parallel parking
Hunger drives us crazy.
At 2:13am, when I woke up to the grumbling sound of my stomach, I was embarrassed of myself. Shamelessly, I had my second dinner at 12:15am yet my digestive system had the audicatity to hurt me with such disgrace and gurgle like a dying alpaca. To this day, I regret being a generally hungry person; only because of that one night. Every thing that keep falling apart right in front of us, go back to that one day, or in this context that one night.
That godawful pendulum’s ticking, and the deafening silence did not stop me from going to a closeby cafe at 2:15am that day. I quickly grabbed ahold of my keys and swiftly jogged my way out of the door. My eyes shot across the corridor and fell in love at the sight of a working lift, but I decided to use the stairs as fitness was my prime concern. Although I was about to have takeaways from a cheap Chinese restaurant-cum-bar, and the fact that my flat was on the first floor. My car was parked right beside a pillar that was only a few inches away from a wall. To squeeze my fat tummy and buttocks through it was a pain in itself, on top of that I had to drive my car out quietly so that the neighbours wouldn’t complain. That would not be an easy task as I drove a soviet-era fiat 500. The engine began to provide a rhythmic tune to my growling stomach, as I raced outside the gate.
Five minutes later, I was able to embrace the yellow and pink lights of the ever so bright sign above my favourite shabby bar; ‘餐饮’, which literally translates to ‘food’. I sometimes wonder how they came up with that name, for a place that sells food. My car slowly halted as I pressed the breaks with both my feet and one free hand. Surprisingly, there were a lot of cars and bikes parked right outside the shop, except the main entrance. So, in a rather sly manner, I overtook a good-looking Chevrolet and tried to park my car right in front of it. The space was minimal, hence I couldn’t seem to park properly. But because my car was tinier than my belly, I considered parallel parking. A concept which is more confusing to me than dieting. Back and forth, reversing and accelerating. It went on for quite a few minutes up until I sped way too much and my car hit the car in front of me. I got out of my car to check whether the car was okay or not. But taking in account how bad my luck usually is, I expected nothing less than a broken tail light, and a half-opened trunk. Just when I was about to look further into it, from the corner of my eyes, I envisioned something move. A good sixty metres away from this shop was an array of tiny cafes. There I saw a man sitting behind a garbage can, and it seemed like he was hiding from someone. When I tried focusing my un-spectacled vision upon him the door of the shop swung open. Three grown men, laughing, stumbled out and were talking to each other in an unidentifiable English dialect. Suddenly, one of them looked at me with utmost shock and then shot his eyes at the trunk. I quickly put two and two, and extended my hand to apologise to them. I bowed down and asked them if they required money, but out of the blue one of them punched me right in the face. My senses went out of control for a brief moment, and my head spun like wheels on tiled floor. I looked up at them, my vision still a useless sensory deprivation, and hit the back of my head to gain proper consciousness. There it was, in his manly, hairy arms; the metal with pieces of metal within it. The gun shook in his hands as if he were holding it for the first time. Without thinking further, I ran. I ran as fast as I could, but not without looking back to see whether they were following. They fixed the trunk of their car a little bit, prior to starting it and driving it towards my direction. I hid myself behind a garbage can and tried to control my breathing. The only voice I could hear was their wheels screeching as they circled around the blocks. After a while, they parked their car back where it was and exited the vehicle, before quickly walking inside the shop. I closed my eyes shut and waited for what seemed like days, only to be disturbed by the growling of my stomach. My eyes scanned through my pockets to check whether my phone was with me, but I was quite sure that it wasn’t. Alas, the only thing I had with me was my broken watch. It read 2:21am when clearly I’d been in that position for more than an hour. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise. Like a car crashing with another. I looked straight ahead to witness nothing but the scene which I’d flown away from. A drop of sweat dropped from my forehead as my heart skipped a beat, a man came out of my car. He looked at the broken trunk and threw his hands in the air. During my observation of him, not once did I blink. For what I was witnessing was out of the question. But there he was, looking right at me, trying to approach me, but being distracted by three grown men. A few seconds later, one of them threw a punch at him, and I felt the need to run away from there.
to be continued
(my first, very obvious, story)
