Redemption

Preface

Renato couldn't remember the day he was abandoned by his mother, who threw him inside a trash bin upon giving birth to him, but he could remember the details of that day as told by others. The kids at the orphanage made sure he knew his origin every day. He was found still with the umbilical cord and covered in blood. The only reason he was found was after his cries as he was being eaten alive by red ants. The reason for such an act was never known. The woman was never found no matter the efforts of the authorities. The police alerted every hospital in the area and even those in neighboring cities to hold any woman that could have given birth to a child and arrived without one, but no woman ever did. Renato's story was covered in the local media for months and even made a scandal nationwide, and yet nobody reached for him. Many conclusions were made about what could have happened, from being ripped from his mother's arms to his mother either not wanting or not capable of keeping him and deciding to do what everyone else does with what they can no longer hold. He was named Renato after a religious lady that served as a volunteer in the orphanage, as she considered he had been born again when he was found. Renato's earliest memory was the most vivid. It was the first and last good memory he had until the day he met Safiye. He was in the backyard playing with his imagination, as the summer breeze shook the branches of the trees, and its leaves made a soothing sound. The kids never attempted to be friends with him. They remained distant to Renato as if he was still covered in dirt. Some even said that the smell of trash lingered on him. Except for a few days when tears made their way to his eyes, he was fine alone, and time will prove to him it was best that way. He wished he had been forgotten and allowed to disappear in the wind on that day.