"Will you go to bed on makeup?
When Kaylee heard the voice behind her, she became startled as her heart skipped and broke out of dazedness.
Kaylee turned around to the person and saw Mrs Ashton who was standing at the kitchen entrance, seemingly to be there for a long time but she couldn't see Mrs Ashton in the dim light.
Kaylee gulped down dry with a lowered gaze. "No Mom."
Mrs Ashton turned on the switch as it brightened the small corners of the kitchen before she walked up to Kaylee. "You have been in the kitchen for ten minutes now. Is there anything wrong?" Mrs Ashton questioned.
Seemingly, Mrs Ashton noticed Kaylee had been drowning in her thoughts again.
"Nothing is wrong, Mom. I wasn't full with dinner so I thought of cooking some noodles for myself but I can't find it anywhere." Kaylee lied while scorching her eyes around in the kitchen as if she was actually looking for the noodles.
Mrs Ashton knew the young lady was lying to her. She raised her hand to the cupboard, opened it and then brought out two noodles while stretching it to Kaylee.
"How can you find something in the dark?" Mrs Ashton questioned still waiting for Kaylee who was hesitant to take the noodle and finally, she took the noodle from Mrs Ashton.
Mrs Ashton stared at Kaylee's lowered face as if Kaylee was trying to hide her face from her. Earlier in the restaurant, Mrs Ashton had noticed Kaylee hiding her face from her nor keeping eye contact with her for a second and mute as well.
Since Mrs Ashton couldn't tell the reason and it got her restless. Observing Kaylee's lowered face for a short while, Mrs Ashton held out her hand to lift the buried face against her eyes and Kaylee couldn't resist as she stayed immobile.
Mrs Ashton gently moved Kaylee's face side to side as if scanning her face, before saying. "It's strange of you to apply makeup for a long day and you have been applying some bronzer recently. Did something happen to your face again?" Mrs Ashton brought down her hand as she let go of Kaylee's face with her eyes fixed on Kaylee who seemed not ready to give her an answer.
Kaylee chuckled in humor as she touched her face. "Nothing happened to my face. You know, Young ladies these days need to apply some make-up so we can look pretty and good."
Mrs Ashton was mute, looking at Kaylee as a soft scoff escaped her lips. "You can hide it from the little kid but not from me. What do you think that I wouldn't find out my daughter is going through a lot? You are always pretty and look good without a touch of makeup. You know that." Mrs Ashton said, sounding low-spirited.
"I'm sorry Mom, I'm just helpless. This is the only way I could hide it from her. Ellie is too young to learn about these things now. I'm so scared that I might not be able to protect her. She's unlucky to have me as her mother." Kaylee chuckled at her last sentence while her eyes turned wet, waiting to drip down.
Hearing this, Mrs Ashton sighed in her heart and then pulled Kaylee into a warm embrace. "Ellie is lucky to have you as a mother. Trust me, Everything will be fine soon, everything will be fine soon." Mrs Ashton said assuredly while fondly rubbing down Kaylee's back.
Kaylee tightened the embrace with closed eyes, feeling the warmth that concealed comfort. "I hope so, Mom. I don't know how long I will keep on moving forward in this misfortune life fate gave to me." Kaylee sobs slightly.
Mrs Ashton felt bitter seeing how sad her daughter was at such a young age. This was something difficult to handle alone as a single mother, knowing Kaylee runs a lot of expenses at home, and probably because of that, she can't perform the great responsibility of being the best mother to Ellie. Mrs Ashton's eyes went shut in her thoughts and tried not to go overbroad.
The following day, Kaylee dropped Ellie at her school and after that, she went for her other part-time jobs.
Inside the big office, Kaylee was seated with her eyes gaze glued down at the money in her hands for a short.
She looked up at the woman sitting opposite her. "But Ma'am, this is not the usual salary?"
The woman adjusted her Billy B-frame glass before answering. "It's not my fault nor the clinic for having low patients in the past months now which is affecting the us as well. We have decided to reduce the workers' salary so we can be able to pay our staff very well and run some necessary things needed here."
"Five hundred dollars? No, how can those workers who depend on this salary run their household with this amount as well?" Kaylee questioned with raised eyebrows in disappointment.
"Then you should leave." The woman answered abruptly.
"What?"
"Kaylee you should know this is a local town and we run things here with our patients' money, we have no trustee." The woman paused and pulled her upper body to the chair as her back rested on the chair. "If you don't feel contented with the salary then you are free to leave." The woman added.
Kaylee scoffed. "Leave? Why? You guys haven't paid my last month salary yet and expect me to leave with these little one? Ma'am this is unfair. You treat your staff fairly and treat your workers as a beggers." Kaylee paused as she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Okay. Why must my own salary be held and cut short?"
The woman didn't know what to say again so she called in for the security who dragged Kaylee out of the clinic as she stood outside the clinic, staring at the small building in burning rage.
This has been the trait of the clinic cheating on her every month while other workers received their complete salary but for Kaylee as they gave her different excuses.She found it difficult to stop working for the clinic probably because she received a huge salary from them among her other part time jobs.
When Kaylee knows she was in between the living and the afterlife because of the Loan from Willow, she decided to work for the clinic for a long time not until they started to cheat her.
Is she jinxed?
Kaylee sighed deeply in her heart and left for her other part-time job in the town since it was the only one left for her
The young lady held the brake of the cargo bike outside the post office as Kaylee pulled off her helmet first and then placed it on the handlebar before climbing down from the cargo bike. She rushed into the post office and shortly came out with two brown boxes, heading to the cargo bike where she parked it.
Kaylee carefully put the boxes on the back reek and then climbed on the saddle and was about to start riding when her eyes fell on the packaged small box tied up with a pink ribbon.
Seeing this, Kaylee smiled sweetly at it before she started riding down the street.
The blazing afternoon made Kaylee to sweat profusely despite being on a bike and caressed by the breeze while while riding.
After some miles of riding down the street, the traffic light turned red as the cars and bikes stopped in obedience to the traffic light while they waited for the light to turn green.
As the crowd was crossing over, Kaylee eyes was on the crowd and noticed a woman among them who was wearing a dowdy dress.
Seeing the woman, Kaylee was battling with her thoughts of the woman to be familiar or not. After a long observation on the woman, Kaylee eyes narrowed slightly.
"That is the shamanka." Kaylee muttered.
"Hey! Shamanka!" Kaylee called for the woman who was getting closer to her but the woman didn't notice Kaylee presence.
The crowd crossing, shifted their attention to the yelling voice only to see a lady on a bike still in the traffic. They wondered if something had gone wrong with the lady, shouting carelessly in the street as they stared at her weirdly.
The Shaman stopped in her tracks when she heard the familiar yelling voice from the other side. The Shaman's eyes couldn't help but bulge out as if seeing a haunting ghost.
It was five seconds countdown left for the traffic light to turn green but the Kaylee didn't care about it while she went after the woman who was running away.
"O-oh! This Crazy bitch again!" The Shaman cursed under her breath as she took her heels.
"Hey! Stop there! Stop there!" Kaylee yelled on top of her lungs, riding speedily in pursuit of the woman.