Rudy walked to the taxi across the street and knocked on the window.
Apparently, the driver was sleepy, or so it looked like to Rudy.
The driver rolled down the window and asked, "Where to?"
Rudy told his home address and sat on the backside of the car. He was feeling so sleepy and exhausted that he could doze off at any moment.
However, he kept himself awake.
It was a highway, and there weren't many vehicles around, so the driver increased the speed and drove fast.
They reached the street near Rudy's house in 20 minutes.
Rudy got out of the car and asked, "How much?"
The driver looked at the jar filled with money in Rudy's hand and replied, "500$"
"..." Rudy furrowed his brows and asked, "Are you serious?"
"The taxi fare at night is different, and the initial charge from the highway is more," the driver asserted.
Rudy has never been in a taxi before in his life, but he did in his previous life after he graduated from high school.
Rudy was certain that the driver was capping, and he was trying to get extra money from him after seeing the jar filled with cash.
Rudy frowned his face and stared at the driver with a furious and annoyed look on his face.
'Heh! The fare is only 50$, but this kid looks stupid. I will charge him more and have fun in the brothel looting him!'
Rudy heard the driver's thoughts using his telepathy.
Rudy was in utter disbelief.
'Why do people like him exist? What do they get from doing this?" Rudy thought. 'I don't understand, and I think I will never be able to understand. In fact, I don't want to understand.'
Rudy took out five notes of 10$ and handed them to the driver.
"Is something wrong with your head, bud? Or are you too sleepy to hear and understand what I said?" the driver asked. "I said 500$, not 50$."
Rudy glared at the diver with a black expression on his face and uttered, "Fuck off."
The driver gulped down in fear and turned on the car. Then, he glanced at Rudy from the corner of his eyes and drove away.
Rudy let out a deep sigh as he watched the taxi leave.
"I should go and sleep."
Rudy walked to his house and wondered, "I wonder if mom is back from her night shift yet."
Rudy entered his house, and as always, it was dark inside because they had no electricity.
He went into the kitchen and placed the jar on the platform. He grabbed the lighter from the counter and lit a candle.
"Rudy…?" he heard a voice from the living room.
"Mom? You were here?!" Rudy tried to hide the jar, but it was too late.
Rudy's mother— Rebecca, came into the kitchen and looked at Rudy and the jar behind him.
"Is that money?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face. She turned to Rudy and asked, "Where did you get this money?"
"Uhh… charity."
Rudy couldn't tell Rebecca that he got the money from doing a part-time job. His school didn't allow the students to do part-time jobs, and if anyone saw him or found out about it, he could be in big trouble.
In his previous life, Rudy did a few part-time jobs in secret, but one day Rebecca found out and she blamed herself for forcing Rudy. She knew that it was because of her, Rudy tried to help the household.
That was what pushed Rebecca to marry again, so she could get family support. However, Rudy didn't know the reason.
Rudy didn't want to repeat the same mistake again. He wanted to help the household, but he had to do it in secret without anyone finding out.
"Huh?"
"There is a charity event in the school for the homeless people," Rudy replied. "And I was assigned to collect money for them."
"But you told me over the phone that you are staying at Eric's house."
"Yes. But it's morning now, so I came here."
"Oh. Alright."
It wasn't weird for Rudy to stay over at Eric's house.
Eric lived with his twin sister and single mother. His mother was the owner of the multiple convenience store franchise, so they were rich.
Eric would often invite Rudy over to study and play games ever since he was a kid. Rebecca knew that she couldn't give Rudy a happy childhood, so she allowed him to do whatever he wanted.
"It's the weekend now, so you don't have any school," Rebeca uttered. "How about you take a bath and rest for today?"
"Yeah."
Rebecca gave Rudy 10$ from her purse and said, "Here. I will be home late, so eat whatever you want with this money, okay?"
"Wait, where are you going? Didn't you just come back from your night shift?" Rudy asked with a confused and concerned look on his face.
"Yes…" Rebecca patted Rudy's head and said, "Actually, we are low on money this month. We still need 200$ in three days to pay the rent. So I am doing a few extra jobs."
Rudy didn't say anything and just stood there.
After seeing Rudy act like that, Rebecca caressed Rudy's face with her hand and said, "Don't worry. Everything will be okay soon."
Rudy couldn't hold the urge to hug Rebecca, so he hugged her.
Rebecca was surprised, but she hugged Rudy back and said, "I forgot how long it has been since you last hugged me."
Rudy hadn't seen Rebecca in years, and after seeing her and talking with her after all those years, Rudy became sentimental.
Rebecca was 38 years old, or so she had told Rudy, but she looked as though she was still in her twenties.
"Uhh…" Rebecca gave Rudy a soft push and made some distance between her and Rudy. "I should be going now."
"Yeah."
Rebecca left for her job, and Rudy went to the bathroom to take a bath.
The house they lived in originally belonged to Rebecca's family, but after the death of Rudy's father, all his property was assigned to Rebecca.
However, the lawyer forged fake papers and had Rebecca sign them. After that, Rebecca lost the rights over the property, and now they needed to pay 1200$ every month for the rent.
They had to pay rent to live in their own house.
Rudy wasn't aware of the above incident yet as it happened long ago, but he was going to uncover every secret of everyone and everything around him.
