Motorcycle

11:39 AM (Indochina Time)

A man who does not fear death or dishonor, nor fear for his soul.

I don't know if anyone else is out there like me, but we're both free from the chains of our own needs and limitations. We want something more than a dream, something that no one has ever achieved.

It was a hot afternoon in the alley, so hot that it feels like wherever you go, inside or outside our house – it feels like the ground's steaming. Some people were taking advantage by doing their laundry in the alley. In addition to the heat, there's a lot of noise because of the people chattering even in this hot weather.

Anong, my middle brother, grabs the chess table under the DVD with a smile on his face, because he knows we both win in every family chess game.

Anong is my middle brother. He is the most understanding in the Aduyadej family. Even though we don't have the same parents, he still managed to work for us, and this is his free time.

All of a sudden, the whole neighborhood had a commotion. Mama, who was washing clothes outside the window, looked at them and looked closely at who was the subject of their gossip.

Brother Anong immediately stood up and looked out, and his eyes widened to see his motorcycle being stolen.

"Heyy!!! That's my motorcycle!"

He immediately ran and tried to chase the man, but he slipped on wet ground.

He still manages to chase the guy by hitching a ride from his friend's motorcycle.

"Let's go! Let's go!", my friend exclaimed.

While mom is checking if there's something stolen in the house, I'm arranging the chess pieces and bringing them back under the old DVD player.

I went back to my room to chat with my groupmates about our school project. The fact that I'm using my phone, thinking that it's just a minute or an hour had passed, but it turned out I was already on it for a couple of hours. Little did I know that it's getting late at night. Recently, I've noticed that time is running fast.

I wake up at around 4 in the morning to take a bath and eat breakfast while wearing my ironed uniform mom prepared.

I walked down the dark alley, crossed the road at around 5:30am just so I could buy materials for my project.

A random guy on a motorcycle stopped in front of me and asked while looking at a certain paper,

"Excuse me, are you Ms. Ploy Adulyadej Ayatdeli?"

I replied, "Yes, I am."

He asked a lot of questions, but I'm getting worried and also afraid to cut him off. I had to come up with an excuse. So I opened my bag, took my phone and looked for messages from my classmates. "Umm. Sorry, sir but I think I have to go. I have to buy art materials for our school project." The guy left and dropped a piece of paper, I took it and kept it in my skirt's pocket.

I went to the classroom, and my classmates grabbed my materials and immediately started our school project in the corridor.

"I'm sorry we have to cram like this, Ploy!"

"It's fine! It's fine! Let's get this done already. I can already see the teacher, so we have to sneak and make our way to the school canteen with the empty cartolina and printed pictures," my classmate said to the other.

Finally, we made our way to the canteen and my classmates exhaled, "Phewww!! That was close! Maybe you dropped something, Ann?"

"The glue!" she shockingly replied. As I looked for a pen to use on our project, I found a spare glue, newly bought in my pocket.

"I have one!" their eyes widened and she grabbed the glue immediately.