Tuesday, January 09, 2007

-swollen-

There was once a very bad man. And he did very bad things. He preyed on small innocent boys and girls. He caught them unaware. And he hurt them... It hurts me to think about it, to remember it... but I know that it must be said.

I was just a tiny impressionable boy then. But what happened that day, I can never forget.

I remember we were forced to a room. A bad lady (obviously, she was helping the bad man) marched us down the hall leading to the room. We were made to march in silence, our right index finger pressed to our lips. In my heart, I object to this blatant symbol of oppresion. But I was too weak then.
The room was small. I could hardly breathe. We were made to squeezed into it without protest. All 30 of us. They put bar codes on us. Our names, our identities do not matter to them. Just those bar codes. One by one, we were made to go up to the bad man. I waited obediently, while I prayed to God for protection.

And then someone pushed me forward and the bad man grabbed me. He pointed an evil-looking device, which emits evil red rays, on my body where the bar code was involuntarily pasted. It emitted an evil beeping sound. He made me sit on this evil-looking chair. I felt like a goat to be sacrificed. He forced me to look at him. I refused. He came to me and forced my head to look at where he was sitting. Where he once sat, was another device. This one bigger and more evil-looking than the one before. He then barked something at me, which i could not remember. But his voice was menacing. I gave in and obeyed his commands. I look front. I told myself, this is the moment where I pretend I am not a little boy any more. I will not let them see my fear.

It happened in a flash.

I stifled a scream. They have made me blind. But my vision came back after a while. I thank God for that. And just like that, the bad man pushed me away so that he can do the same to my other innocent little friends. I walked out of the room, promising never to speak of the violation ever again.

A few weeks had passed. I thought everything was going back to normal. That was when they showed me the picture. It was hideous...

My forehead was swollen. My cheek was swollen. And my lips looked like they were forcibly stretched. I hid it and vowed to myself to never show it to anyone. But I could not let the bad man get away with it. I searched for a higher authority and made a legal complaint. I showed them the evidence, the hideous picture of me. They laughed.
This is the bad man's plan all along. To humiliate me. I could never ever forgive him.

I HATE you EZ-link card photo taker!!!!!!

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A few years pass. I am a man now. And now I was given a horrible task. The same task as the bad man. I thought I could never do it. But I had to.

As the kids diligently queued up for their photos to be taken. I looked at their young, innocent faces and I remembered when I was once just like them. I smiled at them. But memories of the bad man keeps flashing back. It's almost as if his spirit is trying to possess me, making me do the same thing that he once did to me. But I could never be like the bad man.

I gave those tiny kids photos they could be proud of.


| ghaz says hello @ 12:35 AM|

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