Death by Water 2

-Mom, remember that Korean bum I told you about?

-I told you not to hang around that man. What about him?

-I think he's dead. He's lying in the shallow river and he's not moving.

His mom looked at him.

-Let's go.

The still body of the Asian man lay in the shallow river. His eyes, his eyes, they looked like they had seen something. He could have been drunk. There was the Jimmy Bean bottle. But he was definitely dead. Something very cold came from the body as she approached him. She felt the hand for a pulse and there was none. Who was this man in front of her? She hardly knew anything about him except what her son told her. He liked to eat ramen noodles and read the Bible. He loved his whiskey. He was Korean, whatever that meant. She walked back home with her son and called the police. Actually she was not quite sure who to call so she decided on the police. Should she have called the ambulance when he was dead?

The mother felt tired. She wanted to go to sleep. But she was very concerned about her son. Her son had just seen a dead body. 

-He was always drinking whiskey and talking about God. He always said that we should thank God and give our stuff away. All I had was a few dollars so I gave it to him. He would then pray for me. He would pray for a whole 15 minutes.

Her son had gotten close to this Korean man. He talked about him almost all of the time. It was strange. But then again, John had no father. His father had gone to Market Basket one day and disappeared. She did not like to think of her husband. Now she was thinking about him.

-I just can't believe he's dead. He was always doing something. He was building a house out of tape and boxes. He was always reading the Bible. He was always hiking or walking through the woods behind the river, always finding things, alive and dead.

She looked into her son's eyes. She wondered what her son would become. She thought of tomorrow. She always thought of tomorrow.