With every penny that she was able to save from the allowance that Mrs. Nita Canete gave her, Catherine ran away from home with a few clothes and her credentials from school. At three in the morning, she braved the dark and cold dawn with her backpack and a telephone number of her uncle in the city. A deep sigh escaped from her lips as she waited for the yellow bus in the waiting shed. Her parents and siblings would be utterly shocked to find her gone in the morning, but they leave her with no other choice. It was not easy to get a scholarship and she couldn’t let it go to waste!

It was her first time to travel alone but she didn’t care. Her only goal was to get to the bus terminal before six in the morning, then call the telephone number of her uncle’s house from the payphone inside the terminal. Her Uncle Danny would be a surprise, that’s a given when the last time she was in their house was five years ago. But still, she was positive that he would pick her up!

She took several deep breaths before she started to dial her uncle’s telephone. When she heard the other line rang, her heart thumped so loud that she had a hard time hearing the person who answered the call. “Hello, Uncle Danny?” She asked to confirm the identity of the man’s voice.

“This is Sanjie speaking, who’s calling please?”

It was her cousin Sanjie who answered and Catherine bit her lower lip while thinking. “Good morning, Sanjie. This is Catherine, your cousin. Where’s Uncle Danny?” She asked while dropping another coin into the coin slot to lengthen the call time.

“Hello Kate, how are you? My father went to work, is there something wrong in the province?” Sanjie assumed that his cousin was calling from the province.

“There’s nothing wrong, but I am not calling from the province. I’m in the bus terminal right now but I don’t know how to get to your house.” Catherine explained and she wished that Sanjie would offer to pick her up since his father was not around.

“Okay. I can pick you up, but the problem is, I just woke up and I still have to take a bath,” he answered.

She was happy when he said that he would get her from the terminal but when he added that he needed to take a bath first, she couldn’t wait for him. She was not that close with Sanjie but she heard stories from their other cousins like Junjun and his brother Dindin that Sanjie would usually stay in the bathroom for a minimum of one hour. She pouted her lips before she asked, “Where can I ride a jeepney in going to your place?”

“That’s easy, Kate. Just walk at least two blocks away from the terminal, and wait for a jeepney with route number 17C in front of Landbank. I’ll meet you in Lahug Elementary School in thirty minutes,” he said.

“Where is that?” She was not familiar with the location of the school he mentioned.

“It’s about a hundred meters from the University of the Philippines. So, see you later, bye.” Sanjie said and hung up the phone.

Catherine returned the payphone and memorized in her head the directions that Sanjie gave her on the phone. She transferred her backpack in front as there were many pickpockets in the city and they would target someone like her who just arrived from the province. She couldn’t risk her things to be robbed of her little money to be snatched!

She has reached the intersection where there was a Landbank and she looked for the route number that her cousin mentioned. When people crossed the street, she followed and walked a little bit where jeepneys were allowed to load some passengers. Catherine knew that she was in the right direction but still scared as she rode in a multicolored chariot. While traveling, she took a three peso coin from her pocket and gave it to the conductor for her fare.

When they passed by the campus of UP, she got ready with another coin she would use to make a sound so the driver would stop and dropped her off. From her location, she could see her cousin from the other side of the street, however, she was scared to cross when no one else was crossing the street and the four lanes were busy with passing vehicles. She started to worry about how to get to the other side when she noticed the skywalk in front of elementary school. She signaled Sanjie to wait a little bit, and Sanjie just rolled his eyes.

“You don’t know how to cross the street without using the skywalk?” Sanjie teased her.

“Safety first, cousin.” She answered, but the truth was, she was deeply embarrassed about being a country bumpkin… and for seeing him again. Sanjie was the most handsome among her cousins and that was why he was popular every time he would visit in the province. It was disconcerting, but she used to have a crush on her cousin when she first saw him, and her heart still fluttered every time he’s near. “You look handsome today,” she said while they walked side by side.

“I’m always handsome Kate,” Sanjie smiled and answered.

“I bet you are. So, where’s Junjun and Dindin?” Her other cousins were also living in Uncle Danny’s house and she knew that they didn’t have to go to work during Sundays.

“They were still snoring when I leave,” he said. His mother would usually wake up around three in the morning to prepare Arroz Caldo and champorado for sale to the neighborhood kids. It was his mother’s source of income since they moved to Tophill and her earnings was able to afford him and his brother Dennis a comfortable life, and he was used that some of his cousins from the province would stay in their house while looking for a job in the city, and he assumed that Kate would be job hunting too just like Dindin’s sister, Joan.

“At this hour?” It was already seven in the morning and they were still sleeping while the house owner was already busy? The nerve of those guys!

“Yes, we had some drinks last night, but you know how my mother is. No matter how tired I am, she wouldn’t let me sleep after five in the morning.” It was his duty to open the store and carry the big kettle with porridges from their house. Then, he would feed the roosters that his father treasured like his kids. “So, what job are you planning to take?” He asked.

Catherine laughed at his assumption but she couldn’t blame him. It was unusual for someone from their village to venture into the city to study. “I’m here to study.”

Sanjie stopped walking when he heard her talk about going to study. “You’re joking, right?” It had been a year since he graduated high school and had no plans to enroll in college while his cousin from the province whose parents were struggling was telling him that she would study.

“Of course not, why should I joke about it?” Catherine asked and continued walking ahead of him. They were already in the footbridge above the river and just a few steps away was a factory for jewelry and various government buildings like DEPED, NEDA, Civil Service, and a lot more. She also remembered that there was a golf course before they would reach his home, and it was scary to walk when someone was playing golf. Sanjie and his family were living in a squatter’s area and it was on the top of hill above the golf course.

“Wow, but who will pay for your tuition?” Last December, Kate’s mother visited his father to request for financial help to send her daughter to college. His parents refused because they couldn’t even send him to college with the money they earned from his mother’s small store, and his father’s job as a security guard.

“I got a scholarship in UV,” she answered proudly.

There was something in his cousin that inspired him to dream. If this country bumpkin was not scared at all, then there wouldn’t be a reason that he shouldn’t try it too. “I’m also going to enroll next week.” He said without thinking twice.

“I thought you have no plans to further your study. Uncle Danny mentioned last time that he would like you to earn a degree but it seemed that you were not interested at all,” Kate told him.

“My father said that?” He didn’t know. It wasn’t true that he was not interested to go into university but he was worried about their finances. Their income could be more than their daily needs because his parents were both hardworking, but things would change when he would go to college and everybody knew that tuition fees weren’t cheap.

“No, I just took a one year break,” Sanjie answered.

“That’s great to hear, Jie, then maybe we can go to school together,” Kate added.

“Maybe. Wait, is that Christine?” Sanjie pointed to the tall woman who was sitting on a wooden bench in front of their store.

“Christine who?” She followed his finger and came face to face with a tall woman with several pimples on her face, but the rest was flawlessly white, and she envied her. It had been her dream to make her skin tone a little lighter and she hoped that living in the city would help her achieve it.

“My cousin, from mother’s side,” Sanjie told her before they approached the woman. “Tin, it’s been a while. Why are you here?” He asked.

“For a greener pasture, Jie, and who is this? Your girlfriend, classmate or just a friend?” Christine asked while eyeing the dark woman beside her cousin. Whoever the girl was, she was a black beauty and she looked smart and proud.

“Oh, this is Kate, my cousin from father’s side. Kate, please meet my other cousin, Christine.” Sanjie introduced the two women before he asked his mother to give him three bowls of Arroz Caldo. In their household, they don’t eat rice until ten in the morning.

Christine smiled at the woman who’s going to be her roommate for sure. “Hello, Kate, nice meeting you.”

“Same here, Christine,” Kate responded shyly. Even if it was her first time to meet the woman, she could tell that Christine was outgoing and playful.

“Have a sit so we can enjoy our breakfast,” Christine said and referred to the bowl of Arroz Caldo that was given to them by their aunt.

Did she mention breakfast? They were poor in the province but they always have rice during breakfast and only sick people would have Arroz Caldo or any kind of porridge. She was too hungry but she was not sure if the porridge could make her full until lunch. Shyly, she got a spoon and started eating her breakfast. The slices of eggs and a little chicken made it more delicious and fulfilling, but still, she would need some rice later on. “Thanks, Auntie Sabina,” she smiled at Sanjie’s mother who was too serious in serving some of her customers. She just nodded and didn’t say a word. It made her uncomfortable but she didn’t let it dampen her high spirit.

After breakfast, Sanjie accompanied her and Christine to the house so they could change their clothes or take a bath if they wanted any. “You just woke up?” Catherine asked Dindin who seemed to just wake up and stretched his muscles in the living room.

“Hey Kate, why are you here?” Dindin was surprised to see Catherine in the house.

Catherine took a deep breath before she smiled at Dindin who looked like a human roll on with his bald head. “I ran away from home,” she answered and she could hear Christine gasping in the background.