Misunderstandings

The Runaway Child

Ahmon

"Ahmon!"

People would often tell him that he was too young to remember anything. Three years old is such a young age. There is no possible way he could remember his parents. But he does. He has nightmares and vague flashes of a woman's smiling face. A father who would carry him. What is the most memorable in Ahmon's head is a woman screaming at the top of her lungs and looking back at him. 

He is only four years old when he is first adopted. The couple is nice, the man is a lawyer and his wife is a stay at home woman. They buy him nice clothes and expensive toys but never spend any time with them. They often have parties and only show him off when friends are over. It is in one of those particular parties that they ask he call them mom and dad. 

Ahmon knows he is adopted. He has never had parents nor does he feel the need to call these people his parents. He feels uncared for and unloved. He doesn't call them mom and dad and that night he sneaks into their room and cuts the woman's hair off. He goes into the mans study and destroys all of his papers on his desk and in the drawers of his desk. 

When they wake up he remembers being yelled at and then he is returned to the orphanage. From then on he decides he never wants parents. Real parents are the only ones that can be loving and warm. Ahmon doesn't remember that feeling. The next couple has two children of their own a five-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. Ahmon has the most fun with them. He sticks gum in the girl's hair, breaks all of her toys and to the boy who is older he drops down a flight of stairs and breaks his leg. He is sent back after that. He cuts suits, breaks things around the house, gets into fights. In total, he is returned to the orphanage five times. 

The last one, however, the nuns have had enough and send him to another group home. He meets Mrs. Tian there. He plays pranks on the other children, gets in trouble at school and is yelled at by Mrs. Tian. He always sits on time out with her and she makes him read a book every day. He hates it here but the one place he loves is the rooftop. He goes there on his own to look at the stars and he likes the way the stars look. The sparkle in the night and it's like his own personal night light. When he has nightmares he goes up on the roof to forget.  

He's up on the roof again. It's a Wednesday morning when he sees a truck pull up. He recognizes it as it's the one Mr. Su Xiaomi had been driving. This time, however, there's a man in a baseball hat coming out of the truck. Mrs. Tian is outside ready to greet him the man began unloading trays of food with him. Ahmon hasn't slept much the previous night as he had a nightmare the previous night. However, he could smell fresh croissants and his stomach grumbled. 

It was a split decision but as he looked at the man unloading trays of food. He wanted to leave again. It wasn't the first time he ran away from the orphanage but he wanted to konw how far this truck would take him. He made his way out and when the man walked inside with Mrs. Tian with the last of the trays of food he took his chance and hid inside the truck.

He waited quietly until the person closed the back and it didn't take long for the truck to start moving and when it did Ahmon sat patiently. There were several stops tat truck made and Ahmon supposed it was simply because of traffic. However, when the car was turned off abruptly Ahmon took his chance to get out once he was sure he was alone. He found himself behind a parking lot and simply walked. 

There were several shops around but everything was still closed as the sun was no out yet. The only shop that was open had a logo of a giant baby in a diaper and holding a rattle. The lights were on and Ahmon saw Su Xiaomi and another man sweeping and cleaning inside the shop.

Something about Su Xiaomi really irritated Ahmon. The way he smiled annoyed him. The way he had looked at him at the orphanage and smiled at him even though he did something bad made him feel strange. There was a warm feeling that made him feel strange. He looked at both men and smirked.