The devil - chapter 3 - first crime
Finally reaching the area where the food stalls were lined up, Josh stared at all the food being prepared and sold as breakfast with saliva dripping from his mouth.
Stomach rumbling but not a penny in his pocket, Josh made way to an old woman who looked the kindest and begged, "Aai, could I have some food? " while trying to look as pitful as possible with teary and sad expression.
Just by looking at him right now, one would be thinking that he had suffered alot and had no money (which is true). And Aai thought the same
(*Aai - a way to refer to elderly people)
(Josh may have lost everything but he was not dumb, just that having lost everything so suddenly made him have suicidal thoughts last night. Josh knew that one of the best way to gain other's kindness and pity was by looking pitful and weak. )
But the kind looking elder woman stared at him from top to bottom while pinching her nose with squinted eyes and said, "No! "and that was it. After that, she just shooed him away.
Josh shocked and distraught that such a kind looking elderly woman would be so cold hearted, but still the stomach rumbling hunger made him go to other stalls and people to do the same.
After multiple cold rejections it seemed that no-one was kind enough to provide him with some food. Josh made-up his mind, if no-one was gonna give him what he wanted, he will snatch it himself and as soon as this thought/idea came to his mind, it grew stronger and felt like it was only natural to snatch what wanted from others. All the while his body glowed barely noticeably in red with these thoughts. He felt as though it is how it should be and that snatching from others is his true nature. Strange as it may seem for Josh who had lived most of his life honestly. But he still acted on this thought.
Josh walked weakly towards the stalls located at the edges of the stall area, he moved his eyes in a barely noticeable manner on the food items that were placed on the stall. He scanned through everything and decided. And as soon as he was going to walk away from that stall, he grabbed upon a sandwich which was placed on the corner and ran away as fast as he could without looking back.
After running for a minute or two, the shouts from behind seemed to disappear and he finally turned back. Seeing that no-one was chasing after him, he weakly collapsed on a patch of grass to the side of the road.
Running that fast wasn't something he could do, actually it was the fastest he ever ran in his life, although weak and hungry, never before had he ran so fast.
Resting for a few moments while breathing fiercely, Josh finally calmed down. He brought the now squished sandwich infront of his eyes and opened the wrapper hastily and started chomping down fiercely but he couldn't taste it as his tongue and lips was dry and his throat parched . He found it hard to swallow something that smelled so nice because of his dry throat but he still did it and finished all of it in less than 10 seconds but he was still hungry, his hunger barely decreased.
So he got up and went to the nearest public restroom first.Mainly to ease his thirst and clean himself with water and, dust off the sand from his clothes.
First he drank the tap water straight from the tap continuously until he felt enough and then he dusted off the sand from his hair and washed his head with the tap water, the he washed his armpits and his arm with water and thats all he was able to do from a public restroom at the beach, since a shower was not possible as one needed to pay for it. But atleast he looked much more better and didn't smell of alcohol now.
Now that he was done cleaning himself, he went to do what he meant to do at first and that was to steal some more food from the stalls. Since he stole from one corner, he couldn't go there anymore so he went to the other side and did the same thing once more but this time he stole 2 sandwiches and a hotdog.
After finishing everything and with his hunger greatly diminished, he started walking aimlessly towards the city.