Chapter 7 How Clumsy

• (JANINE)
• That old chapel has been my regular go-to place after my shift as a cashier at a small fast food chain. I do so to say some prayers, visit sister Ema, and offer some flowers by the altar.
• There was this old lady who sells wreaths, bouquets, and single roses by a wooden pushcart on the way to the chapel. She’d usually be prepared to close for the day at the time I passed by. But after I became her regular customer, she patiently waited for me before going.  And that day, she gave me three white roses for free.
• I insisted to pay but she refused. I just smiled in thanks and headed to where I was going to. Before I could reach the chapel, a car swerved in the distance and halted like it was in trouble. It looked expensive compared to the regular cars that park there during the day. After all, we’re on a small town beside the city and its residents were mostly low compensated white-collar workers who often commute or travel by foot.
• The car’s front window retracted down to reveal a man. His head was leaning dejectedly on the steering wheel and I could guess he’s either drunk, dumped, or just the way I was like before I first set foot on that old place. I suddenly remembered my past.
• I was so helpless and hopeless that all I did was cry at my misfortunes. And the heavens cried with me. All my burdens made my knees so weak that I couldn’t walk farther away and just fell by the cemented sidewalk like a mad woman.
• I lived with my paralytic father, my three siblings, and my stepmother with her own daughter, Nadine. Nadine was the eldest with a child of her own, Lilibeth. She took refuge, with her kid, back to her mother’s care when her husband left her and apparently added to the growing responsibilities of my father before he had been paralyzed.
• My biological older brother, Dexter, was a jobless freeloader and rumors has it that he was a rugby gangster. Amy, my half-sister, has befriended the wrong people who let her abandon her studies. She was usually out until late night and sometimes did not go home at all.
• Among them, only my father worked and provided for us. He was a foreman at a construction agency until a freak accident with a construction debris held him paralyzed for life. The company he was working for has paid his hospital bills and gave an ample amount which was practically not enough compared to the damage his job has caused him. Eventually, the money ran out and I was forced to abandon my studies.  
• So, there I was, soaking wet in the rain until I felt numb and freezing.
• When I opened my eyes, a smiling nun greeted me. Just then did I realize I was in front of the old town chapel. She was holding an umbrella that couldn’t occupy two people so half of her dress has been wet too. I suddenly felt ashamed she has gotten soaked for trying to help me.
• “What you’re doing right now…” she sounded like an angel “isn’t helping you solve whatever your problem is. Let’s talk about it inside.”  
• That’s how I met sister Ema, the most optimistic person I knew. She has helped me a lot and her advices made me stronger no matter what problems my family encountered.
• Seeing that man might be just the right time to pay the kindness forward, I thought.
• I smiled at the idea of helping another person who needed somebody else to talk to. The night was quiet and my heart felt perfectly cheerful as I approached the car. I was about to speak when my feet slipped on the small pebbles and I fell on the ground, butt first.   
• “Ouch.” How clumsy…
• @SenaMangampo