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MIND & BODY

It was several years ago when Andree left her real home, she completely had no recollection of the people she left behind, they were totally gone in her memory after they left. There was one time when she insisted Cesar to tell her about her old home. He did not answer her, but since she was able to know that his silence was a necessity, she just accepted the fact that she would never get anything from Cesar.

Andree just had chosen to bury the longing and eagerness to know about her old home into the deepest part of her heart and chose not to think of it. She was just looking forward for the day Cesar told her was the right time for her to know everything about her past. Everything Including her parents that she was longing to know.

For days and years of living as normal girl, Andree tried to enjoy every simple thing she had. She has Lino and Susan, and they embraced the thought of her as their real grandchild. she always loves it when Susan and Lino were around because aside from having a lot of delicious food whenever they visit her, they never failed to make her feel that she was also a normal child.

They fill the void Andree have in her heart because of a past of which was kept unknown to her for a reason she did not know.  She spent her entire life for training and school only. Cesar’s one wish was for her to finish school, at least graduate and have a degree because he told her she would be needing it.

Andre would always remember the time where it was only her and Cesar, for her every meal felt like they were just having a campfire in a camping, or it was as if they were like hunters in the mountains and just having their catch for dinner. For her, Cesar was the master of the art of roasting, that was the reason why Andree’s favorite is roasted beef.

Growing up with Cesar in a different place since they left Lino and Susan in Manla to manage Lino’s business in the province, their house was more like a Flintstone’s house and a garage sort of a workshop combined. It was when Belinda joined the family, everything became normal. Day by day Andree would appreciate every improvement in the house, little by little it evolves into a house compared from a seemingly old cave that it was before. Andree was a little downhearted that the couple were not able to produce a child, she was always wondering how it felt like to have siblings.

Belinda was a literary arts professor and was also a part time librarian, so she would always bring Andree with her in the library whenever Cesar had to leave for a mass fishing. Belinda also requested Cesar to make Andree a space in her room for her mini library since she noticed that the child was showing interest with reading history and other books related with literature.

Belinda got fond of Andree the first time they met. She saw her being interested with the books she was reading. Belinda often finds Andree scanning through her history books whenever she had to prepare her lesson plan for her class.

There were also instances that Andre would just talk unexpectedly whenever she would check the students’ history projects which were usually through reports. Belinda will just laugh at Andree’s violent reaction whenever she would find errors on the report that does not coincide with what was in history. There were also times that Andree would tell Belinda any update regarding what was already written in books but has been founded to be false by latest discoveries.

Andrea started to love reading stories, history, and drama or plays written by famous writers since even before Elizabethan period. The library had become her training ground to enhance her imagination and her ability to read minds, it was also where she discovers that she could get in with someone else’s dream. She also noticed that little by little there were various things she could do with her mind, and she had already thought that she could do more since she felt like she can still explore her abilities to the extent which she does not know yet, no one else does.

She never told Cesar that she could interfere with dreams, that she can do something else with her mind. All he knew was she could only read minds, actions of humans, crocodiles, alligators, and sharks simple as that.

Although Cesar would leave her most of the time with Belinda; he never stopped training her to maintain her physical capabilities. One thing that was also included with her training was conditioning her mind, not for the reason of enhancing her mind reading ability but on how to control his state of mind whenever confronted with situations that usually affect good judgement.

Cesar would always remind Andree, “Your mind reading ability could be one of your best weapons to know any opponent that you may be confronted with.”

He would argue with her while attacking her, he would attack her emotionally, he would make her mad to the extreme that Andree could throw him out. Andree is quick tempered in nature it seemed like Cesar knows about it, so he was training her to stay in focus and with sound mind even while enraged. Andree may not know it but no matter how enraged or irate she was, she could still see through the anger that clouded her mind.

Cesar once told Andree, “Train your mind more, physical training was already a piece of cake for you, never forget to train your mind regularly, your mind and body needed to compensate each other. Make sure that if in any case your mind may be weakened, you have your body to cover for it. If your body would be weakened, make sure you have your mind to make up for it. “