The Girl.

Alfonso and his Assistant

At the Bustamantes' house , a loud knocking on the door downstairs woken up everyone , Mr Miguel came out first to see who it was at the door , on opening the door , it was Mr Chucho again, asking for his balance from what he owes them .

"A good morning Mr Miguel. " He took two steps back away in the door way to avoid an outburst from Miguel. " You know am not only here early this morning for the rest of my money , yesterday I was thinking and wondering how you managed to raise all that money in such a short period of time , asking around among the people in this neighbourhood ,i was told that they don't know about your job ,but you have a little girl who goes around doing laundry , so I was thinking ,how about I give you guys more washing machines to improve this laundry business of yours ,maybe you can make me your business partner ."

"No sir ,i don't think my daughter would be interested to have you for a partner ,but just give me a minute, I'm going back to my room and get you the rest of the money you owe us ." Miguel went back to his room leaving Chucho waiting outside in the door way .

In about a minute , he came back with the money and handed it to Chucho ,Chucho looked not satisfied , he asked for the interest , Miguel told him they might have discussed about the interest but he should give him more time to gather the interest ,he should be satisfied now that all the money he gave him had been cleared .

"Come on Mr Miguel , you came to me and I gave you my money, you might have looked around in this neighbourhood and found that I am the only immediate bank around and as you know with any bank , you always have give an interest on paying back what a bank owes you , so when am I coming back for rest of my money ?"

"You're unbelievable Mr Chucho , you're now becoming an extortionist ,you don't even give us enough time to gather the money , whatever we make , we give it to you ,we can't even reach to our house expenses because of this debt we have with you , but I promise you , in due time , that little money left will be payed ."

"Don't worry about the little money left Mr Miguel , I want most is for you guys to think about my proposal , we can be partners in this washing machines business. Take your time and think about ."

"All right Mr Chucho ." He had to close the door as the man left the house .

Inside the house , Ms Meriya got out of the bedroom too ,coming to the lounge room , asked who it was , Miguel told him that it was Mr Chucho who had come come for his money .

"Can you believe it honey? that guy is asking for an interest right away and also wants to be a partner in my daughter's business."

"Nina is right , that man is a thief, no one asks for he owes someone the day after he lends the money ."

"I think am going to help my daughters in this laundry business. One thing Mr Chucho is right about , this business is earning well ,no wonder he's insisting on becoming a partner. I'll be quitting this new job I got , am not earning enough over there , if I help out my children in this laundry business of theirs. I think we will be earning some really good amount ."

"That only means we will need more washing machines ."

"Oh no!" He sighed . " Do I really have to see that man again ?"

"You don't have a choice if you want to make this big, but for now , I have to check on Fiona whether she's awake , we have to go to the university, and by the way she has a surprise for us ."

Before Ms Meriya could even go upstairs to the children's bedroom. Fiona and her sisters came out ready for the day ,a loud knocking earlier on the door had also woken them up , Ms Meriya asked Fiona if she was ready to tell them about the surprise , Fiona apologized for keeping them waiting but she didn't feel like it was something to be proud of anymore , Ms Meriya asked her not to mind but to tell them , she gave the news that now she was an assistant to the dean of San Pedro University, Nina ,Monica ,her father and her mother were happy for her but she didn't seem to be happy.