Chapter 322 Fragments of memories
?As the last rays of the sun beat down on the dusty streets of Buenos Aires, young Mateo while counting the money he had made by demonstrating his skills in the streets made his way towards his home.
Though the streets were painted in different lively shades portraying the beauty of the streets and was rather appealing to the eyes right now given the golden rays of sun falling on the streets making it look quite aesthetic, still the thick stench of poverty that was lingering around the streets was rather suffocating.
All of a sudden, he halted his movement as he arrived in front of his house. Looking at this worn down shabby place, a look of disdain flashed in his eyes.
Even though it was his home and he had spent his entire childhood in this place, yet as of recent, he couldn't bring himself to love this place.
If not for this place tying him down, he would have had a different life— he wouldn't have to suffer miserably everyday.
An unfortunate upbringing, an alcoholic father who's good for nothing, a younger sister who has her needs suppressed and a mother who slaves her life away to feed this family of four.
Every nook and canny of this shabby, cramped house which exuded a thick stench of poverty, he hated it. If possible, he wanted to run away from this place. And sure he could have done that as well. On multiple occasions, he even had such thoughts.
Yet he could never execute those thoughts.
Because if he were to leave, he'll only make his sister, his father and his mother's life even more miserable.
Despite his father being an alcoholic, he didn't despise his father as well.
Afterall he wasn't like this originally. The situation had forced him into such a sorry state. If only fate wouldn't have toyed with him and robbed him of his only medium to sustain his livelihood, he wouldn't be in such miserable state.
It was about at the time when he was thirteen. An unfortunate accident which turned his whole life upside down had took place. One summer day when he returned home after playing football, he was met with an empty house.
Usually around that time, his mother would be preparing dinner while his father would be sitting in front of the TV screen to watch some football.
Growing up in Argentina, similar to many other households, his entire family was a huge fan of Messi. Although his father who belonged to a generation before of Messi preferred Maradona more than Messi, nonetheless, he still liked to watch Messi play.
But that day as he arrived at his home, he found his home unusually silent and empty.
"Mom? Dad? Alexia? Where are you all?"
Mateo called out their names as he searched the entire house. Yet not even a single living entity could be found at that place apart from him at that time.
"Where did everybody go?"
Mateo murmured a bit worriedly and furiously at the same time as his heart started growing a little anxious and furious about their uninformed absence.
There were instances when nobody would be present at home. But usually they would inform the neighbors about their absence.
And right now as he couldn't find his parents and sister at home, he then walked out of the room to ask the neighbors if any information was left for him about their absence.
But as he inquired the neighbors about their absence, they simply shook their head as they answered that nothing had been informed to them.
Upon hearing their responses, Mateo grew even more anxious and furious.
Frowning his brows and with a darkened face full of fury, he helplessly strode back towards his room while mumbling like a madman.
Currently he was extremely displeased by his families behavior of leaving him in the dark.
Like how could they leave him by himself? Even if they had to go out or they would arrive late, at the least they could have still left information or a note.
However right now, he had no clues about their absence.There was simply nothing he could do now than wait.
Sure his father and mother did carry a keypad phone. But apart from those two phones, there wasn't any other phones available in the house. And also he didn't know any of their phone number as well. In such scenario, what could he do than wait for them to reach out to him first or just wait for their arrival.
Growl~
Since having breakfast, he hadn't had anything to eat. And all these worrying, searching and inquiring further accentuated his hunger.
Grabbing onto his growling stomach, he then walked towards the kitchen in hopes of finding something to appease his hunger. However the moment he turned towards the utensils that had been used in the morning, he found all the utensils empty.
Not even leftovers could be found in those used cooking pots. Looking at those empty pots, he became even more irritated as he started running his mouth out of fury, "At least, you could have left something to eat... Now what am I supposed to do? Starve to death?"
The absence of his parents was already getting on his nerves. But now this hunger was driving him insane as well.
Losing all sense of reasoning, while going through the cooking pots, he was rather harsh while handling those utensils. Several clanking noises of utensils could be heard echoing in his house at this moment because of his rough handling.
Upon hearing this noise, one might think if somebody was throwing a tantrum in Mateo's house. Well they wouldn't be wrong though, since Mateo was actually throwing a tantrum.
Even so, venting his fury on the utensils wouldn't miraculously fill those empty pots. Which is why, he then turned his attention towards raw vegetables.
However there wasn't much vegetable in the vegetable basket as well. Apart from some potatoes, onions, garlics, tomatoes and some beans, nothing much could be found in the entire kitchen. This scene to Mateo, given his already bad mood was rather depressing and frustrating.
Yet, heaving a deep sigh, he tried to calm himself and resigned himself to his helplessness.
"Guess I'll boil some potatoes for the time being..."
In a dejected tone, he murmured as he turned the stoves on and put a pot filled with water above the burning stove.
Afterwards, rinsing some potatoes, he then put the potatoes inside the pot.
"Just where have all of them gone? At least they should have informed the neighbors..."
Sounding a bit angry, he murmured all alone.
And after somewhile, as he was about to take those potatoes out, he heard a knock on the door. Immediately upon hearing those knocks, he though of his parents and sister.
"I won't go easy on them this time"
Grumpily murmuring such, he made his way towards the door.
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