One Road, Six Ways

One Road, Six Ways - Part 37

Inside in her room, Luisa could not believed what she saw when she opened the bag where she, her money and bankcard kept. She wanted to do groceries and needed money but there's no more. Money and her bankcard were gone. If her bankcard was gone, it could only meant one thing, maybe her money on the bank was also taken as the paper where she noted the pin code if withdrawing money from the ATM was also gone.

It's possible that Karel did take her money?

Another week gone, Luisa still had not seen Karel. She wanted to call where Karel work but she and Karel have an appointment, no minding each other business. And she cannot just accused Karel taken her money and bank card, she must be sure. First she must asked him. 

Luisa really had a problem. She have nothing to eat anymore. The refrigerator was empty. Two days she drank only coffee but the bottom of the bottle of the instant coffee can already be seen, two cups more and its gone.

She was hungry but there's no food. No money. Thelma was also away and the person she could asked for help was Carla but Carla was far away and besides she felt ashamed. 

She remembered there were empty plastic bottles of softdrinks inside the cabinet in the kitchen. These bottles have deposits of 25 cents per bottle. She opened the cabinet and counted how many bottles were there. There were eleven bottles equivalent of two guilders and seventy five cents. She quickly came out from the apartment with the empty plastic bottles and went to the Chinese grocery and returned the bottles for money.

With the money she bought two per kilo repacked broken rice that cost ninety nine cents each pack, meant two guilders and she had still seventy five cents left. Seventy five cents precisely enough for three packs of instant noodles that cost twenty five cents each. Two kilos of rice can fed her for almost two weeks if she only would eat once a day. She could eat her rice with bagoong she still had.

Back in the apartment she quickly cooked rice and the instant noodles. After thirty minutes she was already eating but in the middle of her meal she stopped eating. Tears in her eyes rolled down on her cheeks, she remembered her father.

Her father that rain or shine roaming the busy streets of Manila, collecting bottles to fed them, she, her mother and her siblings. Her father that died on the street by doing it and now, the empty plastic bottles had rescued her from hunger. Luisa felt pain in her heart, she wept. 

Luisa wanted to sleep early when the telephone rang. She thought it was Karel but it was Carol, the Filipina that lived in Katendrecht. Carol invited Luisa to the birthday of her son and if Luisa could come early on Saturday to help her. Luisa did not hesitated to accept the invitation. A day in the house of Carol could fed her good food even if it's only for one day, she really needed it. Mingling with fellow Filipinos could also divert her mind away from all pains and problems and worries. Early on Saturday Carol will fetch her up.

While they were working together in the kitchen, Luisa had opened to Carol about her situation, that she lost her money and she had nothing even food. 

"Why you did not call? You cannot just sit there in your apartment and suffer hunger?"

"I thought Karel will come home at any moment but I am wrong!" Luisa answered Carol.

"He is an irresponsible husband! And you are very high pregnant, I think few weeks more you will deliver your baby. Is it a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know. I never had a prenatal consultation." Luisa was telling Carol that she never was to a doctor for prenatal examination. About the deal she had with Karel she kept it secret. Her marriage with Karel on papers must be a secret.

"It is your first child. Why not? You have health insurance, everybody here in the Netherlands have it." Carol was concerned that Luisa was never been to a doctor about her pregnancy.