Theo the Street Kid and the Extraordinary Competition

Chapter 12 - Hitting Rock Bottom

HIV-positive? Theo thought, dread sinking into his stomach.
He was shocked, but it started to make sense.
Wolfie was always tired.
Theo had thought that this was because she had to work all the time, but being tired constantly was one of the symptoms of being HIV-positive.
Also, the infection would explain the rashes and the yellow tongue.
All the symptoms had been there.
Dr. Lem continued, "There is no cure for HIV, but your friend will need to take anti-retroviral medication once a week for the rest of her life. It can prolong her life and decrease the severity of the symptoms by slowing the virus, but the virus will always be in her body."
Theo's heart sank.
Dr. Lem went on, "It's been five years since she's been infected. If she doesn't take the medication soon, the HIV could progress and develop into full-blown AIDS, leaving her open to opportunistic infections. Even a cold could kill her. If it gets to that stage, there could be other complications too, like certain types of cancer."
Although Theo had never had a formal education, he liked to read and he had read about HIV/AIDS in a textbook once, so he was able to understand what the doctor was telling him.
He also knew HIV/AIDS was a fatal disease and that infection rates were high among sex workers in his country.
"How much is the medication?" asked Theo.
"$200 per dose," replied the physician.
$200 per dose? Theo thought. I can't afford that.
"How long does she have to live if she gets the medication regularly?" he asked.
"Maybe twenty or thirty years," answered the doctor.
Twenty or thirty years wasn't a lot, but it's better than nothing, thought Theo.
Now, Theo was a normally an optimistic young man. He wanted to believe that Wolfie would recover soon and that life would get better for them both.
But she had such a fatal disease.
And there were the crippling medical bills they had to pay.
Still recovering from the shock of Wolfie's diagnosis, Theo's mind started to reel.
They were homeless, penniless and unemployed.
How on earth were they going to pay for her treatment?
At that point, Wolfie opened her eyes.
Theo looked at her tenderly.
How was he going to break the bad news to her?
He decided there was no other way than to say it outright. She had to know right away. It was better to know the truth.
"The doctor says you are HIV-positive," Theo said.
She nodded, accepting it calmly.
Theo was bewildered. "How can you be so calm about it? How did you get infected by HIV in the first place?"
Then Wolfie burst into tears.
Soon, she stopped sobbing long enough to tell him about her past.
When she was eight years old, before she met Theo, she was living with her farmer mother in the provinces. When the crops failed, her mother borrowed money to put food on the table. But when she couldn't pay off the debts and the loan sharks kept demanding payment and threatening her, she decided to sell Wolfie into a brothel in Lotus Hill for $200.
There,Wolfie was forced to have sex with ten old men a day. Most of the men refused to wear condoms and since she didn't know anything about sexual health, she didn't insist on condoms.
That was how she was infected by HIV. One of the clients must have infected her through his semen.
Over the years, Wolfie had suspected that she was HIV-positive, but she never had enough money to take an HIV test. The fear of a positive diagnosis made her reluctant to have herself examined.
Besides, she was poor and the poor had priorities. First, it was food, water and shelter. And then, it was her health.
Wolfe had spoken with no shame that she had been a child sex worker. It was just something she had to do to help out her family.
Theo sat there, stunned by the revelation of Wolfie's painful past.
He couldn't imagine what she had gone through, not to mention the indignity of being sold for only $200 into a brothel where she had to service men night and day.
But suddenly, it all made sense to him. So that was why she didn't talk much, especially not about her harrowing past. She had been too traumatized by her numerous rapes.
That was why he had never even seen her smile once before.
The doctor said quietly, "Breaking bad news is the worst part of my job. I'll leave you two to talk."
Dr. Lem left the room.
Theo took Wolfie's hand and explained to her about the treatment options and the prognosis of the disease.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
She coughed. "Not good."
His heart ached for her.
He had to save her somehow. She had kicked Mr. Joob in the head, rendering him unconscious so that they could escape from Compassion NGO. She had saved his life as much as his magical whistle had.
"If we put you on the anti-retroviral medication, you have at least twenty or thirty years to live," said Theo.
"Tired," Wolfie managed to croak out. "Need sleep now."
Soon, she fell back asleep.
It was as though she hadn't heard him.
Theo gripped his lucky whistle.
He could sure use some luck right now.
But it didn't glow.
He couldn't figure out how it worked. Maybe it glowed only when he was in physical danger.
He decided to leave the hospital room to let Wolfie rest.
Besides, he needed to think.
He left the emergency room and walked into the humid evening.
The sun had already set and it was pitch black now.
A lot weighed on his mind.
Wolfie's unfortunate diagnosis meant more financial hardships.
Abandoning her was not an option. He would never do that to her. They had been through thick and thin together, always looking out for each other. She was his family and family always stuck together, especially during hard times.
Her problem meant that it was his problem too.
But they had no home and they had no money.
With a feeling of dread, he realized they had hit rock bottom.
He wanted to cry, but he had cried many times when he was younger, especially when his mother had first abandoned him. Being tougher and wiser now, he knew crying wouldn't solve anything.
He wanted to wallow in pity and misery, but he knew that would get him nowhere.
He needed to be practical. He needed a way to make money to pay for Wolfie's mounting medical bills.
But how?
He wasn't too proud to beg.
Maybe he should just beg on the streets or by the Lakeside district. Lots of street kids did it and it seemed to work for them, especially the pathetic-looking ones.
As he stood on the sidewalk watching the city pass him by, his stomach rumbled again.
He was annoyed.
Why do we have to eat so often? he thought.
He had no money, so he couldn't buy any food.
He scanned the area.
There was a garbage can by the entrance of the emergency room.
He went over and rummaged inside.
He found a piece of half-eaten stale rice cake. It looked moldy and rotten.
But he had been willing to eat stale and moldy bread already, so he wasn't too picky. He wasn't above eating from the trash. He had been doing so for the past few years.
Also in the trash can was the front page from the Lotus Hill Post, dated the day before.
The headline read: Prince Jem, Heir Apparent to the Throne of Egalisia, dies in tragic car accident.
Theo felt jealous.
Life was so unfair. Why couldn't he have been born a prince? Then, he wouldn't have to be eating from the trashcan.
Just as he was about to put the rice cake in his mouth, a group of rich-looking kids sauntered past him.
They were wearing all the latest fashions.
One of them pointed to him, whispered something to the others and then, they all burst out laughing.
His face stinging with embarrassment, Theo shouted at them, "Just you wait! I'm going to be a millionaire one day. Just you wait!"
But that bold statement made them laugh even harder.
Theo shook with rage.
It wasn't the first time that richer kids had laughed at him, but this time, it hurt more so than before, because of his new problems.
At least he could spend the night at the hospital by Wolfie's side, instead of at another shady NGO.
He quickly dusted off the stale rice cake, ate it and went around the corner.
In the garbage dump, he spied a piece of cardboard and a pen.
He used the pen to write the following on the cardboard: Please Help! Need money for medicine!
He decided he was going to sit right outside the hospital and beg for money. He also decided wasn't too proud to do so.
His dearest friend needed help and he was going to do everything he could to help her.
So he parked himself in front of the hospital's entrance, cardboard sign in plain view.
He didn't expect many people to be out at this hour, but it was still better than doing nothing for Wolfie.
And so, he waited.
First, a family walked by the entrance, ignoring him.
Then, another family walked by, again ignoring him.
Next, a couple walked through the entrance, glaring at him.
After, a few kids stared at him and then giggled.
He felt everyone's judgmental eyes on him as they passed, but he wasn't embarrassed. He didn't even care anymore.
He had indeed hit rock bottom, so he consoled himself by thinking that there was nowhere to go but up.
He had sat there for a half an hour when a monk in fluttering saffron robes passed.
Of all the passersby, the bald monk was the first to acknowledge Theo and the first to treat him like a human being.
"Young man," said the monk. "As a penniless monk, I have no money to offer you."
"Oh no," said Theo. "It is I that should offer you something - that is, if I had anything."
The culture of Egalisia revered monks and thus, mandated that monks and other members of the clergy be treated with respect and when they solicited alms, people should give if they could afford to do so.
The monk smiled. "That's alright. I can offer you some food. It looks like you need it more than I do."
He put a mangosteen into Theo's hand.
The boy clasped his hands together as a gesture of thanks.
The monk grinned. "In this life and every other life, we reap what we sow. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, evil by evil action. Do you know what I mean?"
Theo sort of understood it. He knew it was some kind of Buddhist saying or sutra.
The monk smiled. "In layman's terms, if you are a good person, good things will happen to you. If you are a bad person, bad things will happen to you. Such is karmic law, the law of cause and effect, the law of the Universe. What goes around comes around. Are you a good person?"
Theo nodded. "I am, but why hasn't anything good happened to me yet? I've had nothing but misfortune."
"Be patient and wait, young man. The Universe always has something planned for us at our darkest moments. A golden opportunity awaits you."
The monk clasped his hands together in a prayer position and then walked away.
"Thank you!" Theo shouted after the monk.
As the monk left, he chanted in sanskrit, "Ga-te ga-te, para ga-te, para som ga-te bodhi sattva...."
Theo was left alone with his thoughts.
But I am a good person, he thought. I care about others. I'm just a homeless orphan trying to make his way in this tough life. Why have so many injustices happened to me and the people I love?
In any case, he was grateful for the kind monk and he was still hungry, so he devoured the juicy mangosteen.
He was still deep in thought when a noise from the TV inside the reception area of the hospital drew his attention.
A news broadcast was interrupting a drama series.
Theo knew that news broadcasts didn't interrupt regularly-scheduled programming unless they had something very important to announce.
Eagerly, he walked inside the hospital to watch the news.