Riches to Rags

By Helene KwongWritten January 30, 2008

Squeak, squeak

.Ivan rolled his rusted old grocery cart to a shady spot along Tunsall Avenue. He was tiredof walking, of trying to stay safe from the other homeless in the city, of constantly harassed tomove along to another spot. He sighed and wiped his forehead with the back of his dirty hand.Ivan felt lucky and grateful to still be alive after all these years: if he had not been careful enoughthat one instant, he would have surely died right then and there. Yet, a lot of times he wonderedif he was truly lucky, or if it was merely a curse that he still was breathing yet had little to hisname.Ivan sat himself down under the artificially planted tree and felt the coolness of thesidewalk underneath him. Inside of his cart, he had all sorts of knick-knacks which he hadcollected from over the years: worn-out shoes, broken hair dryers, and tacky memorabilia, toname a few. Ivan kept all of these things not because he really needed them, but more becausethe items made him feel like he still owned something in his life. After all, he was stripped of allof his possessions twenty years ago, when he realized the biggest mistake he had made whichcost him his family, his money, and his comfortable life.A sliver of that memory whistled by in the calm wind as Ivan tried to calm his nerves.The smell of coffee and pastries traveled from the small coffee shop on the corner. Ivan closedhis eyes and pondered upon those last moments when he was known as Frederick Palolto:Life had treated young Frederick well throughout the years, giving him a comfortable jobof working in banking management and a wonderful wife and family. All of these wonderful

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things had obscured Frederick’s vision of a glamorous, privileged life, though: he felt invincibleand decided he would try his hand at gambling. His colleagues at the bank had asked him to jointhem in their betting sprees at the horse races, and he enjoyed that first taste of the world.At first, Frederick truly had beginner’s luck and found himself winning many bets againsthis colleagues. He amassed a huge fortune and bought a huge house for himself and his family.He adorned his wife with lavish jewelry and told her every night, “You are so glamorous andlucky.” She would smile at him with her diamond eyes and they would fall asleep together ontheir luxury bed linens.However, the happiness and the fortune did not last long at all. After Frederick lost hisfirst bet, he didn’t think much of it and shrugged it off. “Oh, well, chaps, tomorrow I’ll make thatmoney back, don’t you worry,” he said to his colleagues over wine at the coffee shop. They eyedhim with wondering eyes, curious as to if Frederick would earn the money back somehow. Butone loss became many, and the losses became overwhelming for Frederick to handle. He saw hisincome dwindle quickly as he tried his best to keep up with paying back his colleagues for thelost bets.Soon thereafter, Ivan found himself in a huge amount of debt as he lost track of howmuch money he owed to his colleagues. He couldn’t remember what money was owed to who; atfirst they were fine with his forgetfulness, but their patience quickly transformed into impatientfists knocking against Frederick’s door. His wife and children eventually left him, in fear of their own lives being consumed with his debt. She had tried to reason with him, tried to plead withFrederick that he had to stop trying to compensate for the lost bets.“Please, just stop right now and pay back what you currently owe. Don’t go back outthere and try to gain the money back that way,” she said to him.

“But, I must go back out—where else can I get the money?”On that last day, before Frederick’s wife ran off with the children, she turned to him andsaid, “I don’t want your debt to be a part of our lives anymore. I don’t know what else to do tomake you understand. That’s why I am leaving you today, with the children.” Ivan felt her wordskick him in his soul as he tried desperately to keep his grasp on his fading family. His childrenwalked out the door with suitcases and looked upon their father with worried eyes. “When willFather join us?” asked the younger son. “Maybe never,” said his wife. And they turned their back to Frederick.He was left alone in the house to sulk over his own wrongdoings, but he didn’t haveenough time to comfort himself of the loss of his family.

Rap rap

.As if on cue, his colleagues arrived at the door and bang loudly, shouting at Frederick togive them the thousands that he owed to them.“Frederick, you have not paid us for the past two months. We need your money NOW.”Frederick shook his head in defeat and admitted, “I don’t have that money for you guys.”With that, the other men tackled him and threatened to sell off all of Frederick’s possessions so they could get their money’s worth. “I bet that magnificent car you have out frontis worth quite a lot,” said one colleague, menacingly. One by one, each possession was sold off,even Frederick’s house. Frederick had attempted to protest, but his colleagues paid no attentionto his pleas; they felt that he deserved the punishment since he was unable to pay them back for his bad luck.Even after all of Frederick’s possessions were sold off, he still had a bit of debt rackedup, but no way of paying them back. He was already stripped bare of all of his clothing, down to