Ain't No Hero

I went to get some new strings for my guitar after breaking my first one yesterday. A decidedly bourgeois activity. A frivolous expense for an frivolous hobby .

A found a music store on the third floor of a building in Darya Ganj, a small oasis in a sea of sweat and grime that asked me to take off my shoes before I entered it.

A teak floor, an air filtered, conditioned atmosphere, bright lights cast over arrays of beautiful painted instruments. I licked my lips as I cast aside my shitty old acoustic and let my fingers run wild over one of the shining, glistening pieces of woodwork.

After I was done in the store, I walked out with a confident strut, arms tucked into my jacket, a guitar slung over my back, feeling more like a jock than ever before in my life.
I walked past people setting cement into cracks, vendors peddling over-ripe bananas, girls and boys returning from school who looked up at me as I walked past.

I felt like an alien, an aberration in this place. So... fundamentally different.

On the footpath I saw a body... torso hidden under a magenta strip of cloth.
A child hidden in a blanket. There was no movement as I walked past. Flies buzzed past and landed on the child's exposed legs.

No one noticed the child lying in the middle of the crowded pathway.

A chilling thought ran through my mind. The boy could be dead, and they no would would know.
No one would care.

He could be dead right now. He isn't moving at all. Why is he lying in the middle of the footpath?

My mind rationalized. 'He's just sleeping, you'll just disturb him.'
But the simple truth was... that I didn't have the courage to pull off the shroud from his body.

I walked past numbly, still stung by the chill the thought had caused. I walked faster.

Two large and well fed stray dogs darted past me and to the body on the footpath. I followed their movement passively. The larger of the two, a massive tawny mongrel eyed the body hungrily. It thought for a moment before its face contorted in an expression of fury and became an array of fangs.

My heard pounded hard. I was too far. The too dogs were barely a few feet away from the child, and I was at about twenty. There was nothing I could do.

The mongrel lunged.

A third dog exploded from behind the body, howling as if possessed by a demon. This one was lean, red and fierce. Only two thirds the size of the other two dogs, it's ferocity made the two fat mongrels leap back to safe distance. The red dog issued a harsh bark. The first too growled back but didn't want to fight, they ran away- gone as fast as they'd come.

I looked at the red dog, the dog turned around and walked away. In the midst of the commotion, the kid in the magenta blanket had woken up. He looked around, scared, confused and still groggy from his sleep.

A woman rushed over to the boy, I assume she was his mother.

I wondered if he knew the animal that had protected him. If it hadn't been for the third dog... things could have gone immeasurably worse.

And all I'd been able to do was stand there and watch.

I swallowed the disgust I had for myself and walked away.