One who spends life in the dark

There was this man, pretty rough looking for his young age of twenty-five. he had spent most of his life in these slums, rarely being able to 'enjoy' the sun. This boy was named Balder by his parents, in hopes of him achieving wealth. As if that was possible in this world of ours. Balder still lived in the same slum that he was born in, the only other thing he got from his parents was the tiny room that he lived in.

His father ran away after some sort of gang violence started, and his mother was still working at some places to earn for the house. Our Bal wasn't so different from his mates and worked heavy labor under the local contractors. His income was very humble and enough for his family. but there was something that he had always wished for. he had seen the people with their own apartments wear some decent clothes, and the envy in his mother's eyes as she looked at those clothes. he had always wished to be able to gift his mother a good-looking dress, hopefully with some sort of jewelry. he took a final look at the amount he had in hand, today was the day. The contractor had given them early leave after he received a phone call from somewhere, so he finally had both the time and money to buy his mother a gift.

All the shops that were full of people on regular days, did not show any kind of crowd. Balder entered the cheapest shop he knew. it was empty, with the owner watching some sort of timer on the TV screen on the shelf. Balder stepped in and approached the owner, "Excuse me, sir, why are the shops so empty today? did something happen?"

"Something happen? have you been out of it?" the owner asked, "They are saying the world is ending tomorrow. Some sort of meteor is going to hit us in a day."

"What?" Bal didn't understand what the owner meant. He had only been to school up to the fifth standard, so he was a little confused. His teacher did mention some sort of meteor hitting and killing the dinosaurs once, was this the same thing? "Do you have a nice dress for a woman about this height?" he motioned to show the height of his mother to the owner.

the shopkeep was very confused, yet got up. he took out an expensive-looking dress from one of the mannequins. "Is this good enough?" he asked Bal.

"I don't have enough money for that dress. show me something that costs less than nine hundred, I only have that much." Bal was kind of freaking out.

"Don't worry, it is on discount. you'll get this for five hundred" the owner packed the dress in a nice box, "Anything else?"

"Uh," being hit with such a generous offer, Balder was speechless. he swallowed before he could speak again, "Do you have some kind of jewelry? One that would go well with that dress?"

"I think I have it. But that will make the total out to be a little over nine hundred, is that alright with you?" the owner asked awkwardly.

"Yes!" Bal exclaimed. he quickly went to his pockets for spare change while the owner was inside, looking for the jewelry. he had enough change for the bus fare, but that didn't matter now, he can walk home if he needed to. the owner came outside with a plastic box that had a thin chain, it looked like some sort of necklace. The owner beamed, "You're in luck. I found this defective piece. someone dumped it back saying that it had fake diamonds, I had it in the back. I think you should just take this, it was collecting dust anyway."

"You mean this one is free?" it was hard to believe what he heard.

"Yes." the owner answered. "I can add this shirt too if you can pay nine hundred." he pulled out a nice shirt from the drawers.

"Ah..." Did he need a shirt now? Balder was feeling conflicted. On one hand, he was gifting his mother something, on the other hand, it would look weird if only his mother was nicely dressed. She might even deny wearing that. "Okay," he replied after thinking about it.

Going home, Balder was so happy that he didn't notice the price of the things he bought was reduced to fit his budget. The shirt was alone worth more than a thousand, with the dress and the necklace going way above that. Why did the shopkeeper do that you ask? the answer is simple, he wanted to feel good. Everyone wants to live his final moments feeling accomplished. Giving away stuff to the poor gave the shopkeeper a feeling of superiority, and gave Balder a feeling of happiness.

Taking quick steps as he moved through the narrow streets, Balder reached his house. his mother was waiting there, with a huge smile on her face. balder identified the aroma of the food that she was making. they only ate stuff like that when it was some sort of festival. he presented the box to his mother, "Ma, see what I got for you!"

"Bal? You got early leave today?" his mother asked, "what is that bag?"

"I got a dress for you. the contractor gave us the payment and told us to leave for today. I saved enough to get you this. See!" he was getting excited opening the box.

"You didn't steal the money from someone, right?" his mother inquired.

"No Ma. See, the shopkeeper gave me this receipt as well." he showed his mother the receipt. there was the list of things he bought, with a huge 900 written beside the total. the thing was, his mother wasn't literate enough to read the name of items, all she recognized was the amount.

"Really? What did you get me?" now that all her worries were gone, she was also getting curious to see what her son had got her as a gift.

Balder pulled out the dress and the necklace from the handbag, leaving the shirt inside. His mother was overwhelmed by her emotions and let a few tears flow down her face. She changed into the dress after sending her son outside. It was a little too big for her, but it didn't matter now. She was happy just to have a chance to wear something like this. The necklace was gleaming dimly in their poorly lit home. When Balder opened the door, he was also wearing the shirt. It still had all the clips that held the collar in place, and the tag was still hanging from the side. His mother removed all the clips and pins as she took a look at her son, she was proud of him.

They had dinner, one of the best meals they had in their entire lives. his mother even fed him a few bites out of affection. for a long time in a while, both Balder and his mother slept with their bellies full and no stress for the next day. there was a smile of satisfaction on his face as he slept, it looked similar to his mother's smile.

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper was sitting in his bed, telling his granddaughter some moral stories after having dinner with his family. He looked at his phone once again, it was showing the timer. he turned to his granddaughter, "Time for you to sleep, it is getting late."

"But grandpa!"

"You have to sleep on time, or else you won't grow up."

"Okay," she grumbled and went to her bed. "goodnight grandpa," she said.

The man now looked at the time for one last time before going to sleep. The phone displayed a timer before turning off the screen forever. time left on it was [02: 49: 53]