It's a long time ago

It was the summer a few years ago. He was still a kid, probably just finished his 6th or 7th grade. A friend of his dad came to visit. The man stayed in the room on the upper floor, literally above his room. He didn't mind at all. In fact, he was too busy with his meaningless days, playing video games, watching TV with only 2 channels and those sorts of things. He, consequently, didn't see the man that much. It just didn't make any sense to him why his dad had vegetarian food when the man was there, and of course so did the man.

One day, the man came down and saw him playing video snookers. The man sat down and watched. He said hi, stood up and was up to the kitchen to make sure the rice was ready. The cooker was making some noises as a result of the fact he didn't dry the bottom of the pot. The man asked where the noise came from and the kid told him it was because of the cooker. The man came down to the kitchen and saw the cooker. The man asked "so this is the cooker?". "Yes" - replied the kid. He was wondering why the cooker amazed the man.

Later on that day, the man went out and came back with a simple sponge cake for the kid. "Thanks a lot" - the kid said and was so happy. At that time, he was growing and always felt hungry. It was a normal sponge cake, the kind of 2,000 VNĐ at that point of time. When his mom came home from work, he brought the cake with him up to his mom's room and told her the man bought that for him. They tried it together and he realised it wasn't a normal cake. It was a cake from the vegetarian restaurant, which is in fact a small shop people come to, stay and eat, or leave with some takeaways. Now he didn't like the cake much since it was a bit too bland for him. His mom said "Poor the guy, he doesn't have a lot of money. Did you say thanks to him?". "Of course I did, mom". His mom went on "he is just a toys seller from central Vietnam. I don't know where it is exactly but he's a friend of your dad. It's really kind of him to buy you this cake."

He was thinking of what his mom said for a while and went on telling her what he did that day, which was nothing.

A few weeks later, the man left and headed back home. He found out, the kind of toys seller his mom meant was the kind with the bicycle and toys behind or even those people with only racks walking across the streets, struggling to earn 500 VNĐ, 1,000 VNĐ or even come home with nothing everyday...