That late night, Kevin Moore crossed a clear street to the other side to enter the alleyway which was in between two skyscrapers in the wealthy Capricon city.
At a slow pace on which his tired legs moved, his toe collided with a pavement.
"Ouch!"
On a wounded foot he walked, slowly leaving the brightly lit side of the street. He needed a safer place where he could lay his weak body and tired muscles for the night to pass. But, as soon as he entered the alleyway, he got startled by seeing a human whose back was bent, head nearly lost inside the garbage can, a few metres distant, alone in a dim light.
Kevin stopped walking instantly.
Slowly, he killed two steps backwards with a thought to take another direction to avoid human trouble.
Matter of fact, in the past three days he had spent in the human world, he had already seen more trouble than he had ever faced in the twenty-five years of his life time. Without a single idea about human behaviors and manners, Kevin Moore wasn't to be blamed for the fear of humans he started developing.
Come to think clearly in vivid images of what he had been through for the past three days, he can't forget how heartless humans in their world have treated his smiling face.
First, he remembered a sudden heavy smack on his jaw that he received from a young man that he bumped into on the street whom he grabbed strongly by his shoulders and said to him:
"My dad's name is Sean Moore. Can you help me out find him?"
Second, not to blame the bouncer who lifted him in the air like a doll and threw him with a force, angrily down on the ground. Reason being, Kevin, with his haggard appearance, did not know his limits. Out of nowhere, he jumped over and sat right at the passenger seat of the open roof red comfortable posh car, right after the owner _ an old rich man had sat to drive away. Startledly, the old rich man looked at kevin with a strange expression and wondered:
"Who the hell is this shabby hobo on my posh seat?!"
Leaving the huge tall bouncer who was doing his security job no option.
Another scenario that can hardly vanish out of Kevin's memory was when he wore a big smile before he abruptly stood infront of a random woman. With both hands, Kevin held the woman's head on both sides and gently placed his forehead on her forehead. Kevin could vividly remember the words a man who was walking beside the woman said on a madly frowned face and angry eyes:
"Are you nuts?"
Next thing Kevin knew was the man jumping on him with rapid punches _ stinging like a bee.
Down on the ground, Kevin was left planning his way back on his feet. The husband had no better punishment to give to a stranger for putting hands on his beloved wife in such an undermining manner other than rapid fists.
Innocently, Kevin had only done to the grown-up woman what he does with his mother back home in the sea world, thinking the woman was to return back the same energy and smile, the same way his mother Meg does it, and maybe him and her can conduct a good conversation about his father's way abouts.
Little was he aware of how humans perceive a man who touches a woman without her permission: a foolish mistake that turned soft pages rough.
All the time, rich people stared at him with strange expressions; a shabby hobo holding an old scrap computer with a disgusting beard surrounding his face like a male lion. Looking haggard, lacking shoes on his feet _ wearing a very cheap long-sleeved shirt and a pair of ashy shorts _ unhealthily thin and pale, Kevin Moore was indeed out of his place here as he walked away after thorough punches.
Lastly, he can't forget Pinky's family that was going to have a tilapia for their dinner. And as a merman, who is a fish too, it was scary and hurtful.
Remembering all this havoc from where he was standing, Kevin signed in regret.
"I shouldn't have come to the human world in the first place. Who knew I was going to end up in such a misery? Well, I have learnt my lesson at least _ I will always to consider my mother's advice first."
With miserable eyes, he stared in a distance at the human who was busy in the garbage can.
"I've got to go back to my water world _ that's where I belong."
However, in the midst of taking small steps backwards, with instincts, Kevin Moore held a keen gaze to the human he was trying to avoid, observing curiously what the human was doing. Kevin wondered what was making the human so busy all alone in such a dimly lit place.
As kevin turned to leave, his well developed olfactory nerves which were as sensitive as those of a dog perceived an aroma which got him curious. He turned his face back to the direction of the human he was trying to avoid, stating at the back of his mind:
"Um, smells nice!"
Turning on his uniquely sharp sight, zooming to observe clearly, Kevin noticed that the aroma was coming from what the human was eating. His stomach growled again, loudly from excessive hunger.
However, Kevin had no idea what this human was eating that smelt that nice. Desparate to bite on some comestibles and treat his three days starvation, a sudden thought crushed his mind:
"Guess I've got to join this human."
Amidst turning his feet in the direction of the human, another thought tied up his feet from taking a step foward.
"How foolish am I to even think this human can share food with me? Besides, I am a fish, I don't feed on what humans feed on! With my health depreciating to this level, I've got to feed on some nourishing diet packed with fresh sea snails and algae."
Kevin Moore smiled a second frail smile.
With a old scrap computer in hand, having his eyes stuck in a distance on the human who was eating from the garbage can, slowly, he began to take small steps backwards to go away. But, absent minded, on Kevin's second backward step, accidentally his foot collided with an empty soda can. The can sound was a sudden distraction to the absent minded busy human, who then startledly turning wary eyes immediately from the garbage can to the direction where the threat was suspected.
Eyes keen, only the fourty years old man could see was a structure of another man in a distance, not clearly visible, whose presence was covered by the shadow of a skyscraper. Worried, he felt unsafe and decided to stand up straight, taking his head away from the garbage can, leaving the bites that kept him company for a minute. Suxes needed to get answers to the two questions which ran in his head at this time.
"Who's that person? And why is he standing in the shadows watching me?"
Suxes stopped chewing the bites which were packed up in his mouth, and nervously stated out loudly:
"It's high time you introduced yourself dude!"
With a sudden stop of motion, Kevin Moore maintained maximum silence. Defensively, at this moment he put all his senses at very high performance _ ready to strike. From where he was standing, Kevin's sharp sense of hearing could clearly pick the higher rate at which the human's heart was beating. He could smell his wary.
But Kevin had taken enough punches lately and this time round, he was not ready to be a human's punching bag again.
In another careful step backwards, Kevin was now exposed to bright lights and Suxes was able to have a clear view of a stranger he was scared of. Relaxing from a nervous wary after realising that this was just a fellow man who was possibly experiencing tough tides of life _ hardships, according to how haggard Kevin appeared; without shoes on his feet, Suxes took a deep exhale.
Looking at the old scrap computer Kevin was carrying in hand, Suxes questioned at the back of his mind:
"And why is he carrying that? Could he be brain sick as well?"
In kind, aloud, Suxes then called him out:
"Would you wish to joining me for a bite?"
After seeing zero response from the stranger Kevin, Suxes added:
"Don't delay your steps brother, my chef friend at the restaurant dumped quite a lot for me to eat today! It's enough to satisfy both of us!"
Now Kevin was in a little bit of confusion. He had decided to himself not to have anything to do with humans anymore. But then, the misleading aroma from this human's bites was another trap, keeping him in a salivating mode as it penetrated his nose unavoidably.