If Things Should Stay the Same

Flashback: Rain

The rain fell in torrential streams, quickly turning the puddles accumulating on the ground to large pools of murky water. The frigid winds indiscriminately splattered the falling droplets of precipitation on inanimate and living objects alike, then turning its attention to the man and his seven-year-old son scrambling across the sidewalk as it toyed with the flimsy branches of the many trees planted in set distances on the pavement, denying them of cover from the unforgiving downpour until they would reach their destination.

And that was just the problem.

He had no clear destination in mind.

He was just aimlessly walking. Walking away from the things that once made his mornings worth waking up for, his life worth living for. His devotion and self-sacrifice gratuitously cast aside, leaving him feeling shattered and betrayed by the hand of cruel fate.

His job at the shoe factory? Now laid off from that with no definite reason other than a vague note saying he "did not meet up to expectation". His wife? She left a letter at their doorstep that she was leaving him for his now-former boss, the owner of the factory he had been working for up until this morning. The house? The same letter mentioned that his wife was taking ownership of it after the Department of Housing officer in charge of the property is to receive a report from her alongside a decent sum of money. She also made it clear that, if they did not leave by the time she and her new spouse arrived, she would call the police and have them arrested for "breaking into her home".

Knowing that there was nothing he could do against the many corrupt government officials who would readily accept bribes and turn a blind eye to counterfeited affidavits, he left with his son in such a hurry that they had left all their belongings behind except the backpack he had brought with him to work and the little attaché case his son often carried around.

For all his hard work to provide everything for his family, he did not foresee that it would be his unemployed wife who would kick him and their son out. He clenched his teeth as he thought about the time his boss started holding regular impromptu visits to his home. He wondered if they had been planning it for the last six months, waiting for an opportune time to toss him aside like a filthy ragdoll.

The brewing storm looming above them in the overcast skies periodically cast brief flashes of lightning and lingering rumbling of thunder. His clothes becoming heavier with each passing moment from the water being absorbed into the fabric, he wondered at how his son was managing to walk through the streets without as much as a complaint to him.

"What else could go wrong today?" he sardonically muttered to himself, briskly walking past the dull grey concrete walls that lined the inner edge of the sidewalk.

"Daddy, where are we headed to?" his son asked, playfully waving the heavily-soaked sleeves of his sweater around, flinging beads of water back in the air with some colliding into the direction of the rain.

He hesitated to respond. He did not want his child to be aware of the many bad news he was keeping inside. That his wife was no longer part of their family. That they no longer had a place to stay. That he no longer had a job to support their basic lifestyle and needs. That he had finally failed his responsibilities and duties as a father to the only person that he had left standing by his side.

"Daddy and you are just having a little walk." Forcing a smile on his face, he then bit his lip afterwards as he struggled to maintain the mask of a strong, confident and steadfast male figure in his child's life.

"In this kind of weather? I thought you always told Mommy you hated rainy days." His son looked at him in a mix of disbelief and surprise.

He almost slapped his forehead with his palm, realizing his incompetence at lying. "Well, we are having a walk because... Daddy... Daddy needs to think something through. Like, a little thought-stimulating walk for... a... a plan!" he answered, stammering to make a plausible excuse.