Chapter Thirty-Six
I rang the doorbell. Standing outside at a very familiar and yet unfamiliar place, I felt weird.
The house restaurant.
Even though I needed extreme help, bothering these two old people made me feel bad. Especially at this time of the night. Both of them were already too old and humble and burdening them with my problems did not seem right. But what do I do? I was in serious trouble and they were my only option.
What the hell my life had become? What was happening with me? Why was it happening to me? And why only me? God, are you even real?
When I was busy thinking all these thoughts, I heard a shutter open. Snapping out of my hazy thoughts, I face forward. The peephole sort of type shutter, that was on the upper side of the door opened.
"The restaurant is closed." A voice called out from the other side of the door. It was unheard of. It did not belong to Mr Kiyoshi or Mrs Hanako. It was deeper and boyish.
During my thoughts, the shutter fell close. I knocked on the door again and called out, "Hello."
The shutter opened again. "I told you the restaurant is closed for the night. Its working hours are over." A voice rang out, this time sounding a little annoyed. Still, I could not see any faces. The shutter was a half-foot taller than me.
"Hey, please. Can you open the door? I'm really in need of help. I am hurt and wounded and I really need help." I called out. I heard somebody let out a snort.
"Well, miss, this is not a hospital or a clinic. If you are hurt and in a serious need of help then you should head out to a nearby hospital." The voice called out again.
I wanted to let out an exasperated sigh but did not.
"I can't go to a hospital nor a clinic. I am a paying customer, please let me in. I would buy some food and pay for it too." I let out in an annoyed tone. God, why could not he just let me in? Why was he behaving like this? Where were the grandpa and grandma?
"Well, lady, I told you that the opening hours are over and I can't let a customer in anymore. Even the paying one. Also,
Why can't you go to a hospital if you are hurt? It only makes me think that you are saying this as an excuse so that I would open the door." He said, accusation clear in his words.
"I have a reason for that. Can you just call Mrs Hanako and Mr Kiyoshi? They know me and they will certainly tell you to allow me in." I told him. I heard the guy behind this gate snorting. Like he could not believe a word that I was saying.
"They are not here. And where did you get these names from? From the board outside?" He asked, mocking me.
His words made me want to give him a snarky reply. He was clearly thinking that I was somebody who was just trying to find a reason to get in this house. Whoever was behind this door was a jerk, which I was tending to meet pretty regularly now.
"Listen, I did not read it from the outside board. It's not even written on the board." I said, checking to see if there's any mention of their name. None. Did he even work here? How could he not know if there was a name written on the board outside or not?
"Listen, lady. Whoever you are. I am ordering you to leave this premises or else I will call the cops on you and have you arrested. I am giving you five minutes but that's all. If you do not leave then I will follow through with my threat." With that, the person slammed the shutter close on my face. Well, not literally on my face, since I was shorter and was not completely reaching that but still.
I took a step back and stood there staring at my last lost hope. This was my last and only option. And it was off to me now. There was nothing I could do about it now. I did not know if he was telling the truth about Mrs Hanako and Mr Kiyoshi not being here but I could not yell and call them out. If I dared to do that then there was a fair possibility that this jerk of a person would actually follow through with this threat and call the cops. I was not sure but there was a possibility.
And I could not take the chances.
I was already in so much trouble that I could not afford this on my plate also. With no choice left, I decided to do what I was supposed to do. I walked out of that place and down the street. On the side of the park, there was an empty concrete bench nearby. I walked over to it and sat down on it.
It was all I could do. Today, I had to sleep on a parking bench with an empty stomach. What a day! It reminded me of my time in my home. Beating, verbal abuse, empty stomach, bruises and hope that tomorrow would be better. But in the end, it was all just an empty hope. A completely, hollow hope. A wish that never came true.
I stayed seated on the parking bench when I fell asleep. Thinking about my home, the day I had, everything that went down and what could happen. I didn't even realise that I had fallen asleep until I woke up with a start. Something had woken me up.
I glanced around me, trying to find the source of the voice. I was in an alert mode, because here, in this open field anything could attack me, from anywhere. All of a sudden, I heard a voice and I jumped up. It was not A voice, there were the voices of two people struggling with something.
I stood up and began walking out of the park to the main street. Where these voices seemed to be coming from. I took calm and silent steps towards it, not trying to alert anybody of my presence. I glanced down and saw a big rock sitting near a tree. Slowly, I walked over to it and picked up the rock for my safety. If I needed to use it then I would use it.
Slowly, I moved toward struggling voices. There I saw an eighteen-year-old or something, struggling against a grown man. Who had a small, sharp knife with him? He was trying to stab the boy with that knife.
The knife glinted in the moonlight. The man-made a slashing motion with that knife and managed to slash the boy's arm. That boy let out a curse. Not caring about his arm, both of them collided again.
I didn't even realise that I was moving toward them until I finally realised that I was within the reach of their attention. By the time both of their eyes turned in my direction, it was too late for them. I knocked the grown man into the side of his head with the rock and he went straight to the ground. I let out a startled gasp as soon as he hit the ground and I realised what I had done.
With horrified expressions, I glanced up at the boy. He saw my expressions and put a finger on his lips telling me to hush. He did not need to do that. I did not have it in me to speak anything. Slowly, without tearing his eyes away from the man, he picked up a purse and the money that had fallen on the ground and I had not noticed. He pushed all the fallen bills inside back into the purse. He picked the rock that I was holding from me and threw it on the sideways.
He stood up, smoothly reached out, grabbed my hand and ran out of that place. We both ran and ran until both of us ended up in the same place that I had just left. The house restaurant.
The boy keyed the door and opened it up before pulling me in. Slamming the door behind us.
"What the hell happened to your face, Girl?"