HERO & PERFECT

PERFECT ran. Skinny legs pumping. Dust kicked up in puffs from his small feet as they dug into the dry sand and packed dirt of the playground that was so near to his home.

'Please', he prayed silently, lungs burning from fear and too much effort as three bigger boys chased him down.

"You even run like a girl," Ruk Feng yelled as they caught up with him at the edge of it-right across the street from the safety of the home he was trying so desperately to reach,

There was a moving truck at the house next door to it and movers were busy finishing up. The truck pulled away revealing a tall heavy boy standing in the driveway, holding a large box.

"No!', Perfection gasped. 'No! Please don't do this!" he stumbled ducked and spun, throwing sand in the face of his largest pursuer, who howled in angry surprise, clawing at his face.

"You're gonna die now! Get him!”

One of the others lunged forward and managed to grab him, catching him by shirt collar and yanking him back. Holding him, cursing and pinning back his thin arms as he struggled.

The third punched him hard in the stomach. Knocking the wind out of him, as the furious boy with sand on his face, raised his fist.

A shadow fell across them. There was a loud scuffle.

Perfection found himself thrown to the ground, tears blurring his vision, choking and gagging for air as several meaty sounding 'thuds', accompanied by grunts and shouting filled the air. He was abruptly hauled up and tossed over a hard shoulder, then carried across the street and dumped unceremoniously in front of his own house.

He couldn't breathe.

Tears trickled down his face as he gagged, unable to catch more than a fragment of air.

"House?" His brusque rescuer asked in English.

Perfect squinted up at the large boy, but the sun was behind him and he could hardly see. He closed his eyes and managed to inhale part of a breath, trying to speak.

"Here. This'-he coughed, feeling slightly nauseous in the heat. He waved behind himself weakly, and managed another part-inhalation of torpid air. 'This is my house.”

This house? The one right next door?

The heavy boy glanced at it, then back down at the scrap of a small boy.

He looked like a little fallen bird, he thought. Observing him gravely as he struggled to breathe, sitting pale and hunched at his feet.

His limbs were so thin... They reminded him of the delicate wing bones of the songbirds he had glimpsed in the forests around the temple where he had spent more than half of his young life.

He had once found a tiny skeleton of one behind a tall jar in a seldom used storage room. It had weighed no more than a wisp of air, laying dry and fragile in his palm.

He was surprised, now that he was able to observe him closely, to realize he was probably not much younger than himself. Just a great deal smaller in size.

All three of the boys he had sent packing had been far bigger than the one sitting before him.

He wondered what this small boy had done, to warrant such angry pursuit.

He frowned.

Perhaps he had done nothing at all.

He knew too well that there did not always need to be a reason, for choosing to hurt someone.

The frown became a scowl.

He was glad he had been present to drive them away. Hitting them had felt far better than it should.

The smaller boy coughed again, looking miserable and tired.

It shouldn't bother him.

He tilted his head, looking up at him as clouds covered the sun.

Large dark eyes edged with wet spiky lashes, gazed up at him from a pale, delicate face streaked with tears.

They stared at each other.

Another cough, the small shoulders hunched, but finally managing a short breath… he smiled up at him.

Everything sharpened and came into clear focus.

He was suddenly vividly aware of the fresh scent of rain about to fall. Of the gusty laughter of the west wind causing the chimes hanging on the porch behind the boy to charm their twinkling notes.

He took a long breath in order to slow the sudden acceleration of his heart as a strange melancholy sense of certainty washed over him.

This moment would remain with him. Always. Just behind the door of his mind's eye, ready to pull up from the well, of memories that stayed.

If they tried to hurt this little bird again, he would enjoy showing them what real hurt could be...

Perfection Kim struggled to his feet and staggered.

Unaware that for a moment, he had become someone's little bird, or that from now on, he might be worth bothering about.

The tall heavy boy caught his arm, allowing him to lean against him until he caught his breath.

"You ... Go. House." The words were spoken harshly. Still, the bigger boy supported him firmly when he stumbled, making certain that he was standing solidly before slowly releasing his arm and stepping away.

Perfect stood still for a moment. He felt embarrassingly shaky after this latest round of bullying and unexpected last minute salvation.

He finally managed a proper breath. Sniffling and coughing, he watched his new neighbor lumber back over to the house next door.

"Thank you for saving my life," he croaked.

The heavy boy with the long tangled hair, did not look back.

After supper that evening, Perfect was in his bedroom playing a computer game when he heard shouting.

There was some swearing. A sound of something large being broken. Glass breaking. A man's voice ... More shouting.

He thought he recognized the mandarin word for "Dog", there was more shouted mandarin that he did not understand.

There was a loud ‘ bang’ and another violent crash. "Dog" shouted twice more. Then : " Dog - dog! Get out stupid dog! Go to school!" In slurred English. The man sounded angry -and drunk. His shouted words were thick and mostly unintelligible. Perfection heard a door slam.

He went to his bedroom window, carefully pulling the curtain aside and peering cautiously out into the storm.

Rain was falling down in sheets as it sometimes could this time of year. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the distance, muffled but growing nearer.

He could barely make out a large shape stumbling across the driveway separating their two homes, before being swallowed up by the pouring rain and darkness.

Minjun tapped lightly on his door and stuck her head into his room. "Did you hear something next door?' He nodded, looking back over his shoulder.

'Huh', she frowned. 'Sounds quiet now...Rain will block some noise. You try to get some rest, ok? School tomorrow.”

"I will." He turned back to the window.

Perfect waited until he heard his older sister go back up the stairs. Then pulled up the window, wincing as the latch rattled. He eased out, kicked his feet and dropped onto the driveway, squinting when the pouring rain soaked him immediately.

The house next door was now dark and silent.

He sucked in his bottom lip as he ran across to the playground, hoping his guess was a good one.

It was.

His new neighbor was sitting below a dim solar light, his back against one of the poles supporting the climbing fort.

There was a wide, curving overhang along the edge of the fort that kept the rain from falling directly on him. His shaggy head was resting on his crossed arms on pulled up knees.

The angry man ... The boy's father? Had called him 'Dog'. Perfect had heard the drunken derision in the slur.

He didn't know his large saviour’s name.

He would never call him 'Dog'.

What to call him?

He raced through the rain and stuck his head below the overhang, saying the first name that popped into his head.

"Hero', he gasped, blinking and swiping at his eyes in the downpour. 'Hero, bro, please come with me."

The boy didn't move.

"Go away." He said.

Perfect crouched down and sidled in , squatting on his heels right beside him. The pounding rain was making a racket.

"I'm not going away. I'm going to call you 'Hero', from now on, because for me, that's your name, ok? You don't even have to tell me what your real name is.'

He rubbed at his eyes, squinting at Hero. Their clothes were soaked through to the skin. He needed to figure out how to persuade his new friend to come with him. Rubbing his thin arms briskly, he wiped at his eyes, blinking again and began speaking rapidly.

"You saved my life, right? So ... That means you're responsible for me now. Did you know that rule Hero? I wouldn't even be here if you hadn't punched their lights out, right?'

Hero didn't raise his head or reply, so he kept going. He needed to get them moving.

'I think Ruk , Tarn and Thun wanted to kill me - for sure they really did - when all I did was state the obvious, same as they did. I mean, sure , I'm short and scrawny as a poor man's chicken, like they said. I mean, it’s obvious right? But hey, guess what? I'll grow taller and gain some weight, for sure, but, Ruk's head is shaped a lot like a lemon - and that’s never going to change - I mean look at it.'

He shook his head.

'Ruk got so mad he heard that ... He just went bug-eyed crazy. I mean, I thought that big lemon head of his was gonna blow up POW! Like a popped balloon! If it hadn't been for you, I would have been a dead kid. For. Real. Just a big bloodstain, right here. But, here I am alive , thanks to YOU.' He cautiously poked Hero on his very large shoulder. He was big. Bigger than he remembered.

Hero didn't respond. Perfect sidled a little closer.

'So that means now ... I'm yours ... And you - you're mine. So ... For real, I have to take care of you too, and THAT'S the truth,’ he wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing the wet goosebumps on his own thin arms vigorously, before carrying on. Min would kill him if he caught cold. They really had to get out of this storm.

‘My window is open, and ugh, the rain, My sister’s going to - never mind- Hero, we have to go. Come on, you can stay with me in my room."

Hero didn't raise his head. His words were muffled.

"So much talk', he said in heavily accented English. ‘Talk. Talk never stops.”

There was a loud sound. Then another. Loud enough to be heard over the deafening clatter of the rain nailing the hard plastic ledge above them. The sound was definitely coming from Hero. Or rather, from Hero's stomach.

Perfection hummed.

"My sister makes the best kimchi, and ramyun with pork dumplings - and rice cake too. We have a lot left at my house’, he said loudly, leaning toward Hero's ear.

'You can shower, and I'll even wash your clothes for you for school tomorrow, ok? I don't think I snore, so you should get a good sleep. MMM, ramyun, right?'

Hero pushed him away. Abruptly hunching out from beneath the overhang and standing up in the storm.