University of the Philippines - More Than 0

Chapter (1)

It's dark. It's pitch black. Have you ever experienced such darkness? How far should I go? The further I go, the darker it gets. Will the darkness end? Will I have to stay in the darkness? Oh...not yet. I have to run. I have to run. Run..run - run --. Run even in the darkness. Oh...run as far as I can, ah...only if I can run will I escape.

Oh...in the back. As far as I can remember, there was a wall in the back. A wall of rejection, a wall of defiance, a cruel, dark wall. I was afraid of that wall. I was more afraid of the small room inside that wall.

Alone. Alone in a small room. Ah... I'm alone. Alone like a candle in the dark. When the candle goes out, there's only darkness. What if the candle of my life goes out? . .

Only by running and running will you escape.

Did you stumble while running in the dark? Your speed suddenly slowed down. Your head hit something.

When I opened my eyes in shock, the light came in sharply.

There were also sounds of conversation. “What’s wrong?” “It’s written there.” “Oh..yes, are you close to Hintha?”

“There’s still a long way to go. In between, there are Khamauksu, Yongthalin, Nibbana, Natmaw, and even Laybhu.”

"I don't know if there are even four stations left. I've never been on this road before."

He, who had woken up clearly, looked around.

Oh, is it on a train? Earlier, I hit my head against the back of a wooden bench. The side of the horn is a little sore.

His other hand reached for the sore spot. He tried everything. When he pulled it back, he saw a small amount of blood on the tip of his hand.

Is the wound not healing well yet? If not, well....well...how many days has it been?

He frowned. I don't remember. How did you get it? Well, that's a problem. Leave it. Haven't you escaped now? If you escape, it's over. After running away, you must be injured. Not strange. Not strange at all.

The train stopped at the station for only a short while and then left.

The station is small. The village is small. There aren't many people getting on or off the train.

The slow train may sway and sway as it starts to move.

He looked at the passengers in the carriage again.

The two people who had been talking earlier were sitting together on the bench opposite him.

Now they are talking again. "The couple is very friendly."

The person who made the comment was a man in his thirties with a bald head and blond hair. He was wearing a raincoat. Near him was a blue leather handbag with the logo of a foreign airline.

His conversation partner was wearing a well-worn brown suit jacket. He was a hunchback with dark hair mixed with gray.

He spoke again.

"Usually, this line is crowded. Now, they're enforcing rules on the trains again. And there's a curfew in Yangon, right? The train changed its time so that you can enter Yangon before 6 p.m., and it left Pathein at 4 a.m., so it was empty."

For him, the only one who was face to face, a problem was solved.

Dark and pitch black. Yes. It was dark and pitch black when it first came out. It was still dark and pitch black at four in the morning.

I didn't even notice when the train left. When I fell asleep, what dreams did I have? In my dreams, it was dark and black. Traveling in the dark, oh... but the big wall, the small room, those were not dreams. They were in my dreams. But they weren't dreams. No. And his hand went back to the wound from his head. He felt the blood dripping from his body again.

This time, without thinking about the injury, he looked at the passengers individually.

On the left bench are two young men. Their hair is red and long, reaching over their waists. Their pants are tight. They are wide at the ankles. Their wristwatches are big and shiny. The dials are colorful.

The rest of the passengers were like him and me. Men and women, like him and me. They had bags. They had baskets. They had clothes.

Not far away stood an old man. He was tall and stooped. He had nothing under his rough cloth. His chest was bare. His face, under his bamboo helmet, was square and strong-jawed. But his cheeks were hollow and his eyes were pale and dull.

The old man leaned against the back of the bench with one side of his body. He was holding a bamboo stick with both hands, holding his head up.

He thought as he absentmindedly rubbed the sticky blood on his fingertips with his thumb.

Why isn't the old man sitting down? Does anyone ask the old man to sit down anymore?

He looked back at where he was sitting.

He was alone in the two-person chair. He had previously curled up on the chair, looking as if he were sleeping comfortably. Now, he had his feet propped up and was leaning against the wall behind him. It was not very comfortable. It was as if he had taken up extra space.

He sat down. A man was standing next to him. He looked at the old man and made an inviting gesture.

The old man, trembling and weak, walked over and sat down next to him.

"Sadhu...Sadhu, may you be glorious, may you live long"

When the old man sat down and gave the reward, the two long-haired boys looked at him with small smiles.

He thought about the gift his grandfather had given him.

Be a monk. Well, what does being a monk have to do with this situation in life? You want to live a long life. Isn't living a long life the only goal of life? Life is also like a candle in the dark. Don't let that candle go out, don't let it go out like a blow.

So... run away. The old man asked softly. "Where are you going?"

"You"

"How far will it go?" "Oh...well...I'm from Pathein."

His answer was wrong. After answering, he realized that the answer was wrong. But he couldn't. There was no other answer.

The old man stared at him. But there was no special curiosity in those eyes. The kind of eyes that could ignore everything. Or, it seemed, the kind of eyes that were used to ignoring everything. But as he grew older, he could ignore everything. What could be interesting in life when the sun was setting?

After the eyes were gone, the old man said nothing more. He continued to walk, his head shaking as he stared at the floor of the carriage.

He noticed that two pairs of eyes were fixed on him from across the room.

He turned his face away, avoiding their eyes and looking outside.