Pinocchio

Chapter 2 : the Woodcarver

He's just an ordinary woodcarver. He's just an ordinary woodcarver that came from a small family in a small town. And although his father never approved him to become a woodcarver, he went away with it, anyway. That's what he does.

His father, a businessman from South, married a beautiful woman from North. She was a woodcarver and she sold the carved statues to make ends meet. His mother told him everything she knew about carving, that it's not only about art, even less, money. It's also about pouring down creativity and capturing feelings into a particular artwork. She told him that she often worked without thinking of what she wanted to have. She just let her emotions and hands work together. And she did make a masterpiece.

The first statue he made was a figure of his mother. The statue was small, it was only a palm-sized statue with a figure of his mother wearing summer dress and she had a pair of wings at her back. She felt really touched and she always kept and brought it with her wherever she went. He felt proud that her mother liked his very first statue, although a few years later, he realized it was not the look that made her loved it - because it looked like a girl from the female toilet sign rather than a beautiful woman in yellow, floral summer dress - but it was the emotion he captured within the mini sculpture.

When he was 15 years old, his mother died on a car accident when she was going to go home from the shop where she bought her carpentry equipment. The poor 15-year-old boy had lost his loved one. And he had to live with his father, whom he did not know much about. He had the classic modern children problem; his father had gone to work when he woke up and gone back home when he was about to go to bed.

Losing someone who had so much love and power to the poor, young boy, made him want to follow the beautiful mother's pathway. He wanted to become a woodvarver, a carpenter, just like his mother.

But of course, daddy didn't approve. He did not want his only son to become a woodcarver, someone who wouldn't make so much money. He wanted his son to become a businessman just like him, or any other profession that will make a huge amount of money. He wanted people to look up to his son, just like people looked up to him.

"But you let mum become a woodcarver!"

"It's different! She's your mother, she's married to me! Me! I make a lot of money in a month, way more than just enough to pay your school fee, food, clothes, house, car, for all three of us! My money makes all three of us live in prosper for years! And if you become a woodcarver," his voice started trembling, filled with anger.

"If you become a goddamn woodcarver, YOU. WILL. NEVER. EVER. BE. AS. SUCCESSFUL. AS. I. AM!"

The angry young man hit the table. He hit the table so loud in so much power that his father was startled. He shut up.

"Don't you ever dare say I won't be successful." he said in a very low, cold, and angry tone. "Don't you ever dare compare my life with yours. We're different, and we'll never be the same."

"I only think for the best of you. And you clearly don't understand what's best for yourself."

"I'm not a little kid anymore! You don't need to dictate me because I know what's best for myself!"

And his father suddenly slapped him. "You're not my son." he whispered. The angry young man stormed off feeling very furios. He went to his room, leaving his father in the living room filled with tension and anger.

He left his room after 30 minutes. He brought his suitcase with him, and without saying any words to his father - who was sitting by the sofa, feeling frustrated - he went out. He slammed the door behind him and left just like that. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" his father shouted. But he didn't look back. He kept walking and his father watched his back leaving the house, until his son was gone behind the big house just around the corner.