TWENTY-TWO
IT IS THE NEXT DAY.
Anij is still thinking about what he should do. But he can’t just throw away his dream of being a thief with Mikael yet, especially after all that beating.
Mikael has been thinking all night long about excuses to tell his boss about Anij. But no good ones have been knocking on his brain yet.
Mikael and Anij enter the house once again to redeem themselves. Everyone is still sleeping. But the boss is sitting on his crown chair as if he were expecting them to enter the house at this time. Anij and Mikael are surprised that he is sitting there and watching them coming into the house. The boss greets them with very intentional sarcasm.
“Well. Well. Well. Look who is here. They are the little great Mikael and his Asian friend?”
Mikael speaks to the boss with a totally different attitude this time. “Cut that shit out, man. I want to talk to you.”
“Do we have anything to talk about? I thought it was all done yesterday. Maybe I did not make it so clear.”
“Come on. Just listen. Okay?”
“Any more beatings that you want to take? Just let me know. Yesterday, I think I was a little too generous. That is why I don’t like friendship. It kind of drags me down a lot. It is vile and it is invalid for us. You know that. Maybe your brain got messed up somehow. Which I don’t give a shit.”
“I will just tell you what I have to say. Okay? The thing is . . .”
“Oh, you don’t have the right to talk to me. Only because you want or need to talk to me, you cannot just talk to me. You know, there are rules in this world. That would be not only inappropriate, but also against our rules. You think you can pull that shit off on me? Your tongue only produces deceit, just like your hands. And you can only think about trickery, never any sincerity. Isn’t that right?”
“Screw that shit! That is just a load of bullshit, asshole. Listen to yourself. What are you? A wannabe self-justified criminal? You make me vomit right in your face. You are no different than me. Then what the hell is your problem of going on and on about my shit? So are you so humble and different from any of us?”
“Wow. You grew up a little more than I thought. Since you can do some shit with your hands, it doesn’t mean that you can be like me or you can be a leader. You are such a poor thing. Narcissistic.”
“Shit! Just listen to what I have to say, okay? Shit . . . Okay. The thing is that I know that this guy can do a lot of . . .”
“If this is not interesting at all by any means, you must be prepared for something special. Okay?”
“How condescending you are! Whatever . . . Anyway . . . He has no place to stay. And he is willing to learn. I think that he will contribute something for sure.”
“That is it?”
“Well. Come on! When I came here first, I didn’t even have to do anything. I just stayed here. Just like you did. So why is it so different than my case and your case, even?”
“Our organization is now big and well organized. You can’t just bring in any stranger and expect us to believe every shit that you give us. That is all stated in our rules. You know that.”
“Come on. Just give him a few days to prove something. Otherwise, he can die from hunger, which almost happened to me, years ago. So what do you say?”
“Mmm, let me think . . .”
“What do you have to think? Just let him in. Or he will just try again and again until he makes us crazy. Don’t you think?”
“Okay. I only say ‘yes’ this time. Okay? One week. He will have to do something amazing, I say. And I will need proof on that. It will have to be viable. Okay?”
“Okay. Good. Let’s go, Anij.”
“Okay . . .”
Anij and Mikael go out of the house. Now Mikael has a lot to teach. Not only theft skills but also survival skills within his organization and much more . . . It is no easy task for anyone. Mikael constantly talks to Anij to teach him as much as he can in a given time. But that is not a guarantee for anyone. So he will just have to try his best.
“Okay. We only have one week. Understood? Only one week. That is not long at all. That will fly like an eagle. Okay? So I will be teaching you a lot of stuff — as much as I can. And you will have to learn all that shit. Okay? Otherwise, I won’t be able to help you anymore.”
“Okay. Too much . . . Slow down, okay?”
“You want me to slow down? Come on! You must keep up with me. Okay? This is a matter of life and death, Anij. I am not joking around. And you shouldn’t be joking around, either. You must focus all the time and watch and do exactly as I show you. Okay?”
“Yes, okay.”
Anij feels bombarded with too much information that Mikael is trying to pour into him. He feels really grateful to Mikael but he is not sure of himself. He might not be able to learn all those shits that Mikael will teach him. Maybe not even half. Anij has never been so serious. Before, it used to be just some stuff that he had to learn over a long period of time; or he didn’t have to do it all by himself. But now it is a different story. So many butterflies and strips of films of his life are passing through his brain. He is not too sure where to keep the focus.
“So, easy ones first. You see that shop?”
“Yeah.”
“It is the same shop where I got three chocolate bars the other day, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You will try your first assignment there now.”
“Me? Now?”
“Yes. No time to take a nap or just walking around the town, man. Get with the program, soldier!”
“Uh . . . Okay.”
They approach the shop. As they get closer to the shop, as usual, the clerk is swimming in dreamland. There are a few people in the shop, just like any other three-p.m.-shopping-scene. Mikael gives Anij an eye signal to go in first. Anij is trembling slightly. But he decides to go in first, and soon Mikael follows. They shop around like everyone else. The clerk is now awake for some reason. He is checking up on people as if he weren’t sleeping at all. With a thousand tons of weight on his drowsy eyelids, the clerk falls asleep again almost immediately.
Mikael gives Anij an eye signal again to pick any item from a shelf in front of him. Anij is concentrating very hard to pick an easy and small object and is also constantly checking on the shoppers around him. His nerve is about to break. But he has to go through this once and for all to become a member. Anij is sweating like a marathon runner on a hot summer day. His shirt can’t absorb his sweat anymore. It is taking a little longer than Mikael’s expectation. Anij’s hand is not really reaching for any item yet. He is still fighting with the last bit of morality left in his conscience. It is a true cerebral game from head to toe.
Mikael understands what Anij is going through, so he doesn’t want to hurry this virgin mission with Anij. After a few attempts, Anij finally takes an item and pretends to read the label. Then he puts it back on the shelf and looks at other items. Just like he saw Mikael doing the first time he showed him. But when Mikael was doing that, he was actually taking the chocolate bars. Anij is not doing that at all. He is just reading the labels and putting the items back, like an actual customer, not as a thief.
This has been going on for over five minutes. Reading the labels and putting them back on the shelves again and again. It doesn’t look suspicious, since he doesn’t look like he is about to steal. And that is the problem. Mikael is giving him the look that he should hurry and get out of here. The longer it takes, the less chance for a success. Once again, Anij is determined to do this. So he picks up an item and reads the label for a few seconds. Then he watches other shoppers in the store. They are far enough from him and not aware of his plan. He knows that the clerk must be sleeping like a baby, but he does it anyway to be safe. The clerk’s job must be a sleep-inducer. No one sleeps that much during the day, especially in the workplace. Even Anij didn’t sleep that much when he was on Bikini Island. Anyway, he quickly puts the item into his pocket. Anij speaks to Mikael loudly, just as Mikael had to him. “Oh, they don’t have what my mom told me. It must be at the other shop.”
That was very awkwardly trembling and wired. Anyone actually paying attention to what he was saying would feel weird and probably look at him.
“Okay,” Mikael answers awkwardly and gives him an eye signal to get out.
They both walk out smoothly and slowly. While they are walking out of the shop, Mikael laughs quietly at Anij. And Anij also laughs at Mikael. Anij doesn’t want to think about this now. Running away from the shop seems to be the only way to make it any easier for him. So he rushes to a park nearby and sits down on a bench. Mikael follows him. Anij is still trembling all over his body. It must be the aftermath from the virgin mission. He just tries to calm himself down. Mikael tries to calm him down by laughing at him.
“Hahahaha . . .”
“Funny?”
“Yeah. You are so shaky. Shit. How are you going to do this again?”
“I am scared. Anyone follow us?”
“No. Hahaha.”
“Shut up.”
“Hahahaha.”
Mikael keeps on laughing at Anij. Anij is trying to recover himself from the virgin trauma. He is not sure how he should feel now. This whole experience can be very sad, since he has just dipped his feet into a criminal world; or it can make him happy, since he is officially a thief, now. Maybe he should concentrate on his situation, which is filled with hunger and insecurity . . . But after doing it for real, it feels so different. He knows that he should be happy. And there should be no “BUT.”
Mikael breaks in to cheer him up. “Come on. You should be happy now. You pulled it off pretty good for the first time. I was impressed. I knew you would learn pretty fast.”
Anij just shrugs his shoulders.
“What? Don’t be so sentimental now. There is no reason that you should be like that now. Sooner or later, you will do it again anyway. You just have to discard your brain for a moment and do the work. Put your brain back when you eat. Okay? That will be the only easy way out. I told you. It ain’t no easy task. If you don’t like this, what are you going to do, anyway?”
“Okay . . .” Anij answers him with sighs.
Mikael gets excited about what Anij took from the shop.
“Can I see what you took? I wasn’t really watching. I was only watching the other people.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
Anij takes out the item from his pocket. It is a Lifesavers candy roll.
“That is it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well . . . That is good enough, I guess. Let’s just call it an afternoon.”
“I eat this now.”
“Give me some?”
“Okay.”
They both share the Lifesavers candies one by one. As he opens the candy roll, Anij discovers the colourful life that he can have if only he chooses to live that way. They both are melting those candies deliciously in their mouths while they are sitting on the bench in the park. It is Anij’s first sweet victory.
The sun is about to set. Anij and Mikael are very hungry soon after they are done with the candies. They need to get supper at some point soon. Their stomachs are screaming loudly and clearly. Mikael stands up from the bench and leads the way. “I will show you one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Just follow me. You will know.”
“Okay . . .”
Anij is following Mikael and thinking that Mikael is taking him to another shop to steal some food. But the destination is a free meal shelter for homeless people. They will have to cover some distance, but it will be worthwhile. After about forty minutes of walking, they arrive at a big building with lots of people around. As they get closer to this building, Anij begins wondering — or suspecting — why things are looking worse. As they walk farther, the quality of the town is deteriorating quite dramatically. And when they finally arrive at the building, the whole thing about this area doesn’t even come close to any standard. Anij thinks that this must be one of the culture shocks that he has to go through. He asks Mikael, “What is it?”
“It is a place to eat for free. It is for people like you and me. You know, homeless people.”
“Free food? Really?”
“Yeah. Take a look around.”
As Anij has already noticed, this place stinks, and lots of homeless people are camping on just about every street, making the whole town look just a ghetto. Well, it is a ghetto. He is quite shocked to see that such a place as this actually exists. Bikini island was not fancy, but definitely not a skid row like this. The definition of variety must have come from here. There is just such a vast number of different people everywhere around him. From every angle, there isn’t anyone who looks or does the same things as anyone else. Some are carrying carts with tons of garbage. Some are listening to a radio and screaming something undecipherable. Some are going through garbage bins on streets. Some are drinking on the street corners, swearing at everybody. Some are fighting for a position on a street. Some are just watching other people on the street effortlessly, without any focus. And many more . . . He also sees a lot of people standing in a line. It looks just like what he had at the naval base.
In front of the long lineup, there is a big building with a fence that surrounds the whole building. There are a few pavilions in front of the building, where they are lined up. There are also quite a few plates on each table that have piles of food. And of course, hundreds of hungry souls are waiting in a line to recharge their bodies for their remaining meaningless long days. Many of them are as stinky as rotten rats trapped on a mousetrap for months. Some are new to this place, just like him. Some look like they have been here for a while. Some help others. Some just try to cut into the line. Some are just plain drunk. It feels like a controlled, chaotic orchestra is playing discordant music right beside a construction site. Nothing makes sense.
Mikael speaks to Anij as they stand in the line. “Hey, this place only opens twice a week. Remember that.”
“What?”
“They only open twice a week. Okay? So get as much food as you can. Tomorrow, this will be gone to another city. Okay?”
“Oh. Only twice a week? Why?”
“Well . . . I guess there are lots of people just like you and me in other cities. You know. No place to stay, no food to eat. So that is why they go from city to city.”
“Yeah . . .”
After waiting for about thirty minutes, it is their turn to get food. Compared to what Anij used to get from the compound, this seems like nothing. But after being hungry for so long, that doesn’t even matter. Mikael and Anij get their food and sit down on the curb at the edge of the street. Mikael asks, “So, what do you think?”
“Think? What?”
“Being a thief.”
“Oh . . . Hm . . .” A slight disappointment peeks out from Anij’s mind.
“Well. It is hard to say, right? I told you. It is very hard to make a decision for your life just like that.”
“Hard to think. A thief? Wow . . . I don’t know . . .”
“Well. You got one week to figure that out. Until then, you just have to work it out all by yourself. Okay?”
“Yeah. I will think.”
Just before Anij takes his first bite, an unfamiliar and warm sensation starts to boil in his eyes. He can’t help it, after looking at all these people — and himself being together with them here. Anij turns his head away so Mikael won’t see him crying.