HOPE IN A PAPER AND A PEN

           It was a cold night, a very cold one. In fact it was the coldest night Molly had ever experienced in his whole life. Because of the chilling cold that he felt all throughout his body, he decided to wake up so that he could turn the heater on. But it was as if he was waking up from a dream that he remembered that he didn’t have a heater. He remembered that he didn’t have a home either. So he laid back down again on the cold and damp stone of the street where he spent his last four years living as a stinky, dirty, and pitiful beggar. He looked up and saw the dark, pitch sky above him. He was searching for the light of the moon and the stars but he found them hidden behind the dark clouds that looked like they are ready to pour the cold rain into the earth.

           It was at that moment that Molly has fully realized how pitiful his situation was. He thought of the way he lived the life that he chose to live in his last four years: waking up in the morning seeing the stray children run across the streets, not having the chance to have a decent meal, feeling the intense heat of his surrounding but still goes on wandering off the streets of the city, and finally laying down on the sidewalk at night while his stomach ached and rumbled because of hunger. A tear trickled down on Molly’s face without him knowing it as he realized how much he suffered from the life that he had now. The life that he, himself has willingly chose to live. He already got used to begging alms from people that he barely knew. But no one, not even a single person walking past by him everyday, has ever recognized him except for being a lowly beggar.

           Not until one day, when a teenager boy walking nearby him had the chance to notice him and to look at Molly’s face. The boy was sure that the beggar he was looking at now seemed familiar to him, and just a few seconds later, he felt a rush of excitement and shock as he fully recognized the beggar.

Instead of giving him a penny, he said to Molly, “Is that really you, Molly Carter?!”

Upon hearing this, Molly felt as if his body went numb and all that he could feel is the wave of emotions washing through him. All the sounds in his surrounding seemed to fade away and all that he could hear are the words of the boy who just spoke to him and the strong beats of his pounding heart.

Instead of approving that he is Molly Carter, he said to the boy, “What a stupid thought of yours, child. How can you ever think that I am Molly Carter? I am a no one. Go away, you’re just wasting your time here with me.”

“You can’t deny it to me, Sir Molly, I know you very well. Why, you are my life saver! As a matter of fact, I am not just the only person who has read your bestselling book titled “Precious Moments” that’s why my life is not the only life that you have saved through your book!”

The exclamation of the boy made the people walking nearby them slow down and took time to look at the boy and especially at Molly. They were surprised to know that the beggar that they walk past everyday was the famous author of the book that has saved the lives of those who were in the verge of committing suicide. There was nothing Molly could say because the boy left him speechless. He couldn’t think of other reasons that he could say to prove that the boy was all wrong about him. Because of his speechlessness, people started to believe that the boy was right. A crowd was starting to form around Molly, some taking pictures, some trying to have a word with Molly, and some were just trying to know if the beggar was really Molly Carter.

 But instead of entertaining them, he ran as fast as he could away from the crowd. Finally, when he has fully drained all his energy because of running, he took a seat at the corner of the street where the garbage of different people was thrown out. Yes, the boy was right, he is Molly Carter. He was once a well-known author and a respectable man, but now, he is already a no one. Last four years, after his mysterious disappearance, Molly chose to live as a beggar. Only those who have witnessed the crisis that he went through before his disappearance knew what really happened to him.

The memory was still fresh on his mind and soul as if it had only happened yesterday. He was born in a well-known family with power, influence, popularity, and most of all, money. He had a perfect family to be in fact. His father and mother loved him more than anything on this world. His passion for writing was really because of the influence and motivation of his father who has also been a professional writer in those times. His father was the one who spent time teaching him and nourishing his obvious talent and skill in writing which made Molly a professional writer just like his father. But when everything seemed to be perfect in their lives, a certain tragedy that would change everything came into their lives as a surprise. It was a sunny afternoon, he was in his room trying to write a poem about his mother. When he finished it, he went out to find his mother and to give her the poem that he just wrote. But he found her in her garden laying on the grass and not breathing anymore. His mother just had a heart attack. From the moment that her mother died, his father seemed to be a different man. After the burial, his father locked his self all alone in his room, refusing to eat and drowning his self in the sadness because of the loss of the love of his life. It was a wrong thing to do to live the rest of your life mourning for what you have already lost. Molly tried to help ease the pain that his father feels by writing a poem for his father. He immediately went outside his father’s room the moment he finished it and knocked at his door. To his surprise, his father opened the door. It was the first time that he saw his father after the burial. He expected his father to embrace him, but to his surprise, he just looked at Molly with cold eyes.

“Father, I have something to give to you, I hope it will help ease the pain that mother’s death brought you”, said Molly as he reached out his hand to give the poem to his father.

But his father abruptly grabbed it from his hands and tore it into pieces without reading it. It was the most hurtful thing that Molly has ever felt in his whole life. His father, his motivator, his inspiration in writing, his number one fan, has just tore the poem that he just wrote right in front of him. It felt to him like he just tore his heart and passion for writing into tiny pieces. He ran from his father with tears in his eyes. From that moment, he has lost his interest in writing already. At that moment also, he has already made a decision about his life. He spent all his money on useless things. He drank until he was drowning his self. He spent his money on girls giving him a temporary satisfaction. He spent and he spent until there was nothing left at all. That’s when his mysterious disappearance started. But no one ever knew that Molly has already chosen to live the life of being a beggar. Why? Because he lost his passion for writing and that he wanted to devastate his father for losing both his wife and his son that’s why he didn’t want his father to know where he currently was because Molly wanted his father to think that he is already gone out of his life.

           Tiring weeks passed as he spent his days running here and there trying to run away from the people who never stood a chance in getting a word with him. Months passed, and the people who have once been chasing after him in the last weeks already started to lose hope on Molly until they finally stopped wasting their time on something they couldn’t get. When Molly noticed that the people who are chasing him are getting lesser and lesser, he was thankful because he knew that there was a little chance that his father would know where he was so that he cannot find Molly.

           After a few days, Molly was back to his daily life again. As usual, he was begging alms from people around him and people seemed to forget the chaos that just happened in Molly’s life just a few months ago.

           But one afternoon, it was raining hard and Molly was trying to find shelter but failed. The sidewalks are full of students who also stopped by because of the rain. Molly didn’t have enough energy to run and find shelter in other places that’s why he just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk and waited for the rain to stop. But the sky above him seemed to be in great pain that it cried so much rain that it wouldn’t stop. He was already starting to feel the coldness seep into his body but to his surprise, a car stopped right in front of him.

After that, a man in a business suit stepped down from the car holding an umbrella. Molly’s eyes widened with shock to see that the man who just stepped out of the car was the last man that he wanted to see.

The man is no other than Molly’s father.

He wanted to run away but he couldn’t seem to move his legs. All of his body seemed to be numb for a moment before realizing that his father just gave him an umbrella. And he also realized that it wasn’t just an umbrella that his father gave to him. He also gave Molly a small package hanging on the handle of the umbrella. And just like that, after giving those two things to Molly without saying a single word, his father drove away again. And at that moment, the rain started to stop. As soon as Molly found a vacant waiting shed, he sat down there and opened the package that his father gave to him. And there he found the last two things that he expected his father to give to him: a pad of paper and a pen. He looked at the pad of paper and saw the words that are written on it: I’m Sorry. Please Write Again, Molly. At that particular moment, all the tears that he was holding back before came out of Molly’s eyes unexpectedly.

           As soon as he was back to his usual spot on the sidewalk where he lived during his life of being a beggar, he started to write again. The feeling of having a pen and a paper in his hands didn’t feel strange at all after four years of not having to hold it. Instead, it felt as if it belonged there and didn’t really got out of his hands. So in the next few months, he wrote all the things that he can write in order to make his story the best that it can be.

           As soon as he finished it, he gathered all his courage and dignity and went back to their house where his father lives. He didn't care if he looks like a trash when he went to see his father. He knocked at the door, and again, found his self surprised because the man who opened the door was no other than his father. But this time, his eyes were not already cold, but full of the warmth of love and joy that finally, he has seen his long lost son again. His father embraced Molly and for an instance, Molly found all his anger for his father fade away. He gave the pad of paper where his story lies and his father took it gently and read the title of the story written on the front page: ‘Yes, I Will Write Again’ by Molly A. Carter.

“It is a story of hope father. I wrote it because I want to inspire people again by my story once again just like what I did before,” Molly said.

“I’m sorry son, I have been drowned by the loss of your mother at that time that I forgot I still have you,” his father said with tears in his eyes.

“Let’s forget about the past father. What’s important now is that we are already together and I am ready to get my life back again as your favorite writer.”

“I must say I am a surprised to see all that hope in you son,where did you get all of that hope?” asked his father.

“Well, after all that has happened to me, I have now fully realized that a true writer always finds hope in a paper and a pen no matter what happens.”