PART ONE: THE LOVE OF A MOTHER

PARTE ONE: THE LOVE OF A MOTHER 

CHAPTER 4

A new morning had come, a morning full of opportunities, a morning full of… deception for the woman who came into the bed of an unknown man a night earlier. For a moment, she couldn’t believe she was capable of doing that when she swore she was never going to sell her woman’s dignity and, at 5the first opportunity she felt in debt with someone, she thought her woman’s dignity was the best to pay with.

Taking her head between her hands, the ones which were leaning on the table, she couldn’t get off of her head the memories from the last night.

“I can’t believe, what did I do?” Rebecca said out loud.

She knew there was no way she could face her roommate after what had happened.

Once again, the memories came to her mind.  

“Rebecca, please!” Daniel raised his voice, taking one of her hands to make her look at him.

Rebecca knew how to stop right away. The way Daniel was looking at her was anything but desire.

“Are you drunk?” Daniel asked realizing she was not the same Rebecca as always.

Rebecca tried to smile, the truth was she had to do that in order not to feel directly was going to happen to her when Daniel would have decided to take her body as the payment she couldn’t give him. Of course she was drunk; she had to do that for the good of herself.

“Come on! Rebecca, what´s getting into you?” Daniel said getting up from his bed.

No, of course Daniel didn’t think about that way of payment from Rebecca, he just wanted to help her, he just wanted to be with her at the same time, he was not with her. It was enough for him to see her crying for nights, it was enough for him to see her pain impressed in her eyes every morning to have to do that but of course, he didn’t’ expect her to get into his bed when she obviously, didn’t want. God! They hadn’t even had the time to get to know each other.

“I just… I’m just too grateful to you!” Rebecca said with a smile on her face.

“When I said enough is enough!” Daniel said for the last time and then, he went to her with the intention to take her to bed even if he had to drag her.

Nothing of that she had imagined before was going to happen. If Daniel would’ve been another kind of man, he would have easily taken her way to pay him.

And that was the way Daniel could let her in her bed. She was drunk, she was really drunk, she was not the kind of a woman who does that to survive, that was something he knew since the first moment he arrived to live with them.

Finally, the scenes that were passing in her mind like it was movie stopped all of a sudden. Her head was killing her. She had never drunk in such a way.

“What did I do?” Rebecca continued asking. She just hoped Daniel may have easily forgotten what had happened between them.

And then, Rebecca continued her way to make breakfast for the two men who lived there as well. In any second Daniel was going to be there greeting her like nothing had happened or at least, that was she wanted to believe.       

  

Sun lights coming through the little window Daniel had behind his bed, the same makeshift window that Daniel had been built since the hot weather seemed to be a hell inside that room.  Just the petrichor was breathed in that little room. The heavy rain had stopped some hours before, maybe. Little by little, second by second, Daniel’s eyes opened after having blinked a couple of times realizing where he was. Every day he finished his days too exhausted to even think about the day he was going to wake up on. As soon as his last memories came to him, he preferred to get up and put on one of his clothes after being assaulted by his memories.

If it hadn’t been for Rebecca being all drunk, he had woken up next to her. At which moment Rebecca became in the first memory he had after waking up? He just didn’t know. All he had to do was to act like nothing had happened there. Rebecca was not a woman from that easy life many women said to take for necessity, he was a gentleman and that was all. Nothing had happened there.

With that though in his mind, acting like nothing had happened, as he promised before getting out of his little room, he went to the kitchen. The laughs of Rud lit her heart and the discomfort he was feeling all of a sudden was gone. In front of him was Rebecca preparing breakfast while his son kept busy singing the same song as every morning he did while he was waiting for her plate to be served by his mother. Daniel felt like smiling.

As soon as the little boy realized of Daniel’s presence, the boy smiled gently and then, stopped singing his favorite song not because it would bother Daniel but because he wanted to pay all of his attention to him. Rud just didn’t know but there was something he liked about Daniel. It was like he felt comfortable with him, he felt protected, he felt his mom couldn’t be in any danger if Daniel was around.

Daniel smiled at the boy and then, his eyes landed on Rebecca, who seemed to be away. What had happened last night had been a mistake after all. The least she could do was to act as normal as she was able to since the memories kept repeating in her mind.  

Now, she felt the worst woman ever. She felt ugly, she felt without dignity, she felt the worst of the worst. How come a man could have rejected in such a way?

Step by step, like Daniel didn’t want to bother anyone in that little and old table, he took a seat at the dinner table beside Rud, who smiled at once of seeing his friend with him.

Since Daniel arrived into that little space Rebecca and her son called home, Rud saw Daniel as his only friend, the one who told him jokes, the one who helped to study, the one who didn´t talk so much but when he did, Rud ended up learning more than he thought he could learn at school.  

Nervously, after having cleared her throat, Rebecca decided to talk Daniel out. 

“Daniel, why don’t you go to wash first? I’ll be serving you breakfast in a moment,” asked Rebecca kindly.

“Go, my mom is already serving my plate!” said the little boy excitedly. He always waited for breakfast time to share with them the events he’d had a day before.

Daniel smiled and then bowed his head a little like he didn’t want her to bother to talk again. “Oh, of course,” replied Daniel.

Needless to say the boy was comfortable with Daniel’s presence. He had been a friend to him, the friend that helped him with his homework or even, from time to time, the friend that had shared with him good moments. That was something he was never going to forget.

In the bathroom, the little space the landlord had made a bathroom was Daniel. He looked his reflection in the mirror as soon as he realized the atmosphere out there was anything but comfortable. He just needed to talk to Rebecca and tell her nothing had happened between them so there was no need to keep that atmosphere between them.       

After some minutes, Daniel was ready to share breakfast with them. From afar, Daniel could see the brightness in Rebecca’s face at sharing and singing with his son while serving his plate full of vegetables. He had done right at giving her that money, she was going to live happily with her son no matter what. A mom’s love was everything in the world and for a son or a daughter a woman is capable of everything so Daniel couldn’t understand why Rebecca felt awful in front of him when she was doing what any other caring mother would have done.

A little more comfortable, Daniel sat at the dinner table beside the little boy who was already eating with his hands without caring of using a spoon. In front of them, rice, a little bit of fruit and soup.

“Did you finish your homework?” Rebecca asked to her son, breaking the ice.

“Yes, mommy! I did everything last night.”

Daniel just looked at them without stopping to eat. The meal was delicious.

“Mommy?” called the little boy, after having sipped his milk.

“Yes, my love?” Rebecca replied looking down.

“Last night when I woke up you wasn’t by my side, was you with my friend Daniel?” asked the boy.

And that had been all. Rebecca couldn’t help but spit out the food from her mouth. But of course she hadn’t been the only one who felt that, Daniel also did the same with the difference Rebecca got up from her seat as soon as she realized Daniel had done the same.  

With no doubt something had happened there.