Pangs of misery and agony cut me. I couldn’t even help a lost child without scaring him even more. Why couldn’t I just looknormal?
“Hey, don’t be scared,” I said, forcing my voice to remain steady despite my sadness. “I’m gonna help you find your parent, okay?”
He stared at me for a minute. Then the boy’s lower lip trembled and then he cried out, “Mommy!”
A voice echoed from down the alley. “Michael?”
I recognized the voice. The woman who’d run into me earlier and didn’t apologize bolted down towards us.
“Mommy!” Michael said, getting to his feet.
“You get away from him!” the woman screamed at me.
Shocked, I didn’t know what to say. I backed up in a daze as the woman swarmed her child, clutching both him and her jewelry bag close while glaring at me.
“What kind of freak are you, bothering kids in alleys? I should report you!” she yelled.
“What?” I cried. “I didn’t do anything to him! I was just asking—”
“Mommy, I’m scared, I wanna go home,” Michael moaned.
“I know, honey,” his mother said, patting his head while shooting me another nasty glance. “Let’s get away from this scary man.”
She herded Michael up the alley towards the main street before shouting back at me, “And don’t you dare follow us!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I muttered to myself as they disappeared from sight.
I stood there alone in the alley for a long time, not knowing what to do. Outrage and hopelessness burned in my blood. I was only trying to help. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.
But I already knew at this point that life wasn’t fair.
I shut my eyes and sighed deeply, collected myself as much as possible, and continued towards the bar. When I finally arrived, I was already fatigued physically and emotionally, and the night had only just begun.
