"Why the long face?" Eliza asked. "Wait. Why aren't you at the factory? Did something happen?"
"I got fired." I sighed. "It was the first time I arrived late but they fired me because of it. Can you believe that?" I complained.
"Well, yes." She said. "You did say your manager was strict and seemed to look down on people."
"Yeah. But I didn't imagine her to be this unreasonable."
"But wait, why were you late? I went by your house really early this morning and your mother said you already left for work." She said. "Did you crawl to the factory?" She teased.
"I bumped into trouble on the way." The memory made my blood boil. "How can I be so unlucky?" I said dramatically.
"So you haven't gone home and told your parents yet?" She asked.
"I can't just go home empty-handed."
"Hmm. Maybe you're not as unlucky as you think." She said softly. "Since you have so much free time, do you want to go with me?" She asked brightly.
"Where?"
"To do some deliveries of course. I'll introduce you to my boss. She's really nice."
"Well, as long as I'll earn some money then I'm in."
Eliza brought me along and we arrived at a big warehouse in the thirteenth floor. There were many workers and delivery trucks. I didn't know that Eliza worked at such a place. I was too busy providing for my family that I never asked specific details about it. I thought she just worked for some small-time merchant. I followed her inside. She greeted every person we passed by and had a big smile plastered on her face. As expected of Eliza. She was warm and bright wherever she went. We stopped by the door at the end of the hall and knocked. A voice, her boss', said to come in with a friendly tone.
"Hello madam." Eliza said.
"I told you not to call me that." The beautiful woman said with a smile. She had wrinkles on her face as a sign of age but she looked youthful. She was glowing. "Who is this?"
"This is my friend Kira. She's looking for a job." She started. "She worked at the juice factory on the nineteenth floor but got fired today for being late for the first time."
"Oh? It was your first time getting late and you got fired? That's cruel." The woman said.
"Can you help her out? Do we need more people?"
"Hmm. Well, I wasn't really looking." The woman said. Then she looked at me. "Well, I do have a lot of deliveries for Eliza today. Since you're here, I guess you can help her out. You can divide the deliveries and finish early."
"Really? Thank you so much." I exclaimed.
"Go and get the delivery items and be on your way."
We thanked the boss once again and left to make deliveries. The truck driver helped us load the boxes onto the truck. Some boxes were filled with common goods and necessities like bottled water, soap, detergent, and towels. Some were filled with clothes, shoes, hats, scarves and socks. There were also luxury items with intricate designs, touching them felt so criminal. There were a few boxes which contents we knew nothing of. I found out that the boss lady was a retailer. She accepted orders and bought the goods in bulk from the factories. With these, she paid less than the normal price and sold them at a higher price to her clients, though the price she sold them at were still lower than when they're bought from the malls upstairs. Her clients were the kind who didn't have the time to go to stores for shopping. After loading the boxes, the driver started the engine and off we went.
We made our first stop at the twenty-second floor. We divided the orders and I was assigned to deliver the orders from that floor. Eliza planned on getting dropped off at another floor and the truck driver planned on making deliveries at another floor. The driver pulled up in the neighborhood where the orders I was tasked to deliver were from. I pulled out the retractable cart and loaded my deliveries. "I'll come back for you in four hours." The driver said, and then he sped off. I took out the map from my jacket pocket and studied it intently. It was a good thing I had a great sense of direction. The job seemed like it was made for me. I pushed the cart and hummed while walking. It was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. The houses were constructed in straight lines and the trees by the sidewalk were of a full lively green. I checked the addresses and scanned the house numbers very carefully. It was going to be easy, I thought.
Three and a half hours later, I was hungry and exhausted. It was two hours past lunchtime and I only had sandwich to eat. It was a good thing I bought the sandwich on my way from getting fired. I thought of giving it to my mother as peace offering for losing my job. I wasn't brave enough to go home and the sandwich saved me from hunger, kind of. My stomach growled. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Most of the houses looked similar and my sense of direction was muddled. I got confused after I made a right turn by the big golden tree, and most of the houses on the street looked similar. Some houses had their house numbers faded or hidden by vines and huge bushes. It was really tiring. My heels felt so sore and my arms hurt from pushing the cart. I stopped to take a quick rest under the shade of a pretty tree with pink flowers. I looked at the cart. Finally, only one box was left. I checked the map again to figure out where I was. The street was even quieter than the earlier ones. The houses were bigger and looked more luxurious. I wondered what it was like to live in one of those houses. Eliza would have been happy making the deliveries in the neighborhood, I thought. I got on my feet and pushed to cart to finish the job.
I stopped in front of a beautiful mansion. It was breathtaking. I literally had my mouth open staring at it. The mansion looked like a castle. It had white marbled walls and dark blue tiled roof. The front lawn was intricately landscaped with different flowers in full bloom. The railings on the stairs to the front porch looked like white vines with each curve carefully planned. There was a beautifully carved symbol of a flower I had never seen before above the main door. It was a sight to see. I marveled at its magnificence. It looked enchanting. I checked the house number and it turned out to be the last address on my list. I hesitated at the foot of the stairs. I wondered whether it was alright for someone like me to step on the shiny linoleum floor. I took a deep breath before taking a step. It took me almost two minutes to reach the top after I kept hesitating at every step. Then, I rang the doorbell.
A smiling old woman opened the door. She was dressed in an ankle-length lavender sundress. She tied her hair in a pretty bun, but a few short strands had escaped and hanged loosely on her neck. She was elegantly stunning. She was so bright I had to blink twice. I cleared my thought before talking.
"Good afternoon. I have your package." I said and handed her the box.
"Oh. Thank you." The old woman accepted it with a bright smile. "I never expected that a beautiful young woman would be the one to deliver it to me. It must be hard to be making deliveries for a lady like you."
"No. It's nothing, really." I said, though I felt like dying. "I just got lost a couple times. The other houses looked the same."
She took a glimpse at the cart behind me. "You delivered this by foot? I thought your company had delivery trucks?"
"The driver had to make some deliveries of his own but he'll come pick me up soon." I said. "By the way, your house is beautiful."
"Thank you. My husband designed it himself. It was supposed to be a gift to…" She paused. She gave a faint smile before continuing. "It was for my daughter. She always wanted a castle-like house."
"She must be so happy then." I said.
"I hope so. She had always been sickly since she was little. And…" Her eyes looked so sad. "She died before the house was finished."
"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"It's alright. It's been eight years. Actually, you remind me of her." She stared at me lovingly. "Your eyes looked so like hers, full of wonder and curiosity."
I couldn't answer her. I didn't know what to say. I had never learned to comfort people. I was contemplating on what to say when I heard a loud honk behind me. I was startled and turned around to see the delivery truck.
"We've been looking for you. Come on! We still have a few deliveries to make." Eliza shouted.
I turned back to the old woman. "I'm so sorry. I have to go. It was a pleasure talking to you."
"Thank you for listening to the words of an old woman like me." She said smiling, though it didn't reach her eyes. "I hope all of your dreams will come true. Off you go."
I lightly bowed my head and ran to the truck. I sat beside Eliza and the driver started the engine after I buckled up. I watched as the woman's reflection on the side view mirror got smaller and smaller until she was completely out of sight.
"Who was that?" Eliza asked.
"The last customer. She was really kind." I said. "How did you find me?"
"We've been searching for half an hour. We both finished early and came to pick you up but you weren't there where we dropped you off so we decided to look for you round the neighborhood. Damn. This neighborhood is big. I think we went through all the streets looking for you. We got lost and drove in circles a few times too. It was funny." Eliza burst in laughter.
"Why do you sound so excited?" I noticed. "Are we going home?"
"Are you kidding me? We still have deliveries to make."
"Then why are you so happy?" I asked.
"Because…." She prolonged for dramatic effect. "We're going to the forty-ninth floor."