Lalin pulled the fake leather case of her tools that she bought from the money that she earned from answering math workbooks of the older kids at school. She pulled the ties of her hoodie, keeping her unruly hair in place.
With the help of the shadow of the night, she slowly approached the main door of their old apartment. She heard from Trez that her aunt's things remained in the apartment because they could not find any family members to clean the place. Trez paid the apartment owner to keep the place for at least another month.
He knew that Lalin would like to see the apartment again. When Trez told her about what he did, she politely said thanks. But, she didn't really need the apartment or her aunt's things in this place. She needed to get something but not her aunt's things. She had hidden something under the kitchen sink and she needed to get it before the apartment owner changed her mind and threw everything out.
With nothing but a slice of light from the flickering bulb on the thin aluminum street light, Lalin opened the padlock that the apartment owner put on their apartment door. If she didn't put an added lock, she didn't use any of her tools to open the door. She could just easily slip in her school ID and the door would open up.
She slowly crept inside the house. The light from the street light no longer reached the living room of their old apartment. Lalin snipped the air, it felt odd to be in this house and called it their old apartment when just three days ago, she called the same place her home.
Shaking her head, she untied her shoelaces and carried her old battered red Converse with her to the kitchen. Even though she knew no one would really care now if she trailed mud on the floor, a small part of her didn't want to disappoint her aunt.
She kept the living room spanking clean because she sometimes does business in the living room with her customers.
A heavy sigh escaped Lalin's lips. She remembered a memory in the past. She and her mother used to sleep in her aunt's apartment every time they would get kicked out of their own apartment because her mother missed the monthly rent too many times.
From those staying over at her aunt's house did she know the kind of job her aunt was doing and why they could not stay longer at her house even though she lived alone.
Lalin bent down and reached out under the pipe of the sink and when her hand touched the coldness of a metal box, she let go of the breath she was holding. Some people saved money in the bank, but she and her aunt weren't like those people. They save money to use when the time arises when they have to leave without being seen with those pinhole cameras installed in a machine for them to get their money.
She peeled off the square box and shoved it inside her hoodie. She was about to straighten her back when she snipped the same scent that she smelled when she entered the house, untying her shoelaces in the living room.
She just assumed that the scent that doesn't belong in the house was from the people who entered the house in the past three days. After all, the embassy had someone pack all her aunt's belongings to be sent home.
She slowly put her shoes on and tied their shoelaces tightly. She got up from the floor, wiping her butt even when she didn't sit on the floor. She just needed time to stretch her knees from squatting.
While walking back to the living room, she carefully snipped the air and this time, she wasn't just imagining it. She wasn't alone in the house. Shoving her hands into the side pocket of her jacket, she turned right and entered her bedroom. She opened the window and the night breeze caressed her face.
Her heart was pounding in her ribcage and it was all she could hear, drowning the humming of all the machinery in the neighboring factories.
She opened her small cabinet and picked up some of her favorite shirts and her mother's dress that she had kept. She put all of them in her empty school backpack. All her school stuff was already in the hotel. Trez brought them to her on the first day.
If it wasn't because of the tin box that she was hiding inside her jacket, she would not come back here. It was stupid of her to leave the box. She made a show of dragging her battered study desk and opening and closing her clothes cabinet before she bent down and crawled under her bed.
She pushed the box of instant noodles full of old blankets and her mother's old clothes that she begged her aunt not to throw. She crawled on her stomach until she reached the latch on the wall. She unlatched it and got out of the house. The chemical from the factory assaulted her nose but she held her breath and ran.
She only stopped running when she reached the back street a corner away from their house. She had no idea who was in the house and she didn't wish to know. She didn't like the dread that touched her core when she smelled the strange scent inside the house.
Lalin hunched her back and jogged the length of the street until she reached the busy intersection three blocks away. She was looking over her shoulder for a taxi when a cold breeze kissed the back of her neck.
She had the hood of her jacket over her head but she felt the coldness touch her nape. She stopped herself from looking over her shoulder, instead, she crossed the street and ran all the way to the bus stop. She could not reach the hotel by bus but she needed to get away, fast!