A street urchin’s reverie

Growing up on the noisy and crowded street of Plaza D.V. Soria, Arnold sleeps in the park with a used cardboard which he calls home.

He begs for money and food on the streets not minding the danger of the cars passing by. As soon as he wakes up, he starts begging for money from streetpassers and knock on window cars as it stopped for traffic lights. Then sunset comes, he goes back to the park to sleep again without having taken anything for dinner. This is Arnold’s life, though it is not something he dreamt of.

Arnold lived a life that is too painful for him to understand, something beyond his comprehension as a young boy. His early years of innocence with his family have been a nightmare from the beatings to the bellows he constantly received from his father and even his mother. His father was sent to prison for having beaten him badly and raped his sister Jenny. His mother, who is always angry, perceives life to be a curse.

He fled from home hoping to be free from the kind of havoc that imprisoned him for years.

While wiping some men’s shoes at the park, watching and cleaning parked cars, he dreams. Life has been rude towards him, not even understanding why, yet he never stopped dreaming about life. What does an innocent streetchild dream about?

One would be amazed as to how this one naïve boy could build hopes and aim something for himself. He would go up to the signpost and stare beyond the horizon of the noisy street not minding the pollution and the crowd. Sometimes he could not help but cry for nothing…not even knowing why he just had to do it but can never fathom this unexplainable emotion. Presumably, it is the ghost of his dim past that creeps back in but he is never grasping all that. He is too naïve and gullible to be able to grasp how life treated him.

Arnold likes to dream about a happy family and childhood, free from hatred and anger. A life that sees no resentment or brutality but only different from the kind of life he is in. His dream is of a mere existence that assures him of love, comfort and acceptance.

Sitting on top of the signpost makes him forget the images of his father beating him. It makes him erase the memory of his sister’s face (Jenny) crying out for help trying to flee from her father’s cruelty.

The signpost makes him feel numbed from all these pain brought about by hunger and fate. It somehow helps him get away from the harsh realities of life and see momentary happiness while sitting up there.

It is not something quite a sight but he is after all a child and a dreamer.

I just can’t afford to make this reverie turn sour, it is all what he got.