The Snow Flecks on His Cheeks

Luh Wina Sari Merta

A thick snow covered the street but it was still crowded like usual. The temperature was
cold enough for freezing our blood but it was not a big matter for some people to work and bring
a bacon to their home. It wasn’t a surprise that most people were working hard remaining that
Christmas would be coming soon. Christmas carol was played in every places around, twinkle
lights and ornaments was shining and shimmering on the Christmas trees. Kris Kingles were busy
attracted some children who passed in the front of bakeries. They were shared some cookies and
candy canes freely to the children. How beautiful it was to see that everyone has a joy on their
face.
“Don’t touch him son, return it back to its place!” she said “do you want to end up like
him?”
“But you said that you’ll buy a sweet potato mom” a little boy said “look at to those sweet
potatoes, aren’t they good enough?”
“I’ll buy you a thousand sweet potatoes better than this one, just put it back” she threw
away the sweet potatoes and grab the hands of her son and wiped it by tissue. They were leaving
an old man and his sweet potatoes.
He sat on the small wooden chair. There was only a candle light on the desk besides roasted
sweet potatoes which looked like a sunset in the dusk. Sweet and smooth but it would be tasteless
on his tongue. The lights and crowded in the outside could cover the darkness of his store but the
loneliness couldn’t be hid. He just waited for a foreign buyer to come to his store and just picked
up his wares. The local people were passing by and looked him as a disgusting old man instead of
coming to his store but it was not a big matter for him remaining that he had spent a whole of the
life through those disgusting sight.
The suffering was started on 1970’s when he was thirteen. It was such a young age to know
a scary fact of his life. His father who was a teacher fired by the stakeholders after trying to sexually
abuse one of his students. Her mother couldn’t accept what his father did and decided to leave him
and his sister. The worst thing happened when they were isolated and bullied by the people around
them. It was such a nightmare in his puberty life. Finally, a couple years later his father decided to
move to Newfoundland and brought the family along with him. The largest island in Canada, in
which it was famous for its cod fishery.
“Pong, Pong, where have you been? I have something important to you” said his sister in
Tagalog
“Ano ang mal (what happened)? If it is about our dad, please go away from me Khan. I’m
sick to hear about that sinner. Do you know? Today I have heared his name more than a hundred
times from my friends. I really am sick of it!” said Pong
“Don’t worry Pong, it will be ended soon. Dad said that we gonna move to Newfoundland
next week” said Khan
“Newfoundland? What else now? Is it the place for the sinners hid their face?” said Pong
“I don’t believe that evil will bring us along with him, I can’t imagine how our life will be at that
place, do we need to bear a karma of something that we have not done after all?”
“You are too rude Pong, dad took this decision for a better life of us. Overall, he is the only
family that we have Pong” the tears fell down on her chubby cheeks
“Did you said for a better life? If he thinks about a better life it should act as a jerk till mom
left us here” said pong
Without doing anything Khan left Pong and said “It was just an offer Pong, if you are my
brother just prepare yourself and go with us”
Finally, Pong followed his father and sister to Newfoundland. it was on 1977, when the
Canadian built up the modern Grand Banks fleet and made fishing a viable economic for repairing
the economics of Newfoundland. Therefore they were moving to a small village near to Grand
Banks, in order to back to the drawing board. His father worked in fish processing plant.
Meanwhile Khan and Pong continued their education in the senior high school a crossed of that
village.
“Excuse me sir, how much is this roasted sweet potatoes?” asked a man with a black coat
standing in front of Pong
“Gimme 1 dollar and you can take two of them” answered Pong
That man was standing a crossed of Pong’s store for few hours. It seemed that he was
waiting someone. He was a good looking man whose height as same as an American model but
his slanted eyes and authentic skin tone indicated that he was from Southeast Asian. His face was
red as a cherry and he walked tremblingly. The temperature was as sharpen as the knife till he
couldn’t bear it. He tried to find a comfort place but it seemed that all the stores were to crowded
and finally he ended up at Pong’s store. He looked there was only an old man and his sweet
potatoes and it was a good idea for enjoying a cold night with a sweet potato and a cup of tea he
thought.
“Okay, I will take it. If you don’t mind, may I order a cup of tea?” asked the man “I feel
that I have to melt my blood while waiting my friend here”
Without saying a word, Pong went back and served a cup of tea to him. “This is a special
tea for my one and only customer today and it is free”
“Are you sure that I’m the only customer who come to your store?”
“I might be looked so old but I can remember everything better than young people
nowadays” Pong said “Especially in remembering how cruel world treats me”
He was stopped on slurping the tea when Pong said those words. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to
estimate you in that way, so am I cruel if I wait my friend here and it may be disturb you?”
“Just take it slow son, you can wait your friend here as long as you want”
“There are a lot of lights at the outside and their lights were enough to lighten your store,
what a nice idea sir. So you don’t have to pay an extra bill for the electric, a candle light is enough
in this store right?”
“I guess that you are a newcomer right?” asked Pong
“Aaaaaa, yes I move to this town 2 days ago. I’m sorry that I can’t control my words while
talking with you”
“Where are you from? I can guess that you’re Asian?” Pong said “your eyes and skin can’t
lie to me”
“You can said that I’m a new comer here but I’ve ever spent my childhood in this town,
I’m originally from Thailand but I had been living in Toronto for many years to study. And now I
move here as an inspector assigned in this district”
“Sàwàddee kráb, halo”
“Sàwàddee kráb, I guess that you have met some customers from Thailand right? By the
way my name is Crap”
“You won’t believe that I’m Thai”
 “Are you Thai? Your pale face and pair skin make me think that you are a local people” he
said “you have lived here for many years and it was not a big deal but I can’t get that pair skin
even I have been living in Canada since I was four”
Cherry cupcakes was served on the table came in Pong’s mind. It was the last time he
could enjoy a favorable moment in his life. He was laughing out loud with his friends in the café
and having an endless conversation. The air blew and touched his skin remained him that the spring
season in St John’s was begun. He really enjoyed his new life as a college student after his dad
passed away last year. He took a part time job for survive but he enjoyed it. In case, nobody knew
how long the happiness would be stayed on his palm because there was no an eternal joy in every
human’s life.
Pong got up from his bed when he knew that it has been 07.15 and he only had 30 minutes
before his class begun. He dressed in a hurry but one thing attracted his attention some white fleck
on his shoulder. He tried to remember what he ate last night. It was not important again, remaining
that he might be coming late to his class. One of his friends, point out a white fleck on his hand. It
was a little bit strange for him but he covered up by saying that it was an allergic. It has a shape
like a snow which fell down on our skin but it was getting wider and appeared in other places too.
It was not hurt and felt itchy but it was just looked a bit disgusting. Those flecks was so contrast
on Pong’s skin. Sometimes it looked like a chocolate ice cream with a vanilla choco-chips.
Doctor said that it was an unfamiliar disease called as Vitiligo. A rare disease and the cure
was not found yet by pharmacist. It would be getting wider and wider and changed the skin tone
of the sufferer. The medicine given only worked to retard the whitish patches to others are of his
body. It was a big shoot over Pong’s head. It was a new nightmare approached his peace life. the
small white flecks on his shoulder were the heaviest burden in his entire life.
“Vitiligo changes my entire life son” said Pong “In case, I have been isolated from this
cruel world”
“So, this pale skin caused by Vitiligo but I hear that it can’t contagious to other people even
we have a physical contact to the sufferer “said Crap “Then, why are you being isolated like a
moll”
“Life is not that easy son, you may not know that humanity was a bullshit word even your
own self betray you” Pong said
 “A man with snow flecks on his cheeks showed me that humanity exists in this world”
Crap said “It was a long time ago when I was a little boy and he saved my life by buying the only
knife that I and my mother had. Actually, finding him is one of my reason to move this town”
“Knife can kill you and save you at the same time” said Pong
“I thank to that young man, he bought the only knife which was left by my father before
his death. It was an extraordinary knife and it cost more than a hundred dollar” Crap life might be
ended if that man didn’t take that knife as a Christmas gift. He couldn’t recognize that face clearly
but the snow flecks on his cheeks was the only sign of him in which that the snow fell down at that
time and it also decorated the mysterious man in that night.
“Ring…Ringggssssss….” The ringing phone awaked Crap from his sleep. The clock said
that it was 02.00 in the morning. The time when people fell asleep quietly and resting their tired
day, for a professional inspector liked Crap. He should be ready in 24 hours for an emergency case
that might be happened liked what recently revealed by that ringing phone. An old man was found
stretch out beneath his bed. It was a first case for Crap after recently arrived in St John’s.
An Old couch and dust-covered table welcomed Crap when he was entering the old man
house. The moonlight appeared to shine that dark and empty house through small holes in the
ceiling. Cobwebs adorned every corner of the wall of the house. It seemed that the old man tended
his house well till the spiders felt comfort to live here, but some roasted sweet potatoes on the
dining table attracted Crap's attention. It reminded him of someone and he rushed into the bedroom
of the crime scene. What he guessed was happened. The old man whom he met a few days ago
was a person who was stretched out in front of him and was being evacuated by the officer. an
unpleasant odor wafted from his body which turned into blue and it indicated that Pong had died
since a few days ago.
“He was a lonely old man who wants the world to accept his existence” said Crap “and I
didn’t expect that he would be ended like this”
“You’ll withdraw your words when you know the scary fact about him” his friend said
“What fact did you mean? The fact that he was suffering from Vitiligo?” Crap said “I’m
not understanding why people here discriminate him because of that illness which is not really
dangerous for others’ life”
 “But his illness doesn’t change his appearance only but also changes him into a monster”
his friend said “do you wanna know the truth? He had killed his sister and her family without any
regret.”
“Why did he act such an evil?” shocked Crap
“The rumor said that it was caused his only sister rejected to live with him and support his
medical, it was such a humiliation for him. But it was not a big surprise remaining that he was
born from a sinner family” continued his friend
“What another terrible fact of him again? I can’t respect a monster like him at all”
“I heard a rumor that his father was a teacher who sexually abused his students. They were
isolated and hated by the society in his village that’s why he and his family moved to
Newfoundland few years ago” said his friends and it was a big shock to Crap, he regretted that he
even felt sorry for what happened to Pong before.
“Come on man, don’t think too much about him. Let’s go to our office and end this case
as soon as possible” his friend said
Crap stepped out his feet from that crime scene but he was stopped for a while by an old
picture attached on the wall. He turned his feet closer to that picture. He wiped out the dust covered
it to see a familiar figure in in that picture. Suddenly, he was laid down with his trembled body.
“No way, it’s impossible..”
“They were a different person, yes they were different – those were snow fleck on his
cheeks not those disgusting whitish patches”
“No…, No.., No”
Crap looked so pale and seemed that picture was ghosting his body. …..