A Virgin for the CEO

15

A week later, Arianna came up to the house from town to do groceries after she had sold their morning vegetables. She found three sacks of rice laying down by the side of the front door, leaning against the wall.

She stared at them, thinking she was imagining them.

She was holding in her hand 3 kilos of rice inside a bag she just bought from their earnings that morning, and she was just thinking about when they would be able to again afford to buy a sack as she walked towards the house with her two pitiful bags of groceries.

What is going on? She couldn't think of anything that would bring three sacks of rice into their house!

She immediately looked for her mother. She didn't even call for her, thinking she would excite her for nothing just in case those sacks weren't even theirs. She found her in the kitchen stacking up grocery items on their shelves that had never looked that full.

She was speechless and a statue until her mother turned towards her with a beaming face.

"Anak! What are you doing standing there? You looked rather shocked," she exclaimed, then she laughed. "You couldn't believe it, too, right?"

"Mama..."

"These are sent by the Quirozes. They have a new program, you know? From this month, orphans of workers here in the hacienda will be sent supplies of rice, groceries, and money. His staff was going around distributing this morning and we're one of the recipients. There are a lot of canned goods here... coffee, milk, oatmeal, and flour! There are three more kilos of sugar!"

Her hands and arms were animated, pointing at items, gesticulat-ing like there was incoming wildfire.

"Anak! Look at our kitchen! I have to make way for some of this on our small dining table. And look!" she opened another brown paper bag. "They also sent us seeds, and mushroom spawns we can use in our garden, in the banana patch."

"R-Really...?"

She still felt shocked. Like a robot, she walked into the kitchen, and when she saw how many large but emptied grocery bags were on the table, their contents already on the shelves, she was even more incredulous.

There was more in here for use for a month!

"Mom... is this really true?"

"There's more."

She turned towards her and saw the envelope she was handing her. "What is this?"

"Look inside," she said excitedly.

She took it and opened the flap—and saw one thousand paper bills inside, and when she counted them there were ten thousand pesos. "Mama...?!"

"This month is the beginning. Señor's secretary explained to me that every month, they are going to cover five thousand pesos of what your father could have gotten as a pension if he had reached re-tirement age. I couldn't believe it! I feel like it's Christmas in the middle of April! When was the last time I even held this much amount of money? It's been years!"

As she watched her mother's face, she realized it was really hap-pening. Her lips began to stretch into a smile. It was still hard to believe it, but she was beginning to. "Is this a miracle?"

"It's a miracle!" her mother replied, her smile splitting her thin face. "Just imagine how much this could help us. Tommy could go back to school!"

They both started to laugh, and mother and daughter hugged each other in shared relief and joy in the middle of the small kitchen...

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Tommy didn't know what to think, too, when he got home from work for the lunch break.

He came in sweating, his eyes bulging, and he was breathless.

He usually would just bring food to work and eat with the other workers during lunch, but he rode his tri-bike home when he heard about the supply distribution that was happening in the hacienda.

"Everybody's talking about it everywhere. They said there were rice and groceries. But I have not heard of any money, Mama," he said after he saw the money and the goods in the cupboards and couldn't believe his eyes, too. But he was finally able to breathe well enough to speak. "Our kitchen is almost filled. I didn't imagine it would be this many!"

"Maybe not everyone is given money," their mother said uncertainly. "The secretary did say not everyone will be given the same amount, so I was advised not to talk about the money to others."

"Maybe..." Tommy repeated, but he turned towards where Arianna was spooning hot rice on his plate. He said he had left his lunch box to the workers so they could eat his lunch because he knew he could just eat warm food here.

Something on his face made her heart thump faster and painfully inside her chest. "Are you sure no one else mentioned they received money?" she asked him.

He shook his head, but his eyes were suddenly looking anywhere except at her.

"Really? Not any other amount?" their mother asked.

He shook his head. "Even if it's just a thousand, it will spread like wildfire. People will definitely mention money. Even if they were not told to say anything about it, friends will tell friends. My coworkers will not hide something like that from each other. Why would anyone hide they were given a small amount?"

"M-Maybe it's given to just some and kept a secret so others will not get jealous or think it unfair?" she hedged.

"Maybe so, too," he said, his eyes averted, and he was shrugging shoulders that suddenly looked small like a child's.

Arianna was watching her brother, suddenly realizing he knew who she was with that night. A part of her just felt like it wanted to melt down to the floor and disappear.

How could he have known? She never mentioned who it was. Yes, it was the Señorito's house, but it could have been a friend of his. He never gave her any impression he knew, too. But how did he know with such certainty it was Enrique?

They weren't given any chance to talk because he had to eat lunch fast to get back to work. Or, she suspected, he made it seem like he needed to get back right away so he didn't have to talk to her. The few times he ate lunch at home, he had time to have a small nap because they were not expected to work until at least a little before mid-after-noon. Even their mother noticed.

"That boy. He still couldn't believe our fortune. He's looking like he's worried about it again," she said, sighing in the end. "How could he worry about this? That kid must be daft!"

Arianna noticed her mother's short breathing right away as she put dirty plates on the sink. The other woman was standing just be-hind her.

"Mama, you better lie down and rest for a moment. You're tired. There's been too much excitement for you today," she told her, turning a little to look back at her. She looked pale, and her eyelids were drooping like she were about to fall asleep. "Go on. I'll finish up with the dishes and clean up the table."

But the older woman was beaming again. She suddenly hugged her from behind.

"I am just so happy! I guess it is not enough to get you back to school, too, but it is a big help to us. You don't have to work so hard to earn money fast. Oh, I forgot to tell your brother that. I wished he would go back to school."

"You will have a chance to tell him whatever you want to when he gets home this afternoon. Now, go and rest, Mama. Please. Do you want me to carry you to bed?"

She laughed. It was her mother's threat to her when she was young and didn't want to go inside for siesta, busy playing with her friends.

She then kissed her on the side of her face as she did at times even these days.

Then, humming an upbeat tune, she went up the three steps to the living room and went to their bedroom to take her afternoon nap.

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