Love In The Line Of Fire

ANYA POINT OF VIEW

The three of us, Adrian, Tessa, and I, were together again. "Do you want some food?" There was a street food vendor up ahead.

Tan-tan was also there, he's the boy who lent me a handkerchief along with his sibling. His sibling looked like they were only 4 or 5 years old.

"Will we have enough money? We might get scolded." Our earnings weren't even fifty pesos yet, and we were going to spend it on food.

"Our quota is only short sometimes. And we haven't eaten yet, I'm hungry." Tessa said. I just followed Tessa and Adrian.

"Hello," I greeted Tan-tan and his sibling as we approached. He barely looked at me. They were eating fishballs and sharing a plate of rice.

"Oh," Adrian handed me five pieces of fishballs.

"Where did you buy rice?" Tessa asked Tan-tan. He didn't say anything, instead, he just pointed to where he bought it.

"Here, take my ten pesos." I handed Adrian ten pesos, and Tessa did the same.

We sat down by a tree on the side of the road. Tan-tan was already gone, I don't know where he and his sibling went.

"Here we are." Adrian bought three wrapped rice meals and our viand was fishballs.

"Don't you have any other means of earning money today?" Tessa asked Adrian, who was almost choking from eating too quickly. It's a good thing Adrian also bought water. I told him he should have just bought a cold gulaman drink instead, it's cheaper. But the vendor selling it was quite far from here.

After we ate, it was a good thing that it rained, so we were able to wash our hands.

"Hey Adrian, you didn't answer my question earlier." Tessa complained. Yeah, Adrian didn't answer because the rain poured heavily and we needed to find shelter.

"Jasper, weren't there. I don't even know where they are." Jasper is his companion in his other job.

"I went to their place, but Ivan wasn't there either."

"Maybe they left you behind and thought they'd just go on their own."

"I was still with them before noon, but in the afternoon, I couldn't find them anymore. I had to do all the work we were supposed to do yesterday because I couldn't find them."

What could have happened to them? The rain took a long time to stop, it seemed like it lasted for two hours. But it wasn't that strong, so it didn't flood. We were stuck in our shelter until almost dusk.

"What if we just run away? Boss Herbert is scary, and we didn't earn anything today." The fear was evident in Tessa's voice.

I'm also getting nervous because it's getting dark and we didn't earn anything. We buy a new sleeper from our extra earning.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"Thanks, Drian," Tessa said.

I think Tessa has a crush on Adrian.

We entered the abandoned building, and as we got closer, my heart beat faster and faster.

"Why is the money short!" We could hear Boss Herbert's shout from a distance.

"I hate it when stealing my own money!" Tessa clung to my arm when we're near in doorway, and I could feel her trembling.

"Adrian, you're here. I hope you don't have bad news for us," Boss Herbert said as soon as he saw us.

Adrian laid down two thousand pesos. I have no idea where he got it from, since it was four 500-peso bills.

"This looks big, ah," Boss Herbert said with a smile as soon as he saw it.

"That includes Tessa's and Anya's share," Adrian added. Boss Herbert looked at us, seeming unhappy, but he let it pass. He signed, indicating that we could leave.

"Hey Drian, where did you get that large amount of money?!" Tessa asked.

"Where all together in the afternoon, but we didn't accomplish anything." He could hardly look at us.

"Did you do something?"

"I know you'll be angry, but that was the only way." he replied, and Tessa and I exchanged glances.

"Did you steal?" Tessa whispered, and Adrian nodded.

"Sorry, I didn't want you to get punished too. While I was at the canteen earlier buying rice..."

"We understand, but next time, don't do that. You don't need to think about us. You might put yourself in danger. What if you get caught?"

"Where did you put my money?!" We were startled by the loudness of Boss Herbert's shout, and I immediately knew who he was scolding.

It was Tan-tan. My heart ached as I saw how he was being beaten and how he was separated from his sibling. After witnessing that situation, we returned to where we slept, along with the other kids.

"It's really scary. Thanks, Drian, because of you, we didn't experience that," Tessa said. Adrian just nodded slightly in response.

That night, I couldn't sleep well, and I wanted to visit Tan-tan, but he was locked up. I took out the handkerchief he gave me from my pocket.

I still haven't washed it because there's no water available to wash it with. There's water here that Boss Herbert brings for us to bathe with, but it's barely enough for all of us to bathe. We can only bathe once a week. That's because Boss Herbert only brings water here once a week.

We're all homeless here, and we don't have parents anymore.

I woke up and saw a bread beside me - two pieces. Tessa and Adrian were gone, maybe they're already outside.

"Have you seen my sibling?" Tan-tan was looking for his sibling, Tin-tin.

I heard early this morning that his sibling would be sold. I wasn't sleeping well, and I overheard Boss Herbert's conversation.

"Have you seen Tin-tin?" he stopped in front of me. I handed him one of the bread, and it was obvious that he was extremely hungry.

"Do you know where my sibling is?" I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should tell him what I heard. But he needed to know the truth.

"No, but I heard that they're going to sell her." He dropped the bread I gave him and immediately ran to look for Boss Herbert.

"Anya, you're still here! We've been looking for you all morning, come on!" Tessa pulled me outside.

We were already outside, planning to beg for alms. Adrian was with us now, standing by the road.

"That's the man on the CCTV who stole!" Some police officers were approaching us.

"Drian!" The three of us immediately ran.

"Hey, stop!" We just kept running without knowing where to go.

"I'm tired," so we stopped and hid in a nearby trash can instead. We could almost hear each other's breathing. Even though the trash can smelled terrible, we had to endure it. We peeked out and checked if the police officer was still chasing us.

We came out once we saw the police officer leave. We cleaned our clothes first because they got dirty from the trash. I smelled even worse after that.

We stopped when a white vehicle stopped in front of us and men wearing bonnets got out. They forced us to get inside the vehicle. When we were already inside, we could hardly fight back when they covered my nose with a cloth. It smelled like something that could knock me out, and I lost consciousness.