A short tale of kindness

One of my favorite authors wrote in one of my favorite novels… “We only remember what never happened.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Marina. I would remember those words throughout time, and like Oscar (the protagonist of the novel), I only now understand its meaning. Inspired by Mr. Zafón essays and novels, I have written a short Christmas story.

I remember wearing my coat uninterested over my shoulders and walking in shorts of that city that was slightly becoming white dressed by snow. I was dragging myself and my bag throughout the city to meet my friends. I was sweating under my coat after the match, but as I walked bearing my legs I felt the coldness of that winter. I couldn’t spare putting my trousers over my shorts. It was the sharp type of coldness, as if the air would cut small wounds in my legs.

I wouldn’t have considered myself a weird child, but rather a shy kid and by default some kind of wallflower. I was trying to fit it, so adults would not call me out, or worse, that they would think that I was complete weirdo.

I made a couple of friends that year and I was happy about that. It was that stage in life where people just like to be mean to other people just for fun. My friends would beat me up sometimes as a hobby. I couldn’t bear lose them because they were the only people I could call friends. For the rest, they were good friends, fun and supportive in their own way.

I got to the establishment and saw the group of people that were sitting in one ally in circle. I spot my friends laughing with other people I wasn’t acquaintance. I sat next to my friends and stayed quiet. It is not that I wanted to stay quiet, but more than I didn’t know what to say, and most importantly, I was afraid that if I said something stupid they would laugh at me and beat me up for my stupidity. I few minutes passed by and they made some jokes and I along with the group laugh at them. One of my friends turned around, stared at me and asked: “What are you laughing about?”, and responded “I am not laughing at anything”. Then she said, “Come here”. As I was approaching her slowly, she lifted her left harm up, and swung it backwards. As her harm was getting closer to me, I raised my right arm to protect my head, and I close my eyes wishing that it would not hurt. A few seconds after hearing the crashing sound of her hand in my back, I started to feel the stabbing pain. I thought to myself ‘well, I least she didn’t hit that hard, the pain is bearable’.

I just stood there feeling the pain, I didn’t know how to react. I knew that it was not ok for other people to hit you, but I wasn’t the kind person who would hit anyone or so I thought. As I was standing there debating about what to do next, she laughed. Her laugher infected the people surrounding us to laugh with her. I felt humiliated, so I gathered all my courage and hit her back. I knew that this act of defiance would get me in deep trouble but I didn’t care much for a second. During the next second, she hit back even harder three times. Clearly, I would not be able to win that fight, so I grabbed my things and ran out of there.

I stopped running as soon as I saw they were far enough from me. I tried to see If I could find any other familiar faces there with whom I could hang out. They weren’t any. I wondered by myself for a while and decided to come back hoping they had forgotten what just happened and moved on to more interesting topics. It didn’t happen, now they were staying talking with another group of people.

My friend took away my bag, I told her to give it back. She started to giggle, and said “come, come here and take it”, as I approached, she hit me. She then, told everyone else “you can hit her, try it out”. Another person started to hit me. So now there were two people hitting me. The pain started to spread across my back. As the other boy was weaving his hand for the final cross at me, I instinctively closed my eyes. And then, nothing, nothing happened…. I heard a voice saying, ‘hey, stopped now!! Enough!’ I opened my eyes, I looked up, this girl standing next to person who was about to hit me, blocking his arm. He slowly put his hand down. Everyone around us all of the sudden stopped laughing and dispersed.

I was astonished. This stranger just stood there against all those people to help me out. Why would someone do that? I don’t think I could have acted the save way she did. My friend threw my bag at me and I caught it in the floor. My friend put her arm around my saviour and said “we were just playing! Let’s go” They left together, and I was by myself again.

I didn’t know then, but 20 years later, I would still remember that incident vividly in my memories though I never had the chance to thank her nor I think she even remembers. 

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