Dissipate

Preamble:
On the endless sea, a one-hundred-dollar bill drifted with water. Above, two flying fireflies were particularly conspicuous against the dark night. Their subtle light set off the depth and darkness of the sea, making the originally desolate beach even more mysterious and poignant.

Dissipate
Fall.

A chill breeze swept across his bony wrinkled cheek. He subconsciously held up his flimsy ragged cloth shirt and stared listlessly at the cracked empty bowl in front of him. Without money, he had no food to eat and no warm clothes to wear to resist the sudden switch of the season. Observing a happy family of three passed by brought him back his fading past and reminded him that he was not homeless before. After rotting in prison for thirty years, memories of his wife and children no longer evoked warmth and sentiment in him. For a long time, he had attempted to forget that he once murdered a man. Killing an elderly man and stealing his property due to destitution was a permanent imprint that he could not erase. When he got out of prison, everything about this bustling world seemed unfamiliar. His home was forcibly occupied by others, and his family was gone with the wind. Since then, the hope of surviving was a luxury for him. He was an icy-cold body shell, begging for scraps as he roamed around alleys.

Suddenly, a pair of delicate feet appeared in his sight. Looking up, it was a seven or eight year old girl. Under her thick bangs, there were two large round eyes, lacking the mischievous glint that children usually have. She fumbled in her pocket and produced a one-hundred-dollar bill, then put it in the beggar's bowl. “Thank you! Thank you so much, my benefactor!” the beggar said so ecstatically to the little girl that he did not notice how people around were staring at him. The girl pursed her lips and left without a word. The beggar, overwhelmed by this fallen gift, gently stroked its surface over and over again. His mouth agape with saliva trickling down onto the bill, yet this did not make him feel embarrassed at all.

Before he could hold the bill warm in his palms, a German shepherd rushed over and took it away in its mouth. For the first time, the beggar’s already colden heart was ignited by anger. Losing his mind, he sprang up from the stone step and began chasing the dog frantically.

Not knowing how long he had run, the beggar came to a deserted beach. The declining sun covered the sky with a red veil and dyed the seawater blood-red. All of a sudden the shepherd stopped at the shore, gazing at the beggar with a provocative look. In its eyes, the beggar panted heavily as strings of sweat slid down his shriveled skin. Wagging its tail, the dog threw the bill on the sea from its mouth. “Do you find it fun to tease me like this?” the beggar spluttered, every syllable vigorously enunciated. He plunged into the frigid sea and ran to the money like a lunatic, ignoring the piercing breeze bashing on his face. The cold and flaming water wrapped around his feet like countless bleeding hands crawling out of hell; the rolling waves did not cooperate, pushing the bill farther and farther away. Gradually, over half of his body was submerged in the sea.

Out of the blue, a pair of young hands emerged and picked up the one-hundred-dollar bill. The beggar’s sight shifted from the reddish water to the tiny silhouette not far ahead. Dragging his numb feet forward, he recognized that the figure in front of him was the little girl.

“Oh, thank you so much for picking up the money for me!”

“Do you remember who I am?”

“Yes, you are the one who gave me that money today!”

“That’s true,” she sneered. “But I wished you could remember something else.”

“What do you mean?”

The girl leaned close to the beggar. “I was waiting to take revenge for my grandfather on you for a long time,” she whispered.

The beggar’s face became utterly pallid and his pupils dilated. Only at this moment did he find that the girl was actually hanging in the air. Intuition told him to escape but soon he faced an insoluble dilemma. The dog ahead was also floating.

Panic.

One of his feet tripped over a pebble and his body fell into the water like a drowned rat. The instant the beggar looked back, he caught a slight upward quirk to the girl’s lip. Subsequently, the rumble of sudden tigerish waves approached the beggar like a herd of uncontrolled wild horses. In an instant, the famished tide devoured him.

Who exactly was she… the beggar kept asking himself before his consciousness died away. Suddenly, a scene flashed in his mind: a little girl and a dog stood transfixed at the door, staring in horror at the spreading blood in the room and the motionless body. At that time, the beggar did not pay much attention to them. However, now immersed in seawater, he could clearly see their appearance. The little girl, about 7 or 8 year-old, with two big eyes overflowing with tears beneath her thick bang. The dog was a German shepherd, wailing by her side.

Above the surface, a wisp of breeze caressed the little girl's cheek and stroked her flowing hair, just like her grandfather’s gentle touch. Breaking loose from memory, the girl came to her dog. “My wish finally fulfilled… ” she said as she looked down at the bill that clenched in her fist. Shafts of light surrounded them. The girl stretched out her hand to feel the beam. "How warm," she said. Eventually, they turned into fireflies, lighting up this suffocating lengthy night.

Under the surface, the tranquil sea seemed to lull itself into dreamland, submerging the surroundings with silence. Only the beggar was falling peacefully, letting the ruthless sea spread out his body and sag his limbs. As the seawater stripped down the last traces of sensation in his body, he remembered his wife and children, who brought him warmth in the last few seconds of his life.

On the surface, the polished sea rested nonchalantly as a mirror. A one-hundred-dollar bill drifted with the water’s easing ups and downs. It looked pitifully minute on the boundless sea, like a solitary boat that sailed toward the distance. The bill was waiting for the next lucky dead soul to pick it up and attain their unfulfilled wish.

Midnight, the sky and the sea were alike in darkness. Only the bitter breeze carried away people’s concerns; only the solo of the undulating waves filled the emptiness of the night. “Do you want to make a wish?” a voice said.