II

The machine moved again, and even before I recognised it, we were down below, in a living room where a little boy was sitting in front of a TV, watching his favourite series, the Gao Rangers.

The boy was about six, seven years old, with big shiny dark brown eyes like marbles and soft, curvy black hair. His eyes were glued to the screen, not letting any move of the superheroes escaping his eyes. Every time the superheroes defeat a monster, he would stand up and shout out loud in cheer.

I was quite surprised that the boy did not seem to notice us at all, as if we were... ghosts.

"Ah yeah, there is another thing that I forgot to tell you. Throughout the whole tour, no matter where and when we are, the people around won't be able to hear us, feel us, see us or touch us", as always, Khoa got in at the right time with the right answer.

"Look at him", Khoa said mildly, pointing at the little boy, "Look what an innocent soul he has and how simple his world is. To him, the world is full of joy and justice, and the things that are against the morality must be demolished for good. Such a cute little thing."

Although his words seemed to be pretty normal, I was still able to sense something strange there. Yet, that thinking did not puzzle me for long as I heard a voice calling the boy, probably his mother's, "Honey, it's time to go to your afternoon classes, go get your schoolbag upstairs quickly or else you will be late!"

"Yes, mom, I'll do it right away!" the boy replied immediately. However, as he stood up and went to the staircases, his eyes were still gazing at the screen, as the episode hadn't completely ended yet.

"Ha, just like what a seven-year-old child should be", Khoa whispered. Then he turned to me and said, "Let's go to the boy's school and see if anything is going to happen."

"What can happen at a primary school?" I thought, although the way Khoa talked really dragged me into the thinking that something was going to happen.

Fifteen minutes later, the boy, properly dressed with his bag on his back, was standing in front of his school's gate. He should have been in his class by then, as the first lesson of the afternoon was about to start within only five minutes.

"What is keeping the boy from going to his class?" I immediately asked myself, and the answer is not so far away.

About twenty metres away from the school's gate, near the jewellery store, there was a crowd of people scolding a woman and calling her a thief. That woman attempted to steal a gold necklace, a pair of pearl earrings and a diamond ring. "Unfortunately", the storeowner noticed her crime before she could make it out. He and his men managed to tie her up.

The little boy's look towards the woman was filled with disgrace as if he was looking at a pile of rubbish.

As Khoa saw this scene, he smirked and said with an ironic voice, "Oh, typical! All what the boy knows are just wrong and right, black and white. Anything white shall be treasured and protected, and anything black shall be demolished and wiped out mercilessly. He doesn't know that the so-called "filthy thief" over there has three kids. The first one died in a car accident, the second one born blind, and the third one with an inborn heart disease. To make things even worse, her dead husband, who was a drunkard and a foolish gambler, left behind a huge debt on her shoulders. Being pushed to the dead end by the vicious reality, she could not do any other thing but to steal in order to get enough money for her third child's heart transplant operation. Innocence, cruel innocence", Khoa sighed.

I did not say anything. Even if I did want to, I could not as my voice was taken away.

At this moment, a bell ring came out from the school and woke the little boy up. As he heard the ring, he startled, and with no delay, he rushed into the class at the highest speed he could get to. At the same time, there came the policemen who escorted the woman back to the police office. The crowd was dismissed and the surrounding area returned to its pristine stage.

"Let's go, we have seen what we should see for now, so it's time for us to move on. Don't worry, you will meet that adorable little boy soon, although he will change a bit!" Khoa announced, and everything around us turned white again. In a matter of a second, we disappeared.