Six

One thing a man would notice on this very place are the children playing sticks and sand outside their home. There are also some of them playing near garbage piles, pretending that every trash that they can see are wealth that will pull them off in this mountain of poverty.

Her white pants and black coat, covering the blue strapless shirt that she decided to wear, stood out of the ruins where she was walking, together with five men. One of them has face expressing an extreme outrage.

"You live here?" she looked at the two rows of long buildings embracing the narrow way where she was walking with her white stiletto. She described the walls in her head as 'stripped blocks', as the paints are started falling off of them.

"Yes." he answered with a complete monotone voice he did not even want her to be here.

She looked at him and let him walk ahead together with two of her guards.

'I should have worn a rubber shoe.' she thought after getting her heels stuck for a second, on a crack, on the ground.

Diego ignored her and stopped in front of a more narrow way on his left. Becca also tried to dodge a group of kids running in front of her, but she failed, seeing one of them wipe a stripe of dirt on her coat.

She clicked her tongue and bit her lower lip, "We here?" Getting her hands off her pocket as she dusted the dirt off.

Again, he did not answered her and walked inside the hall. In the end, there is a shop with a cloth hanging on the roof, it was full of dirt and soil and one can barely see the word 'Artisan' on it. In front of the shop was a pot of dried soil with a dead stem planted at the center of it. There are also displays of wood crafts that can be seen on an old stained glass near the door.

The air made the chimes create a small sound, making Becca pay attention on the whole exterior of the place. She specifically looked at a sculpture of a siren placed on the second level of a drawer. It made her curl her lips for a milisecond.

"You'll stay here." She pursed her lips back when Diego turned to face her, "I will go get what you need myself."

"Do what you have to do. I'll shop around." ignoring him, she walked inside the shop. The moment that she pushed the door open, scent of freshly treated wood and wood adhesive immediately entered her nose.

"Good day, Miss!" a lady wearing a rugged dress ending on her knee greeted her when she heard the bell rang.

Becca smiled at her and opened the door for Diego, "Good day hon. I saw the siren sculpture, may I see that?"

"Yeah sure!" Delighted, the lady smiled, with her teeth showing, though skeptic how a good looking girl like her stumbled on this neighborhood, she still guided her to the sculpture that she was talking about.

Diego looked at her, but then turned his head to walk and face another person at the counter. The frame of his eyes are covered with wrinkles, but he can still recognize him. He is still the same, still with his business of creating his own design for watches, in fact, he was on process of creating one when they came,  "Hi Cliff."

The man slowly removed the microscope type of thing from one of his eyes, when he heard the voice that he have not heard for years, "Diego?"

"Yes, it is me." they could not describe the feeling that they do have right now, but if we could explain it for them, it is more than bliss.

Cliff took care of Diego when he was a kid—fed him, clothed him, and sent him to school— but when he decided to go by himself, he left this shop alone and also this person whom, once, he called father.

"Oh thank God!" Cliff almost scatter the organized chains and bolts in front of him when he hurried and hugged Diego over the glass counter, "You're safe! My boy is safe, look at you! You look like you can buy a yacht! Are you..."

Cliff stopped on pressing Diego's arms when he realized what his job was, "Are you still hunting people?"

"Cliff, I don't have time to explain right now." Diego looked at Becca who was busy checking other sculpture with the girl, he pulled a paper from his coat and looked back at the old man, "I know you have a ledger where you keep some information of your buyers. I need the address of this guy, please."

He showed him a photo of a man and the photo of a watch, "You have to tell me who is this guy and where is he living."

"I will not help you with that dangerous thing of yours, go! Vanish like you did before!" Cliff pulled his leather apron off his body and walked to the other side of the counter.

"Cliff! Wait!"

Becca pointed her index finger on a fairy sculpture, "Do you have a much larger size of this?"

The lady in front of her nodded and turned her back to her to check their stocks.

She have her ears opened the whole time Diego was talking with his old man, so she had her eyes on them the moment the lady turned her back to her.

The door chimes sang again, making all of them look to its direction. A girl, between five and six years old, entered the shop, running to the lady that Becca was talking too.

"They stole my candy!" she cried.

The lady turned to face her but Becca was quick to coo the crying kid and put her up in her arms, "Who stole your candy baby?"

"Them!" she pointed outside the shop, wiping her eyes.

"Cliff, you have to give me his address, now." Diego's eyes widened, he grabbed the old mans arm after looking at Becca.

"Is she your daughter?" She smiled at the lady who seems to be clueless of what was happening.

"Yeah, soon to be owner of this shop. Right dad?" she looked at Cliff briefly while caressing the kids hair.

Becca slowly turned to face the two, smiling at them, "You are so nice to be in this side of the block Miss."

"Yeah, I saw your shop and I am delighted." she looked back at the lady, "What is her name?"

"Alice." she smiled, "Oh, I forgot. We may have some stocks on the back. Let me get it for you. Are you okay with holding her while I find you a larger one? I think she likes you."

"My pleasure." she smiled back at her then she looked at Cliff's eye.

"Cliff, the ledger, please."

"Is she..." Cliff pointed at Becca who slowly started stepping to the door.

"Yes! She can kill anyone including your daughter if she doesn't get what she wants. Now give me the ledger." Diego had his heart pounding out of his chest. It worsen when she started reaching on the inside pocket of her coat, "Now!"

Cliff ran inside his office, leaving the two alone. Becca continued on rocking the kid on her arms while making funny faces at her. Diego can not stop looking at her and to the doorway where the old man dissapeared.

It took a clean minute for Cliff to emerge out of the straw curtains of his office before giving Diego four logbooks, looking like it has been stained by coffee and stored in a faraway kingdom, "Here, take this and get out of here."

Diego looked at Cliff one last time before taking the logbooks. He walked to Becca who's still have her hands trapped inside her coat, "Let's go."

As if a cue, the lady walked in with two wooden figurines on her hand, "Here are the only things I could find. Sorry if it took longer than it should be."

Becca tried to pull her arms off her pocket but Diego grabbed it, preventing for her to move, "Let them go." he whispered to her.

"Let me go." Becca looked up at him, sharpening her glimpse.

Diego have no choice but to let her hand go. She just watched her crouch on the ground, putting Alice down, "Next time, don't let other kids see you cry okay?"

Becca pulled her hand out her pocket, making Diego breath more air than he usually does. He almost pulled her up, but when he realized what was on her hand, he cursed to himself.

It was a huge block of chocolate she was hiding the whole time, "Also, don't accept candies from strangers, except from me."

"What is your name then stranger?" Alice asked her with gleaming eyes and a smile on her face.

She laughed at her sudden question, "You can call me Becca."

The kid grabbed the candy, "Thank you Becca!" she smiled and ran to his grandpa who smiled like someone attached a string on both sides of his face and forcefully pulled them.

"Have you decided yet?"

"Actually, I haven't." she stood up, putting both of her hands on her hips, looking at the lady who started pulling her smile off.

"What do you think?" she asked Diego who darted his eyes outside the glass door.

"Up to you." he groaned and pressed the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, I'll get them all." she smiled at her while nodding.

"I'm... I'm sorry?"

"Also this bracelet."

She looked at a silver bracelet with thin chains. It has a small lavender charm, painted with faint color of violet. Becca have been eyeing the bracelet since she have been talking with Cliff's daughter, it was simple but elegant.

"Okay!"

Before the lady could grab the bracelet from the stand, it was already on Becca's hands. She thought that she would like to wear it already so she just wrapped the figurines on a brown bag.

"Do you need help on putting that on?" she offered after giving her the bag full of figurines.

"It is not for me." she smiled at her.

Diego looked at her, finally allowing himself to analyze her face. For a brief moment, he noticed the way her eyes glistened after seeing the charm. She traced it carefully with her thumb and caged it with her fingers after sighing, "This is so beautiful. Thank you."

Is that a genuine smile? and her eyes, he felt like he have already seen it before.

The lady smiled at her too and after Becca paid all the things that she got, she left the shop quietly. Diego was the one who said thank you to them for the last time and he followed her to the group of guards waiting for them outside.

"You go home first. I have to visit someone." she told him and left with two of her bodyguards.