Love In The Line Of Fire

ANYA POINT OF VIEW

It was already getting dark, but Tessa and I were still begging. We would be punished by our boss if we didn't reach our quota. I didn't know why we were following him anyway. He just suddenly appeared and took our earnings from selling and begging. Our earnings were meager, and he took them all.

"I'm tired, Anya," Tessa said, sitting down on the sidewalk. I sat down beside her.

I looked at the children walking with their parents. What would it feel like to have parents? What would it feel like to be taken care of? I couldn't remember that feeling anymore.

I looked at my earnings, which were just placed in a can I found. It wasn't even a hundred pesos. We couldn't go home until we reached two hundred pesos. Herbert would surely scold us if we didn't.

Ever since he arrived, I couldn't eat properly because he took our food. We're also afraid to fight back because he has many men and they might beat us up.

"Tessa, Anya!" We both turned around to face the person calling us. It was Adrian, who was also begging like us.

"Come with me," he said. He's older than us, about fourteen years old, I think. He's always able to find ways to earn money, while Tessa and I just rely on begging and selling.

"We can't go home yet, our earnings are still short. We might get punished," I said.

Adrian took something from his pocket and filled our can with coins and bills. I think my earnings now reached two hundred pesos.

"How can I repay you for helping us out?" I asked. It's because every time our earnings are short, he always covers for us. "That's more than my quota," he always says to us.

"Thanks," I said, and he just smiled at us and we followed him. My legs were already aching from walking since morning just to beg for money.

As we walked, I glanced at a boy around my age. He was counting his earnings and went to a nearby drugstore.

"Isn't he one of us?" I asked.

"Yes, that's Tan-tan. His sibling is sick. Poor guy, he's always getting punished by Boss Herbert because his quota is always short. He uses his earnings to buy medicine for his sibling."

"Poor guy," I said. I wanted to help him, but I didn't have anything to offer.

We arrived at the abandoned building. This was our boss's hideout, and we also slept here because we had nowhere else to go except the streets.

As soon as we arrived, he took out the paper where he wrote down our quotas.

"Give me your earnings," he said. The three of us placed our earnings on his table. "Tomorrow, Anya, your quota is three hundred pesos," he said.

I wanted to complain, but I had no choice. After taking our earnings, he gave us twenty pesos only and a loaf of bread.

"How can we escape from here?" We sat down on the cold cement floor. The cardboard box we used as a bed was still folded.

"It's hard to escape from Boss Herbert, he has many men. He'll surely look for us," Adrian said.

"He's the only one who benefits from our earnings. I want to eat delicious food." I wanted that too.

All I ever ate was bread. And now, my quota has been increased from two hundred to three hundred pesos, making it even harder for me.

"If only my mom were still alive," I said.

"What happened to her?"

"She's gone," I replied, not wanting to cry.

"You're lucky you got to know your mom, while I didn't even get to know or see mine," Tessa said.

Tessa was just a baby when she was abandoned, and the person who took her in was cruel to her. She got lost and ended up in this situation.

"Adrian, tell us your story," I said.

He's like an older brother to Tessa and me. We've been with him for about four years now. We've been struggling for four years too. I'm a year older than Tessa. I've been living on the streets since when I eight years old, and that's when I met them.

"I don't know my parents either," Adrian said, and I felt sad. After our conversation, we arranged our cardboard boxes to sleep on.

I forced myself to sleep, but I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my mom's face. I missed her so much. She's been gone for four years, and I haven't been able to be with her. My mom died in a factory fire where she worked. I was left alone, and I thought my aunt would take me in. But instead, she kicked me out of our house.

I was just a child, what could I have done? But I promised myself that I would get our house back. However, it seems like I won't be able to do that either. Four years have passed, but my situation has only gotten worse.

I sat up from my makeshift bed because I didn't want to disturb others children who sleep here with my crying voice. I stopped when I saw a young boy who was already awake and sitting nearby. We all slept here, but sometimes we didn't. Whenever night fell, wherever we were, that's where we slept. But since we finished early today, we ended up sleeping here in Herbert hideout.

"Why are you crying?" He was sitting on the opposite wall where we lay down. He was the same boy I saw earlier.

"Because I'm struggling so much, the world is so cruel to me." I couldn't help but cry even more. I covered my mouth because I didn't want to cry louder and wake up the others. Before I knew it, he was standing right in front of me.

"Here," he said, handing me a handkerchief. It was white and looked really clean.

"Don't worry about it's clean, I washed it just this morning." I took the handkerchief. I noticed that he had wounds on his hands.

"What happened to you? Don't you have a sibling to take care of you?"

"She's at home, I'll visit her later, I just rested here for a bit." I also noticed the wound on his foot because he wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," but his face showed that he wasn't. "Just return the handkerchief when you're okay." He stood up, and it was clear that he was struggling to walk.

I looked at the handkerchief he gave me, which was now dirty, because my face was really dirty from sweating all day. I opened the handkerchief and saw an initial stitch on it. I'll just return it to him when I find water to wash it. I don't want to give it back to him all dirty. I lay back down to sleep because I might not wake up early tomorrow if I'm not going to sleep right now. Especially since Boss Herbert said my quota is three hundred pesos.