Cross

I told him firmly, go back to your parents.

His reply suddenly made me stop for a second, stared at him for a couple seconds more, and said nothing a few seconds longer.

It was the 23rd of February, an awesome night, if not perfect, to loiter around the park. There's a month long celebration for an upcoming festival and stalls (food) are put up. It has been a tradition for me and Timmy to spend even just one night at the park hunting for food, especially the most-awaited pancit with toppings. (yum!) And so we went and prepared to secrete increased amounts of hydrochloric acid just to aid us in digestion.

We stopped by stall by stall, devouring different food each stop. It was like being an F1 racer and those stalls being our pitstop. In our case, we just can't stop refueling q 15 minutes (every 15 minutes).

One pitstop later, I happened to come across with an obstacle. While we were busy sharing a hotdog (a literal hotdog, not the one that's on your mind you green one!), a kid stopped by. He gestured his hands, and I figured out, he was begging.

For me, begging is a sign of weakness, and the only way to counteract this is to ignore begging, do not give in. I kept on repeating in my conscious mind, "Do not give in. Do not give in.". But my subconscious tells me, "He's just a kid, help him. Give in." After a few seconds of Conscious-Subconscious war, there was a unanimous decision, DO NOT GIVE IN.

And so, I told him firmly, go back to your parents.

His reply suddenly made me stop for a second, stared at him for a couple seconds more, and said nothing a few seconds longer.

The kid gestured, making a cross out of his two fingers and asked me, "Kabalo ka unsa pasabot ani? (Do you know what this means?)"

It was late that I recognized that it was a cross so even before realizing the sign, I answered with a shrug, "No. What does that mean anyway?"

"They're dead."

The next thing I know, those words bore a hole in my heart (scientifically speaking, in my brain). I just gave a look at Timmy, and what has to be done was done.