Chapter 4. The Stranger and His Candies

4

Suddenly I heard a laugh, a soft sarcastic laugh. I knew it was meant for me.

I looked to my right; an old guy was sitting there. He looked like a hippie, dressed like a hippie and seemed like he had not showered in days. He wasn’t Thainese; he looked more like a black African man.

"What are you laughing about?" I challenged him.

"I'm laughing at you, don't you know." He laughed. I could see his rotten black teeth inside his mouth.

I didn't say a thing; I just stood up. Since I was a kid, when what I had planned went wrong, I would just take off. So that was what I did.

“Oh, don't be so sensitive. Come sit down here." he said and patted the bench just near him. I stopped and hesitated.

"Come child, tell me what bothers you, I promise to listen..." he said.

"Nothing bothers me!!!" I snapped

"Then, why do you wanna end your life and lose all this beauty?" he asked while gesturing to the nature around.

"The beauty doesn't excite me anymore."

"I know people like you." He stood up and stood next to me. I guessed he thought if I wasn't going to sit, he might as well stand. "You conquered all your dreams and nothing is left now."

That sentence made me look at him. He was smiling. His face and cloths and everything about him were dirty. Smell of whisky reeked from his every pore. He was a homeless hippie, yet there was something about his smile that made me relax. Something about him seemed bright.

"Here, have a candy." he shoved a box of candies towards me. The candies in that box were colorful. I looked at it and noticed there were no two candies with the same color. There must be more than a dozen candies in that box and none of them were of the same color.

I was impressed. There were colors that I had never seen before. There were so many colors.

"The colors ei..." the man commented when after a few seconds I still hadn't taken one. "They make u wonder what else out there u haven't seen, or you haven't known of." He laughed his dry laugh until he coughed.

"Yea..." I answered weakly. What he said was true; I wondered if I had seen the entire world, how did I miss these colors?

"Take one, eat it!" he ordered.

I took the light green colored one and put it in my mouth. The moment the candy entered my mouth I smelled and tasted cantaloupe. The flavored not only watered my mouth but I felt it rush through my veins to all corners of my blood stream.

I looked at the old man and his smile was bigger.

"You like it?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Cantaloupes have flavor that never fails to cheer you up and makes you wanna dance. Am I right?"

I nodded once again.

"Take another one..." he said when I finished what was in my mouth. I looked at him confused, uncertain what he was up to. "Just take another one" he insisted.

I took the yellow one. It tasted of bananas; I threw it out immediately; I dislike bananas.

The old man laughed so hard, I thought he was going to die laughing.

"I dislike bananas..." I said.

He nodded... then sat down.

"Sit down..." he ordered. I sat next to him. I looked at the box of candies, I wanted to take another one; not because I wanted a candy, but I wanted to know what the red colored tasted like.

"You wanna tell me now what bothers you?"

I kept silence.

"You wanna have another candy?" He offered.

"Yes, may I?"

"No!" He snapped then laughed. "I will give you another one if you come to meet me again tomorrow, here at this time." He said then stood up and left. I looked at him confused.