THE CRAZY MAN

THE CRAZY MAN

In school days, my friends and I always walk through the street. It is the closest way to school. There, under the shady mango three, we see him. A man with his dirty long hair. I don’t know what he has been doing there. But I can see that he always waits there for so many hours. I’m not sure what he waits for.

The man is strange. His body is so dirty. So are his trousers. They are the only clothing he wears. I wonder when the last time he washed his hair and his trousers and took a bath. I suppose it must be a long time ago. Every body says he is so smell. Though I’ve never got close to him, I see no doubt about it.

With his look, he surely scares any body. Especially those young kids. They are frightened to death every time they see him. Once, I saw a kid that was terribly afraid of him pulling and hitting his mother real hard because she insisted taking him passing through the street.

In facts, this man has never bothered others. Never! Like I said he just sits right there under the mango three or walks a long the street. On the contrary, he is always bothered by others. Especially those naughty kids.

“Crazy, crazy!” they shouted at him. He was silent. But those kids got crazier. They were more annoying. Throwing him with any thing closest to them: papers, balls, small branches and even rocks!

“Hey, stop that!” I shouted angrily. “Do you think that was funny?”

“Look, the daughter got angry!” one of them said this ridiculously. Others were laughing.

I looked at the man at a glance. God, his right temple is bleeding! “Do you think that was funny? Look at his temple! It’s bleeding now.” I pointed toward the man.

Those kids stopped laughing. They were watching him. Others whispered to one another. I could hear them saying: “She’s right, he is bleeding! What should we do? We didn’t mean to make him this far, did we?”

“Are you entertained now? Hurting him this far? What will you do if somebody treats your family like you did to him?” I shouted even harder.

They got silent. But not long afterwards a kid that I thought was their leader answered me with his hands on hips: “Yes, we are entertained. Is that a problem to you?”

“Yeah, is that a problem to you?” said another kid. Others were laughing. They became more annoying than before.

“You…!” I could talk no more. The words were stuck on my throat. I could feel the fire in my body. I rose with my head was upright. At the moment, there was nothing else I wanted to do but to fight them. “Ok, you want to fight me? Then we fight!” Those were words that I was about to say. But before I say that, there was a voice heard behind me: “That’s enough, all of you! Don’t you realize that you’ve gone too far?” An old man was saying this. I thought he was about my father age.

“I know you!” he pointed toward their leader. “You must be Benny, Mr. Ruslan’s kid, aren’t you? I can not imagine what your father would do if he knows this.”

Benny was surprised. He didn’t expect the old man knew his father. 

“Or maybe it will be better if he knows this.” He threatened Benny.

 “Oh, please don’t, Sir!” Benny begged him. “I could be punished for more than a week for that.”

“Is that a problem for me?” The old man teased him. He took a cigarette from his pocket. Light it up and took a deep inhale. He repeated what Benny said. He must be somewhere watching us fighting.

“Sir, please! He shouldn’t know this.” Benny cried for his help. I almost couldn’t control my self for not laughing. I’ve never thought some one as arrogant as Benny, do beg!

“Ok, I won’t tell him.” said the old man.

“Really?”

“Only with one condition! You bother him once more, our agreement is over. Deal?”        

“Ok, deal!” Benny replied enthusiastically. Then he together with his friends walked away. The man was about to walk away too when I said this: “Wait!”

He turned his head toward me.

“Thank you for your help, Sir.”

“Oh, never mind! Don’t bother. I didn’t help you any way.” He took couple steps ahead.

“Do you know him Sir?”

He stopped. Then, slowly turned his back. He nodded twice before answered me: “Yes, I know him.”

“Is he your family, friend or……” I was more eager to find out.

He was silent. Thinking. The wrinkles on his face were even more when he was thinking. “He was my colleague and was my neighbor too.”

“What happened to him? Is there any relatives or something?” I asked.

“Why do you want to know? Why do you care about him?”

“I just…..” Again the words got stuck in my throat. I couldn’t figure out any reason to tell him. When saying this, I took a glance at the crazy man. He was approaching a trash can and looking for something from it. His temple stopped bleeding. The old man treated the wound.

“I tell you, honestly, I am happy that you care about him, really. Because not many people do the same. But I got to go now!”

“Wait, Sir!” I tried to hold him.

“What now?” He was a bit up set. “I’m in hurry. I got to home now to get him ……. It’s too late!”

“What? What is too late?” I asked him curiously.

His hand appointed towards the crazy man. “Look….! Now he has to eat from the garbage.”

“Oh…I’m so sorry Sir, I didn’t mean……”

“Don’t! After all that wasn’t your fault. I am used to bring him food and water, but I have been busy these three days that I forgot him. He must be starving now.”

“I’m so sorry, Sir.”

“This isn’t the first time he eats from the garbage.”

I could see tears full of his old eyes while saying this.

“What had happened, Sir?” my voice was trembling.

The old man that later known as Pak Memed told me about what happened years ago when he and Pak Muskin, the crazy man’s name, were employees of a paint factory. That day, very surprisingly, their employer announced that they would do great number of suspension. Pak Muskin was included on their list.

“But Muskin was a fighter. He didn’t give up so easily. With separation pay he got, he tried to start a new business.” The old man told me. “He worked so hard. And not afterward, his business was making a progress.”

“What kind of business was that?”

“Trading kerosene in his house. Small business, big risks”.  The old man took a minute to take a deep breath once more. Then he looked at a distance. Thinking. I had to wait for couple minutes before he continued talking. “That day, when he went to check his order, his house got burned.”

“Got burned? How?”

Again he was silent and said nothing. I knew it wasn’t easy for him to tell a stranger like me this pain. I could see that from the shining in his eyes.

“Hmm, that’s ok if you mind, Sir. Sorry, I …..”

“Burning mosquito repellent.”

“Excuse me?”

“It was because of burning mosquito repellent they used the night before the accident. Unfortunately, they forgot to extinguish it in the morning. And wushhh …..” he wagged his hand in the air. “All his belongings were disappeared in a very short moment.”

It was such a terrible experience he had. I can’t imagine what I would be if I experienced the same thing.

“So…the fire caused him this way?” I asked him with my eyes staring Pak Muskin enjoying his ‘meals’.

“No.” The man pulled one more cigarette out of the box. But he just held the cigarette between his fingers. “The fire didn’t cause him loosing his mind.”

“No?”

“No.”

The old man said right after the accident, Pak Muskin intended to start his business all over again. But his wife didn’t think the same way like he did. She thought he was over. Her future with him had ended. They fought over anything, anything, since the fire. She complained almost about everything. And finally, she decided to take their small kids with her and leave him. He couldn’t find them ever since. And neither had they tried to contact him.

“That caused him this way.” Pak Memed told me.

 I heard him with tears filled in my eyes. I don’t cry easily, but that day those tears fell down from my eyes just like that.

 “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, me too. And I’m sorry for my self because there is not much I can do for him except to protect him from those bad kids and to bring him food and water.”

***

Today is just like another day. I’m walking through the street again to go to school. But I’m all alone now. When my friends came to my house asking me to go together with them, I said I still had something to do and asked them to go first.

“What do you want to do? Don’t tell us you haven’t done your home work!” they wondered.

“No! It isn’t home work. This is something else. But I can’t tell you now. So if don’t mind, I’ll leave you because there are many thing I need to do.” I smiled.

“What…?”

“You would be better going now. Bye!” I interrupted.

  “So strange!” They were fed up.

Today, before I left, I prepared meals and put it into a small lunch box. This isn’t for me, but for Pak Muskin.

“There you go!” I said to my self when I saw him sleeping by a veranda of a shop. He is bending his body in a way while sleeping to keep his body warm. No wonder, rain was falling down all night long.

I put the meal box out of my bag and place it right in front of him so he can see it when he wakes up.

“Thank you.” said somebody. I turned my head to find out who’s talking. I am a bit surprised because some body is him, Mr. Muskin. He did talk to me.

“Thank you for the food.”

“You’re welcome.” I gave him my best smile and walked away.

 In my way to school, I keep thinking about him. To me, Pak Muskin isn’t that crazy. He proved it me just now. I suppose he has just shocked.

Later, I go back home I will find Pak Memed and tell him what I was thinking about Pak Muskin all night long. I will suggest him that it will be better if Pak Muskin is taken to a mental hospital. I believe Pak Muskin will be well medicated there. I think he will be agreed with me. He cares about him a lot. I guess it hasn’t come to his mind. That’s all.