Every day, Richard woke up early and had breakfast with his mother, Jean. Then he prepared for work as a hairdresser. Although he had always dreamed of being a footballer, his dream was shattered two years ago by the death of his father. Afterward, he dropped out of school and found work to help his mother. Despite the tragedy, Jean remained optimistic about her son's life. However, she didn't accept or didn't want to acknowledge that her husband was too old to survive the heart operation, and she retired from her job as an IT consultant. Even though she had many creative smartphone designs and ideas, she didn't pursue them.
Richard finished his breakfast, stood up, and headed to the door. However, his mother Jean stopped him and asked, "Richard, why didn't you want to talk to me this morning? Is everything okay with you?" Richard replied, "You know, Mom, I've had a lot of customers this week, and it's been stressful." Jean responded, "I've always told you that job isn't good for you, but I think I'm talking to myself and not to you." Richard left home quickly without answering her.
At that moment, Richard's mother was busy with the procedures for a project to open an office that rented cars, hoping that her son could work there and move away from his job as a hairdresser. However, the question on her mind was whether he would accept the job.
Richard was thinking about his father, who was his only friend, and even his parents were old
his father was 66 years old and his mother was 57 years old
. His mother had gotten pregnant with him years after their wedding. After a few minutes, Richard arrived at the hairdresser's store, but he didn't notice it until the owner, Carlos, started yelling at him and scolding him. This was the situation for everyone who gave a job to a teenager or a kid; they thought they had slaves working for them. Even though Richard worked hard all day, he was still treated poorly.
After completing his work for the day, he headed back to his house. On his way back, three teenagers blocked his way, and they seemed familiar. Richard said, "What do you want from me? Let me go, please. I'm really tired, but I feel good since I left that school, and I don't have to see your ugly faces anymore." One of them, with brown hair and big eyes that seemed evil, said, "You think that when you dropped out of school, you could run away from us? Very funny. Now give us your phone and your money, and we'll think about whether we will let you go peacefully mouse face"
they bullied him because he had big front teeth, but even then, he was handsome with a sweet smile
. Richard replied, "Oh, you guys have graduated from bullies to thieves. You are always changing, but for the worst, of course. Now let me go because you won't take anything from me. Back off." So Richard pushed one of them and hit him on his face, then started hitting him one after another. However, the two others threw him on the ground and started kicking him until he lost consciousness. They left him there.
After a few minutes, Richard woke up to see a girl trying to wake him up. She was beautiful, with piercing brown eyes and light brown hair styled in a crew cut. She said, "What happened to you, Richard? Who did that to you?" Richard didn't understand what was going on or where he was while she was speaking. So the girl asked him again, "Are you okay?" Richard replied, "Don't worry, I am okay. I think I know you, right? Remind me of your name." She smiled and said, "My name is Maddison, but you can call me Maddy. Did you forget me so fast? I was your classmate last year. Remember the girl with the big glasses? That's me." Richard said, "But you..." Maddison interrupted him and said, "Yeah, I look different. I know." Richard looked uncomfortable, and she understood the situation. She helped him to reach his house and left quietly without any word.
While Richard was walking along the road, he didn't find anything to say to her. It had been a year since he had talked to her or knew anything about her. Besides, she wasn't a close friend to him. He didn't have friends anyway. With all the overthinking about her, he asked himself, "Am I going to meet her again?
Jean said, "Why are you late? It's already 10 PM." The words of his mother broke his unconscious overthinking while he was heading to his room. He turned to say that he was sorry for being late, but his mother screamed while asking, "Who did that to your face?" He had forgotten about the fight completely and his bruises, so he said, "It's just..." Jean interrupted his words and said, "Don't try to start lying to me. Tell me what happened?!
Richard found that he couldn't hide anything from his mother, so he told her everything that had happened. He admitted that he had been powerless and hadn't stood up to his attackers like a man, but rather like a coward. He found himself trying to pretend and act like he was brave. Jean said, "Do you remember the day your father died? You asked me why I wasn't crying for his death." Richard replied, "Yes, you said that you still had another pillar in your home, but I still don't understand what that means." Jean smiled and said, "That pillar is you, and the home is my life. The reason that I didn't cry is because your father left me with a man. Not everyone can do what you did, and you haven't even reached 20 years old yet." Richard looked sad and said, "Don't try to cheer me up. I know who I am." Jean responded, "Okay, not everyone drops out of school when they find out that they are the man of the house and try to find a job. Even though we have the money, you still felt like something wasn't right." Richard, torn between his father's memory and his mother's words, found himself trying to hold back tears.
After two weeks, Jean had finally finished the project she was working on and was preparing to tell her son about it when she heard a frantic knocking at the door. When she answered it, a scared girl stood before her and asked, "Are you Richard's mother?" Jean nodded in response, and the girl continued, "My name is Madison, Richard's friend. Your son is in danger. Some boys from school are chasing him and they have knives.
3 hours earlier
... Richard finished his work and started heading home, but someone caught his attention. It was Maddy, coming towards him. Despite being far away, he felt his heart beating fast as she approached him with a smile on her face. When she got near, she said, 'Hi, how are you, brave boy?' Richard stood quietly without any words to answer her. Maddison understood that he wanted to say something and gave him time, but he remained frozen. She tried to fill the silence and said, 'I think you're not in the mood to talk, so I'll go. Let's talk when you feel better.'
Richard stopped her when she tried to leave and said, wondering, 'Where have you been the last two weeks? I was somehow asking about you to thank you for being there beside me that day. I really appreciate it. And sorry for not saying anything along the road and now also, it's just..."Maddison waited for the sentence to be completed and asked, 'It's just what?" Richard was looking at the ground and, with a sad tone, said, 'It's just not a normal thing for me. I didn't experience that feeling of having someone care about me or our friendship. To be honest, I didn't know you very well when we were in the same class last year." Maddison said, 'Yeah because you were pushing everyone away." Richard, trying not to match his eyes with hers, said, 'Yeah, I don't know why. But I know now that I want to have at least a cup of coffee with you sometimes, as friends of course, if you like. I hope it's not awkward for me to ask for friendship with you or for you to think I'm a weirdo.' "No, it's fine,' Maddison said. 'It's an ordinary way to make friends. I don't think there is a factory that makes friends for people.', "Richard suggested going to the café station together now, and Maddison replied, 'Okay, but can you wait for me here? I'll go home quickly and be back." Richard agreed and told her he would wait for her. After a while, the same three bullies from the school appeared. One of them said, 'How is your skinny body doing after what happened to him?" Richard stayed silent and focused on their eyes. One of the bullies showed him the knife he was holding and said, 'We have a new activity. Last time we beat you, but this time we want your money, and I want to draw on your pretty face. By the way, we saw that girl you were standing with. You're really insane to believe that you'll have a chance with her." Richard lost control and tried to strike him, but the bully avoided it and wounded Richard's shoulder with the knife. Richard felt like he had been cut with a katana sword. He realized it wasn't a good idea to confront them and decided to run away. The bullies chased him and kept saying they would draw on his face that day." At the same time, Maddison was coming back to the place where she had left Richard and saw him running with three boys chasing him, each one holding a knife. She knew she wasn't a strong girl and couldn't do anything to help him. But she knew one thing she could do was tell his mother."
Richard was bleeding heavily as he kept running, eventually finding himself in a forest. He couldn't believe that there was a forest like this near his neighborhood in Nevada, but he had no choice but to keep moving until he stumbled upon a cave and hid there. Strangely, the guys chasing him did not seem to have found the forest on their way, yet they continued searching for him. After some time, Richard lost consciousness while he was hiding. His dreams were all about his father, as usual. He found himself on a path of flames, and as he looked down, he saw flames everywhere. With every step he took forward, the path grew smaller. Suddenly, his father said, "Look after your mother for my sake," and the same voice told him that he was not the son his father was waiting for. The path kept getting smaller with every step until he fell down where the flames were...green. He suddenly woke up after the fall and saw a small green light. He stood up and followed it until he saw a broken mirror flying. He got closer to the mirror because it was shining with green light, not every mirror does that, of course. He saw his reflection in the mirror, and he lost control of his body. He was feeling only his head like it was flying, and he heard a voice say, "Why are you here?" He felt like the voice was coming from his head, but he dismissed that idea and replied, "I was just..." The voice interrupted him and said, "I know you are hiding, but I want to know why here, of all places?" Richard was close to losing his mind, and he was still looking for where the voice was coming from. He replied, "I don't want anything from this cave. I was just hiding here." The voice said, while Richard felt it close to his ears, "But I want " Richard wondered, "Want what?" Eyes appeared on the mirror, and the voice said, "I want you."
