CHAPTER TWO

Aiya-ia

My little butterfly

Green-Black-Blue

The color of the sky…

The ringing tune blasted out of the hand-me-down cell phone hanging on the edge of the old dining table in the small apartment room occupied by Elise and her four-year-old daughter, Evie.

 “Oh, shit!” Elise’s frustrated groan startled the sickly little girl cuddled together in the single sofa at the end of the room. 

 “Did I scare you, sweetheart?” Elise said in a small voice, as though raising her voice any further would scare the child even more. 

 Evie bobbed her head in response. Her tiny fingers reached out to pull the fleece blanket that had a small cartoon bear embroidered on its corner to cover her shivering body. Elise watched the child, her heart tightened with pain and soured. She knew she had failed at raising her child. She couldn’t even give the little child the bare minimum warmth of a family that every child deserved. She sniffled back a tear and forced a bitter smile.

 “Mama is sorry, I will take this call first and give you your medicine, okay” she said to the child before pulling to the side to answer the persistent caller. 

 “Hel –”

 “Hello, ma’am. This is a reminder call regarding your outstanding balance of ##. Failure to pay up will only lead to drastic actions against you, thank you!” The automated voice rang out the sentence in one breath, and without giving her a chance to utter a word back, the call came to an abrupt end. 

 It was just as much as she expected. In that week alone, she had received no less than twenty calls of such. The sharks were more persistent than she ever imagined. Good thing the country has implemented regulations to protect people like her from drastic actions which the lenders may use to get back their money. She had to borrow a few dollars to cover up her daughter’s tuition at the kindergarten she was newly admitted to. 

 Elise sighed; her fingers tightened around her phone. Things have been difficult for as long as she could recall. Story had it that she was born to an impoverished mother out of wedlock, who abandoned to die close to the refuse dump where a kindhearted citizen rescued her and took her to an orphanage. She grew in the orphanage and until that moment she had no contact with what could be her potential actual family. While at the kindergarten, her fortune was as bad, and no family would adopt her. This went until she had grown beyond the age of adoption. At eighteen she had to leave the orphanage. She survived the outside world by taking up all kinds of odd jobs. Now she’s barely scraping through with a waitress job, the pay barely enough to maintain herself and her child. 

 Drawing her deep breath, she forced her lips to curl into her smile before walking back to her daughter. The little girl's drowsy eyes seem to be fighting the urge to sleep. She was truly a cute child. The tip of her nose was pink and her cheeks carried a faint flush. Feeling her mother’s presence, her dark eyes brightened. Seeing her daughter like this, Elise’s forceful smile turned genuine. 

 “Do you feel better, baby?” she asked, pressing her palm against the little girl’s forehead, checking if her fever had gone down. 

 “Hmm,” the girl nodded. 

 “You’re such a strong baby, mama is so proud of you,” Elise rubbed her daughter’s hair. 

 “Proud of you too mama,” Evie’s childish voice rang out causing Elise to laugh out loud. 

 “Here, mama will help you take a shower, you’ll eat and then use your medicine, okay?”

 Evie’s face fell slightly at the word ‘medicine’, but the frown lasted merely for a fleeting second before her face lit up again. She raised her hand, reaching for her mother to carry her. Elise laughed and did not refuse her. 

 “Did you forget what we practiced? Big girls don’t need to be carried” Elise commented.

 The little girl froze and looked at her mother, her little eyes darted across her mother’s face, trying to see if she had done something wrong. However, seeing that her mother still maintained her kind smile, her body relaxed. 

 “Mama promised to carry me when I am sick,” she voiced in a tender whisper. 

 “Eloquent now, huh?” Elise chuckled. “Yeah, I promised and that is an exception.”  

 Elise carried the child into the bathroom and gave her a quick bath. After her bath, she dressed her in very comfy woolen cloth that will protect her from the cold. She took the child out of the room and fed her the porridge she had earlier prepared, before giving her the last dosage of the children’s fever syrup she bought earlier. The child scrunched up her face as the bitter taste of the medicine hit her mouth. She forced herself to swallow the liquid before reaching out her palm to receive the candy her mother had prepared for her.

 “Good girl,” Elise commented with a proud smile. “Mama will go get dressed now, I’ll bring you out with me later.”

 “Okay!” Evie’s childish voice sounded livelier than before. She focused on sucking her candy while she waved her mother off. 

 Elise rushed in and out of the room in swift movement. Only after taking care of her daughter did she realize that time was no longer on her side.  She had to get to work else her pay for the month will be docked. She grabbed her phone and keys, dumped them in her satchel, and carried her daughter out of the house. However, just as she stepped out of the house with her daughter, she bumped into an elderly lady at the door, who coincidentally was just about to knock. 

 “Pauline!” Elise exclaimed, clearly astonished by the not-so expected visitor. She gave an anxious laugh as she faced the woman. “You’re here, good morning.”

 “Of course I am here. Where else would I be? Did you forget the house belongs to me?” the woman uttered sarcastically. 

 “Ah, ah… why would I think that? It’s your house and you’re always welcome,” Elise muttered with a nervous laugh. Her guts told her this conversation will definitely not be in her favor. And so it did not.

 “It’s twenty-eight today, your rent was due on the first.” The woman uttered as a matter of fact, without ceremony.

 “I am sorry for the delay, Pauline… I was hoping I’d see you later today after work so I could explain things to you. The thing is, budget for this month was quite tight, and I was hoping you can give me a few more days. I planned on speaking with my boss so she can give me an advance pay. I’ll make sure to give the rent as soon as I get the money.”  

 “Three days… I can only give you three days to fix whatever you have to and pay my money. Anything after three days, I’ll give the house to someone else.” The woman said with a tone of finality. She turned around and left without another word.

 Elise stood rooted on the spot for a while. She lied – her boss was not going to give her pay in advance, and she had no means of paying what she owed in three days. 

 “Mommy?” Lost in thoughts, her daughter’s voice snapped her back to reality. 

 “Mama’s fine. Let’s go, baby.” She smiled and stepped further away from the house.