Chapter 5

       The man picks up Aurora who is still sobbing with her lower lip out as she sniffles. He pulls at her cheeks as he smiles adoringly at her.

   “Hey little one. I’m so sorry you fell”. He pats her hair. 

   He looks into her green eyes that remind him of hers. She finally smiles at him and someone else’s image comes into his mind. 

    He shakes his head trying to get rid of it. He reciprocates her smile. He turns to his sister with a huge smile. However, his sister looks impatient. Knowing the kind of person she is, he removes his phone from his pocket and sends a text to his driver.

   “I just sent a text to the driver. He will be here soon. You can just go to the lounge to wait for him”. He informs her. She nods and leaves in the direction of the lounge without saying a word. 

   Caleb heaves a sigh of relief the minute she leaves. He had come to pick her up from the airport to prevent her from complaining about being abandoned later on. 

   He had even hoped that she would have helped him with the little girl. There was no single maternal bone in her body too. 

   He returns his face to the little girl in his arms.

   “Hey. What is your name?”. She looks at him in silence for a few seconds. He almost concludes that she is mute until she cracks a toothy smile and speaks.

“Aurora”. He almost coos at her voice.

   “You are very cute, Aurora.” He squeezes her cheek in fondness. Aurora places her chubby little hands on his cheeks, too, mirroring his action.

   He chuckles at her action. 

“Where is your mummy or daddy?”. He asks her. He knows she can not be here alone and whoever is here with her is worried sick. 

   At the question, her face turns sour and she starts crying. He starts to panic immediately trying to find a way to get her to stop crying. 

    He spots a cotton candy shop near them and an idea comes to him. He turns her in the direction of the cotton candy stand to put it in her line of view.

   “Look! Do you want some cotton candy?”. He points at the stand. She rubs her eyes and follows his line of sight. Her eyes light up, which shows Caleb that he made the right decision.

   “Pink! Pink!”. She points excitedly at it. 

Pink? Well, a win is a win, he thinks to himself. 

    He goes to the cotton candy stand and buys one. After collecting it, he hands it to her. Wrong move to give such to a 3-year-old because it lands on the floor the second she carries it.

   She starts a tantrum again and he knows that if he doesn’t get her another one soon, he will be in trouble. He gestures to the man who is making the cotton candy to make another one.

   He takes out $50 from his wallet and hands it to the man. 

  “Oh sir. It’s just $10. I don’t have any change”. 

  “You can keep the change”. Caleb gives him a smile which the man reciprocates with a grateful nod. 

   In a few seconds, the cotton candy is ready. This time, he has learned his lesson, and he holds the stick with his left hand while allowing her to eat from it.

   He starts walking away from the stand and looks for a chair to sit down. He decides to go to the immigration office with her once she is done with the cotton candy.

    After making a mess of the whole thing, she finishes it with pink sugar all over her face. He uses his handkerchief to clean her face. 

    A part of him strangely wants to keep her but he finds it ridiculous because the kid is not even his. Her eyes though…. They remind him of his own eyes. And her smile? They look so much like that woman’s own.

   He must be overthinking things now. 

“Aurora, you want some water?”. She nods in response. 

   He bends down to take a bottle of water from the side of his bag. He opens it and helps her to drink it.

    When she’s had her fill, he carries her up in his arms again.

   “Mama”. She starts calling out again. She begins to rub her eyes again and he immediately knows that she is about to start crying. 

   “Yes, we are going to mummy, so no need to cry, okay?”. She nods and keeps quiet. 

   He gives her a peck on her cheek and starts walking. He pauses when he feels something on his cheek. He turns to her surprised. 

   “You like copying me, don’t you?”. He chuckles. She covers her mouth and lets out cute little giggles. 

   He cannot stop himself from hugging her, so he does it anyway.

   “I am going to miss you, little one”. She smiles at him as if understanding him. 

   “Alright, let’s go find Mama,” He asks for directions to the immigration office. 

    Coincidentally, at the same time he is leaving the outdoor area of the airport, Ava starts calling out for Aurora through the mic. 

   Caleb only starts hearing her voice when he has almost reached the office. He knocks on the door and enters. Inside the office, two people, a man and a woman, seated behind a desk in uniforms.

   “Good day. I came to ask if you could help me find this little girl’s mother. I found her lost and it doesn’t look like she can tell us her mother’s name right now. Her name is Aurora”. He tries to place her down into the chair but she holds on tightly to his shirt. 

    The woman looks amused at the scene.

“Are you sure that’s not your daughter you are trying to dump with us?”. Caleb laughs at her question.

  He is about to reply when the door opens up. The person that steps in, leaves him utterly dumbstruck. 

   “Ava?”

“Mama!”. Aurora says with outstretched arms.