The newscast predicted the hurricane, but no one knew how big it was going to be. Because of the hurricane, the small bridge that was the only connection to the other side became flooded. Due to this, many people had been left on the other side, where my town was located. Cars were parked everywhere: on the side of the street, in parking lots, and in the public park. Some people even abandoned their cars to stay in shelters. While I was walking to get lunch, I ran into someone I thought I would never see in my town.
“Hey,” I said to her. When she looked up I immediately recognized her as my previous student during her high school years. In her hand was something that she was eating. At first I thought it was a hotdog or a hamburger, but when I looked closer, I saw that it was an animal.
“It’s a cat,” she told me.
“Why?” I asked in shock.
“Survival. I don’t have money to stay at a hotel and I have not eaten in about two days, and all the shelters are full with families and children. They won’t take me,”
She was right. Many of the shelters in the town were full and although I had not seen her since she was eighteen and graduated, I still saw her as a child despite being about twenty.
“Can I sit with you?” I asked her and she nodded. While I sat with her, she told me all about her first and second year of college. How she made new friends, joined clubs, and made it on the dean’s list three times. I was so happy for her. I had her twice as a student in high school and she had a very low self-esteem and many of her teachers did not believe in her. But I always had faith in her. This was not the same student I knew in high school. As she spoke to me, she was glowing with happiness and she was succeeding in life.
“Thank you,” she said to me.
“Why?” I asked.
“You were the only teacher who believed in me. Because of you, I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” I was a bit embarrassed and over joy because I helped this child when she was in need and alone.
“It’s getting late Mr. Mat. You should return home,” she told me. I got up but I looked down at her. I could tell by how she was sitting and moving her hands that she lost weight and was starving. But I knew that the Red Cross would arrive tomorrow and help her along with the other people stuck on the streets.
“How long have you been here?” I asked her before I left.
“Five days? I don’t know,”
I could not sleep that night. I was worrying about her because I could only imagine her sleeping in her car during a cold summer’s night. She was alone and anything could happen out there in the world. While she was sleeping in her car, starving, I was sleeping in my bed, in my warm apartment, with food in my refrigerator. I felt so guilty that I did not invite her, no, take her to my apartment to give her a place to stay until she could cross the bridge and return to her family. I was sitting at the table so long with my tea that I did not realized that it was already morning.
It was about eight in the morning when I got dressed. I took the elevator downstairs and went outside. I then realized what the bridge has done to the people stuck in my town. They were starving, wearing the same clothes they had from the day of the hurricane, and fighting each other. Many of them just wanted to get home to their homes and families. It made me feel even guiltier. That was when I saw the trucks with the Red Cross symbol, handing out food and blankets. But I notice that a many cars were abandoned as I walked to where she was.
When I got to her spot, I saw that she was not sitting outside. I thought she was still sleeping in her car, but when I looked inside she was not there. That was when I noticed the blood. There were spots of blood on the ground, as if there was a struggle. Then I saw a spot with a lot of blood. I yelled her name, but I had no answer. A few people were sitting outside their cars but no one responded to me yelling her name. I looked around but I could not find her. Then I started to cry because I could have changed her fate.
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