Fiction inspired by real events

All He Wanted Was To Go Home

A migrant’s COVID-19 reality

All he wanted to do was go home.

It was close to 40-degree celsius as he dipped into his satchel and rummaged for any remaining food. He found his last piece of bread and bit into it knowing it might be his last meal for a while. He put half of the last piece back inside.

He was out of work, out of money, and out of hope. The construction site he worked in as a daily laborer had abruptly shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and, before he could act, everything else was shut too.

He walked outside the bus station in the blazing sun looking for a supply truck that might give him a lift. The bus station was filled with migrants, such as himself, who had left their villages to come work in cities. The large cities had neither the infrastructure nor the political will to accommodate the aspirations of migrants.

He had nothing. Today, he wanted nothing except for a seat on a bus or a truck to go home. At home, he had nothing either except a family in poverty.

He was the carrier of neither presents nor enticing prospects. The only thing he carried was the hope of seeing his family again.

If suffering was inevitable, he would rather suffer with his family than alone. If he was going to disappoint his family anyway, he preferred to see the disappointment in their faces rather than feel their disappointment without being able to see them.

He saw no light at the end of the tunnel. All he could see, even in the blinding sunlight, was darkness.

He stepped underneath a giant hoarding advertising the city’s newest township. In some other lifetime, maybe he would have bought the apartment. But today, his home was the shade the hoarding offered.

He sat down and closed his eyes for a moment. His mind was as empty as his stomach and as sore as his legs. He felt something brush his feet and he jerked awake.

It was a stray dog. It calmly sat next to him without as much as a whimper. He wondered if the dog was as spent as he was. He dipped into his satchel and searched again, more out of hope than anything else.

He found the last piece of bread he had. He broke it in half, drizzled some water on it, and threw it on the ground. The dog, clearly starving, swallowed it in a second. It looked at him expectantly for a minute but then seemed to realize that there would be no more food.

He almost smiled. He threw the last piece of his bread into his mouth and sat motionless next to his newfound companion.

All he wanted to do was go home.