The battery car was laying on the ground. He patted the ash on his coat and checked the time. “Meituan Delivery is calling you! Emergency! Only five minutes! Quick!” Moving as superman, he picked up the straps on the box and dashed away towards the consumer’s home. John took the elevator and knocked on his door, checking the time and ensuring he was on time. The consumer opened the door, impatiently complaining to him about his slowness. He looked at John from the top to down and refused to take the delivery because of the dirt on the box and John. 

      “Hey U! What’s wrong with you！Why are you so slow? Are you turtles?’ 

       “No, ummm….I just met some problems on the way... You know... It is rainy outside!I am so sorry...“

       He shut the door in a loud noise without any sympathy.

       John was freezing and staring at the door there. After a second, he felt disappointed and sad, grabbing a cold chicken leg to eat on the ground.

      He walked towards the street. 

      He was a homeless candle dying out his last little dim light, a sad rabbit suffering in a snowy midnight; a depressed spongebob being squeezed. He tightly curled up as a ball. His teeths shaked at a fast and regular pace, up and down, crust and crust. He left the building and sat on an empty street. He looked like an isolated ice sculpture on the road. No one perceived any smell of the existence of a life.  

4 o’clock… 5 o’clock… 6 o’clock… 

7 o’clock...8 o’clock… 9 o’clock

10o’clock 11 o’clock 12 o’clock

He had fallen asleep in the refrigerator. The old memories started to come into his head. He came up with the memories of being thrown in a trash bin and turned over and over on a truck. He needed an explanation for that. This was the most memorable thing in his life. He needed an explanation… Where was his mum? That’s why he came here. Coldness freezed him again, like 10 years ago. 

    He would never forget how he climbed across the treeful mountains;how he drank dirty lake water with dead fish bodies; how he caught spiders and ants to have “bug barbecue”... how he climbed over so many challenges to this city...how he was humiliated by the rich; forced to kneel on the ground to lick on their shoes…

As he thought about this, deeper and deeper, he was alerted in one second. All the hatred and reconciling flew up toward his mind. “Damn! I hate everyone! I hate the world! My mum! My dad! Had betrayed me! Damn the world! F***!” He roared, whooped… with his eyes turning red. He was desirable for taking the revenge, towards the world which has given him an unequal life! A nefandous birth! A no-where-to go destination. 

He strode vigorously to a rumble strip, staring fiercely like hell towards anyone passing by. He is DEATH. He is hatRED. He overturned the tables in a restaurant. He picked up the wine bottles and smashed them to a tree, leaving a deep mark; the mark carved so deeply in his mind that reminded him every second. The storekeeper threatened him to stop and pay for the compensation costs, or he would call the police. But, indeed he didn’t care; ANYMORE!. He rolled up sleeves and punched the storekeeper in the eyes. 

…

The police came.

The police put him under arrest in jail. 

   Sitting in the police car, he is peaceful. He even has a little bit of excitement, expecting better meals in the jail. He is laughing, but with tears. 

   …

“Hey! Hey! Are you dead? Hi!”

A little girl in white-and-orange dress is calling to him in his dream, breaking his dream and catching him back to reality.

  “Hi?! Are you OK?”

   “Who are you? What happened?”

“I saw you were closing your eyes for a long time. I thought you might be dead. I just wonder, do you need a candle?” She pointed on the sign in a box filled with colorful candles: “1 dollars for 10”

  Raising his head ahead, he said” No, thanks. I don’t have any money. Haha Sorry…” 

“No, I am saying I will give you free. You don’t need to pay for that. I feel you are cold, aren’t you?” She passed a candle to John.

Not until John replies, the little girl leat far away. “Wait!” he sighed. 

The faint orange light was shaking. It was just a little light. John sat back to the wind, trying to protect the little orange. 

“She is my angel. She is my light!” John said. His little orange was saved.