The Child of Scraps

Chapter 3

Avery Bonifacio woke up slowly, letting in a bit of sunlight through her almost closed eyes.

She didn't understand how long it took before she got up, but when she did, she quickly rose and asked herself mentally, What the heck am I doing here?

She was in the most impoverished house that she had ever seen. With rusty metal scraps for walls,  the concrete ground with no covering, the windows having no glass, and the curtains looking like they were actually cheap shower curtains that ripped at the slightest touch, the house she was currently in was not just unfamiliar, but absolutely dreadful. Who in the world thought that this was a good place for people to live in? She felt the urge to punch those people.

She noticed that she was on a mattress that lay on the floor, with only two pillows and one ratty blanket that covering her. The mono-block chairs and a single table was beside her, and a very thick, definitely old, CRT TV was on a cardboard box facing the 'dining area'. There was a little girl, with her back turned against Avery, preparing something on a poor kitchen set. Was she the one that brought her here?

"Hey!" Avery called out to her. "Were you the one who brought me here?"

The girl did not respond.

"Hey! Don't you hear me?" Irritated that the girl didn't reply, Avery tried to get out of bed so that she could go face to face with her, but she felt her body ache with pain. That's when she noticed the bruises.

Well, nothing too bad. She ignored the pain, walked up to the girl and leaned against the counter, surprising the kid. "What are you, deaf? I've been trying to call you."

The girl just stared at her in shock with her wide brown eyes. Avery supposed that she was too surprised to speak.

"Look, I'm not gonna bite you or anything. Can you just tell me what happened? Last thing I remember..."

Then she remembered it. Her dad. The men. The van. Everything.

She swore and cursed and said everything that the 'little' girl of twelve that she was not supposed to say. She got off the counter and started pacing around the tiny house, trying not to panic about the situation. No, she told herself, don't panic never panic it doesn't solve anything it doesn't help it doesn't do anything it doesn't-

"Argh!" She couldn't just stand there. She had to get out, she had to run and find her dad and those men and she needed to do something.

So that's what she did. She raced out the door of that tiny make-shift house and started running down the street. Halfway through she realized that she had no clue where she was and she didn't even know where to go. Perhaps try where she and her father were planning to go earlier?

She stopped and looked around for any person. She found the girl from earlier, trying to catch up with her. Avery ran back to the girl and grabbed her shoulders. "Do you know where the North Avenue mall is?"

The girl was confused and she didn't make any comment. Avery was seriously getting really irritated with her silence.

"Mall! North Avenue mall! It's this big building that has a big entrance on the right side, the east side. There's a coffee shop in front of it, the really popular one that's so expensive and has no advertising! North Avenue Mall!"

But the girl still wouldn't respond; she was just staring at Avery in fear.

Avery didn't understand why she wasn't replying. Maybe she didn't understand English? But that sucks, because Avery barely knew how to speak any Filipino after being raised in America. She tried asking the girl in Filipino, which if you translate to English, went like this: "Where is mall that has big door and its name is North Avenue?"