Dauntless Meets Intellect

Mom, where are you?

"8 year old Arthit was busy coloring a picture with crayons. He could hear his mother singing out a tune to herself while cooking. The sunlight through the window fell on her dark black hair highlighting her cheek bones, her eyelashes, making her fair complexion stand out from the dark house of the slum. The door opened and his father came in sighing and young Arthit ran to fetch him a glass of water. His father went and gave his mother a back hug. Suddenly, there was a lightning stroke outside and Arthit looked out of the window for a moment only to find the sky raining shards of glasses. He was no longer in the house, near his feet lay his father who face had no more emotions, just a blank vacant stare to nothingness. His face was ghostly pale, the bright red  blood steadily flowed down from his gunshot wounds, his fingers balled into a fist holding a tiny metallic earring inside which he had brought for his mother . Arthit sat down only to find the ground gone and get replaced with a black cushion. Picture of his mother and father kept side to side and he looked down at his hand to see the crayon picture of him holding his mother and father's hand together. "

Arthit woke up and stared into the darkness of the room for some time. He then got up, poured himself a glass of water and stared into the wall. 

"Here Pa! Your glass of yum yum."

"My dear boy here Dad will give you a kiss for this yum yum."

" No Pa two kisses. The price has doubled! "

And then a laughter echoed all throughout Arthit's walk of memory. 

Arthit touched his left ear. The metal earring felt cold to his touch but brought out a fire of vengeance in his pit of stomach.

" I'll avenge you Pa. I will." He mutter under his breath gulping down the water.

All these years, Arthit has been searching for his mother. All throughout his life. Other people may believe she's dead but he will not. There could be a death certificate recorded under her name but Arthit knew his mother was alive. He would only trust his eyes and according to them no dead body of his mother could be seen. He will absolutely find his mother and avenge his father and there's nothing out there that could stop him from doing that. So, Arthit had been in the prowl for any clues regarding his mother's and father's death. Being a kid bought up in a slum, there's a limit to how much you can do. You don't have a face nor influence and Arthit wasn't a member of any gang nor knew any person of influence. He went to the authorities to ask for the records of death but they just scoffed at him and said to move on from the dead. The police wouldn't even hear what a slum kid had to say. After hitting a dead end at every legal way, he came across the Internet. You can hide things in the Internet but you can never remove them. That was how he started on hacking. He's a fast learner, a very fast learner and within days he had been asked to become the underdog of companies. And that's how Arthit Rojnapat went underground, met his friends, earned himself a living, moved out from the slums and learnt to stay low. He learnt to earn, to use that anonymity of his name to his advantage. He was someone the system did not know and he was someone insignificant and he would like to keep it that way. He learnt to be  patient and wait for his chance. All these years, all these time, he had not forgot about his father or mother. Now that he has his chance, he won't let it go.

Two months ago, Arthit had hacked into the Suthiluck group after hacking into the Yamada group to find any database regarding Rojnapat. Any Rojnapat. He had been hacking into these companies from day 1. First he started with the weaker ones, ones with a weaker firewall and moved up. While looking at the files, he saw a name. Aroon Dongpai Tsung. It was among the list of deceased workers of the company. The name seemed so familiar but he couldn't remember. One week later he remembered , it was the name that one of the people who murdered his father said. So, was Aroon's file hidden or forgotten? Did the company do it purposefully? Was he the mastermind? Or is he a victim of the somebody else's script too? Would any of his colleagues know what he was up to? With so many questions clouding his mind, he went to the bed. But one thing was sure,  Aroon was already dead and dead men never lie.It was time that Arthit questioned the dead. Turning to his side, Arthit thought,

"Will Mom be okay where she's now?"

" Why did she not try to contact me all these years?"

"How would she feel when she saw Arthit? "

"Had Arthit lived up to her expectation? "

But deep down Arthit knew. He knew his mother would hate him now. Her only son has become a cheat, a person who does not maintain privacy of others, a person who steals information to stay alive, a person who belongs to the underworld. A person who is  not different from those who took her or those who killed his father. The earring on his left ear felt so heavy now.

Suddenly a tear trickled down his cheek, then other, then another and another and another, they just wouldnt't stop. He put his face on his pillow and kept on  muttering.

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I'm sorry Mom."

"I miss you Mom. Mom, where are you?"

The little child in Arthit cried himself to sleep that night, hiding his tears from the dark and the empty room, feeling more lonely than ever and more regretful than ever.

Hello to all readers, 

Stay safe and stay home!

From,

 Author-nim.