The Child of Scraps

Chapter 7

Noah Rizal was a little amused by the situation back at that factory.

Despite the fact that the factory wasn't in use, there seemed to be plenty of security guards. Very few children were playing outside, and most of them seemed to be staying away from the factory. This threw away the suspicion that it might've been okay for the poor people to stick around the factory.

They hid in the building that they had hid in earlier, and the two children who could talk were now discussing what to do next. Since it was difficult to include Noah in the discussion, she decided to wait until they were done, and then ask for her part. She didn't mind really, but she hoped that they didn't mind the fact she wasn't doing much.

Noah was also curious why Leandro had returned. It seemed rather strange, especially since the conversation between Leandro and Avery earlier had been rather full of anger, judging by the fierce looks of their eyes and the way both of their bodies had been moving in such a way that Noah could tell they were trying very hard not to attack each other. They were about as peaceful as the times of war, and yet, he still wanted to stay. How come?

Noah looked out the window, and stared at the guards. They were dressed like regular policemen, with the white uniform and the flat hat. They both had two weapons each, a bat on one side and their fingers were laced with magic powder. They seemed to be discussing with each other in Filipino, and thank goodness their mouths weren't as fast as Avery's. Noah tried to read their lips.

"Why did we sign up for the night shift?" The guard on the left asked the other in Filipino. "Nothing's happening tonight anyway, and yet, we still have to stay here."

The guard on the right shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we need to protect the factory from intruders, or whatever it is that kid with Aguirre said. Something about important artifacts here, or whatever."

"Why not just put them in Aguirre's house? He's a politician; I'm sure he has a big mansion and enough money to lace rooms with mist to keep intruders away. I mean, if he put them in a factory, it's too big to lace mist all around the barriers, but a single room's good enough, don't you think?"

"Well, bahala na si Bakman. I don't care about how long we have to stay here, or whatever it is he's putting here, as long as the money's good. My daughter recently got dengue, and the hospital fees are always pricey. Why can't we kill all the mosquitoes?"

"Because no one has invented an insecticide that affects only the insects.  Otherwise, cockroaches wouldn't be in our houses."

"Why couldn't Jesus teach us how to kill all the cockroaches and mosquitoes in the world? He taught us how to save those on the brink of death, so why not insect genocide?"

"Because God loves all of His creation, even the ones who cause sicknesses."

I know how you feel. If only God taught us how to make the deaf hear, Noah thought to herself. Why was that something that only Jesus could do? Noah had so many questions, but she couldn't ask the right person anyway.

She turned around to look at the two children. They were still bickering madly, and Noah was wondering if she should join in if only to act as mediator.

Noah turned back to look at the guards. She didn't really try to follow the conversation. But she picked up words every now and then.

Aguirre. President. Elections. Aguirre. Money. Forest. Aswangs. Aguirre. Truck. Man. Bird. Time. Book.

Rizal.

Wait, what? What was her last name doing in the conversation? Noah knew that Rizal wasn't a real last name. Dominiko had told her that, saying that he wanted to change their last names to sound cooler, or something like that. He said that you wouldn't find the name 'Rizal' anywhere, and yet, the guards had said it strangely.

Noah hastily jumped in front of the two kids and she got their attention. She then pointed at the guards. All three of them hurried up to the window and looked at them.

Noah felt a vibration  from her pocket. She got it to see a text from Avery. 'I can't hear them.'

Noah replied, 'I can read their lips from here. I'll translate for you.'

Avery called Leandro to look at her screen. Noah stared at the guards, and tried to type down everything they said, translated to English for Avery. Good thing that she had memorized the keypad after years of typing, so that she could focus on the transcribing the conversation.

Eventually, the guards stopped chatting with each other, and the name 'Rizal' was never mentioned again, but Noah had typed down a lot of what they said, doing her best to summarize it. The text read:

Aguirre needs to be president to control a certain unknown artifact of strong magic available only to the aswangs and other forest denizens in the Philippines. All the info that Aguirre had gathered is in the factory. If we want to find out what it is, we need to get inside the factory.

Author's Note:

Picture on the side is a quick drawing of Noah.