3 years old Sanus sat beside her 2nd sister with a blank expression on her face. The baby kept making incoherent sounds she could not understand. The warm wind blew strands of Sanus' hair, curtains fluttering aside as the rays of the sun entered the room.
Elena is busy doing laundry by hand, a red apron covering her clothes from being wet. She brushed a sweat threatening to slide down her face with her forearm. Thankfully, she tied her hair in a ponytail. She is currently brushing a white t-shirt off of grime.
Apparently, there was no one to look after the kids because her father in law passed away a year ago. Terry is also busy looking after the furniture shop so the kids were left to their own devices. It was then that she noticed the strange quietness ruling over the house.
"Now, I'm really worried."
Elena rushed to the bedroom, foam all over her arm. What she saw nearly gave her a heart attack.
"Oh my GOD! Sanus, what have you done?!"
It turns out that the baby was silent because a pillow is muffling her voice. Quietly, Sanus left the room especially pleased with herself. Then she suddenly stopped in her track.
"Grandpa...." she muttered, a single drop of tear flowing from her sensitive cheeks.
----1 Year Later---
"Wow aunt! continue. I feel like I'm flying." Sanus shouted, flapping her arms like a bird.
Sanus sat on a rectangular wood with a 2 meters long handle, 2 coconut scrub nailed under it.
"Little Sanus, Aunty is tired now. Can we rest for a while?"
The aunt who is breathing heavily sprawled on a wooden couch, unable to keep up with her nephew's adrenaline drive. She stared at the floor which was recently waxed red and closed her eyes, trying to rest for a while.
Sanus stood up, taking her aunt's place. She eyed her sister who is currently a toddler.
The toddler was entranced by the ride, watching it with expectant eyes.
"Come on sister, I'll push the scrub for you."
----1 Year Later----
"Where are we going, uncle? Why are there so many stairs?"
Sanus looked at the endless stairs made of cement going down the mountain.
"Sanus, we are going down the mountain to your new house."
The man picked Sanus up for he is afraid that the child might trip and get injured. He remembered the reason why they are moving out of Terry's house is because Elena couldn't stand staying in the same place as her mother in law. The old lady kept picking on her littlest of mistakes, so much that Elena was in constant distress.
----1Year Later---
At an ascending curve in the road, children are seen playing tag: Alder trees lined up at the sides, serving as shades. One of the children plucked a branch of the Alder tree and chewed at it's bark.
"You're it!" Sanus called to a boy her age.
He is Legarda, a lanky red-eyed boy who has a hot temper but known as a crybaby.
*Hurry, Sanus!" Lauren urged, slowing down for a short while so Sanus could catch up with him.
Lauren is a chubby kid known for his eye condition, both eyes always appeared as though both are looking in the direction of his nose bridge.
The child who had been chewing on the bark of Alder tree spit red-colored saliva. She had been envious of the older children in their circle who can afford Beetlenut. But before she could curse her situation any further, there was a strange sounding this like *plop*
It forced her to redirect her attention to the other kids who have been running after each other. There stood a 4 years old kid with her bruised knees and bleeding nose, holding her tears back with a determined look. She immediately dropped the Alder tree branch and rushed to the scene, feeling as though her body is filled to the brim with soda.
"Sanus!" she shouted.
She saw Legarda supporting Sanus from falling, anger plastered on his face.
"That idiot! He accidentally pushed you but ran away instead of apologizing."
Sanus remained silent as the other girl supported her on the other side, eyeing her knees and then her nose.
"That is sure gonna scar."
With blood still flowing from her nose as she breathe using her oral cavity, Sanus acknowledged her neighbor's presence.
"It's good that you're here, Clara."
Clara could only scratch the back of her head before replying, "haha, yeah."
---1Week Later---
"Are you okay now?" Legarda smiled apologetically to Sanus.
Sanus, Legarda and Lauren are huddled together in the Rice Milling Station where a Rice Granary was built inside of it. This is their base where they meet secretly every so often.
The Rice Granary stood on 4 legs, a one-room house made of black antique wood with a perimeter of 12 meters.
"Yeah, thanks to you?!" Sanus replied sarcastically.
"It was an accident," Legarda muttered, lowering his head to instead stare at his slippers.
"So?" Lauren said with an 'I can't believe this guy' expression, clicking his tongue in disapproval.
"Forget it, so what's this thing you wanna show me?"
Sanus moved her eyebrows up and down two times in an act of urgency. Lauren and Legarda looked at each other, nodded, and then gave Sanus the look 'you wanna know' in order to build the anticipation welling inside her.
She narrowed her eyes, "it's not funny."
Seeing that their friend wasn't pleased in the least, they were crestfallen, presenting her 3, golden-like, 5 peso coins wrapped in a white kerchief.
"How did you guys get this?!"
Sanus held out her hands as though she is about to receive the communion bread with a gleeful mood. At this, Lauren and Legarda finally relaxed their shoulders, relieved that their carefully crafted plan worked.
[It's so hard to please this demon.] they thought in unison.
Legarda moved closer to Lauren's ear and whispered, "see, I told you! Girls have a fascination to shiny things."
Lauren could only nod to his troublesome partner in crime, hoping that Sanus would believe their ploy as the 2nd stage of their plan proceeds.
He remembered Legarda knocking on his door a few days ago, begging him to help think of an idea to pacify Sanus who didn't take a step out of her house for a whole week which greatly concerned him.
"We made it!" they said, puffing their chests in unison.
Young as Sanus is, it didn't occur to her the idea of questioning the validity of her childhood friends's claim. Rather, she was curious to know more about the shiny things that her eyes had fallen for.
"We took it from the tilled ores being trammed from the mines!" Lauren eyed Legarda who is busy diverting the attention of their friend somewhere not too off-topic. They dared not present an explanation that they knew never existed for they feared that Sanus would try to confirm with an adult whether what they said was true.
"That's not what I'm asking," Sanus pressed.
[Come on, come on, come on! Brain,think!] Lauren's brain cells overheated as his face began to redden up to his ears just like how he usually does when stressed, embarrassed or sick. To his relief, Legarda knew best how to end dangerous conversations that might reveal the flaw in their plot.
"It's a secret, we're prohibited from telling anyone. Sorry, Sanus."
Sanus can only give up, "tsk!"