It was now a few weeks until the third month. The anticipated time for Zhang to live. Zhang wasn't bothered, not in the least. For he knows that he still has a life in China.
Honestly, life here has taken a troll on him, that he didn't want to live a second here in this country. But her remembered the one and only girl that was by his side, during his endless wailings. During the sleepless nights.
He was sure, that Angel was tired, but he still couldn't help but be dependent in her. The way she used her words to soothe the pains, though she knows that it wasn't helping.
The way, she tried using her skills, the one she learned from school, on him. The way she uses Google to confirm her hypothesis. The way she sometimes, she calls Dera, who kinda has much knowledge in that aspect, to guide her through the proper things to do, or the proper drugs to administer.
Until one day, her parents came unexpectedly to her lodge, when she was administering drugs to her sickly lodger.
If her father felt irritated, that would be an understatement. She knows that her parents were thinking negatively, but she couldn't help but sigh . Mentally preparing herself for the lecture that would unfold.
******
"Mother, I told you, nothing is happening between us. You don't need to be perplexed about what you saw." She tried to reason.
"But he was clearly on your bed. Holding your arms, like a lifeline."
Angel sighed again. Feeling the weight of something she was trying to bottle up, she looked at her mother. It was actually the first time, she has seen them both in months.
"I promise you, nothing happened between us. I..." She allowed her voice to linger enough to make the parents...
"I'm just worried about you. Your sisters are on their way here-"
"Why are you here?" She suddenly asked.
"We decided to pay you a visit, since you forgot to pay us one. Honey, you didn't even call. Nor did you come home. We were starting to be worried."
"But... aren't you busy?"
"We are, but you matter first to us."
Her mother gave her the eyes they spoke volumes. That eyes that said 'i know what you're hiding something'
She rolled her eyes.
Her eye roll was syndical to the way her father's breath heaved.
"I can take a virginity test to show you, that I haven't been touched by any man before." She said reading her mother, like a book.
Then, it was her father that decided to talk.
"Why is he here?"
"Because he's dying." She replied giving the response that was best suitable to the situation. Her mother, just looked like she had seen a ghost. The most scary ghost in the universe.
"W--what?"
"He has weeks now to live. He spent his three months with me, because his family, abandoned him at my doorstep. But they rarely pay for the hospital fees in taking care of him."
A few gasps from her mother and her immediate elder sister who was there, but didn't say a word. Allowing them to their time.
A blur, then, glassy. The next that follows were buckets of tears, when she narrated all her ordeals to them.
Meekness, just patted their mother's back. While, Angel, concluded it with, "the scene you walked up to was me, giving him painkillers for the excruciating pain."
Thinking she has explained herself enough. Or maybe, she needed to bring the reports from the hospital. But to her utter shock,
'KNACK'
Thrice on the back. With a yelp, she retreated three steps backwards to avoid being beaten again, by her mother's iron rod, in the disguise of a human hand.
"Why did you do that for?" She asked still massaging the the painful area.
"And you bore that alone? Are you trying to completely remove us from your life?"
"What are you saying mom? I was just trying not to worry you. I can never, erase you from my life."
"You were almost raped twice, given the work of a caretaker. Yet, you...you, you." She paused, hiccupping more than once.
"Mom," she dragged. Feeling the blur, already crowding her eyes.
"Idiot! Stupid! Are we some kind of a pushover to you?"
It was brief, just so brief, to allow herself some leftover dignity--
She couldn't hold it anymore, so she hugged her mother and cried.
"I wanted to tell you too, how that house mistress treated me badly. Wanted to tell you, how I was bullied. To tell you how I was nearly raped twice by the same people who bullied me back then and now. But I was scared. That you might either rebuke me for not being serious, or look at me for being so humorous, while suffering.
That you might see me as someone who couldn't take care of herself. That always makes you worry. But I didn't know it was also affecting you all. I'm sorry Mom. I'm truly, really, very sorry." She wailed
The two became a dramatic mess, that the father gave a sigh of resignation, thinking about his decisions in life. His wife, ever so dramatic, has encouraged the daughter.
While the sister, biting her lips to prevent herself from laughing out loud. To her, they were the most chaotic family that she wishes to be reborn every time in this chaotic, yet, happy family.
The three sisters came in, to that scene. Judging from what they saw, they probably had a fight, and that was the way, they were both in the public,or at home.
While Zhang, who came back after buying drinks for the family, felt a swell in his chest. Not out of pain, but out of pure admiration for his helper's family.
"I wished there could be more dramas in my family as well."
Not jealousy, nor the prejudice, nor the cynical expression that he gives to people, who were more proud than humorous.
Maybe, it was because, Angel has shown him that there was more to living, than earning money.
That was what made him want to go back and change his boring family, into a more chaotic one, just like the one he was witnessing.