Do It Again?

Armand was walking in a dimly lit street in their neighborhood when he heard the sound of a woman crying for help. Instinctively, he ran and soon found a woman being harassed by a group of men.

He was afraid to intervene because the men outnumbered him three to one, but the woman’s cries for help so touched his conscience that he somehow managed to gain enough courage to intervene.

“Don’t intervene,” warned one of the men, “this woman insulted us and we’re just trying to see if she can back up her words.” “But she’s a woman and you’re three big men,” pleaded Armand, “can’t you just leave her alone?”

“We won’t harm her. We’ll just teach her a lesson not to be so cocky.” The woman cried, “Please sir, help me. These three men would rape me!” “Please sir,” pleaded Armand, “I think this woman has learned her lesson already.”

“Don’t intervene or we’ll teach you a lesson too!”, warned another man. “If you don’t stop harassing this woman, I’ll call the police.” This was when the three men attacked Armand. The three men beat him so badly that he lost consciousness.

When Armand woke up, he was already in the hospital and was full of bandages. He also has difficulty breathing. His family spent weeks caring for him and paid the hospital a few thousand dollars when he finally got out.

Life went back to normal for Armand, but he was still traumatized with what had happened, “Is this the reward I get from helping other people? Weeks of hurting in the hospital and my family spending thousands of dollars for my medical bills is no reward.”

What made everything worse for him was when he finally met the woman he helped. The woman acted as if he did nothing to help her. She just passed by him as if he meant nothing to her.

Armand was again walking in a dimly lit part of their neighborhood when he saw the same three men harassing another woman. The men looked at him with a menacing look in their faces.

The woman the men were harassing pleaded for help from him. Armand looked at the woman, she was a different woman from the woman he tried to help before. He wanted to help her, but his past experience with the three men made him hesitate.

His mind raced and he devised an alternative plan to help her, “I’ll pass by, but I would call the police so that she can be helped.” He quickly walked away from the woman and the three men while clutching his cellphone.

But as soon as he started walking away, the woman cursed him, “You’re a shit man, you’ll walk away from a woman in need? You’re the same as these men, you’re all cowards!” The three men laughed. One of them shouted, “He won’t help. He has already learned his lesson.”

Armand frowned as he returned his cellphone to his pocket, “These kind of people are not worth helping.” He walked away and was now determined to mind his own business no matter what his conscience told him.

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Alfonso was sweating as he mopped one of the hallways of the hospital, but he did his job nevertheless. “My family is depending upon me,” he said to himself, “I don’t like doing this job, but it’s the only job I can get.”