Alex the Happiness Provider

It was around 7 when Alex woke up. Tape Worm had already awake and staring at her warily. Alex suspected that it was his staring, caused her to let go of her beauty sleep.

"Yawnn, where's the bathroom?"

Worm pointed a direction and asked "What are you going to do mam?"

Alex got up, the bathroom turned out to be a tub filled with water, she washed her face, came back, opened her bag and got her makeup kit out and started her touching ups.

Worm was still staring at her, so she said.

'Stop staring, I am not leaving, at least not yet."

"When mam?"

"That's rude, well when I will feel like it. Told you; I find your situation mildly amusing."

*Silence.

"So what's your story? How long you are in this getting beaten up business? Was that real or it was some play of Jeorge to show off."

*Silence.

"Speak up you know, the quicker you satisfy my curiosity, the quicker you will get rid of me."

..

Just like him, Worm's story was also in a word plain. His happy family of three came from a grade-F slum to big city, looking for a good life. Unfortunately the footpath of Echo wasn't really made up of gold, but with tear, sweat, flesh and blood of countless people like them. Using some old connections, Worm's mother managed to get a job in restaurant as waitress and father got a job in a factory, their family got some semblance of a good life in Echo.

Yet, that didn't last long. One night a drunk hunter of some big family killed Worm's mother, Worm's father, decided to press charge and soon get burned by the money and backing of the hunter. He lost his job, home, the factory and restaurant refused to pay their money. Also the hunter's family one night came and beat him up, badly.

To protect Worm, his father left their home and came to slum. They had resort into begging and doing small jobs for survival. Based on their meagre earning, they survived till Worm turned 18.

After his 18th Birthday, Worm's father left. It turned out all these years, he still hold his grudge against the hunter and gathered all information about him. One night, he went into the hunter's house and butchered his wife, son, brother, father pretty much every relative he could found. When the hunter came back to his house, there was no family left.

The hunter obviously didn't spared Worm's father, but Mr. Senior Worm had already taken account of that. He planted some explosive in the body of the hunter's daughter and son, and used it to kill both himself and the hunter.

Worm was truly alone by then. Without any other means available, he also followed his father's foot step and started begging. That and with some occasional manual labour, he had been managed to drag his life around.

"What's with the beating?" Alex asked.

"Well it's not like I can get enough money to spend some on drinking, so when I needed to drink, I go in a bar, drink my fill and let them bit me up and throw me away."

.... Alex remained silent.

"it's not that bad mam, I have a tough body, well there were plenty of times when it felt like this is last, I am gonna die, but I always recovered back. After all mam, this is life , nobody said it's gonna be easy."

Alex asked the million dollar or credit question in her mind.

"Why drink like this then, I mean there are plenty of cheap bars. I am sure even you can afford some of them?"

"What are you saying mam, just because I can't afford it I am not gonna drink good beer?"

That shut Alex up, this was also her philosophy, there were plenty of good things in the world and just because she couldn't afford it didn't meant she hadn't tasted them. Obviously, unlike worm, her methods were a bit different, but the goal was same.

"I am starting to like you more and more, come I will buy you breakfast and coffee. We will talk some more. Maybe you don't have to get beaten up each time you go to a bar from now on."

*In a good quality cafe of Echo city.

Alex sipped in her coffee, opposite of her, Worm was sitting stiffly on a chair too afraid to move and dirtied it. Alex sighed and told him.

"You know, focus on eating, and forget about the environment, all these shiny people around you with their contemplating looks, will come and lick your boot if you throw enough money towards them. You are poor in pocket; these guys are poor in their heart. So don't bother them. They are not worth it."

Worm warily started eating.

"Do you know what wrong with this world?" Alex suddenly said.

"What?"

Alex repeated.

"Apart from monsters, deadly beasts, raiders, bandits, radioactive zone which can kill you in a minute and diseases so terrible that you will beg for death? Well you can also include lack of food, water. Did I miss anything?" Worm said sarcastically.

"Sarcasm, I like it, but you missed the most important point. It's us humans."

Alex continued.

"Do you know about the old world and how it ended?"

"Duh, everybody knows it. The big boom and everything finished."

"Yes, but you see, back in old world, the population was around 10 billion, after the big boom happened and humanity came out, their number dropped to 300 million, even now, after 150 years, that number had yet to reach 700 Million, based on some statistical projection, we will need another 50 years to reach 1 billion population."

Alex looked at Worm's face and continued.

"Sorry, I am sure you are finding these very boring so long story short, our population is less than one tenth of what it used to be, but the usable resources were just 80% of what it used to. Therefore per human resource is much more than what it used to be in old world. Yet, the ratio of poor people vs rich is more; the percentage of people who is malnourished is more. Do you know that this Echo city spend more of money to treat people with obesity than people diseased because of malnourishment. Now that is real problem my friend."

"Are you some sort of preacher? You know like "Better Tomorrow" guys ?"

"Those assholes, nah man. I am not a preacher; I am just giving you an idea of how our world today is. You see, although in the schools they always yapp about honesty, principle, morality and all other good bad nonsense, but truth is there is nothing good or bad in this world. It was true back then, it is true now. It is all about at which side you are standing and from which side you are grabbing."

Alex sipped some more coffee and continued her education.

"So, it is actually foolish to try to be honest in such a world. You have to siege opportunity. You have to be a shark and eat others, otherwise, someone else will eat, digest and shit your bones out and this is exactly what I do."

"So you are a thief and want me to be your helper." Worm commented.

"Nooooo" Alex cried with a pained expression.

"I am a happiness provider you know." She said with grievance.

"What now?"

"Happiness provider, I make people happy."

"Ah so you are a hooker. Ouch"

Alex kicked on Worm's shin and said.

"Bring your mind out of gutter man. Let me explain my job."

"You see, there are quite a bit of unhappy people in the world. There's plenty in this city alone. They have money, ill gotten money, black money, resources they have taken from others share. These peoples also monopolized markets and caused huge grief among the common people. There are people like this right?"

"Yeah so?"

"SO. SO. You are asking "so", look since they have this much resources which should have been belonged to the people, they are sinning. They are worried about losing it. They are worried if someone found out about their black money and report it to Government and most of all they are worried about their afterlife. See when they die they have to pay for their sins. All these made them unhappy, and that's where I come in."

"So you are basically a preacher, what you do? Some sort of purification ritual?"

"No man, I just take their money and spend it. See no money no unhappiness. Of course they don't understand it immediately, so I usually make a run after I have made quite a people "Happy" but I know that they will thank me one day."

After a moment of silence, Worm said, "So you are a thief."

Alex sighed, why this guy was so stubborn. She replied "No, look for a thief, stealing is like his job. Like getting beaten up is your job. But I am different, spreading happiness is my passion. People paint, sing music, plays games for their recreation, I spread happiness and unlike them I do it whenever I please. So stop comparing me with these 9 to 6 employee's, okay. I am an independent woman, who do not works and only do what she pleases."

"Okay, I get it. You are a crazy thief. But what you want from me?"

"You know what never mind, as for what I want, it is quite simple. You see, I am quite interested in you, so how about you become my sidekick for some times? Trust me, you will find so much good liquor, that you could probably take a bath in it."

"What do you mean sidekick?"

"You know the guy beside every super hero or villain, who makes them look good or bad. You will come up with ideas and I will reject them so my ideas look better."

"What if I come up with a good idea?" Worm interrupted.

"I will still reject it at first and letter say it was my idea, now let me finish, when everything will run smoothly, you will praise me, when it is not, I will blame you. If everything runs too smoothly, you will mess it up, so I can fix it. Basically your main job is to make me look good. Now you will get good share of whatever I can grab, and I won't back stab you. You are free to back stab me, but don't get caught. Meanwhile as long as you are my sidekick, you have to follow my rules. We will discuss and define them letter. So are you in?"