LIGHT AND SHADOW: UNTIL DARKNESS DO US APART

CHAPTER 7:THE BLIND WOMAN'S SECRET

Just as flowers bloom in the darkest of places, hope can bloom in the darkest of times.

*Third Person's P.O.V"

Amaya walked down the streets of Compton, her long soft hair being blown by the wind. She stopped by a spooky looking building with a broken roof and fence. The flowers in the garden were withering.

Sighing, she pushed the gates of the broken fence open and walked in. Everywhere was messed up. A hawk stood on the face of the scarecrow watching her. Dead plants were all over the front porch.

'Maybe if I save enough,I could leave this city.'she thought.

Mrs. Lucia Gonzālez lived in the building all alone. Everyone thought she was a witch except Amaya. Amaya had passed over her house multiple times to see the oldish lady water the dead flowers with no emotions in her eyes. She'd heard Mrs. Lucia was once a vibrant woman before an incident that took her sanity away from her.

Amaya claimed the hardwood stairs to the front porch which gave an unsettling noise. With a smile planted on her face, she knocked on the door.

The sound of cane being hit on a wooden floor overwhelmed the silence of the place. No sooner than later, wrinkled skin with green eyes and gray hair presented itself in front of Amaya.

"Uh...hi, I'm Amaya," Amaya smiled cheerfully at the blind lady holding a cane to guide herself.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was low and demanding. Amaya felt a pang of pain in her heart. What would make such a beautiful woman in her forties despise the mere essence of life?

"I," She looked at the garden. "noticed you've been trying to save your garden but it...was futile. I'd like to help out, for an income." She said shyly, suddenly feeling guilty for trying to collect money from the woman.

Then the woman grew silent for a while. Her gray eyes looked at Amaya as if she could see her.

"Or... I'll just volunteer...you...um don't have to pay me," Amaya stared at the ground.

She heard the sound of the damaged front door moving and when she looked up, the old woman was out of sight and the door was closed. She sighed and looked around the place.

'I understand how it feels to be trapped with no hope of glory. But then, I met Andria and she gave me hope,'she thought, her mind traveling back to the incident with Andria and the train.

.~. .~.

"Have you no shame!"Amaya's foster mother, Eunice Windfred screamed like she was going to run mad.

"I told you, throw that child out. She'll drive you nuts one day," Gabriel Patel, Eunice's boyfriend said, chewing on a rosemary leaf.

Eunice looked at Amaya with hate as she stood looking lifeless with her dress wet in her own urine. The only reason Eunice took her in was to get the money Amaya's father put aside for whoever would take her in when he eventually died.

"Go sit outside and don't return till that horrible stench has eluded you!" Eunice barked. Without a second thought, Amaya walked away. Eunice and Gabriel looked at themselves in shock.

Amaya walked under the heavy rain towards the train rail. Her eye color looked like all the life in it had faded. It was months since her parents died and she couldn't get over it. Especially when she had to witness it.

She stood on the rails waiting for the morning train to pass by. Andria who ran through the bushy background of the place hiding from a friend of hers caught sight of Amaya and the approaching train.

Her eyes went wide and she ran as fast as she could to the lost girl. She managed to push the girl off the rail and they both fell on the ground. Amaya was shaking and she looked at Andria with petrified eyes.

Andria got up and looked down at the girl.

"Have you lost it? You could have died,"She shouted in spontaneous anger but it disappeared when she saw the state of Amaya.

"My... parents wanted me home,"She cried and Andria sat next to her. She understood.

"I understand. My cousin committed suicide when aunt died, he was a Christian. The pastor said he wasn't going to make it to his parents because suicide leads people to hell," Andria says and Amaya looked at her.

"So, I wouldn't have met my parents?"

"Not a chance,"

*~* *~*

Amaya dropped the shovel on the floor and reached for her phone in her pocket then accepted the call.

"Hello, Amaya, where are you?"Andria asked immediately.

"Lucia Gonzālez's," She put the phone in the middle of her ear and shoulder and continued uprooting all the flowers.

"Okay,"Andria's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, what? You know Lucia is very creepy. I mean she hasn't been out of that house since passover."

"Andria, I need a job."

"What about..." She paused and cleared her throat. "That woman doesn't even leave her house, where do you expect her to get money to pay you from."

"Ever heard we are in a 'work from home' generation?"

"Well," She began raising a brow. "mail came in today. You paid all your bills?"

"No, I didn't. Maybe it's Amy's mail, did you see any rejected love notes to Justin Bieber in there?" Amaya smiles as she throws more dead plants into the pile next to her.

"I also wondered too but no rejected love notes and the mail has your name as recipient name. Utility bill has been cleared plus next year's own. Your laundry bill too. Maintenance, Tax,-"

"How?"Amaya stood straight. "I didn't pay for any of those-"

Lucia's front door opened and Amaya looked at the front porch to see Lucia.

"Uh... I will talk to you later," She ends the call and puts her phone back into her pocket. She rushed to Lucia who had a hard time finding her rocking chair.

"Over here," She guided the blind woman to her chair.

"You didn't leave?" The woman asked in surprise. Amaya nods, "I'll just clear the garden for free."

The woman went silent again and sighed.

"Go make me some tea," She said and turned on the radio that was next to her.

Amaya smiled happily. "Where's the sugar... I'll just find it." She went inside the house which was surprisingly beautiful on the inside although obsolete. She found the kitchen and prepared some tea. She walked out of the kitchen with it and as she was about to leave, her eyes caught sight of a picture on the wall.

' That is the same woman from the picture I saw the day Maria fired me,' Amaya thought. Andria had told her maybe it was some prank by one of those people that called her a witch. Amaya thought it through, maybe it was but she kept the picture with her.

The woman was a black woman with long black hair and green eyes. She was pregnant in the picture and a man with blonde hair and gray eyes stood next to her grinning. They looked very happy.

"How long would it take you to make tea?" Lucia shouted.

Amaya nearly split the tea. She walked out of the house and placed the teacup next to the radio.

"Um... I'll pack the dirt and leave," Amaya said and before she could leave the woman spoke.

"You remind me a lot of my friend," She said.

"The one whose picture is on your wall?"

"Yes. She died years ago after giving birth to twins. Such tragedy, Roseline was the sweetest woman I knew," She said with traces of contempt in her tone.

Twins? Amaya recalled the twins in the picture. She wished she could show the woman the picture but of what use when she's blind?

"I'm sorry about that. Did her children survive?"

Lucia's lips curled up which surprised Amaya. "It's getting late."

Amaya stared at her for a while and nodded. She got to work and after half an hour, she was done. She dropped the shovel in the store room. She looked at Lucia who was listening to the evening news.

"I'll leave now. My name is Amaya Anderson in case you didn't know....I'll be back tomorrow," when the woman didn't reply, she grabbed her bag and was about to leave when Lucia spoke.

"Don't quit your job," She said and Amaya's eyes widened. She looked back at the woman in shock. How did she know?

Well Amaya wasn't the only stalker after all.

**. **. **.

"What if she had sold your soul to the devil or even cut out your intestines and sold it for money?" Andria asks, putting on some lipstick.

Amaya sat on her bed taking off her shoes. Her bruise had healed already.

"Lucia isn't like that, I think." She said and looked at the mail on her bedside table.

"How did Alejandro react when you gave him my letter?" Andria looked at Amaya with expecting eyes. Amaya threw her shoe across the room and grabbed the mail.

"He was excited," She lied and Andria blushed. The doorbell rang and Andria jumped off the chair.

"My order must be here,"she said excitedly and exited the room.

Amaya read through the mails in confusion.

"Who could have paid the mail?" She asked herself and then grabbed her phone.

She called Ethan Hall, the man she pays her maintenance bills to.

"Hello, how may I help you?" His voice was low and disdainful.

"It's Amaya Anderson."

"Get to the freaking point," she fidgets.

"Uh...I'd like to know who paid my maintenance bills," She said.

"Hold on a bit," She waited for about a minute before he spoke.

"The Luis's," He sounded shocked. Her eyes widened and just then Andria burst through the door panting. They both look at each other with wide eyes.

"Alejandro is here,"