Monday, March 1976

A year had passed since my assault and that resulted to a drastic change in our life. My father was mortified and decided to relocate us to a small town called Bergaria.

I wouldn't really consider the place a far cry from the city we lived in, because the town is always busy. It has a port which served as a stop over for huge passenger ships. Needless to say, the town had many stores, restaurants and high class hotels. Despite its small size, the place have a very high economic status.

You're probably wondering what happened after I opened the brown bag inside my hospital room right? Well, I screamed, and that led to a number of nurses and a doctor to enter my room. My parents soon followed.

My father was deathly pale when he saw the contents of the bag. He speculated that whoever was giving me those bags did not have any good intentions, and probably unstable in the head to do such a thing. It was the biggest reason why my father decided to relocate. It broke me, I never wanted to leave Lew Street or the lamppost, specially the brown bag. But My father refused to hear me out. My words fell on deaf ears and so, I soon found myself inside a new house.

Our move wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I barely had friends to leave behind. Our small pathetic house back in Lew held more importance to me than the house we got when dad won the lottery. Everything was easy breezy. Except for one. The brown bag and Vincent S. I never heard from him since the hospital incident. The brown bag never appeared before me after that. Maybe it's because I stopped coming to Lew street. But, I hoped that Vincent S will find a way. Unfortunately he didn't. For an entire year I kept my eyes open to every corner of every street, wherever I may be.

Maybe, just maybe the bag would appear. But still, there was none.

I kept thinking, maybe Vincent S. was unaware of my new town. Well, it was stupid me of me to even hope right? Vincent S is not superman nor is he flash.

Mr. Sarurnino, I kept wondering how he was. I never got the chance to bid him goodbye. Although, he did visit me at the hospital. But at that time, I was ignorant of my father's decision to relocate. I wish I could have thanked the bus driver.

The town warmly welcomed me and my family. But, if we are as poor as we were back then, would they have treated us nicely? I doubt it. They would probably see us as sur rats. The neighbours would definitely keep us at bay.

Well, enough with all that. Since I spent a year recovering I had to enter high-school, a year older than my classmates. I never wanted attention on myself, or in this case, new classmates. Unfortunately, when school began, the teachers all but assumed that I'm responsible and hard working. So, they selfishly decided on me to become the class representative. Great! Another burden on my already burning neurons.

So, let's begin with my new school then. It is located in the heart of town. Quite a distance from my home. But, since we finally have money. I managed to get a proper seat inside the school bus. Yeah! No more standing on the Isles for me.

Daddy paid for everything. Can you imagine? Me, calling my father daddy, like I'm some kind of rich kid, bred to be perfect from the day she was born. My mom told me not to talk about our past. She said its best to keep those in the past, buried and burned from my memory. If only it was that easy

Everytime I think of the brown bag. It reminds me of who I was. I fear that if I give up on the memory of Lew Street and the dump I once called home. I would also forget Vincent S.

Oh, look at me straying from the topic. Anyway the school. Like I have mentioned, is in the heart of town. It's bigger than the last school I attended. The air is fresher and we have a huge field where the students can lazily hang out in.

The school building, unlike the one in the city, is not a few storey building. The school in Bergaria is a collection of small edifice scattered on a vast compound. It looks like a collection of villages if seen from above. We'll, that's what people say. How should I know? I've never been on a helicopter.

The students? Well, they are friendlier and more welcoming. No crazy barbie to initiate bullying me. No snobby rich, well bred teens who kept arching their eyebrow on my wake. It is a peaceful place to be precise.

My fist year of high school dawned a new chapter in my life. Everything was simple and fine. Don't even get me started with the (Walkman). Are you wondering what I'm talking about?

Well it is a light weight machine that you can take anywhere if you want to listen to music. Instead of bringing an actual radio with our tapes, we now have a small machine to play the contents of our cassette tapes. Oh the roar about that thing lingered for quite some time you know. I can't imagine how easy it was for me to aquire that luxury, when just two years ago, I barely have anything to eat.

It wasn't hard to convince my father. He seemed to want it to be mine, more than i did. Whenever I look at my father. Whenever he buys me stuff, I can see a different light reflected in his eyes. It's as if buying me new things brought him so much joy.

Maybe he always wanted me to have everything. Maybe it pained him a lot when he can't afford to buy us food and he had to resort with scraps from restaurants to call our lunch and dinner.

There were times when I blamed him during my years as a grade schooler. That's something I will never lie about. I used to curse him whenever I got bullied at school for being too skinny, stinky and poor.

Sometimes I would look up at the sky and search for that first star they spoke off. You know, the one who grants wishes? I would pray hard and beg for food or atleast stop the other kids from bullying me, but it never happened. Nope, that star turned a blind eye to my wishes.

Oh, here I am rambling again. Wait, where were we? Oh right, my high-school. Well being the school rep wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. On the contrary, it got me a lot of friends and respect.

I was starting to enjoy life. Everything was surreal. I thought things couldn't get any better. But boy I was wrong.

You see, six months after the commencement of school. Something unbelievable happened.

Can you guess what it was?

I bet you can.

I was on my way home that day and the rain was pouring hard.

The bus can only drop me off as far as the subdivision entrance. So I have to walk, or in that day's case, run towards my home.

My dad and mom was busy preparing for the grand opening of their restaurant so it was impossible for them to pick me up at the entrance.

Yup, my parents decided to open another restaurant. Anyway, so I was running right? I was a meter from the gates of my new home. When under a huge maple tree, I saw something familiar. Oh, I can assure you, the image of a brown paper bag was embedded in my brain like its a reason for living. Well, maybe it was?

When I saw the bag, I didn't come running to it. I hesitated at first. What if its someone's garbage, or worst feces? But the thought that I wasn't in Lew street anymore gave me courage. Besides, our new place is highly respected. The residents here are well behaved. So, I slowly approached it.

Would you like to know how I felt at that time? My heart was pounding so hard, I can barely think by the amount of thumping it did on my chest. The big pellets of rain hitting my skin was supposed to be painful, but I barely felt it. As I stepped inches from the tree and the paper bag, I made a decision to not dilly dally and just go for it. So, upon reaching the bottom of the tree, I immediately bent down and picked it up. I was hoping, panting and by god nervous as hell.

Upon opening it, I thought I saw stars before me, because the brown bag contained a raincoat and a single note that said Vincent S.