TRIGGERFINGER (ORIGINAL STORY) - SEASON ONE

S01E09 An Unexpected Find! The Story of Rian! (Part One)

Streets were crowded as Rian watched a nearby merchant's stall. The merchant was selling fruits of all kinds; delicious apples, juicy oranges, plump melons. Rian's mouth salivated at the thought of getting his hands on all that food. His short white hair swished as he quickly hid behind a nearby wall, his eyes still on the stall, waiting for the merchant to turn away so that he could swipe some of the fruit. A woman and her child walked up to the stall and picked out what they wanted, the child pointing at a freshly ripe banana.

The merchant turned around to get a bag to put the woman's fruit in, and Rian saw the opportunity, rushing by and swiping as many fruits as he could get his hands on. The merchant turned around and started cussing his way, telling him to come back as he ran off with a variety of different fruits. As Rian ran off, he reflected, did he want to do this? No, of course not but he had no choice. He was a street kid. Had no family, no friends. All he had was himself, meaning he had to survive by any means necessary which meant stealing from time to time, and jumping from town to town so he wouldn't get caught.

Once the merchant's stall was out of sight, and he saw that no one was chasing him, he started to slow down. He walked through the streets, his fruits in his arms, and looked at all the people around him. Families, friends hanging out, people laughing and having a good time together. If only I had someone to share all this food with, he thought to himself.

He walked down an alley, it was darker down here, not as much light due to the overlapping rooftops above. There behind a dumpster lay a sleeping bag and a hay bale, a shopping cart next to it. He put all of his fruit in the cart then rolled up his sleeping bag and put that inside too, along with the hay bale. He rested an arm against the dumpster and looked inside, filled with cans of food he had stolen on previous days.

"Can't stay here any longer," he muttered to himself. "They'll catch me soon."

He started pushing the cart back down the alley and emerged back into the sunlight. He turned right and started following the path to exit the town. On his way, he saw an old blind man sitting with his legs crossed, a steel bucket out in front of him, waving it around and asking for spare change. He looked at all of his fruit and smiled, taking a few apples and oranges from the cart and placing them in the old man's bucket.

"I'm sorry sir," he said. "I don't have change but here's some fruit."

The old man grinned in delight, and immediately took out an apple and chomped into it, thanking Rian for his kindness. Then from behind, Rian heard a familiar voice. HEY, YOU! YEAH, THAT'S THE THIEF RIGHT THERE! Rian turned and there stood the fruit merchant standing with a blue uniformed law enforcer. The law enforcer blew a whistle and started running after him, so Rian started running too, pushing his cart as fast as he could.

***

Thankfully, Rian was able to evade the law enforcer and was on his way to the next town. Hopefully somewhere security wasn't quite as tight. He pushed his shopping cart through a field and came to a big tree amongst shrubs and bushes. He felt his stomach rumble, and sat down with his back against the tree, peeling an orange. He took a bite and the juices squirted out at all sides, this was one of the best tasting oranges he had ever had, his eyes widening at just how delicious it was.

After eating his orange, he grabbed a banana, peeled that and started chomping back on it as he did the orange. He had grabbed enough fruit to last him at least a day or two, if he rationed it out correctly. He finished his banana and slumped back against the tree, holding his belly. He wasn't full but he at least had to pretend to be despite his stomach continuing to rumble. He sighed. If only he had a nice juicy steak in front of him, he'd devour it in 10 seconds flat. That would be enough to keep him full for an entire day.