Feed the Family

Another hope crushing night of begging for 11 year old Alex Escobedo. This whole homeless thing is a little new to him, meaning he hasn't learnt to give up yet.

"I only need 10 dollars for a meal!" Alex shouted at the reflection of himself while the window of a limo rolled up.

"If everyone here gave me a cent, that would be enough for...," he looks at the sky, "An ice cream!" He had stood in place of a recently taken down statue and still, shoppers passed him by as if there was never anything there to begin with.

"Excuse me sir?" asks Alex standing behind a man selling hotdogs to an endless line of customers. "How much for one?"

"2 dollars, but you gotta stand in line," says the man.

"How about...," Alex pulls out one dollar and a quarter. "A dollar and a quarter?"

The man turns around and surveys Alex from top to bottom. " Stand in line and it'll be on me."

"Deal!" exclaimed Alex, running to the back of the line.

Later at night, when the streets are momentarily empty, Alex finds a bridge sheltering a herd of tents being guarded by the homeless, a community he had avoided for sometime. He tosses the end of his hot dog in his mouth and crosses the street into uncharted territory.

Getting closer to the bridge, Alex notices that the progressively diverse group of people there are laughing, singing, and oddly full of joy.

"Hi," he muttered under his breath, approaching a group of three playing cards on the ground. No response. He clears his throat and this time louder, "Hi!"

"We heard you the first time," uttered an elderly woman with strangely fantastical hair.

"Oh... I'm Alex."

He's met with silence.

"Can I play?" Alex asks cautiously.

"Kid, go home," says the women.

"Oh, I'm like you guys. Homeless."

The group of card enthusiasts all chuckle. Alex, not understanding what's funny, starts to laugh.

"You wanna do anything with us, talk to Johnny," says the woman.

"Johnny?"

"Whose asking?" Alex turns around to see what could be an unemployed version of Santa Clause.

"This kid wants to be one of us."

"One of us?!" Johnny laughs. "Well, we don't take children."

"Why not?" asks Alex.

"We here have been travelling together for sometime. We aren't homeless," Johnny looks around at his gang. "Long as we got each other, we are home."

Alex is speechless. He was ready to be kidnapped or beaten but instead, he found a family.

"I can travel too," says Alex.

Johnny smiles. "That's... not the problem."

"What is?"

"We have rules, it's why we're all still alive."

"I'll follow them," states Alex confidently.

"Yeah," says Johnny. "Umm... we have an application actually."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah! It's quite the task. I'm not sure you would be up for it though."

"What is it?" Alex asks.

Johnny looks at his friends for a moment. "You have to hunt a shark."

Alex isn't sure how to respond. "How?"

Johnny shrugs. "Figure it out. Because if you wanna be a part of this family, you gotta feed it first."

Alex imagines the perfect scenario of him hunting a shark.

"So?" asks Johnny.

"Okay. I'll do it," says Alex. He quickly runs off into the the dark.

"Why'd you lie to him like that?" asks the woman, trying not to laugh.

"He's a kid. Maybe someone will feel sorry for him before he has to seal his fate with us," says Johnny.

Dividing the skyscrapers and a lonely beach, are two empty streets being crossed by a daydreaming Alex.

As his bare feet reach for the sand, Alex looks up at the beach and then back at the road, unsure of how he even got there. It's too dark to find a shark, but just dark enough for him to sleep there and not be seen until sunrise. In the distance, he notices a lifeguard tower with a flag right beside it. He runs to it.

Alex knocks on the tower's door. With no response awarded to him, he slowly opens the door to reveal a room with a chair, cabinet, and one life jacket on the floor. He sighs.

As the sun rises, Alex shivers in the tower covered with a flag and rests his head on a life jacket. His eyes slowly open, unsure of what he's about to do.

Alex climbs down the tower's steps. He looks around him to find an empty beach and streets being teased by a couple of passing cars. He walks slowly closer towards the shore.

Just before he steps into it, the impatient water moves up to clean his feet. He looks into the distance for a hint that there may be a shark out there, but his eyes are met only with the great blue. Expectedly defeated, he walks back to the tower.

In the tower, Alex opens a cabinet to find various beach and lifeguard supplies including rescue boards, first aid kits, beach nets, and more. In a drawer at the bottom of the closet, he finds a pair of binoculars sitting by a collection of scissors, pens, and papers. He grabs the binoculars and looks through them, tunneling his vision. He tilts them towards the beach and immediately notices a little grey in the blue of the ocean. His binoculars come off his face as he wonders whether or not to entertain the thought.

Alex steps into the water again, squinting his eyes to see the grey moving about. He slowly brings the binoculars towards his face, desperately not wanting to face disappointment. The binoculars attach themselves around his eyes that immediately recognize a fin of what must be a shark.

"Hey!!" he calls out to the shark as he waves his arms in the air. "Over here!!" he shouts. Alex notices a rock big enough for his palms, grabs it, and throws it towards the shark. "Come on!" he yells. He finds another rock and throws it. And another. And another. And finally he grabs one more as his tiring body cannot keep up with his racing mind. "Please?!!" he asks the shark, throwing the rock towards it. He lets out a deep breath and begins to tear up.

"I'm so tired," he thinks to himself. He wipes his face and lifts his head up to see the fin getting larger. He looks through the binoculars and realizes that the shark is now shore bound.

"Yes!" he shouts. But as soon as joy entered his mind, it was kicked out by his fear. "Now what?" he thinks. He remembers the beach net.

He runs into the lifeguard tower, grabs the net by it's stick, and runs out.

Running back to shore, Alex realizes that he's forgotten to look back at the shark. He lifts his head to find the shark now about 15 feet away from the shoreline that he stands on. Alex, trying not to move any closer, grabs the net by the bottom end of it's stick and extends his arms further out than he ever has. Several feet, however, still separate the net and Alex's prey. In his indecision over whether or not he should get closer, Alex came to the realization that this was the first thing he'd done in a long time that wasn't begging for food or finding a place to sleep. And though fear tried seducing him, the prospect of what other adventures await him was more attractive. He slowly takes another step into the water. And then another. And then a few more. And finally another, stopping right before his thighs disappear into the blue.

"Here we go," he says, taking a deep breath.

He raises the net up in the sky enough for him to start losing control of it. He then looks away, tips the net down towards the shark, and lets it fall until SPLASH! The water clears to reveal the shark's fin covered by the net. Alex is ready to celebrate but he quickly notices the shark's fin slowly sinking to escape the net. "No!" he screams, quickly moving the net to reveal nothing underneath it. He looks further into the ocean and still sees nothing. He then brings his eyes closer towards his body to find a shark's head just a few feet away from it's breakfast. He quickly turns and uses the greatest force known to his legs to jump towards shore. He lands on his stomach and like a dog greeting it's owner, uses all four limbs to pick himself up and step on every rock, shell, and piece of plastic in his path to escape the water. Without looking back, he sprints to the tower.

He dashes into the tower, and ducks under the window, as if a war had just begun. In the still open drawer, he notices the collection of scissors. "Be a man," he tells himself. "You have to feed the family first." He grabs a pair of scissors, gets up, and slams open the door.

"What the hell?!" shouts a young man in a lifeguard's outfit with one hand holding his phone and one hand reaching for the open door. "Who the hell are you?"

Alex opens his mouth, but doesn't know what to say. The lifeguard examines Alex's clothes and comes to the realization of his status. "You can't be coming in here. It's not..." The lifeguard looks to the beach. "Not again!" He runs off.

Alex steps outside to immediately see the lifeguard running to what looks like a dead shark on the shore. "No!!" screams Alex, sprinting to the lifeguard. "That's mine!! Wait!"

The lifeguard reaches the shark and grabs it by it's back fins as Alex catches up. The shark starts to wiggle around, suffocating.

"What are you doing?!" asks Alex.

"Gotta drag it back in," responds the lifeguard.

"No, please. I need that shark."

"This thing is still alive my guy," says the lifeguard as he starts dragging it.

"Wait! I'll kill it!" shouts Alex, holding out the pair of scissors. "Please, this is my family's food. Please."

The lifeguard is unsure of how to respond. "I see. Oh boy.... Well, it's gonna die any minute now anyway. You don't have to use those."

Alex stares at the struggling shark. "Why were you taking it back?"

"Better out there than over here," responds the lifeguard.

"How?"

"Well, umm... there's good fish and bad fish right? We want the good fish."

"And the sharks eat the bad ones?" asks Alex.

The lifeguard nods. "Plus, I got no reason to keep it out. It's got a home."

The shark's movements slow down. The lifeguard's words ring in Alex's brain, making more and more sense every second. He drops the scissors and starts to scratch his head. "Um.... I...." He takes a deep breath. "Okay. Let's take it back."

"What?" asks the lifeguard, joining Alex in grabbing the shark's back fin.

"I'm not in the mood of shark today," Alex says. They both start dragging the now still shark.

"Get ready to move out of the water," the lifeguard tells Alex as the water eats up their legs. They keep dragging until Alex's knees can no longer be seen. "Okay, now!" shouts the lifeguard.

The pair quickly run out of the water and immediately turn around. They wait to see a fin rise up above the water. Alex is scratching his nails, knowing what his actions might have done. "Was I too late?" his mind wonders. As his eyes are about to drop to the ground, a little bit of grey rises above the blue. The shark breathes again.

"Yes!" screams Alex.

"Alright," says the lifeguards, high fiving Alex. They both stare at the shark. "So, where are your parents?"

Alex shrugs.

"Damn, okay. Well, come on then. You like fish?" asks the lifeguard, starting to walk away.

"I've never had it," says Alex, turning his back to the shark.

The End