FRED

Saturday - March 12 - HE REMEMBERED...

It was still raining outside. Since he woke up this morning at exactly 5:33, heavy rain was pouring all day. He could hear the loud splatters of raindrops on their roof, but this noise did not muffle the loud cry of the child outside. This child had already moved to his neighbor's open yard earlier this afternoon. His neighbor named Mercy Ramness lived across the main road, directly in front of his house.

This evening, he, Mr. Arthur del Tokedo was peering through his window inside his room in the second floor of his three-storey house. He was staring at the poor child sitting right under the one-meter overhang roof of Mrs. Ramness. The orphan was clutching his stomach while crying so loud you'll wonder if he really was a child or just a little mentally retarded man.

He is a child, maybe two or three in age, thought Mr. Arthur. I cannot mistake this assumption. His innocent face and his delicate physique are very much like to my youngest son's. Only that my son is healthy and clean, and I thank God for that.

It was already 10:27 in the evening and his everyday routine was already done. The rain outside was still pouring. He kept on staring at the poor child. The child cried harder and was now shivering in his cold, soaked oversized shirt. He had no pants.

"That shirt doesn't look like shirt anymore. It is now a rag. A torn and soaked dirty rag worn by a beggar child shivering outside my neighbor's house," he said in the dark.

Suddenly, he saw Mrs. Ramness' window opened and came the angry yell of her voice out.

"GET OFF HERE YOU LITTLE SCUM! GET OFF MY HOUSE! WE CAN'T SLEEP BECAUSE OF YOUR CRY, YOU STUPID SONNOVABITCH! MOVE AWAY!

The child clearly became frightened, cried even harder that he coughed several times that almost choked him.

"STAY AWAY FROM HERE BEFORE YOU SPREAD SOME CONTAGIOUS DISEASE! GET OFF MY HOUSE! NOW!"

The child just moved at the further side of the wall, away from the window and continued to cry. The rain was still too heavy and he was now too weak to run, or even just walk into another house. Mrs. Ramness, feeling defeated and completely furious, cursed all the bitches in the world before shutting her window and turning off the light in her living room. Eight seconds later, Mr. Arthur saw her silhouette in her bedroom in the second floor of her house, making love with her fourth lover. Lights on. She never had a child. Mrs. Mercy Alferez-Tramell Villaramos Lee Ramness, now thirty-one, never wanted a child, and had been too careful, since seventeen, not to have one.

Mercy, Mr. del Tokedo thought, is a beautiful name perfectly matched the innocent-looking face of woman like hers. Sadly, she is ruined by her reputation. And her beautiful name now serves as an irony and a joke of her existence. Even the children of our neighbors know this joke.

Mr. Arthur diverted his eyes again down to the child. The child was now sitting in the dark corner, leaning his back to the wall. He was still clutching his stomach, but he stopped crying. He was still shivering in cold but had gone silent. He was silent but could clearly be seen breathing. Still breathing and very much still alive.

Arthur slowly closed the curtain of his window and laid his back on his bed. He was still waiting for his wife before going to sleep. The name of the child is Fred, he suddenly remembered. His name was Fred, and Arthur, while lying and waiting on his bed, remembered the day he first saw the child. It was just this Tuesday.