It was a terrible freezing dark night. People concealing themselves in their homes sitting near their heats, watching TV, sipping tea and eating hot chestnut. Poor William was outside trying to warm himself by observing people from the windows of their homes. These scenes would alleviate the severe coldness haunting him and soothe his feeling of loneliness and deprivation.
William was used each night to depart the orphanage to observe people inside their homes and sense family`s warmth. He wanted to know what it means to belong to a family, to have home, siblings, to sense mother`s affection and father`s strictness . An orphan guy can never understand these abstract concepts without being put into context.
William returned to the orphanage late that night. The severity which was waiting him was not less than the severe weather outside. Severity, orphanage , punishment were the concepts he had experienced and realized what they mean . He was punished for his arriving late with no excuse by being deprived of having dinner and sleeping in a cold, dark place. This punishment did not affect him that much since the coldness which was dwelling in his heart was more piercing than the surroundings.
The next day, the supervisor called for William and told him, William , you know that by next year, your age will be 18 years old. This means you have to leave the orphanage permanently and start your own life. All we can do is to help you learn a craft which insures you a better life. So, we will put you at a craftsman for a whole month to learn from him his craft. I hope you would stop being reckless, childish and be a respected man. I wish you every success.
William was enthusiastic and happy that he would spend a whole month outside the orphanage. In his view, the orphanage was a prison restraining his freedom and lacking humanity.
He was put at a blacksmith to learn smithery. It was a hard demanding job. The craft itself was similar to William`s severe life and needed people have stone-hearted. The man that William was working at was strict , serious and greedy. He exploited William`s need to learn a craft and gave him no money, no food and most importantly no kindness. .
William recognized that smithery is not the suitable craft for him. So, he escaped searching for a smoother job.
William met a salesperson who hired him one of his pushcarts to sell through hot chestnut , roasted corn, hot drinks.
He was so happy since he would become able to interact with people directly and observe them closely. He wanted to touch kindness in watching a father buying his daughter a roasted corn she requests. He wanted to sense a son`s taking care of his old father by buying him a cup of tea to warm his body. He wanted to enjoy watching a boy insists on playing outside unconcerned about the coldness while his mother trying to convince him to come home by telling him that she would buy him hot chestnut. These scenes would warm William`s freezing life and would remind him of his humanity.
In William`s view, life outside orphanage seemed utopian; ideal relationships, strong social bonds, vivid happy events.
One day as William was standing near his pushcart, he saw an old weak woman sitting at a corner of street shivering. Her whole body was bluish due to coldness. William hurried towards her giving her his only jacket and offered her a cup of tea . The old woman was so grateful that William cared about her while her real son did not. She told him with bitter tears that her son drove her away of the home unconcerned about her health , about the freezing weather forgetting that she is his mother .
The old woman was looking at William with affectionate eyes. She seized his hand tightly. That was the first time William senses mother`s affection, mother`s warmth. The old woman was too weak to tolerate the violent weather. She had fainted and died before the ambulance arrived.
That was the most bitter experience William had been through. It was even more aching than the violent life inside orphanage. The ideal picture which had been dwelling in his imagination concerning family connection was destroyed, deteriorated. He became aware of the opposite side of life ; its toughness , cruelty, ungratefulness of a son towards a mother, fragile relations among family`s members and people in general.
He looked around himself to notice presence of homeless children, miserable beggars, drunken young people, weak women, superiority of the rich and inferiority of the poor. The image of the corrupt, merciless society became visible to him. Under this kind of society all people are orphans. All of them lack the sense of humanity, affection and mercy. They live inside an orphanage which takes away from them the meaning of giving, loving, embracement and lets them experience loneliness and deprivation.
William was so disappointed. He chose to leave this fake life outside and returned to the orphanage.
