A Happy Family

When the day that felt longer than eternity ended, Oriel and Collin woke up together in their new home. They felt unfamiliar to open their eyes in that room and they looked at the clock.

"Oriel! get up, it's 9 am already," Collin told her.

She didn't know how to read the clock, and while stretching her little arms the air, she rose and sat up on the bed. "My school is at 8 am. How much time is remaining?" she asked.

"You can't even tell time?" Collin asked in bafflement. "You say that moon is bigger than the sun, and you can't read time also, what do you even study in school?"

All of a sudden, Bella barged in through the door. "Collin," she shouted as she fervently marched to him. "What are you doing here? Come with me, Roger wants to meet you."

Collin was dragged by Bella, holding his hand to take him outside of the room, "Oriel!" she called. "You should come too."

Oriel went nervous, reluctant to get up from the bed. But she didn't have any other choice except following what Bella had told her to do. "Me?" she asked.

She brought her feet down on the floor and shoved them into her lovely pair of shoes lying under the bed. She followed them with the squeaky noise those pink shoes made.

The three stepped downstairs, into the living room where Bella's husband, Roger was leisurely lounging on his winged-back armchair with a newspaper in front of his face.

Bella hastily descended the staircase, "Roger!" she called in a loving way. Meanwhile, Collin and Oriel were slow and shy in approaching him.

"Are you awake?" he asked Bella spreading his arms for her to come running into.

They hugged and kissed, brimming with love for each other. "I am sorry I was late last night, and you were already asleep when I came back," expressed Bella.

Roger responded with a gentle stroke on her cheek that swept off dangling hair strands off her face, "It's okay, honey." He smiled at Bella, seeing Collin and Oriel sneakily hiding behind Bella

"It's okay! come here," she drove Collin towards him. "He is Collin, and Collin... he is Roger."

"Hello, Roger!" Collin said in a meek voice.

"Collin! the boy's just as handsome as you had mentioned," said Roger, stroking his head. "I am so happy to see you."

Oriel watched them while sticking her head out, hiding behind Bella's frilly skirt. Roger caught her peeking and she disappeared like a mole again.

"Who's this pretty little girl behind you?" Roger inquired.

She grabbed her hand and pushed her in front of Roger. "She is Oriel, Collin's friend. She is staying with us for a few days."

"Oriel... a pretty name for a very pretty girl. It's nice meeting you." He gently pinched her chubby cheeks. "So I will be at work, then. But if there's anything that Oriel or Collin want, I will make sure to bring it on my way back."

Roger smiled at her like someone she had known forever. The foreign environment began to seem natural and benevolent to her. Her awkwardness also vanished at his gentle words.

Roger left for work and Bella began her day with washing the kids, who were dirty from the hectic previous night. She took out from the cabinet a new bottle of shampoo that she had specially bought for Collin.

"Mom, I can wash up on my own!" Collin shouted when Bella came at him with a towel and the shampoo bottle in her hands. "Why don't you go and help Oriel? Just... don't let the bandage on her knee get wet."

Collin was displeased by his mother pampering him with love and care. But he was looking out for Oriel the same way he hated to get treated. "Alright! I see what's going on here. How long have you known her to care about such things?" asked Bella, handing over the towel and shampoo bottle to him.

"I just want her to feel at home, although I'm not able to do the same," he uttered and headed toward the bathroom. "After all, I'm responsible for everything that went wrong with her life."

Bella absorbed his words but she didn't have anything to put them together with. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Collin told her the accounts of last night, she listened, and sighed in dismay several times during that. "Poor you! how did you manage all that on your own." She hugged him tightly and passed criticized the actions of his dad, "How can a man do this to his own child?"

Collin abruptly snapped and resisted his mother's affection. He scolded her for talking ill about his father, "He is not at wrong! He was hurt and unconscious. I should have refused Oriel's father's help  and had done something on my own. Only if I had the courage to do something, he wouldn't have lost his life, and Oriel would have never become an orphan; it was all because of me." Collin poured the blame on himself and bore the promise that he made with her father and decided to protect her his whole life.

Bella came inside the bathroom where Oriel was standing under the shower with her clothes on. Bella rushed to turn the shower off, and helped her take off her dress. "What have you done? Can you not even wash yourself?"

Oriel let her head dip downward in embarrassment. Bella's inconvenience was showing on her face as she was washing her hair. Because Bella was not used to of taking care of a girl child, she didn't know that she was applying too much force while massaging shampoo in her hair and Oriel was hurting when they get pulled too hard. Soon she started to cry when soap water touched her scraped knee.

"Why are you crying? I am sure I was being gentle," she retreated her hands away, seeing her crying and whimpering.

Oriel sat down on the tiled bathroom floor and blew on her stinging knee. "It stings!" she groaned.

Bella rinsed her hands, and also showered some water on Oriel to wash the shampoo off her hair and body. "Stay still, It's almost done."

When white-glittering foam flowed down the drain and clear water came visible, Bella covered Oriel with a towel and carried her outside in the room.

She made her stand on the bed as water droplets dripped on the bed sheet. She dried her body with the fluffy towel. Oriel's chubby and cotton-soft skin made her appear like a little white candle after wiping. She bought the first-aid kit and treated her knee all over again with a fresh bandage.

"Your clothes were already ragged and now you have wetted them as well. I will get you a pair of shorts and a shirt from Collin's clothes. I hope you won't be picky right now; I will buy you a dress later," she said as she put underwear on her.

Oriel was dressed in short pants and a T-shirt. Bella was braiding her long hair into a neat braid. She had never tended to a child's hair, and she was reminded of the times when she used to play with dolls and used to comb them.

"Your hair is so beautiful," she said. "Who takes care of your hair that they have grown so long and silky?" she asked.

"My dad!" Oriel replied.

"Is that so?" Even before having Collin, Bella's wish was to have a pretty daughter who she could dress with the most beautiful outfits of all and buy hundreds of hair pins to clip in her long hair. She was now realizing her dream in the face of Oriel.