Hero

Local hero saves the day. This was the heading of the regional newspaper from the third of November of 1995, with a picture of Peter, a young twenty-two-year-old boy from Stowbridge, completely wet holding a baby. A brave local boy jumped into Ouse river to save Maryanne’s three-month-old child during yesterday’s storm.

Peter didn’t know what this situation would bring him. He had strolled back home under the heavy rain after a regular day of work in the restaurant when he overheard a moan coming from the riverbank. Peter loved animals, and assuming that the sound was produced by a duck, he walked to the bushes that grew along the shore. There was not any duck there. Instead, a small baby crawled through the mud. The baby glanced at Peter and smiled. Peter didn’t know what to do; he always avoided carrying small children because he had an irrational fear that they could break just by being held or they would simply slip from his arms and crush their head on the ground. But he couldn’t leave the baby on the ground next to the river under the heavy rain. Babies were vulnerable beings. He took the child and carried him in his hands. What do I do now? He didn’t need to speculate much because a large crowd of people showed up after a few seconds.

“He saved the baby! Maryanne, come quick! This guy has Josh!” shouted an old man with joy.

A middle-aged woman with tears on her face dashed to Peter.

“Thank you, God! You, boy, are the savior of my baby! I will always be in debt to you!”

Some policemen and photographers from the press were already taking pictures of the tender scene.

“Yes, I saw him swimming out of the river with the baby,” a woman said to a journalist that was taking notes with a small notebook, clearly trying to get some attention.

Peter gave the baby to his mother. The journalists and police encircled Peter.

“What happened? How did you take the baby?”

“Well...” Peter didn’t know how to explain himself; he had just been looking for a duck. “I found him in the river.”

“Oh! You must be an excellent swimmer to carry the baby with such a strong current as today!” a journalist exclaimed.

“Yes... Thank you. I have to go.” Peter got overwhelmed and strode to his home while the crowd was still asking him more details of the story and admired him for his courage. He could hear the group clapping their hands while he moved away.

The next morning, Peter went to work as usual after taking the simplest breakfast at home consisting of a piece of bread with butter and a coffee. On his path to the restaurant, ambling in a slow pace with his eyes on the ground, he noticed other people peeking at him, some children even pointed directly at his face with the subsequent reproach from their mothers.

He was astonished just after crossing the door of the restaurant, when the other waiters were already preparing the tables and stopped what they were doing and clapped their hands.

“Hurray for our hero!”

“Good job, Peter!”

“I knew you were great, man!”

People nodded one by one at Peter and clapped his shoulder. Even Marylin, the prettiest girl in town with whom Peter was secretly in love, focused on Peter and dedicated to him some sweet words.

“Peter! What you did yesterday was so brave! I thought you were a fearful and cold-hearted person, but I see you are courageous and sensitive.” She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek. “We could go on a coffee together after work, if you have time,” she said.

“Yes, that sounds great.” Peter blushed.

That day, the restaurant was busier than usual. Lots of people from town came on a lunch break, hoping to have the hero as their waiter. He got amazing tips. He could overhear people talking from the tables as he passed with the dishes. “How brave he must be to do it, right?” “I wonder if he already has a fiancée.” “He looks so skinny for someone who swam carrying a baby in that current yesterday!”

Far from bothering him, the comments made Peter feel important and start believing in himself. He didn’t save any baby, he just picked him up from the shore. But he was used to being treated with indifference by others, and for the first time in his life, everybody considered him as someone meaningful and distinctive.

A journalist visited the restaurant as well and interviewed some of the waiters about Peter’s life. Even the local TV showed up to ask some questions.

“How is he?”

“Oh, Peter is kind of an introvert,” said a waitress, whose name Peter didn’t know because she never said a word to him, “but if you knew him well, you could feel he was hiding something under his mask. What he did yesterday, it didn’t surprise me. I knew he was a great person.”

Peter noticed that Marylin was getting closer to him that day, using every opportunity to smile at him and touch his arm. In one of their encounters in the kitchen, when they were alone, Marylin whispered to him, “Do you want a blowjob?”

“What?” Peter was astounded.

“Come.” Marylin took him to the pantry and pulled his pants down. Peter had never had any kind of contact with a girl before. After one minute, they left the room.

“Thank you, Marylin.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiled. “Before, I asked you to go for a coffee after work, but I forgot I have to take care of my grandmother this evening. We could meet tomorrow.”

“It sounds great to me.”

It was his best day at work. Even more, it was the best day of his last ten years. On the way back home, Peter couldn’t believe how much life had changed for him. He was finally someone, and people noticed him. He pranced through the streets, a big grin on his face. The gray colors of the town looked bright and vivid, and the smooth rain falling on his face was pleasant and refreshing. He forgot that he actually didn’t save the baby.

Peter stopped for a moment at the same point where he had found the child. A man about forty years old approached him.

“I saw everything,” the man said to Peter.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you didn’t save shit. You just found the baby on the shore and picked it up. You liar! You didn’t do nothing!”

Peter was first confused and soon distressed. He pushed the guy, and they both fell on the mud and grappled. Peter gripped the guy’s neck and choked him.

“You will not ruin my life!” Peter shouted. The man’s face turned red and then purple, with the expression of a fish out of water. His face mutated after a few seconds to an inert, scared mask of a dark blue color. Peter took the body and threw it in the river, and he thought about how it drowned while he ran home.