A New Family

It was a rainy day that day. I lied my body to the sofa, with the body being soaked from the cold, damp raindrops. I turned on the TV, and watched some comedy shows, but it was not that fun like the other days I felt. So I just left the TV screen black and stood up to eat something. There was a pack of zap-n-go tandoori chicken in the refrigerator. The refrigerator was an old one, couldn't carry out its service wholly that the chicken was not frozen. I didn’t know when I bought it and when it started to melt, so I was kind of worried about the safeness, but I was too hungry. I just decided to eat that, also try to forget about its condition.

“Crunch.”

Thankfully, the taste wasn’t that bad. I guess that’s because of the Indian spices seasoned on the chicken. Anyway, the exotic fragrance from the chicken made me cast out a can of beer, and with the sip of beer, I got in a good mood. When l almost got up to dance, the doorbell suddenly rang.

“Beep-beep-“

That noisy sound broke all the atmosphere I’ve built this night. With a little bit of annoyance, I walked to the front of the door and asked.

“Who are you?”

But nothing came to respond. I got angrier, but I asked one more time.

“Who are you?”

But like the last time, there was no answer. But we have the rule, <Best of Three>, so I tried to remain patient and asked the one last time.

“I said, ‘Who are you?’”

But as you expected, nothing. I finally got really hacked off, and just wrenched the door open with no mention before.

“Who the hell are you? Why didn’t you ans…”

I cannot help myself being surprised. A boy perfectly soaked in the rain was standing in front of the door, with blood all over his hands. He looked as if he was about to pass out. I couldn’t say a word, and just let him in. As soon as he stepped the warm, dry floor, he fell over and sank into a deep sleep. About what was happening now I couldn’t catch even a tiny hint, so I could just watch the boy sleeping quietly.

A Few hours later, I recognized that the boy woke up. He was watching TV shows. I saw him gripping his stomach, and it seemed he was really starving. So I asked him for the left tandoori chicken. I felt sorry for giving the leftover to the hungry boy, but it was the only edible thing in this house, so there was no choice.

“Hey, we have some tandoori chicken left, wanna have some bite? You look hungry.”

The boy didn’t answer, but he snuck up to the table, and picked up one piece of it, and slowly started to eat. I was a little bit relieved. The night got deeper, and with many questions of this boy, the eventful day passed away.

About two weeks later, the long-awaited Saturday has come again. And this little boy was still in my house, and it was quite bothering me. Since I haven’t had a conversation with him before, I decided to ask some questions to know some about him and partly persuade him to go back home.

“Um, hey, what’s your name? I haven’t known your name since you started to stay here.”

“….”

“Oh, come on. My name is Paul, Paul Williams. What’s yours?”

“……Noah.”

“Cool name!” Noah. The boy's name is Noah. I was thrilled. I felt that I finally opened his firm, iron gate. Through the gap between the gates, I attempted to throw some more questions.

“Where did you come from?”

“……”

"Where are your families? Or your friends?”

“……None.”

“That can’t be true. Since you have been born, you must have your family. And woah, you look nice, must have had many girlfriends.”

"I said I don’t have any.”

“Maybe now you should go back to them, your mom would be worrying about you.”

“If I said no, then it is no!”

Then he stood up, grabbed the doorknob, and ran away. I didn’t know why he got mad, but I could notice clearly that I just made a terrible mistake. I actually a bit wanted him to leave, but in my mind, I only had the thought that I should find the boy and apologize to him. So on this joyful Saturday, I made a tough running chase to find Noah.

“Noah! Where are you?”

“Noah! I’m sorry!”

Yelling his name all over the town for an hour, I think, I finally found him in front of the water fountain. He was crying. I haven’t seen him cry before. I slowly moved my step toward him, and spoke his name one more time.

“Hey, Noah.”

“Go! Just go away!”

He stared at me with those furious eyes.

“I’m sorry for asking those questions. You can still stay in my house, as long as you want to...”

Then he stopped looking with his blazing eyes. And started to whimper.

“……Want some pennies to throw?”

He didn’t answer, but nodded. He threw lots of pennies in the fountain, as if he has had many wishes to come true.

The next day, while I was preparing breakfast, Noah suddenly asked me a question.

“Hey Paul, have you ever killed a person?”

What on Earth is going on now. It was surprising enough that he asked something first, but the content was even more shocking! I got frozen, don’t knowing how to respond to that question.

“Uh, not yet.”

What does it mean, not yet? I pledge that I will never murder a person. But more shocking was the next line.

“I have. I’ll tell you, all of it, about what has happened to me and why did I came here.”

“It was just an ordinary day. Me and my family watched TV together. The show wasn’t that funny, but it was good because we were together. We lived in a lodge in the woods. It was raining heavily, so we locked the doors tighter than before. And we all fell asleep. But still we were breathing, until the robber killed all of us. I was a weird boy, who always find a bizarre place to sleep. Luckily, I was sleeping in the kitchen cabinet that day. And something fishy and yucky came into my nose. When I opened my eyes, I witnessed the robber stabbing my dad through the little gap of the cabinet doors."

"He killed my dad! Why did my dad have to die? My dad was a kind person. He always smiled and was careful with everyone. I still don’t know why… We were living happily. But that mysterious man stepped into our home, and suddenly battered our life violently. And when I saw that thing, I heard something snapped from my head, and the next thing I saw was a kitchen knife with blood all over. The robber was knocked out in front of me, seemed stabbed numerous times."

"Well, I did my revenge. But this cabin was no longer my home. I was scared. My families were all dead, and I became a murderer. So I ran away from the lodge. I don’t know how long did I ran and walked in the woods. Anyway, at the end of the forest, I finally reached this town, and you opened the door for me.”

“Oh, I…I didn’t know that.”

How heartbreaking the story is. I reflected on all of the times that I wished Noah to go back to his home. And I decided to become his family.

“Hey, from now, you can think of me as your…family.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, your first daddy has gone. Honestly, I’m not that kind, or careful. But if you want, I can be your second dad. Your family. And from now, here is your home.”

When I finished my speech, Noah was smiling.

“Thanks, Paul.”

He said.

And Monday reached the calendar again. It was raining outside. I went to work, got scolded by my boss, and finally left my office at late night. Every time Monday comes, I wish every day would be the weekend.

Making my steps to the old apartment, I saw a food truck selling tacos. I bought two, for Noah. I walked upstairs, opened the door, and said,

“Hey Noah, Have some ta….”

When I turned my eyes toward the kitchen, there were two paper boxes on the table which looked exactly the same as mine.

“Noah, did you buy…”

“Yes, tacos. It looks like we have four of them.”

To get something to someone to whom I always have given. I am not married and also don’t have a child, but I could faintly guess how happy it is to become a father.

“Sorry, Paul, I didn’t expected you to b…”

“Thank you so much, Noah.”

“Huh? Y, Your welcome, then…”

“Hey Noah,”

“Yeah?”

“Today…is taco day! Let’s eat all of them!”

“Haha, alright!”

The atmosphere was humid, the apartment was cramped, and there was only one kind of food, but it was the best dinner ever.