The garbage truck left, and Alejandro was left alone in the back of the supermarket. Los Angelos.
He was sitting behind a supermarket in Los Angelos, California. The sun was hot, and the homeless were many.
In fact, even if the garbage man did hear him scream, he would have thought it was just another homeless man or woman or child dying.
The garbage man driving the truck had seen too many die, and after the moment where the police stopped his truck and found a body in it, he grew numb to the suffering of others.
Now, after ignoring Alejandro who seemed to magically appear in his field of vision, he didn't even stop long enough to notice the heavy wounds on Alejandro's body.
And so, the boy was left groaning alone in the back of a supermarket.
He looked up to heaven once more, and he decided to struggle one more.
In that moment of courage, he felt a fire rage within his blood vessels. He cried out, attracting the attention of a middle aged white woman who worked at the supermarket and was taking out a cigarette to have a smoke. She was stocky, but she was kind, a decent enough human being to call for an ambulance for Alejandro.
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At the hospital, he woke up. He saw his mother sleeping in a chair next to his hospital bed. He saw tear stains at the corner of her eyes, and he saw bags underneath her eyes in her ebony skin.
Countless emotions rushed through his mind.
He thought, 'When did I become so weak?'
As he looked out into the night sky from his hospital window, he reached our his uninjured left arm and tried. He tried to catch the moon.
Suddenly, he noticed that strands of moonlight started to gather in his hand. The moonlight entered his body and started to heal his injuries, albeit slowly.
He felt powerful, like how he always imagined himself. He was short and fat, but he felt himself becoming thinner, and more muscular.
'Can I dunk now?'
When he was little, he loved jumping off the bed with a cape on his shoulders. He loved Jesus then too. He wanted to be able to help the sick and the weak too. He wanted to be a superhero.
'Is this my chance?' he thought.
His mom woke up.
She saw him with a strange grin on his face, and she was frightened. She didn't want him to go crazy. She prayed he was not crazy.
She also observed his body. He was thinner, much thinner, like he lost a good 60 pounds. Though he was also more muscular, she didn't notice that detail because she was too worried about the difference between the former version of her son and the current version. She was also very tired, and couldn't quite think straight.
She jumped up. Tears streamed down her face once more.
She ran over to the side of his bed and said, "They said you wouldn't wake up, but you did! Thanks be to God!"
Alejandro didn't know how to respond to her outburst, but he also felt tears streaming down his face. He also felt anger. Anger at the boys who beat him, who threw him in the dumpster.
He once again drew the moonlight into the room. The moonlight was still visible in the well-lit hospital room. 'A moonbeam,' he thought, 'I've caught a moonbeam in my hands.' He made a decision in that moment.
He said, "Don't worry mom, I'll protect you."
"Just protect yourself!" She said, "Please just protect yourself....Please!"
He held her close and said, "Don't worry mom. No one will ever hurt us again."
He held her for a while as she started praying out loud. Then, he realized something.
"How long was I asleep."
His mom looked him in the eyes and firmly said, "Honey, you've been in a coma for two weeks."
"What!?"
So, he was stunned into silence. Then, he broke out laughing.
Viktor Frankl was right. Abnormal reactions to abnormal situations is normal behavior.