Pilgrims
Free Time

As the four men were walking in their imaginations to foreign places in the sheets of paper they read, I walked down the stairs.

I intend to see John. I have something to ask of him. Knock on the door of his room. He opened the door shortly afterwards.

“Do I interrupt?” ask her.

“I am indeed at leisure. So yeah, the answer is no. Come in,” John is welcome.

The room might be as big as my house.

A large bed with a white mosquito net tied on it was placed in the middle of the room. Surrounding him were scattered other luxury items. A big screen television, a computer with three monitors, a fridge, and a bunch of antiques that might be worth a lot more than the electronics in this room.

John sat on the couch in front of the television. I followed him and sat down next to him while continuing to look around.

“You should be at home all day confining yourself in the room,” mumbled. “Why did you spend your money to buy a house this big if all day you work only in the room?”

“I thought you were here because there was something to talk about, not to criticize my lifestyle,”.

“Oh, right,” I said remember my original destination.

“So, what do you need?” tanyanya seriously.

I thought of the right words to ask. “I think I need a vacation from this routine. May I go look around tomorrow to another city?”

“With others?” he was not too surprised by my request.

“No. Sometimes I want to walk alone. If the others you libertize too, maybe they also want to walk each one. It's been a while since we always traveled together.”

“Ya, okay. Tomorrow all day you are free to go anywhere,” he allows.

***

And here I am now, lying in the sand with the noisy midget penguins.

To be honest, these penguins are nothing like my previous shadow. I used to think penguins were sweet and somewhat mysterious animals. It turns out my guess was wrong. I just found out that they're very midget, noisy, and not mysterious at all.

Not that I don't like them. On the contrary, they can be good friends for us. They are okay with human existence. I even see them acting like humans sometimes.

There were two penguins that were noisy near me. Funny to see them talking like humans. I call the two penguins.

Because I don't know how to determine their gender, I'll just take it. The body is small and short kunamai Unyil while the body is thick and pudgy and somewhat looks difficult to walk so thick kunamai Doraemon.

I don't know because I was sleep deprived last night or if I started acting silly. I invited Unyil and Doraemon to speak. I introduced myself to them, mentioned my name and so on.

Funny thing is that they took two steps back, as if asking what this stranger was doing. Of course I'm just guessing they're thinking that way against me, because of course I don't know what they're thinking.

Then I foolishly imitated the way they spoke, hoping for a better response than the one before. And I got it. They told me or it sounded like that because I basically don't understand penguin language.

And we started to be good friends, or at least I thought it was.

“You happy?” ask the voice of someone I know.

I'm turning. “Oh, you.”

“See you play around with those penguins from a distance, I didn't think you went here either,” Leon said lying on the sand.

“That's why I got here, when I asked people on the street where the natural scenery was good, he told me this place. You alone? What brings you to this place?”

“As the name of this place, I was looking for hope,” Leon spoke while closing his eyes. His face was at peace under the scorching sun as if his body was absorbing every positive energy around him and exuding it fiercely towards me. Long time he was silent.

His breathing slowed and was regular.

“Hey, you sleeping?” my many.

A smile was etched on his face, his eyes still closed. Enough for me as an answer.

“Can I ask you something?” ask again.

“Just.”

“What's on your mind now?”

“Sun.”

“Why sun?”

“Try thinking, how can this earth exist without the sun? After all, isn't this sun the same sun you see at any time we are?”

I thought about Leon's words for a moment. “Yes, you are right. Whatever is on the face of the earth changes over time. The sun is one of the few things that has not changed or at least has not changed,” I justify.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. “How does it feel to be you?”

“Customize it,” I replied.

“Didn't you flutter? After all, from your point of view, everything is uncertain.”

“I don't know what I need to feel or what to do before the problem arises,” I replied.

“Really?” many doubt. I'm not sure about that statement myself.

“Sometimes I feel that way too. Sometimes it feels better when I feel pain than nothing happens at all. Because then we have a purpose,” murmured.

“Yes. The biggest problem now is that I don't even understand how or why this happened. Finally I feel like I'm not having any problems,” I continued.

He smiled and closed his eyes again. “We need therapy.”

I ignored that statement.

***

After noon we had lunch at the terrace cafe on which many were along the street and then took a walk around the city.

Funny thing is that penguins here also walk the streets. They blend in with people. Living side by side in peace.

Unfortunately Unyil and Doraemon could not walk with us, they seemed to still chat on the beach when we left.

It didn't feel like the sun had started to set as we walked through the deserted alleys of the city. Leon told me this was a cutting way to get to the stop faster.

“Are we lost?” I asked Leon after walking for about half an hour.

“This is the right way,” replied Leon.

“It feels like from earlier we are circling in the same place,” I said not sure.

“The buildings are similar,” the ideal is relaxed.

“You sure?” my many.

“A hundred per..”

“Ssht!!” I smothered Leon's mouth with my hand. “You heard that?” askaku.

Leon shakes.

I'm sure I heard something. “Follow me!”

Kususuri the small alleys between the old buildings are neatly lined but haunted.

Leon followed me without asking. Those maze-like alleyways make me a little disoriented—not knowing where north and south let alone the way back.

I should have stopped here. What do I care for? But I believe in my hearing. I heard a faint though agonizing groan.

Either curiosity or stupidity that makes me keep looking for the origin of the sound. Shouldn't I avoid things like this?

The end of the alley is visible. I hastened my steps. Now I hear the sound of laughter coming from not just one person. I started to smell trouble.

Arriving at the end of the alley my steps stopped. Across the street some distance from where I and Leon were standing, I saw five men surrounding something.

The lighting here is minimal. Leon and I are hidden in the shadow of one of the buildings. I try to read what's going on.

Then I saw her. A woman with a shirt torn around her shoulder and bloody lips cornered in fear surrounded by the drunken men.

With a bubbling rage, almost without thinking I started moving before my steps finally came to a halt.

Leon held my arm. With his gaze he seemed to say 'Here you go, it's none of our business!'.

I let go of his grip on my arm and darted away.

The five men were shocked by my arrival. As far as I'm concerned, they haven't done anything but slap and scare the woman. Thankfully.

“Leave this place right now!” my orders to them. Their expressions were like I was joking. Then they laughed howling.

“If you want you can join us, sweet lady,” said one of them.

The five of them slowly walked up to me, happy to find a new potential victim.

Dropping five drunk people is not a difficult thing. A swearing came out of their mouths as I landed a row of my kicks on their faces.

They should feel the same pain they gave the poor woman.

At least I made the wound so that it can not heal quickly. I was getting ready to take a counterattack. But they turned out to be just a bunch of cowards who didn't even dare to counterattack.

After seeing the group of drunkards run away until it is not seen again by me, then I approached the victim.

“You all right?” I asked him.

The woman looked at me from top to bottom with a look that made me uncomfortable.

Then he calmly stood up, and patted his dusty clothes because he was sitting on the ground. I moved back to give him enough space. He then tied his hair that was strung unfriendly so that it looks neater.

Such incidents usually cause trauma to the victim, but I see he was not so bothered by the fact that he had just experienced something bad.

***