一段友谊成就了一生

第1章

Twelve-year-old Leo lives with his family in the suburb of Taiga City, which is the capital of the Taigalian Republic.

On Wednesday afternoon, the last class for Leo just ended. Leo packed up his belongings, zoomed out from school, and ran straight back towards his home–a seven-story apartment on the side of a main street of Taiga City.

"Mom, I'm back!" Leo smashed the door and shouted. He put down his shoes, and his backpack, and ran back to his room, to finish up the assignments.

"Hey sweetie, why are you home so early today?" Mom took the dishes out. It is a Cooked Salmon roll and potatoes—Leo's favorite—for dinner after Dad comes home after working in a textile factory for financial.

Leo stopped running. "Today is Election Day of Taigalia, Isn't it? And we're going to watch it on TV! I can't even wait to see Felcon win the election by a landslide!" Leo shouted. He entered his room and started rushing to do his homework.

"I am sure that the candidate Felcon will win," Mom replied, walking back to the kitchen, and bringing the bowls and chopsticks out. She stays at home for the whole day, taking care of Leo and working in an insurance company. "Remember to wash your hands first!" She laughed.

"Oh yeah. I even forget that." He ran back to the bathroom, roughly cleaned his hands with water and soap, dried them, and started to do homework.

Leo washed his hands, finished his homework fast, and rushed out. Leo speedly finishing the paperwork, reviews, and math problem sets. Finally, all the work is done. He stared at the pencils which were no longer sharp, which he just used up, the rulers, pens, highlighters, and rubbers, all at his desk, and packed them up quickly into his blue old pencil case which used since he was in grade one.

That night, the entire family, and all of the Taigalians and citizens from all over the country sat around their television, nervously watching and waiting for the election results. As predicted, all the ballots would counted soon. Leo's family and many others are all waiting nervously and excitedly for the candidate Felcon, from the Conservative party in Taigalia. Everybody believes that he'll make it.

Leo's mom brings all the dinners out. Garlic-fried chicken, fresh salmon warp, potato smashes, and hams, are all favorites of Leo.

The fresh smells of food are all over the room. Leo moved the chair and sat on his seat, picked up a piece of grilled chicken, and finished it quickly, enjoying how juicy the flesh was. At the same time when he was eating the delicious dinner, Leo's father hurried in.

And suddenly, Dad opened the door, pulled out the key, went to the kitchen and washed his hands, put his bags and cases with documents of finances and a bunch of research down on the floor. He lit a cigarette, pulled off his chair an inch, and started to eat. Leo ran to the TV, turned it on, and switched to the election report channel.

Leo came to the living room, turned on the TV, and quickly switched to the election channel. Numbers and colorful data charts are displayed on the screen. The host started talking and analyzing the result.

The voting set ended. Millions and millions of votes are doodled by all the citizens from every place in Taigalia, and their votes will decide the new president. All of them were staring at the moderator on the TV, who was announcing the counting of votes. Leo's heart tightened with every number and percentage displayed on the screen, with a bit of nerves, waiting for the result. Perhaps it is not too bad, he thought to himself.

Slowly, after the last voting station was closed, the counting started. At first, tens, hundreds, and a few thousands of the number jumped in. Felcon is the candidate that Leo and his parents support. They, and also millions of other people, all believed that Felcom would win by millions of votes.

The numbers on the screen for each candidate started at zero. Then, by time and votes were counted, the numbers were getting bigger. Tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, more and more are coming up. The result will come out just at midnight, or probably tomorrow morning.

Falcon, the candidate that Leo's family supported, gets in leading at first. All their family members are watching closely the numbers and results, and meanwhile eating. Soon, his main opponent, Ted, followed closely at the back, with a difference of a few thousand votes. and Will, the candidate who had been predicted in third place, also is going to follow up. Some other minor candidates also got thousands of votes, sometimes they were shown on the screen, and sometimes they were not.

"This is exciting!" Leo shouted. "I am sure if Felcon just keeps in the lead, we will just easily make it!"

Leo jumped down from his chair, pushed it back, took all the dishes, chopsticks, and bowls into the kitchen, and washed them.

"Obviously Felcon won already," Dad replied.

However, soon, the number of votes for the candidate Will, who just always stayed in third place and would never be expected to win–not even possible to get higher than ten percent, but his vote began to increase, from a few thousand, to rapidly flying up to almost a million.

Leo and his family all get together in front of the TV, watching the exciting race between Ted and Felcon, and Will, who is unexpected to make it.

Will is catching up rapidly, soon, he threw away the second-place candidate, Ted, and now he is almost catching up with Felcon. Leo can't believe it, shocked that he is not able to close his mouth. Dad lit and blew his seventh yellow "daffodils 'sign today, he breathed in, and out, suddenly grabbed the teacup on the desk, and threw it on the floor.

"How is that possible? No way! I'll just get a gun out and shoot your head down, Will! You're going to hell! Damn you and your family!"

"At now, Felcon won 12.4 million votes, mostly coming from the southern and Taiga city metro—capital of Taigalia— and Ted, from the liberal party, got 10 million too. However, the third-party candidate Will, although he only has less than ten presents around in opinion polls, surprisingly, winning more than any of other Candidates, having 15 million, and still rapidly increasing..."

The votes for the election were continued to be counted. Will keeps winning, and votes increasing more and more. Mom was shocked and in tears...she kept crying, wiping her tears, and using up all the tissues on the desk. No way. That's impossible!

"And now, we will need to announce the winner of today's election. Shockingly, the majority of the voters choose the candidate...Will for the president. It was the first president who was neither in the two major parties..."

Leo and his family couldn't accept the result. No way. No way. Will must be cheated, he stole the election from them, it must be a fraud! Anger, shocking, and unbelievably fill everyone's hearts, and nobody would ever believe this.

"Everything is just fake! Will, you're going to heal, now! You ruined democracy, you ruined society and everybody's life!" Leo's father threw the teacup on the ground, smashing it into hundreds of pieces.

"This can't be true! Fraud! Fraud!" Leo's dad yelled angrily, just like how he was when he was drunk.

He walked back to his room and lay down on the bed heavily. He stared at the crying, unable to stop his tears coming out. Leo came into his room, closed the door and the light, and lay disappointedly, crying on his bed.

His hope collapsed. Mom and Dad also. And also the other people who voted for Felcon.

He remembered that before the election, his parents took out their precious time to attend Felcon's campaign rally with him full of expectation and enthusiasm to cheer him on.

It was lively, with supportive crowds filling the nearby streets, with flags, posters, glow sticks... flashing in the crowd. Everyone was shouting, screaming, encouraging, and blessing him.

He clearly remembered Felcon's speech on stage, shouting bravely and confidently, to express his desire, dream, and commitment for the future. He may not quite understand what the economy and taxation are doing. Reforming the parliament, repealing this law, deleting this regulation, etc. are no longer important–it will change Tegallia for the better, at least Mom and Dad thought so–he had cheered wildly for it and had tears in his eyes, with Mom, with dad, and with every his supporter. Now, everything seems to be in vain.

Leo went to his bedroom and slept.