The Boy From the Hood

He sat there in front of the fireplace nursing the drink he had prepared for himself. As the wind howled outside, he was glad all snug and warm inside. He didn’t fancy the outdoors much and the blizzard gave all the more reason to stay in. He wouldn’t want to be someone outside, all caught in the cold outside. He was grateful for the fire and the warmth it provided. 

He twirled his glass and enjoyed the clinking of the ice., a sweet melody compared to the howling wind outside. He took a sip and savoured the warmth he felt as the alcohol made its way down. What else could a man ask for Ona cold winters night. He was safe and warmth in his small but luxurious world. He didn’t have to step outside, he had people to do that for him, people at his beck and call, people who were currently not present. 

Although he had all the luxury he could care for, his house well stocked, to help him  make it through the cold winter, but somehow he felt all alone and lonely. The blowing snow made things all the more gloomy.

As he sat there, nursing his drink, he remembered a life along time ago, when things were totally different. It felt a whole different lifetime. But still it was part of his journey, a perilous one, nonetheless, to get where he was. He would give anything, to not have to have it part of he was. It was part of the fabric that he woven to get himself here.

“The Boy From the Hood,” that was what he was called mockingly. What he would give to see their faces if they could only see how far he had come, and still it was the one thing that he couldn’t.

Life hadn’t always been kind to him. He wasn’t born with a silver soon. But his mother always encouraged him to aspire for a better life. She used to often tell him “Life is just like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you would get, but if you got something you didn’t like, you could always get rid of it till you find the one you want.” This adage had served him well and he had his mother to thank for it, and for some many things in life, for allowing him to dream!

His father, however, was different story altogether. He was hopeless drunk, who regularly, physically and verbally abuse his family. He couldn’t keep a single job, due to his drunken behaviour, and regularly harassed his mother, who worked in the homes of others, for money to by his liquor. And when she refused, he beat her black and blue, almost to point of bleeding. And if he came to the defence of his mother, he was not spared too.

Inspite it all, his mother always tried to maintain a cheerful demeanour for those around her, although he bruises and stains of her tears. She always remained optimistic for her son, wanting to see him rich the he was destined to. She didn’t want him to live the impoverished 

Then one night he was woken up by the screams of his mum. His father was mercilessly beating his wife in one of his drunken rages. He tried to save his mother, but his father rained down blows on him too. So in an attempt to save his mother , he pushed his father, who banged the back of his head to the edge of the table, and began bleeding profusely, and a couple of expletives later lost consciousness.

He panicked wondering if he had murdered his father, he wanted to stay back and save his mother, but his mother insisted that he leave the hoods and go to the city where she had a friend living there who would look after him. He shouldn’t worry about her.

So he packed his bag and kisses his mum goodbye, wondering if he would ever be able to see her again. That night, he left the hoods moved to the big city, not realising how his life was going to change.

There in the big city, his mother’s provided a roof over his head, which he had to share with others. This however, he didn’t mind, as the room felt like a palace, compared to the room which they lived in the hood. The only thing being that he had to fend for himself. He began working for a courier delivery company.

During one such errands he ran into A. When he met A for the first time, he thought his eyes were deceiving him. They were doppelgänger of each other. The only thing that differentiated then was their style. He began to wonder if this was a cruel case of Prince and the Pauper? Was the myths of the silver screen real?

They continued to cross each other’s part till A got fascinated with him and took to him. Now A insisted he joined them. Now A was a rich brat, with money to burn. He was a sole child born to rich parents. A typical broken home, where the parents didn’t pay him much attention as they would to their social standing. To them he was just an asset they would use when they want, and he made best of this situation to get his way, and live his extravagant lifestyle. He had a entourage who continuously hung around him.

Now A took great fascination to him, much to the displeasure of his entourage. They didn’t loose a chance to belittle him, when A wasn’t around. They called him A’s Charity Case, the Boy from the Hood. They thought A’s fascination with him would ware off. But much to their dismay it began to grow stronger. Slowly and steadily he became a close confidant of A. 

With A’s help he was able to slowly build a career for himself. However, this didn’t impress the father of the girl he loved. To them he was just the  Boy from the Hood, who didn’t have not have wealth or a proper parents. They refused to give their daughter’s hand in marriage. He just remained silent, and vowed to make them eat their word. But then as  luck would have it, she was married off to a prospective groom who met her father’s expectation. He was heart broken, but he didn’t want to get mad he just wanted to get even.

With the help A of A’s influence, he was able to grow his business. And there were times he repaid A’s trust by attending events as him. This actually suited him more as it allowed his business to flourish.

Now one day, A decided to have a party on beach side club, and as usual got high. In his intoxicated condition, he insisted of driving from the party with him. However, he lost control of his car and rammed it into someone. When they got out of car to see  what happened, they saw that they had ran into a girl. When they couldn’t find a pulse, A went into a shock, wandering what he should do. He pleased with him to take the blame on his head and he would give him whatever he wanted. However, he didn’t want any part in it. When A requested to help him get rid of the body and the evidence, to which he reluctantly agreed but for a price. 

Once A agreed on the price, he helped A get rid of the body and all the evidence. They drove  slowly and quietly back, trying avoid any further event or attention. When they reached home, the tried to wipe off all evidence from the car and immediately got rid of it.

A being true to his words paid the price that he had demanded him. However, his guilt got better of him abs he turned to alcohol and drugs to drown out his paranoia.

A month later A can to meet him. He told him that he was being followed but someone who knew what happened. A showed him the note with the  words “I Know what you did!” written on it, and with a piece of bloodied  fabric just like the victim wore on the night incident. A pleaded with him, as he was the only witness, if he could help him once again. Once again he quoted his price, which A willingly paid.

Now over the next couple of months, A continued to get mails and calls, blackmailing. And A continued to turn to him to help, but for a price to which A readily welcomed.

A few members of A’s entourage got suspicious about his motive and even questioned it loudly. But he always found a way to silence them.

During this time A started to get all the more paranoid and increased his dependency on drugs and  alcohol. 

Then one day he asked him to come over. When he reached there he found A totally high, with. There was a note nearby along with a syringe. His hands trembled as he tried to inject fatal cocktail into his arms, but he couldn’t get himself to complete the deed.

He slowly went over to A , and leant forward and said something in A’s ears. As A heard what he said his eyes opened wide. His convulsed and he breathed his last

Next day in the paper the news of A’s death was ruled as a suicide from the note that A had left and all the evidence pointing to suicide.

He distanced himself from it all, and continued to grow his business. He attained the status that his mother had wanted for him. But he felt sad she wasn’t there to see the success he had attained. In fact, there was no one who he could share his life with. Everyone had gone.

As he got back from his thoughts, he opened the draw next to him that contained his deepest secret. There was an article of the hit and run accident involving an gentleman, but the perpetrator couldn’t be found. He stared at the picture of the victim and smiled, it was the same man who had refused to give his daughter’s hand to him. As revenge he planned it. He called him on pretext of handing over a parcel to him. He knew A would be high after a wild night. He made A cause the accident that killed his would have been father-in -law. He helped A get rid of the evidence and the body, but ensure that he had few articles he could leverage later. He then started taking control of A and his finances, and silenced whoever came in his way. When A got paranoid and wanted to admit his guilt, he devised another plan to push A further down the rabbit hole. When had no further use of A, he orchestrated his suicide. Before A could die from the cocktail he injected, he told A it was him who was behind it all, and pressed the syringe that administered the cocktail that resulted in his death.

He smiled cause he had proven to all what the boy from the hood was capable of. How he wish he he could see their envious faces? How he wished he could his mother and show her how he enjoyed the chocolates that life gave him, ensuring that he got only the ones he wanted, just like he wanted.

The next morning when his housekeeper returned to the cabin, she found his ice cold body seated in his chair with a glass in his hand a smile on his face.