Death by Water 4

The Korean bum's hair was intensely peppered. You'd think that someone had put a bunch of salt and pepper in his hair the way it looked. It was curly and below his shoulders. It was hard to tell if he was looking at you because he was always looking at you through his hair.

John wondered what the Korean bum was thinking? Perhaps he shouldn't call him Korean bum, but the fact was he never told John what his name was.

-My name is dirty! Rotten! Dirty! No one tell me who I am. 

-What then should I call you?

-Call me what you want. Just don't call me nothing.

I could tell that he was tired. He was drinking way too much whiskey. It's like he didn't want to see life for what it was. Alcohol made life different, more interesting to him.

-My wife leave me. My kids leave me. I just go off into the darkness and no come back. I like it here.

-You can always go back and find them.

-My face changed. I dark. They scared of me.

-What did you do that was so awful?

-I burned down their dreams, BURN BURN BURN. I liked to watch it burn...

There was nothing more to say. He liked to live alone and by his own rules. He had hurt his family. He could not go back. He was more like an animal than a person now, but he still had a generous heart. 

-Why you like to be with me?

-You are a good man.

-I no good man. I become drunk to escape from problems. I so lonely because I can only live by my rules.

He drank some more whiskey. He went into the river with bare feet and looked up at the sky. Where was God? Where was God? HIs whole family had prayed for him to be released from the drink and he had chosen the drink over everything and everyone. It was sad, very sad. But now, he prayed every day for God to forgive him and nothing. Had God forgiven him? Even then, he needed the drink in order to live, to face reality, to breath. But alcohol had sucked most of the life in him. He felt more like a thing than a human being...