It was a bad idea to sell flowers that day but young Nena, being the stubborn little girl that she was, didn't listen to her mother when she told her to stay indoors because there was a thunderstorm coming.
Despite her mother's advice, she still went out grabbing the strings of sampaguita flower necklace she made with her mom early that morning, and ran straight to the street where she usually sell them.
An afternoon and heavy relentless downpour after, Nena found herself sitting on the sidewalk shed hugging her knees tightly against her chest, thinking about what her mother had told her earlier.
Mama was right. I should've listened to her, she thought.
The heavy downpour blurred her vision around her and the loud crunching sound of rain as it fell on the ground almost made her deaf. As the gust of wind whipped back and forth, her whole body shivered from the freezing cold. Her now crinkled fingers felt stiff as she held on the flowers, whose petals were starting to fall off.
The wind blew again and it gave her chills. As she embraced herself tighter, Nena's teeth started to chatter. Even with the cold and her chattering teeth, a tiny grin stretched across her innocent face until she let out a giggle. She could actually hear her mouth make a rattling sound. And to her, it was funny.
Feeling the cold breeze on her body again, Nena rubbed her arms to keep warm. Her wet hands against her already wet skin weren't doing much, though. When she still didn't feel any warmer, she pouted and sighed in defeat.
Maybe she wouldn't be that cold if her tattered little red dress wasn't totally drenched from the rain, she complained.
Crumpling the hemline of her dripping dress to squeeze out the water, Nena breathed out another sigh and then tucked her damp short hair behind her ear.
She was about to look up to see if the rain was going to let up soon when lightning flashed across the sky that made her jumped off her seat, startling her. Fearing that it might hit her, she instinctively buried her face on her knees and covered her ears with her hands. A deafening thunder rolled down after and she was grateful her hands muffled the sound.
Finding safety under the rusty roof of the sidewalk shed, she slowly lifted her head and peered up in the sky. The clouds were still dark and heavy and the rain wasn't showing sign of stopping anytime soon. But at least there were no more lightning and thunder booming above her.
Feeling relieved, Nena wished the rain would stop already. She had been sitting idly on the shed for hours now, her legs were feeling numb, her bare feet were pale and wrinkled from the wet and cold and she was beginning to feel hungry.
As if on cue, her empty stomach grumbled. She bit her lip and pressed her hands against her tummy.
Nena didn't bring food with her. It's not that there was something to bring with at the first place. Her family was poor and food was scarce. They hardly eat twice a day. That was the reason why she didn't listen to her mother earlier and still went out the street. If she didn't go out and sell flowers, her family wouldn't have money for food. They would starve. And she didn't want that.
Her stomach grumbled again. She looked down on the flowers she was holding and the twelve peso coins she earned that morning, and swallowed.
What I wouldn't give for a pandesal, she whispered.
Nena craned her neck, narrowed her eyes to see better through the rain and turned her head around, looking for a store nearby where she could buy something to eat with the little money she earned.
However, she found nothing.
As she looked to her left and right, she noticed that the flooded street that used to be packed with people was empty. There weren't even cars driving along the usually busy road.
Nena's head drooped and her shoulders slumped when she realized something. She was all alone in this cold rainy afternoon. As the realization sank in, sadness suddenly washed over her and she could feel her heart aching.
For the first time in her young life, Nena felt lonely.
In her loneliness, she remembered her parents. They might be worried for her. They might even go out in this thunderstorm to try to look for her. A vision of her sick father looking for her in the cold heavy downpour broke her young heart into tiny pieces. Tears threatened to stream down her cheeks but she quickly wiped them dry with the back of her hand.
Nena closed her eyes and hugged herself tighter. She didn't want to think about sad things about her family.
Breathing out the sadness, she let her mind wander with the happy memories she had with them. Her parents, younger siblings and herself all smiles as they shared a small piece of dried fish for dinner, her father telling them stories before going to bed and her mother kissing and hugging them in the morning.
Getting herself engrossed deeper into the memories, a peaceful smile tugged on little Nena's mouth. Her family might be poor as a rat but she was contended with what she had and with what she didn't. Her family's love and affection was more than enough for her to be happy.
After a moment, everything around her became silent. She could no longer hear the rain furiously pelting on the roof of the shed. She couldn't even feel the violent wind anymore.
She slowly opened her eyes and the scene that met her made her smile wider. The rain had stopped, the sky was clear and the sun was shining down on her. She looked up and saw a rainbow arched up in the heavens.
Feeling warm and hopeful with what she was looking at, Nena jumped off the shed she was sitting on. With a childish smile on her face, she playfully hopped from puddle to puddle, making a splash as she kicked her little feet and played with rainwater.
Unaware of her surroundings as she plays, the little girl reached the center of the empty road, thinking how fun it would have been if her loving parents and younger siblings were there to play with her.
Feeling happy with the little things, Nena looked up in the sky once again, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, enjoying the air after the thunderstorm. As she stood motionless in the middle of the road with a smile on her face, she heard a loud thunderous honk from behind her.
Surprised, she immediately opened her eyes, turned her head towards the sound and gasped in horror.
Behind her was a honking ten-wheeler truck fast approaching her direction, refusing to stop or slow down. Seeing the immediate danger before her eyes, Nena was paralyzed by shock and couldn't move her little legs. Forcing herself to move, the little girl didn't have the time to dodge or move away from the approaching vehicle.
Then, it all happened in a blink of an eye.
Before the light vanished from Nena's now bleeding eyes, she took her last breath with the last memory of the excruciating and agonizing pain she felt when the massive wheels of the speedy ten-wheeler truck ran her over and crushed her chest killing her...
