Arthit found himself waking up in the midst of unbearable stench of urine, rotten vegetables and the mix of untraceable obnoxious smell. He was lying on a tattered mattress with only mud walls and the tarpaulin roof to cover his head. He never imagined waking himself in such filthy , dirty and smelly shack.
He felt pain in his right arm and also trying to get up was very hard for him because of aches in his body. He had scratches here and there, but that was not much of his concern. He was trying to recollect as to why he was there with no one around. He wondered where were his parents and siblings.
Slowly, it dawned on him that how his parents were attacked by the masked men on the bike and how he tried to run to save his parents, but all he could remember was that his parents fell with their heads hitting the ground and how he was dragged by someone before he hit his head against the stone or some hard surface. He panicked and tried his best to get up and he did succeed to find his way out of the shack only to be dragged by unknown shabby man inside.
He started screaming and shouting for help and kicking his hand and legs to get away from that man but it was futile as he felt very weak because of the pain and had to give up at the end. He started sobbing for his parents so frantically that he was slapped by the man to bring back to his conscious self.
He calmed down and lied on the mattress without uttering a word but still keeping his sobs on. Slowly, he relaxed himself seeing the familiar man whom he gave alms everyday evening while his visit to the temple with his parents. He remembered then that the ragged man had saved him from the clutches of those bullets. The man, whose smile brought back solace and serenity to his so called dreary life, he felt little bit relieved. He got back his strength and at that moment he felt a kind of gratitude towards the beggar. For the first time, in those two months of his contact with his smile, he acknowledged the beggar as his saviour and more over his nearness brought a kind of security for him.
The smile which the beggar gave him soothed his burning heart and his kind words of relaxation and calmness made him grateful to him. He never knew that one day a beggar would be his rescuer, his life saver, his anchor from the darkness.
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