MY PLACE IS MY WAY
I took it and I put what’s essential on a
traveller’s bag (some clothes and money) and got away. No sentimental farewells
with my family, just a note: “Love you! I got no problem with you, mom and
daddy; I just need to see the world spinning round. XOXO”. That’s what I left at home: a note,
love and a whole life.
So there I was, walking on the train station,
getting the first train that passed. I am foresighted, so I decided not paying
for any ticket from then on. I appeared in France three hours later. It was
wonderful! I had done it! I was free for the first time in my life! I remember that
first stop as the second most wonderful one: I didn’t know Bordeaux was so
pretty. I visited all western France by train, freely until I was caught by a
gendarme and, consequently, I said goodbye to 100€. Fortunately, I could get to
Weimar, a city with a lot of history and culture and after having visited most
of the German lands and after two months sleeping on the street and eating
whatever, I spent all my money left to pay a ticket to go to China.
Guangzhou: I had never heard about it. As far
as I am concerned, it is the second airport of China. I had no money so, what
did I have to do? I had to work. I couldn’t pronounce a word in Chinese, so it
was very, very difficult. I passed very three months. Thanks God, I found the
most compassionate and generous man I have ever met: Chen Wang Tse. I was
stealing food from his little shop when he saw me. I got paralyzed and, waiting
for a beating, he gave me lunch, work and shelter! I can’t thank him with words...
I was desperate.
I stayed with him for three years. He had lost
his wife and his son on a fatal fire on his house... He kind of adopted me. We
visited Mongolia and most of China; he had been saving from his first
insignificant salary to do what we were doing; not with be but with his son.
Suddenly, he died. I had never cried so much... In fact, I am still now crying
his death: he was my father. Sad, stunned and in pain, I, thanks to the money
he had left me, left that country I would always relate with the best man ever.
“辞 行”, dear Chen.
Now, in Zambia, I live in a little village
where time doesn’t exist, nor sadness. I am thinking to get back, but as I
write these words, I see clearer that my place is my way. And I’ll keep
walking.
MARC FLORES
2n BATX A
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