Man of Destiny

 On the side walk of the busy road under the skyscraper of world's one of the livable city, he is in a slumber.  He had blood stains on the face, eyes half open, but motionless, and legs covered with shit and pee. Dozen of flies zooming around as they were partying. 

On the same sidewalk every minute well advanced people with majestic gait up walked by giggling and farting. A tall slender women with wide open legs walking a Mapple dog with a pride of aristocrat. I dont know how Jonathan Swift would describe her if he were alive. 

Over an hour hundreds of eyes fell on him, but non of them raised their eyebrow. Nobody had sympathy on him. Nobody anticipated his condition to their human kind. They knew that it wasn't worth thinking or putting effort to help him. They looked at him like a object which resembled savage face who doesnt belong to their age. 

After a couple of hours slumber, he woke up assuring himself that he has miles to go before his final slumber. He tried to recall his morning if he had anything. His stomach was rumbling. He had no bank cards offered by multibillion monitory institutions. Foods from the city kitchens may end up in the green bins for the rats and squirrels. He is less than an insect. Nobody has mercy on him. 

He walked down the road towards Toronto Convention Center. In front of the building there were people walking with their dogs and their man and woman. An old white man was selling hot dogs from his food truck. There was a long line of the customers to buy extra large hot dogs. The seller only accepts cash. The man had a few coins in his palms. They were in the palms because there was no pocket which is free of holes. He can read the price listed on the walls of the truck. Extra large hot dogs-$6. "Not bad", he whispered. He jingles the coins in his palm as he counts. He looks at the gentleman standing on the line in a business suit. He waits for a while to get his attention before asking a dollar. However, the gentleman looks other way ignoring him. 

Then the man looks to a lady who was wearing a shorts tightly fits to the curves of her buttocks. To avoid her sight she moves little further and whispers twitchng her eyebrows. Another gentleman passes through the way. The man tries to get his attention so that he ask a penny. He also ignores the man. 

 After a while he walks off the queue and goes to the nearby intersection. He waits for the traffic lights turning red. As soon as the green turns yellow, rays of home surge in his face. A group of people cross the road. He looks at their faces. He spreads his arms. He uses his pleading voice. But no coin drops in his palm. A few meters away, there was a man sitting on the sidewalk playing the piano. He had few coins in his cup. The man mumbles a few words. The musician stops for a second and gives him a coin. 

He thanks the kind street musician and runs back to the food truck. He stands on the line quietly. As his turns comes, he hands over all the coins and says ," extra large". The seller looks at him with disgrace, rushes to make hotdog and gives him without saying 'thank you!'. The man takes a large bite without looking at it and moves away from there. He has no drinks to make his mouth wet. He enters into a corner store to get some drinks. He has no money left to buy any. He looked around and picked up a can of coke and a bottle of water.  Instead of going to the counter to pay for it, he comes out of the store. The store clerk calls the police immediately  providing all the police description of the man. 

When he was socking his mouth with a bottled water, he saw a cop standing in front of him. With the mejestic of the police uniform, the cop tells him that he has commited a crime. And they are there to arrest him. The man keeps continue drinking.

The cop wanrs him not to steal from the store. The man raises his eyebrow and thanks them. He was thinking that he would rather be arrested and would have some nice dinner. But he was unfortunate this time. 

He doesnt know when the night falls. He body shows some signs of wairiness. There were still people on the street giggling and flirting, kissing and hugging non stop. The man remembers his youth. When he used to work in the mine, he had a lot of girlfriends to entertain. He never thought of marriage seriously. After every shift he would go to the bar with a tall slender bobby girl who made his forget the long day shift in the ditch. She was very cleaver woman to have access in his wallet any time she wanted. Either of them aver thought of marriage. After a couple of years she moved to Manhattan with her ex boyfriend. There came a turn of  another women to play around him. They used to go to the beaches, spent nights in the clubs, had sex in the public parks and often on the back seat of the truck. 

When he lost the job due to multiple no shows, she also left him at the middle of the road. The he moved to another small city. He started working in the oil and gas mine. He used to make good money. However, he was addicted to women. There were street hookers who baits such crazy men who work hard and spend as dust. On the weekend she used to send all the money he received from paycheque.

He looks up the sky where free standing CN tower gliming. He walks downthe Kings street towards lakeshore. Under the bridge, he looks a bunch of homeless people camping and eating from the dirt. He joins with one of the guy from the camps. They dont know how long they can stay there. Anytime city police might come and chase them away. That night they had a party with two women who joined at late night with some cigrets and a bottle of graygoose vodka they just stole from LCBO around the corner.

They slept under the tent in the broad daylight. They had nothing to loose, nothing to hide. They smoke mariwana, they smelled hasis. It was a nice moment till the police van parked in front of the tent and wiped out all the tent. Then they all scattred all over downtown. Some of then went to the Union Station. However, they were not allowed to ask anyone freely. If they were caught by the security, they would be evacuated immediately. 

The man went around the corner of the skyscrapper, took an empty water bottle and filled it from the tap connected to his body. It was a nice way to keep the city clean unlike other people who pee on the wall or in the bush. He followed a man and entered into the subway. There were travellers all standing. All of them have a wire connected to their earlope. Nobody was giving a fuck to nobody. 

 The man waited outside until he found an empty seat. He first streathed his both legs and yawned. Then he closed his eyes. As the rhythemic snor hits the floors, people looked at him. The train stopped at Kennedy station. All the passengers got off the train. The subway service was stopped for two hours. The ttc inspectors went in the subway cars to clear it out. They asked the man to go home.

"this is my home. What you taking about?"

"No sir. You are in the train. A moving train. Your free ride for the day is done", the gentleman cop said.

"Then I have no home. No wife."

" Go to the girlfriends house" the cop said jokingly.

"Your girlfriend sir?" the man laughed. 

They caught him on the arm and escorted out of the statioin. He was already sleepy. He had no place to go or to hide. Went to the nearby parking lot and slept for the rest of the night. When he woke up he was hungry. He walked to a macdonald and sits at the door. Whoever comes to the restaurant, he asks them a quarter. Some people give him a doller, some give him a quarter. Some people were judging him and some people were ampathising him. 

As soon as he have enough loonies to buy a cup of coffee and a monster burger, he joins the line and orders his lunch. 

"Hey! you wanna work for me", an old man about late forty asked.

He looked confused and looked back if somebody was behind to answer the question.

"I am asking you, gentleman. You got to work in this country to eat a burger."

"It is so kind of you to offer me a job. I would rather decline your offer, sir."

"Can you please go out of my property and hang out somewhere else or, may I call the police? the gentleman said.

"Who the hell are you to call the cop. Fuck you!", he raised his middle finger and walked off the parking lot. 

He never had such conversation beofore, though he was insulted, harrassed and intimidated. Nobody likes the beggers on the streets. 

'I might rather go to the rich city. This town is the place of poor people. They fucking dont have a dime to give this nice poor guy", he mumbled.

Next day, he rode a via rail and sneaked into one of reserved compartment. 

At the middle of the night he got off the train at the unknown station with a few houses and more lakes around. 

He walked of the station, took the firsst right and walked along the magic road. He saw no people until he arrived to a local church. Some elderly people comin out of the church. He went close to a man and said amen. 

The man looked at him with a gesture of kindness, gets a five dollar bill from his pocket and gives him. He thanked him and asked if there were any macdonalds nearby. The gentleman told him that there was, but they shut off after pandemic. 

"There is one far down the highway. if you walk, it might take you fifteen minutes", the gentleman said.

Then he went to a corner store and spend five dollar buying a Lotto ticket. Then he went towards the highway.  As he was  crossing the road, a truck ran over him. 

A few people gathered  and managed to call emergency. Since the town had only one ambulance, it was already half an hour away helping out the pregnant woman. 

Soon, a lady driving that way stopped at the scene and introduced as a healthcare professional. She asked for the peermissiopn to assess the situation. She offered first aid and gave him a ride to the hospital. 

He went through minor surgeries. The community members decided to help him out by arranging free housing and a some assistence for living. 

Next morning. everyone at the cornerstore talking about the lotto. They displayed the ticket winning ticket number. Local newspaper covered the news. 

No winning claimed for a week. 

One afternoon, a the man come to the store with a ticked with tempared looto ticket. As he scans, it turns out a winning ticket $20 million dollar. He screams out loud. Then he scans again to make it sure it was a winning ticket. 

When he  went to claim the ticket, he was refused when he could not show his photo Id. He goes to the police office with a ticket and and reported what happened with him. Police asked him to report with a piece of government issued ID. 

He told them that he had no Id. 

One a a media reporter heard the story. He featured the story for the cover page and also included the interview with him. 

Next day, the news was viewed by a million viewers. After the large number of public hearing, the winning money was handed over him. Now, he had new identity. 

He told to the reporters that he wanted to stay in the same town and invest all the money there. He was supported by local government. 

He hired a few people to make an investment wisely. One lady of his investment team has fallen in love with him. Everyone said that she was a gold digger though. later they got married. 

They have an organization which fight for the rights of homeless people. They build house for them. they also provide them training to bounce back in the society.