In the morning, Fred is rushing out of his apartment and quickly gets in the elevator. He's pressing the close door button on the elevator over and over again when he knows already that it won't close faster. Already late for work, he runs out of the elevator when the doors open on the ground floor, rushing to his bike at the parking area. He quickly wears the helmet, starts up his motorbike, ready to go, but he cannot.
In front of him, he sees a white cat with patches of black fur all over, on the side road, in pain. Wounds cover her; she's trying to get up and walk away but repeatedly falls back down due to her broken leg. Her breathing is rapid, struggling to breathe. Fred is already very late, but he cannot bring himself to just accelerate and leave her there. He looks at his watch and curses when he sees he's almost an hour late and will be scolded by the scary HR lady. He still has a heart, so he turns off the ignition and proceeds to help her.
But she's dirty, full of wounds and blood, so he stops himself when he almost picks her up. His hands can't afford to be dirty now as he needs to find water to clean them, or at least tissue, which sadly he does not have on him. To make matters worse, he's wearing a white shirt today and he also has a presentation to make in front of his boss in an hour. He looks around, trying to find something to cover his hands and pick her up, but finds nothing. He looks in his backpack to find his handkerchief, but is angry at himself when he remembers he left it at home due to being in a rush.
Still, he does not give up. He runs around to find something to use and luckily he finds a piece of plastic on the ground that has been littered by an irresponsible person. Rushing back to the cat, he carefully holds her with the plastic as a cover, lifts her off the road, and puts her down under the bushes next to the sidewalk. But now, he can see her condition clearly and he knows the cat needs treatment as soon as possible. Bringing her to the vet crosses his mind but is immediately rejected as he does not have any time to spare.
But the cat is looking at him, pleading with her eyes, telling him that she wants to live. No matter how many times he lays the cat down on the ground to rest, she keeps trying to get up and walk away. Unable to bear seeing her struggle any longer, he picks her up, committed to sending her to the vet and enduring the nagging by the HR lady he hates when he asks for emergency leave later, which he always asks for. But soon after, he sets her back down on the ground. His bank account balance he checked last night suddenly flashes through his mind. He can't afford to send her to the vet when he himself just toughs it up whenever he's feeling ill, always refusing to go to the clinic.
"I'm sorry. Someone else will help you. I'm sorry," he says, leaving the cat lying on the ground by herself. On the road, his mind is full of worry about the cat but when he looks at the time on the dashboard of his bike, he knows he has to rush to the office now, telling himself that someone else will save the cat instead.
He made the correct decision. He's happily cheering when he learns that his boss has not arrived yet, saving himself from making a very bad impression on the person he's been trying to impress for that sweet promotion he's been yearning for. Soon after, the head of the company arrives, and he's ready to impress. When the meeting ends, he's smiling from ear to ear, confident that he made the best impression he could. The whole day feels like the best day ever for him, already forgetting about the poor fate of the cat.
Nighttime comes, he's moving through traffic on his bike, going back to his home. The happiness still lingers within him, shown when a car cuts across him but he's not even angry when usually he would press on his horn, honking to announce to everyone how angry he is. After half an hour on the road, he arrives at his apartment complex. But his smiling face soon turns to a frown. The road to the motorcycle parking area is lit by the orange-tinted streetlights but not every light is working. That's what he has to deal with in exchange for lower rent in that low-cost apartment complex.
But luckily at the last minute, he can still see something on the road, under the streetlight, forcing him to do an emergency brake to avoid collision. He doesn't need any more light to see clearly what he's about to hit. He gets down, slowly walking to her with a heavy heart. He takes off the helmet and lets it fall to the ground while he's standing there looking at an innocent cat that has been flattened in half.
The patch of black behind its ear is more than enough evidence for him to know that it's the same cat he could have saved this morning.
"Why is she here? I put her on the side of the road, right? Why did no one else save her?" The same set of questions run through his mind.
He's blaming everyone else for not saving the cat, but he's blaming himself more for being the one who failed to save her.
THE END.
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