A Fairy Godmother For The Simmons

It was a memorable day for Suzie Simmons.

After living her entire life in the slum area with no prospect of ever leaving, she finally made a breakthrough.

Not only for her but for her entire family.

Today was the day she handed the keys to her dilapidated house back to the landlord, an old man that all the tenants referred to as Old Mr. Snyder.

Mr. Snyder owned almost all of the buildings in the dirty neighborhood of Cutthroat Alley. He rented them out to new people again and again without caring for renovation and such.

Being dirt poor, the tenants themselves of course did not bother to do any house maintenance either. They lived in the house until it completely crumbled, then they just moved to another unit.

When Suzie Simmons called Mr. Snyder and told him that she planned to move out, the old man naturally assumed that she wanted to live in a better house with naturally higher rent.

He came over as early as possible to attend to the young woman's needs, only to be baffled by the same person who told him that she was moving out for good.

She was leaving the neighborhood.

She was not coming back.

Now, imagine how shocked Mr. Snyder was.

Too many people -- usually the younger ones -- said the same thing to him, usually when he came to collect the rent.

Young people liked to dream. They did not want to end up like their parents, who had to scrape whatever coins from under the moldy rug to hand over to Mr. Snyder.

This dream ended as soon as the visit was over. Mr. Snyder never expected Suzie Simmons, the quiet sensible girl that he knew since she was a child, would be the first one to make it out of the neighborhood for real.

"But child, where are you going?" he asked full of disbelief and confusion.

"I am going to live with a friend," Suzie answered, her cheeks glowing pink from happiness.

Old man Snyder raised his eyebrows in apprehension.

Oh, so that was why. Little Suzie Simmons hit a jackpot and won herself a rich boyfriend. Indeed, girls had that kind of option. The lads were less lucky.

"So you are taking your whole family out of here?"

"Yes," Suzie confirmed.

She held out her hand and dropped the keys to Mr. Snyder's extended hand.

"Thanks for everything, Mr. Snyder. Goodbye."

The old man watched in awe as Suzie walked away and approached a yellow car that he had never before seen in the neighborhood before. He craned his neck to see the person in the driver's seat.

It was unexpectedly not a man but a woman. A drop-dead gorgeous one with long wavy blonde hair and a perfect jawline.

That was all Mr. Snyder managed to glimpse before the car drove off with Suzie Simmons, taking her out of her home of more than twenty years.

"How is everything?" Irene asked while pulling her sunglasses down and revealing a brilliant pair of emerald eyes behind them.

"Amazing," Suzie whispered. "I still can't believe it. It's like a dream come true."

A stranger came to pay a visit to the Simmons family one day after Suzie and Irene made a deal.

When Suzie saw the plump woman with a toothy smile in front of her door, she thought that she was dreaming. Or that she came to take her little sister away.

It turned out that she was a social worker.

The first one that visited the shady neighborhood for as long as Suzie could remember.

Troubled neighborhoods like these were usually frequented by social workers who tried to improve the livelihood of poor families. Unfortunately, good deeds did not come unpunished.

Twenty years ago, one of them got stabbed during a visit and passed away on the way to the hospital.

Ever since then, the inhabitants of the neighborhood had been left to their vices.

During her first visit, the social worker brought Suzie's little sister an illustrated storybook about Cinderella.

On her second visit the next day, she took Suzie, her mother, and her little sister out of their miserable house. From then on, they were given a small but clean lodging house that belonged to the state. One of those houses they built for those who had little to no income.

The social worker already enrolled Suzie's little sister in an elementary school. When Suzie expressed her concerns about not being able to pay for the school fee, the kind social worker told her that "Leah" already paid for the first month.

"Leah" was also the one who found Suzie's drug addict brother Bernard and entered him into a rehabilitation facility. That was how Suzie learned the name of her benefactor.

The social worker who Suzie's little sister had started addressing as "Fairy Godmother" arranged for a few interviews with prospective employers in the next week.

Suzie was going to get a new job.

Even in her wildest dream, she could not imagine that it was truly happening.

"You should thank Leah," the social worker reminded her. "Leah made all of this possible."

"Leah" showed up at Suzie's door house exactly three days after they met the last time. Suzie had planned to give the woman her very soul, but Irene had something better to do.

She wanted to take Suzie's sickly mother to the hospital, where she was to stay for a week to undergo a medical checkup and be treated for her chronic illness.

Afterward, she accompanied Suzie to return her keys to Mr. Snyder.

Only after she fulfilled every single item that she promised Suzie, did Irene breach the topic.

"So," she said unhurriedly after they ordered two cups of coffee and two pieces of pecan pies. "What can you tell me about your intention that night?"

Suzie Simmons swallowed hard. She curled her fingers into fists above her knees as she started to speak.

"Mr. Chris Henderson does have a lover."