FRAGMENTS - THE SEGMENTS

KEN📃

Paulo was walking through a residentialcolony seeking a house when suddenly his bag was snatched by a young boy.Quickly responding to the situation, he picked up speed and chased after theboy. Owing to his aging muscles and outstanding belly, he wasn't able to catchup with the fast paced kid. He made a quick mental description of the kid;short, frail, with a dark complexion. He lost sight of the kid as the kidturned around the corner, by the time Paulo turned the corner, the kid wasnowhere to be seen. He stopped running, and slowly walked, heaving. On bothsides were houses of middle-class families. As he walked forward, he sawanother boy, but this one probably in his teens, he guessed. He went over tothe boy and asked if he had seen a kid running with a bag, he replied yes andsaid that the kid would've left that bag under the apple tree round the nextcorner if the bag had no valuables. Trusting the information provided, hethanked the boy and left. As he walked away, he felt he knew the boy fromsomewhere but then hesitated to ask. Sure enough, the bag was under the appletree as the bag only contained some official papers. Paulo picked up the bagand continued his walk. Upon finding the home, he went inside, and was greetedby the in-dwellers, a couple. He explained he was from the Liftill Insuranceand had come concerning certain formalities following the death of the couple'sson in an accident the previous week. He asked them to sign a few papers, andthen he asked them for a recent photograph of their son. As he held thephotograph, he had a shiver in his spine, he had met the very same kid just acouple of minutes; terrified, he thanked the couple and left. Paulo rememberedall of this as blood gushed out of the cut on his neck and as he slowlystumbled to death.