When I opened my eyes, I saw a White ceiling, beb beb sound beside me and this smell is the smell of a hospital. Why am I in a hospital? that the first question in my mind, but when I open my eyes, I saw a young couple looking at me the women were crying and the man was glad, too many questions run through my mind, but the obvious question is why they are speaking English.
I closed my eyes and memories start to come to me, my name is Lewis Hayes, 10 years old from London. We live in Charlton, Charlton is an area of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. After world war II south and north London are rich and west and east London for the poor and immigrants that all blame the Germans bombs.
Haye's family has a good life, David Hayes the father has an Ironmonger factory, and Our family is considered good, Lara is my mother she is a typical British mum. Lewis has 3 older brothers he is the youngest, Philip the elder 20 years old he is studying business and finance so he can help dad in work plus working part-time in the factory. Connor is my second brother; he is 17 and he is in college studying business management he has a dream of owning a football team, but we know is unrealistic , so he keeps it dark, Lewis only found out about it by mistake. Ted is the third brother; he is 14 still studying but he is the smartest one but do not let it fool you is a nerdy/player type, Ted is going to be a lawyer, Ted says that there is where the money is, told you Ted is smart. Lewis is me and I am the fourth brother A.K.A the mistake. Nothing to know am just a typical 10 years old.
Lewis is a notty boy that makes trouble everywhere he goes. Lewis went to the park, as usual, to play football with his friend, he plays as a midfielder he is the captain of the team, after the game start in the first half there was a corner kick, the ball flow to the area near him. Lewis jumps to get a header, but he hit the other player's head and fell on the ground hard and lost consciousness, and found himself in the hospital.
Lewis was hospitalized for three days. His injury was not serious but becoming dazed and silent after waking up. Even his parents David and Lara plus his three brothers Philip, Connor, and Ted were in front of the bed. Without saying a word, he even blindfolded his head in quiet, but that made David anxiously asking the doctor if his younger son had something wrong with his head or he becomes a dumb man.
Lewis is not only confused on the surface but even fearful in his heart, no one knows that there is a soul of a thirty-year-old man under the skin of the ten-year-old child, it is the soul of a Middle Eastern Muslim.
Under the idea that he comes back safe, Lewis quickly adapted to everything. I do not know why I came to London in 1986. At least he didn't care. He was an orphan in the middle east.
Three days after discharge from the hospital the Haye's family prepared a hearty meal for Lewis, but the family still was worried about him.
Lewis was lively and mischievous before, but now he is quiet and peaceful after he left the hospital.
Will it is not bad after all, he is better this way instead of causing a lot of trouble for the adult.
Since May 31 is the opening day of the world cup in Mexico, the football atmosphere in London has not declined after the end of the league. In the country, everyone wants England to win the world cup and teach the world how strong they are because last year was the Heysel Stadium disaster, they were ban from European competition for five years and Liverpool for six years.
When the night comes and the streetlight is lit, Philip, Corner, and Ted took Lewis to the bar in the community. The bar smell of cigarettes and very bad smell , the atmosphere was high.
Philip found his friend and so Connor and Ted, as for me am only ten so I didn't see any familiar face but my brothers took me with them.
I start listening to them talking about some girls, music, and Charlton Athletic football club. Last year because of the debut the club owner couldn't afford the club, so a consortium of supporters successfully acquired the club in 1984 and David my dad was one of them, so we are Chariton Athletic fans like a die-hard fan.
But the Valley remained under the ownership of the club's former owner. However, the club was unable to finance the improvements needed to make the Valley meet new safety requirements. Shortly after the start of the 1985ā86 season, Charlton left the Valley, entering into an agreement with Crystal Palace to share the latter's Selhurst Park facilities, the first official ground-sharing arrangement in the Football League in 36 years. In 1988, the ownership of the club and the Valley was again united, and in a "grassroots" effort that harkened back to the ground's initial construction, thousands of supporters volunteered to clean the ground, eventually burning the debris in a huge bonfire on the pitch. By this time, however, the large terraces were no longer seen as desirable or safe.
That day we went to clean the Valley, " The Valley is the Stadium of Charlton Athletic ", to clean it because the past year no one used it or maintained it, after we cleaned the weeds, we made a bonfire to celebrate, and we burn the stadium.
While I was listening, I saw Philip filling a paper after he finished, he showed it to me happily. It was the names of countries in the group stage, I kept looking at it and I know it was a gambling ticket. Philip decides to gamble while sharing with us, I asked him how much you are going to bet on, he said it was all his saving 700 pound.
I honestly do not remember who wins in the group stage, but I know West Germany and Argentina played the final, and in the semi-final, the hand of god Maradona happened against England.
Connor has his pocket money but Ted and I got no money so Philip gave us Ā£100 each and I wrote down what remember The Final, Argentina and West Germany final 3-2 the final score.