Bayanihan

At this thing that he calls a house, he stared at it intensely. You can see the painful look on his face. As if his heart is being squeezed... and any minute... It will explode.

After staring at it for a while, he finally lifted the curtain and gone inside.

"Ahhh, so you're here, Allaine..."

This is the gentle words that he heard the moment he got into the house. The sweet and gentle voice coming from his mother. The long black hair of his mother can be seen, but... she's a petite girl now because of the malnutrition. Allaine stared at her while she's watching his siblings fall asleep.

Allaine has 4 siblings. They're 5 children in total. So taking care of those 5 children while your job is just trash scavenging is pretty hard...no, It's not an exaggeration to say that It's pretty much impossible.

But for some reason, they carried through. They're alive as of now... they survived. While taking care of 5 children, and managing to survive is such a great feat. That's why Allaine wants to give them lives that are worth living for. A life where they don't have to dirty their clothes just so they can have something to eat. In short, a life where they're not worried about money. You can say that he wants to repay his parents... for everything they've done.

"Could you please watch your siblings, Allaine? I'm going to heat the food you scavenged..."

Allaine nodded at her mother and took her place while her mother took the plastic bag that Allaine is carrying and looked for food. Even If It's a leftover, a dirty food or even an expired one. It's still food... an edible one at that... as long as they reheat it, It can be eaten again. This is their line of thought every day...

"I'm home..."

"Welcome back, father..."

Every day, Allaine and his father are going out to scavenge some trash and find something usable or edible. While the mother watches the children. All of the members in Allaine's family has black hair and small black eyes, the features of a Filipino guy. But all of them are also petite and thin, the cause of this is malnutrition. Lack of nutrition in the body.

But they just shrugged it off until now. Nothing dangerous actually happened... and if they can just buy some food then they won't even bother trash scavenging. No one knows, even Allaine doesn't know how the hell their life became like this. Maybe because of the fact that his father and mother didn't found employment because they didn't study? Or maybe because they're just unfortunate. Whatever the reason is... Allaine swore to the heavens and his own self that he's going to escape this hell... and change their lives. This is the life of Allaine Monillas, human garbage.

+++++

"Father? What's that in the bag?"

"Ah? It's just Fried Tilapia, hehe"

With that, Allaine's sour face suddenly became brighter.

The moment Allaine's father took a step to the house... a loud bang can be heard from the house. It comes from the back where they reheat foods.

Allaine and his father immediately went outside to check on it. They turned around the house and...

They saw Allaine's mother in the ground, having trouble breathing and had her eyes closed. The father immediately saw the situation as something dangerous and hurriedly ran to her so he can help.

The father carried the mother in a piggyback way and shouted to Allaine while still panicking...

"Allaine!!! Call an ambulance, quick!!!"

"But how!?"

Allaine doesn't have a cellphone or even knows the emergency number of the Philippines. They're stuck... they don't know what to do anymore. Even if they go down and call a taxi, they don't have any money to pay back.

"Neighbors!!! Please help us! My mother... my mother suddenly fainted and has trouble breathing properly..."

Allaine shouted to their neighbors, this is the only thing he can do. Not even finishing his call, the neighbors immediately moved. This is the one thing Filipinos are proud of, the thing they call "Bayanihan." Where all of them help each other, in the times of good and bad.

One of the trash scavenger, Antonio, pulled out a cart he uses for scavenging and signaled Allaine and his father to ride. At that time, Allaine felt a sense of relief. Relief that at this mountain of trash they lived on, Bayanihan still exists...

+++++

The cart that Antonio has is a sidecar and It could advance by pedaling at the bike. With the mother and father in the cart, Antonio pedaled on the bike. Allaine didn't come with them because It's going too heavy for Antonio. The nearest hospital is about 15 minutes of travel by car and 30 minutes of travel by walk. It means a bike is between 15-25 minutes depends on what kind of bike you have. Antonio has a sidecar and two passengers in it, making his speed slower than before. So that means they can reach the hospital in 25 minutes. 10 minutes more if they took a taxi.

While Antonio is pedaling for the two of them, the neighbors watched Allaine's siblings and prepared food for them. After that, all of them prayed for her health. That the worst won't happen. Of course, Allaine prayed... he continued to pray... to the god that he believes exist. But... will his prayers be answered?

END OF CHAPTER 2