041 E: The gates were open, but I was lucky
19/8/26
21:08
I skipped July! Anyway.
When I was 8, my family moved to a new neighborhood. The residential area was newly renovated and spacious, therefore, quiet. I was still schooling at the time, so not much of my daily routines had changed following the relocation. On weekdays, my mom would wake me up at dawn to catch our bus scheduled to fetch me at 5:00. Classes start at 7:00 and I usually reach school an hour before that. I vividly remember watching the dark skies of dawn turn blue everyday I passed time in school before classes start. You can only imagine how much darker the skies were while I was waiting in my porch at 5 in the morning.
The gates of that house were automated, and my mom usually goes back to nap in the living room once she made sure we were up and dressed for school. So every morning, my preteen sisters and I waited at the front porch of a fancy house, unattended in a quiet neighborhood, with no sense of caution, under the dark sky, before wide open gates and a spacious yard just big enough to welcome any vehicles of any sizes. Every morning of every school day for 4 years straight.
And I was never kidnapped.
By the 5th year, I graduated from primary school and attended a secondary school where classes start at 8:45. By the time I woke up, got ready and waited for the bus at the porch, the sky wasn't as dark anymore, and our neighbors, as well as my mom, were awake.
On the 8th year, something finally happened in the neighborhood. The lot twice to my left was robbed at dawn. A gang of 8 persons got off a van, hurdled across the walls and attacked the elder exercising in the lot. Fortunately, the doors were locked and the robbers couldn't grab any more than what was in the elder's possession. I don't know the extent of the elder's injury, but I vaguely remember he bled from his ear, and there were wide blots of splatter.
I just thought things would've turned out much more different for me had the robbers come a few years early, or had they scouted the neighborhood earlier, they would've known there were unsecured houses and unattended kids every weekday. It's luck that it didn't happen, and that I only thought of it many years later.
21:38
21:08
I skipped July! Anyway.
When I was 8, my family moved to a new neighborhood. The residential area was newly renovated and spacious, therefore, quiet. I was still schooling at the time, so not much of my daily routines had changed following the relocation. On weekdays, my mom would wake me up at dawn to catch our bus scheduled to fetch me at 5:00. Classes start at 7:00 and I usually reach school an hour before that. I vividly remember watching the dark skies of dawn turn blue everyday I passed time in school before classes start. You can only imagine how much darker the skies were while I was waiting in my porch at 5 in the morning.
The gates of that house were automated, and my mom usually goes back to nap in the living room once she made sure we were up and dressed for school. So every morning, my preteen sisters and I waited at the front porch of a fancy house, unattended in a quiet neighborhood, with no sense of caution, under the dark sky, before wide open gates and a spacious yard just big enough to welcome any vehicles of any sizes. Every morning of every school day for 4 years straight.
And I was never kidnapped.
By the 5th year, I graduated from primary school and attended a secondary school where classes start at 8:45. By the time I woke up, got ready and waited for the bus at the porch, the sky wasn't as dark anymore, and our neighbors, as well as my mom, were awake.
On the 8th year, something finally happened in the neighborhood. The lot twice to my left was robbed at dawn. A gang of 8 persons got off a van, hurdled across the walls and attacked the elder exercising in the lot. Fortunately, the doors were locked and the robbers couldn't grab any more than what was in the elder's possession. I don't know the extent of the elder's injury, but I vaguely remember he bled from his ear, and there were wide blots of splatter.
I just thought things would've turned out much more different for me had the robbers come a few years early, or had they scouted the neighborhood earlier, they would've known there were unsecured houses and unattended kids every weekday. It's luck that it didn't happen, and that I only thought of it many years later.
21:38
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