The sense of duty

It was at the beginning of May...

Early morning, I just left home walking to the tram stop and passed by our neighbours house. Quite fresh neighbours, a Chinese couple with two small kids. The house also freshly built.

There was a strange scene. Kids, girl and boy in good schools uniforms were knocking at the door of the car. They also tried to pull out a garden hose stuck in the narrow gap in the car window.
My first thought was - they were watering some plant in the car and accidentally locked the door.
"Can I help you?" - I asked, but the kids did not take any notice.
Then their mother ran out of the house, still in her nightgown, she tried to force the car door, to pull out the garden hose. No effect. She ran back into the house.
A minute later she ran out again, with the car key, she opened the car door and switched off the engine. Only then I noticed a person inside the car and realized that the other end of the garden hose has been placed in the exhaust pipe. Finally I understood.
"I will call the ambulance" - I offered..
"I called it already" - answered the woman not turning her head towards me.
At the same time a neighbour came out from the house on the opposite side of the street. I explained to her what happened.
The woman, mother of the children, was talking to them in their language, an older woman, grandmother ran out from the house carrying the school bags.
"Can I help somehow?"  - asked the neighbour.
"No, I will take him to the hospital" - answered the brave small woman and was pushing the man in the car onto passenger seat.
I decided, that I was not needed there and walked away.

Few days ago I met the neighbour, the lady who was with me at the accident site.
"Sorry, that I left you alone, but I felt of no use, only adding embarrassment. How it ended?".
"Well, I offered help with the children" - answered the neighbour - "they were quite upset and crying. I hugged them, but then their mother called them to the car, to get to school. In the evening she knocked to my door with thanks, even brought me a small gift".
"And do you know how the man recovered?"
"He was treated in the hospital and recovered quite quickly. Actually the same day in the evening he flew to Malaysia as the next day he was to start a new job there".

Polish version HERE.

Very short happy life

Few days ago I had a meeting of our library book club. One of participants became a grandmother a week earlier. After congratulations there was time for some details.
There were twins - two boys. Unfortunately, already few weeks before a birth doctors informed the mother that one of the boys has serious body defects and will not be able to live outside mothers body.
He was born first - a messenger - Gabriel Thomas. The mother kissed him, dressed, hugged, and his life ended.
Less then one hour later, the second one was born - John Thomas.

Polish version here - CLICK.

The Boy who escaped Paradise

The Boy Who Escaped Paradise by Jung-Myung Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After first few chapters I hoped I will rate this book 5. Close to the end I considered - 2.
First chapters - life in North Korea. I read a good number of books about German concentration camps and Soviet Gulags, I met and listened to many survivors. In this context I valued the book very high.
Things go astray when the boy escapes and moves to the free world - China, Macau, South Korea, Switzerland. For some time it was not so bad - it occurred to me that everywhere there are powers able and willing to squash an individual into a pulp.
But the trouble is MONEY, too much of it.
Gil-mo has a rare talent to operate with numbers, also with big numbers. He seems to attract big sums of money. It always ends badly and starts again, and again.
Important part of the book are numbers. Gil-mo lives in the world of numbers.
Author employed numeric puzzles and considerations from many popular books. They work quite well in monet depraved North Korea, they go completely berserk in the world of money.
Fortunately the last chapter brought for the first time some humour into the book.
Switzerland - Gil-mo's girlfriend just cashed $8 million, she excuses him for a minute to check if money transfer is OK. After 12.814 seconds she returns, with a pile of shopping.
Finally in familiar world.

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