Six Big Tires

Big tires. Six of them. Rolling away. Running over the gravel. A truck, rocking on this damaged road.
Nuru woke up when the dog moved. He didn't care to consider if having arms wrapped around a street dog all night was “hygienic” or not. What he did consider was that the dog kept him warm. The dog moved because of the huge tires that just passed them by. Maybe, its canine senses sensed danger. Whatever it was, Nuru didn't sense it. When you sleep on the isle in the middle of the road every night, you get used to things such as this. Silly worries.
Nuru was hungry. Although what bothered him more was the cold. The dog was gone of course. Nuru liked how a dog's body was warm all the time. If he could have held the dog a little longer, maybe he wouldn't feel so cold. Well, the dog had its own hunger and cold to attend to. Nuru would have asked his mother for some food but she wasn't there. She wasn't there last night, or the two nights before that, for that matter. The last Nuru had seen of his mother was three days ago, when she bought him a bun and a banana and took his baby sister with her; somewhere she had to go alone.
Well, not that mother would have been able to make him warm, and it would be foolish to think of food this early in the morning, but Nuru still missed her anyway. He really did hate winter. He needed to be warm right away, so he decided to run. Running is boring if there isn't something to run after. So Nuru picked up a rock and threw it near a dog to get its attention. The dog got up barking and saw Nuru. Just as Nuru feigned a step toward it, the dog ran, and Nuru ran after it. He was warm enough after a minute of running, but as he stopped, he could feel his tummy growling, bordering on a roar. Nuru had no idea what it was like to feed on a feast, but he sure wanted to. He stood on the curb with a hand on his stomach, trying to absorb the pain. To add salt to the wound, a man came out of a restaurant nearby with a packet full of what smelled like fresh naan and beef curry. This was a little too much, and now Nuru needed food so badly that it was getting unbearable.
So, Nuru walked up to the man sitting behind the counter at the restaurant. Tugging at the man's sleeve he asked, "Duida rudi diben ni bhai?" Sadly enough, he didn't get a "rudi"; what he got was a push. He went flying into the road and flying after him came an apology in the form of a bread. It was burnt, but still, it was food. So Nuru was pleased. He picked the bread up and as he got up into a crouching position something enormous passed him so closely, he could feel its wind. He might even have glimpsed it.
Big tires. Six of them. Rolling away. Running over the gravel. A truck, rocking on this damaged road.
Nuru was aware of what had just transpired, but again, he didn't care. He devoured the piece of bread that was his breakfast, and devoured it wildly. With food in his system at last, Nuru was beginning to feel good about this winter day when he heard a voice calling his name. The voice made his heart leap. And as he turned around the face of his mother made his 6 year old heart do a double flip. Mother was holding Nuru's baby sister in one hand, in the other was a shiny packet full of chips. Nuru's smiling mother was about to cross the road, when she tripped. The packet of chips fell off her hands into the middle of the road. Nuru was in a hurry to grab it, so he ran. His mother called out to him and when Nuru looked up he saw that she wasn't smiling. When his mother screamed for him to stop, Nuru knew something was wrong. He didn't know what, until he looked to his right.
A big yellow monster, with six big tires came barging his way, trampling the gravel on the road. A truck, rocking on this damaged road.
The packet of chips was within his reach, but suddenly all he could feel was intense pain, and then nothing. There was a white light, it felt warm, but there wasn't a dog's warm body to hug anywhere around. Nuru wondered what was happening and looked again.
Big tires. Six of them. Rolling away. Running over the gravel. A truck, rocking on this damaged road.

Azmin Azran, 14, is a student of class IX, St. Joseph Higher Secondary School.