Chapter 11 - Chapter 10

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((( CLAIRE )))

I was so helpless and hopeless that all I did was just cry at my misfortunes. And the heavens cried with me. All the weight of my burdens made my knees so weak that I couldn't walk farther away and just fell by the cemented sidewalk like a mad woman.

I live with my paralytic father, my three siblings, and my stepmother with her own daughter, Nadine. Nadine was the eldest with a child of her own, Lilibeth. She took refuge, with her kid, back to her mother's care when her husband left her and apparently added to the growing responsibilities of my father before he had been paralyzed.  

My biological older brother, Dexter, is a jobless freeloader and rumors has it that he was a rugby gangster. Amy, my half-sister, has befriended the wrong people who encouraged hedonism than make her prioritize her studies. She was usually out until late night and sometimes does not go home at all.  

Among them, only father worked and provided for us. He was a foreman at a construction agency.  A freak accident with a construction debris held him paralyzed for life. The company he was working for paid his hospital bills and gave an ample amount which was practically meager compared to the damage his job has caused him. Eventually, the money ran out and I was forced to abandon my studies in turn.

And there I was, soaking wet in the rain until I felt numb and freezing.  

When I opened my eyes, a smiling nun greeted me. Only then I realized I was in front of the old town chapel. She was holding an umbrella that couldn't occupy two people so half of her dress has been wet too.

I suddenly felt ashamed she has gotten soaked for trying to help me.

"What you're doing right now…" she sounded like an angel "isn't helping you solve whatever your problem is. Let's talk about it inside."  

That's how I met sister Ema, the most optimistic person I knew. She has helped me a lot and her advices made me stronger in whatever problem my family goes through.

This might be just the right time to pay the kindness forward, I thought.  

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