TWELVE YEARS AGO
"Drip, drip, drip," the sound of dripping liquid though faint filled the heavily medicated room.
"Huala," the door to the room suddenly opened, and two women dressed in white nurse uniforms entered the room.
"What a pitiful child! When do you think she will wake up?" the nurse walking in the front suddenly asked the older nurse at the back while turning to look at the other.
The older nurse looked at the small child sleeping on the hospital bed with several drips connected to her and shook her head with helplessness, filling her eyes. "That will take a miracle. Even if she wakes up, she might be unwilling to face reality. She had been through a lot."
"That's true. My body still trembles when I remember her being admitted. Who would be so cruel to do such a thing to a little girl?" the young nurse painfully recalled how three days ago the girl lying on the bed was rushed to the hospital by some concerned neighbors.
Approaching the sleeping girl, the older nurse took out a wet napkin and began to wipe the thin and frail arms of the girl.
"Her scars alone are enough to tell you that she was having it rough. I have seen my share of abusive cases like this, but this is the first time I have seen that a mother can be so cruel to her own daughter!" the older nurse spoke with heartache as she recalled the rumors she heard regarding the admitted girl.
The young nurse hearing that, her curiosity was piqued so she went close to her colleague and asked eagerly, "It was her mother who did that to her? Why would she even do something like that?"
As a child born and raised in a loving family. She just couldn't understand why a parent could be so cruel to the extent of trying to murder the child she gave birth to, painstakingly like that.
The older nurse had seen a lot in the many years that she had been working. And the girl wasn't the first she had seen in such a state. But it was the first she saw such cruelty a mother could do towards a child.
And seeing the old and new scars on her body, her mother's heart ached truly for the child.
"Umm, I heard that she had been staying with her parents. But her father is dead, stabbed in some alley on his way back home. The mother couldn't take it and started taking it out on the daughter."
"What?" the young nurse was so startled by that, that she exclaimed in shock before asking, "It's not like it was the child's fault. Why punish the child like that?"
"They said that the mother had always been like that, and the neighbors even got used to it. She was that overbearing and wouldn't take advice from others."
"But as a parent, you aren't supposed to do that to your children. Wasn't she afraid of killing her in the process?"
"I bet she thought that she did kill her. Otherwise, why would she dump the child alone in such a state and flee?"
"I hope that they will catch her and give her the punishment that she deserves!"
"They probably wouldn't be able to find them. With how the law enforcement is so uncaring, I doubt that they will do something about it."
"Anyway, I just hope that the child will grow up safe. And at least be able to get out from the shadows that her parents placed her in."
The two nurses finished wiping the child and checked the drips before leaving the room to perform their other outstanding duties.
What the nurses didn't see was that when they closed the door, the motionless little girl who was supposed to be in a comma suddenly opened her eyes.
A child's eyes are supposed to be full of life, bright, and sparkle all the time. And yet the girl's eyes looked so empty as if there was no life in them.
If they weren't blinking, one would think otherwise and start worrying.
Moving her head mechanically, like a zombie, the girl looked at her frail arm that had new scars and several drips on it and frowned.
Was she feeling any pain? She was numb to it already. The fact that she was being stung by those needles again was the issue that was making her frown.
'It seems that I will be adding more scars to my body once again!' she lamented as she checked the new scars her beloved mother had added to her once more.
'But where is that woman? Did she really abandon me after everything she did to me?' the little girl pondered sorrowfully as tears streamed down her cheeks.
'Didn't I tolerate everything that she did to me? What did I do wrong for her to leave me alone and flee on her own like that?'
'Is she not my mother? Which mother abandons her child and leaves her for dead?'
As a child and daughter, she no longer cared, even if her mother were to beat her until she was dead. It was the thought of being abandoned that made her panic all the time.
She didn't like being abandoned at all, especially by that woman. Although her mother was a bit too much compared to other parents, she was the only relative that she had in the world.
There were so many chances for her to run away and report her, but she didn't. Why would she even do that?
That woman, despite her craziness and abusive nature, was still the woman that birthed her. The woman that she wanted to get her love so desperately that she was willing to endure any abuse, was her mother.
And she was also the woman that left her and abandoned her for dead without caring about anything
And now instead of wondering whether she would live till old age or whether she would get out of the hospital alive. All she could think of was her mother. Whether she was okay and if she was coping without her.
Her mother couldn't do a single chore, for it had always been her doing them at the house.
That woman couldn't sleep well without slapping her, scolding her, and seeing her shed tears.
How would she survive without her? Would she really be able to manage without her?
'I am indeed a pitiful child. Very pathetic on top of that!' she scolded herself as more tears streamed down her cheeks.