Chapter Fifty-nine [Diving Sharply and Nose Dive]It's a steep diving challenge for Ericka. She is currently focusing on how it operates while on the air. She is further able to recall her trainer's instructions:“When diving, you lift your two straight arms over your head and let gravity carry your body freely until you reach the water's surface.When you tilt your body upside down and concentrate on diving straight to the water's surface, with your fingertips touching the water's surface first, it can protect your head. Your hands should firmly focus with straight arms until your head, shoulders, and entire body reach and submerge the water.To reach the target underwater, your two powerful, firm hands extend overhead until your entire body flips over, shielding your head with your two long, powerful arms.Like a bird that is about to nosedive and swoop straight to the water's surface, Ericka doesn't care about anything else anymore and maintains the same body posture while doing so
Chapter One [ Returning home gives new hope and strength]After going through all of her strange, arduous, and heartbreaking romantic encounters, she is dressed nicely for travel.She is returning to the place where she was born and raised as a quirky, unusual pussycat who was also incredibly intelligent, vocal, and a little fighter.The torrential rainstorms that destroyed all the family's plants and animals caused the farm plantation to collapse.She left the city on a massive ship that had to travel a wide ocean in order to manage and settle the abandoned countryside, where she ran into her former ridiculed classmates.At first, she was once-bullied, young girl who feels that love is a paradise of temptation. She believed that she was already properly attired as she entered the funeral service for her distant relatives who had perished due to misfortune, which was held at the end of the road leading to the school, market, and business district of the barrio, which was two kilometer
Chapter two [[Early childhood memories resurface: Many shocks]That early afternoon of December,Ericka thinks with her eyes wide open that her ex-boyfriend who she considers her husband would show up with his family and surprise them. She asserts," What? We have nothing to offer because everything has fallen apart. Here, even mineral-infused filtered water is useless. I still need to get clean water out of the running water, and I need to boil it first to kill any bacteria that could cause amoebiasis or other gastrointestinal disorders.”As her gaze shifts to her Ate Lorie, who has begun to feed her elder brother's pet carabao with a bunch of green bananas, she takes pleasure in watching the animal masticate the food while tilting its head. She didn't say anything; she just looked and talked about the problems.Until they both made the decision to embrace their lack of everything and whatever negative emotions that go along with it, Ericka continued.“They must be fatigued, thirsty,
Chapter Three[The early childhood days: The Favorites]Ericka finds herself in a difficult situation as she recalls a stage of her youth when, on a summer morning spent on a farm, she anxiously searched through her mother's clothing box for what seemed like an emergency while muttering,"for my double-lined dress, which is the only one I currently own but is now old, worn out, and full of scratches. I have another sort that is brown but has already been used as rags. It has thin, transparent woven fabric linings and is constructed of silky fabric in the color sky blue.”Little Ericka intently peered down at the family's wooden old box before tilting her weary neck and gazing upward in distaste.She gradually became weary of gazing at the long mirror that was affixed to their drawers and hurried over to her shrewd cousins.She is grateful that they got to meet her during her lonely, uninteresting, and pointless childhood.“The Community Center, which was next to the school's border on
CHAPTER FOUR [School days: Mirror reveals}On the first day of the school year, Ericka was getting ready excitedly because she will begin going to school in the first grade. When she sees herself in the mirror while wearing her new primary school uniform, she remembers her goals and aspirations to advance her knowledge, wisdom, and personality unconsciously.That is what she means every time she was been awakened from night sleep in the early dawn when her fathers’ male chickens crow repeatedly but the sunrise doesn’t emerge yet making her feel unconsciously restless from the long hour of waiting as she lay flat beside her mother and youngest brother on the wooden floor covered with a mat made of woven dried buri leaves created by her hardworking mother.As she was in that situation, she has already those wishes and fantasies as her mind lingers saying that,“When I grow bigger, older, and taller, I like to prove to my parents who always thought of me as weak, freak, and incapable of
Chapter Five [ Similarly to a deer running away from predators] Ericka is already in her grade four level. in that community school. After one month, it’s their turn to do the convocation program. Her teacher gave her a poem to memorize for the program.Her mother sews her a pink, simple dress but during the exact day, Ericka shivered and got nervous and she miss one line of her poem.Her mother quickly comes closer to encourage her not to be terrified. Her male teacher also gazes at her seriously making Ericka becomes firm and courageous facing the audience whose eyes focus on her.Her mother laughs when the strong wind blows making her dress fly showing her repaired colorful short underpants as her mother whispered,“My little, tiny girl Ericka. I have more sympathy for you because you are a dreamer and courageous to face life’s challenges. Now, people can see your old, repaired underpants and newly sew dress which suits you. I am happy that you began to endure tough life without
Chapter Six [ The trainings for competition]Ericka is already developing into a remarkable, stunning, and intelligent high school student. She studied alone at night and listened to radio dramas and music during the day since her parents, brothers, and sisters prefer that she stay at home and defend the house and their flock from predators during vacation months.She picked up many positive character traits, etiquette, and human qualities from actors and actresses in radio dramas, and she learned to sing songs by listening to radio music and news.As she began to learn about the human body and developed age-appropriate curiosity, she also learned about love, sex, and marriage. As a result, she began to wonder what gender she was and grew resentful of boys who teased, bullied, and made-up slanderous stories about her as well as of her male classmates.One day, one of her huge, stunning male classmates sends her a love letter. That was after singing a song in front of the class when th
Chapter seven [ Childhood playmates' attraction] Ericka is maturing into a young, gorgeous lady, but she remains playful, youthful, and quirky around her own family and relatives. Nobody sees her as smart, extremely intellectual, and endowed with both brains and beauty. When she is at the farm, her parents' friends like to pair her with their son so that their friendship can last till they die, as one of the fathers said. "We should have married our son and daughter, Compadre, so that our farm resources grow stronger and expand with our younger generation as successors."As he attempts to persuade Ericka's father to consent to the marriage, Ericka's emotions burst like explosions softly inside her heart, attempting to estimate her abilities to find methods to escape the oddities of those around her.“Your youngest daughter Ericka and my second eldest son, Noli seems compatible to get married. They appear to be hardworking, helpful, and very quiete." Her father's companion focuses hi