[British and American] Jason Wayne's Struggle

Jason was only 11 years old when he started wandering. The early days were very difficult because he was too young and looked too good.

It's the kind of handsome guy who knocks out the front teeth of the fat kid next door at school, and then when the fat kid's parents come to the school to make trouble, the fat dad's anger suddenly subsides when he looks at his face, and he even drags him and the fat kid to eat hot dogs together, and then says to him, "My little beauty, are uncle's hot dogs delicious?"

Jason later realized that the fat father must have made a dirty joke to him. No wonder the fat mother next to him suddenly changed her expression.

In fact, many white men who grow up to be handsome may look as delicate and beautiful as girls when they are little boys. Jason happens to belong to the mixed-race group that often produces beauties. Although there are quite a lot of mixed-race people in America, he is definitely one of the very successful ones.

His father, Todd Sr., is said to be of mixed descent with Indian, Caribbean and German. Although his skin color was a little darker, he was quite handsome when he was young. It is estimated that he relied on his looks to lure Catherine, who was still in high school, into a marriage grave.

As for Catherine, it is said that her family has Latin ancestry. Jason remembers that when he was very young, she had a very healthy honey-colored skin, but Jason was milky white, so Andrea once said that Jason's father must be a very white Caucasian, otherwise he was not Catherine's biological son.

Jason would answer seriously: "I am her biological child, otherwise Katherine wouldn't be so nice to me. In Crime Alley, many biological mothers are very mean to their children."

If Catherine was not her own son, she would probably throw a deformed child like him into the gutter instead of setting aside money to feed him even if he was drugged and unconscious.

Jason always remembered that when old Todd was not in prison, he would often be beaten, and Catherine would rush over to block some of his punches, and then when the weather was good, she would stand in the kitchen and patiently teach him how to bake cookies, bread and cupcakes.

She also once held Jason's hand as he walked into school, straightened his collar and said, "Have fun in school, okay?"

If she wasn't Jason's biological mother, why would she have to do so much for him? There were many women in Crime Alley who didn't care about their own children. Catherine had treated Jason very well.

As for the skin color issue, maybe it's because his physique is different from others? After all, it's a deformity, so who knows if he has less pigment because of it.

In short, in order to protect himself, Jason had to learn to roll himself up in dirt, wear smelly clothes, drag the cardboard box to a secluded corner where no one was around and sheltered from the wind at night, and then crawl into the box to sleep.

He did not protect the Paddington Bear that Andrea left for him, but he always carried the small switchblade with him. It was the only tool Jason could use to protect himself.

He had fought in several fights, with some wins and some losses. The worst one was when he was so injured that he couldn't lift his arm for several days. He almost thought he had a dislocated arm or a broken bone or something, but fortunately he was able to lift his arm again later.

This is a good thing, which means that the injury is still within his ability to heal. The bad thing is that in order to avoid fighting, Jason can only sneak into the upper city to prevent the homeless people in the lower city and Crime Alley from doing anything to him.

He couldn't raise his hands for the time being, so even if he had a knife, it would be useless, and his ability to protect himself was greatly reduced.

One of the survival rules for street kids is to hide in the crowd and not stand out, so he put on the skirt that Andrea took him to the movies in, wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden in the brick under the trash can, and wiped himself clean with the remaining water.

However, Jason was not familiar with the Upper Town, and he couldn't find a buyer even if he pried open the tire, let alone exchange it for food and water. So he could only go into the fast food restaurant's bathroom while it still looked clean, and use the water bottle he picked up to get water from the sink to get drinking water.

Within two days, Jason felt like he was starving to death.

He was starving, but couldn't find any food to feed himself. He sat on a bench in the park, his vision darkening and his head dizzy, and he didn't have the energy to walk around to find food.

He was so hungry that he even felt like vomiting.

There is a shelter in Gotham that provides aid to the homeless. It is a bit of welfare provided by the city government to the poor citizens, but it never lasts long. It is said that it is due to lack of funds, but sometimes it is also because thugs will occupy the place.

Jason had received bread from the relief station twice. He had even seen former classmates volunteering there. There was a freckled girl wearing glasses and with bright pink nail polish on her fingers. When she saw Jason, she was obviously stunned for a moment, and then secretly stuffed two more pieces of bread into Jason's hands.

The girl's eyes were brown, and she looked so sad as if she was about to cry when she looked at Jason.

In fact, there are still many people who are good to him, but the time they spend with Jason is never very long.

Jason thought dizzily, he wrapped his thin arms around his upper body and curled himself up into a ball. At this moment, he was quite glad that his legs were long enough, as it was very easy for him to put his forehead on his knees. He then put the empty water bottle against his stomach and pressed hard, hoping to suppress the noisy sound that gave him a headache.

Then a pair of clean sneakers stopped in front of him. The shoes didn’t look big, so the person who came must not be very old either.

Jason looked up and saw a boy wearing a British school uniform and carrying a school bag. He looked the same age as him, but Jason had been malnourished for a long time and looked smaller than his peers, so the boy should be 2-3 years younger than Jason's actual age.

A bag of bread was placed in front of Jason.

It's white bread, and it may have icing sugar and sesame seeds on it. You can tell at a glance that it's sweet and soft. It's the kind of delicacy that Jason would only eat on his birthday.

Tim looked at the girl, who was obviously thin even though she was dressed decently, and placed a bottle of milk in front of her.

Although she was young, Tim knew that this was probably some homeless child who had stolen other people's clothes, and she must have not eaten for a long time.

As an elementary school student, this was all Tim could do. He didn't dare to look at the girl's eyes which were as green as Kanas Lake in the sun. He lowered his head, turned around and ran away in a hurry.

He was a smart kid and knew that some homeless children were very bad and would attack and rob people who gave them alms. Tim was not strong enough to rob them.

Then he ran to the park entrance and felt regretful again. He thought he should buy more food and put it in front of the girl, or buy her a blanket. Winter is coming, and every year many homeless people freeze to death on the streets.

The girl looked about the same age as him, and it was obvious that she had no adult to take care of her. She would have a hard time surviving the winter, and might even die someday where no one could see her.

But when Tim ran back to the bench, the girl was gone, and the bread and bottle were gone too.

Tim Drake, who was only 8 years old, felt empty inside. He regretted a little. If he had known this would happen... he would have put all his pocket money in front of the girl and ran away.