The moment Michelle hears and sees the pitter patter of the rain against her room's window, she excitedly runs out of her room and down the stairs to head into the backyard. However, the aroma of something enticing distracts her from her mission and she follows the tempting scent into the kitchen. She stops in her tracks as she finds an unfamiliar woman behind the kitchen counter where her Ate Irma usually occupies.
"Hi, you must be Michelle," the woman smiles at her warmly. "I'm Tan. I'm the new cook."
"Yes, I'm Michelle," she nods. She wasn't supposed to speak with strangers but the woman was inside their house so she guesses it was alright.
"I have a daughter about your age, she's likely under the table," the woman motions over to the small kitchen dining table.
"What's she doing down there?" she wonders out loud.
"Reading," the answer comes from under the table. Michelle walks closer, lifts the tablecloth, and bends sideways to look underneath. She finds a girl with dark hair placed in pigtails, holding a flashlight towards an open book that was resting against her bended legs.
"Hi, I'm Michelle!"
"Yes, I heard," the girl responds.
"Do you want to go catch frogs with me?" she invites.
"Frogs are icky," the girl grimaces. "Why would I want to do that?"
Michelle shrugs and decides to crawl under the table to join the girl in pigtails.
"I'm Michelle," she repeats once she's settled right in front of the girl.
"You sound like a broken record," the girl says admonishingly. "And I'm Annie."
"It's raining outside, we should go catch frogs, Annie," she tells her again.
"You'll get a cold, you should wait for the rain to stop," Annie reaches for a book from the small pile of books she has by her side and hands it towards her. "Here, you can read one of my books first while we wait for the rain to stop."
"You'll come with me after?" she asks as she accepts the book feeling like she doesn't have a choice not to.
"Sure," Annie shrugs. "I can help you find them but I'm not gonna touch them."
"Great!" she smiles.
"Your eyes disappear when you smile," Annie tells her as she scoots over closer to Michelle so they were now sitting side by side and can share Annie's flashlight.
It never stops raining that night and they never get to go outside to catch frogs. But from that moment on, the two girls sharing the glow of one flashlight became inseparable.
---
A/N: One-shot AU lang dapat ito, ewan ko bakit humaba sa utak ko yung story. This is a super short fic so... wag nalang magulat if biglang ending na agad.
Nag-iimpake pa si Michelle iyakin and Anntonia tigas ulo, let's give them time muna though may title na ang Book 2 nila. :P
YOU ARE READING
Invisible String
Short Story[PorDee fic] And isn't it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?
