Tuesday - March 8 - THE NECKLACE

"Hey man, move away from my gate! Can't you read the 'Dont block the driveway' sign?!" he shouted at the man who was doing something in the hand of a child and the bar of his gate. The man, clearly a beggar in his dirt-splattered yellow shirt and worn out dirty jeans, at the sight of him inside his Ford car, sprinted as fast as he could and immediately gone out of sight turning in the dark alley. That was Tuesday evening.

He got out of his car to check the child. The child did not cry when his father left him. Arthur wondered why. Maybe the child is already used to being left alone, he guessed. What he saw to what the father had done to the right hand of the child shocked him. The man clearly intentionally left the child in the front of his gate. He had tied the wrist of the child in the bar. And now, he - Arthur - had to untie him.

"Poor guy," he muttered. When the child was free, that was the time he noticed what the man had used in tying. It was a necklace. A necklace with a name as a pendant. FRED. Bold and interconnected. Its length could only be fitted around the neck of a child. That was how he knew the name of the poor boy. He was Fred. His name was Fred, and nothing else.

Fred stayed outside the house that evening. And all the evenings that came. Mr. Arthur del Tokedo, a 36-yr old man with a successful life and a lovely wife, really wanted to help the poor boy. But he could not. He would if he could, but he really could not do it. He could not because he was allergic to anything that was contaminated and dirty. Touch and exposure to dirty things always got him fever. It was funny for some people, but it was the truth of him. He inherited this gene from his mother, and now he passed this very same gene to two of his three children. It was sometimes ridiculous to think how much money he always spent in all the cleaning and sanitizing materials and agents inside their house.

Right after he untied the child, he poured the remaining 50 mL of alcohol in his hands and he immediately went to shower the moment he entered the house. Fred did not cry that evening and patiently waited for his father to come back. Arthur went to bed that night with pity in his heart, but forgot the name of the child the moment he slept in his comfortable mattress.

Wednesday - March 9 - LOLLIPOP

In Wednesday morning, when he was opening the gate, he noticed the child peacefully sleeping at the corner of his gate. While he was staring at this poor boy's face, he thought, your father will feel guilty in leaving you here and it will come to his senses to come back here for you. He will come back here for you, because he is a father. And a father will always has a place in his heart for his son.

He happily drove that day to work after he dropped his kids in their school. On his way to the next town where his office building was located, he was intrigued by the commotion of people on the bridge. He got out of his car and took a look under the bridge. There he saw who was causing the commotion. It was the man. The father of the child. He was dead. Very pale and floating silently right beside the enormous column under the bridge. That yellow shirt was unmistakable. He couldn't stare at it any longer. As he was walking back to his car, he heard overlapping voices from the gathered people. Clearly what they were saying were rumors.

"He was a professor in Mindanao who-"

"-I seen him once in the nearby-"

"-unintentionally killed his brother before fleeing-"

"-his student bore his child-"

"Any man could not resist a temptation like-"

"Yeah, he's still young"

"-like many others who became unfortunate here in Luzon-"

"He's 27 and-"

He entered his car and continued his drive that morning. He worked that day while the helpless face of the child was on his mind. He still forgot his name.

When the evening came that Wednesday, he did not see the child in front of his gate. Even in the open yard of Mrs. Ramness, he was not there. It is a relief he was not here anymore. Maybe someone has just grabbed him. I hope that someone will take care of him. He thought this while driving his Ford into his garage.

After their dinner, he started to worry about the child, so he checked his gate. He still never saw him there. When he checked the street outside, there he saw, emerging from the dark alley came a poor child in his dirty oversized shirt, happily licking a lollipop. The moment seemed like in slow motion while he was staring at the child slowly pacing back in front of his gate, where his deceased father had left him. The sight of that happy face melted his heart that he smiled a little.

He went inside before the boy could get near him. At 10:30 that night, he slept. In his dream, he hugged the child while happily licking his lollipop. He embraced him and carried in his arms. The child was clean and his shirt and pants were neat. And he had an angelic innocent face.

He woke up with a single drop of tear trickling down his left cheek. It was still midnight, so he slept again.