A Beautiful Mistake

Chapter 2- An Unexpected Guest

I rub my eyes, thinking I must be hallucinating. Behind the gate stands Martin a cigarette in his mouth and his van parked right in front of my house. “Who is it?” Paul asks and I quickly answer: “Nobody just make sure Claire stays inside.” Martin looks at me confused as I walk towards him and drag him further away from the house.

“Why won’t you let me see Claire?”

Getting angry I answer: “Why? You’re the one who didn’t show up for almost 2 years. I thought you finally decided that you don’t want to be her father. “

“Well, that’s why I’m here. I’ve made my decision. I’m getting married very soon and I know my fiancé won’t tolerate the idea of me having an illegitimate child.” – He explains

“How are you going to explain this to Claire? She’s just 7 for God’s sake! If you were planning on getting married and leaving her, then you shouldn’t have come here in the first place. Then I could at least say that you went missing or you disappeared, even better died.” – I argue with him. On the corner of my eyes, I can see my mother waiting for us signaling me that Claire is getting curious.

I look back at Martin. Eager to finish this and get him out of our lives for good. “You can tell Claire about this. How you do it is completely your choice but when she asks me for the truth you can bet that I’ll tell her.” Hearing this my mother stops me. “We’re celebrating today do it some other day. Don’t ruin this night for the child.” – she says. I totally forgot about the celebration but my mother is right. The night was perfect before he showed up. I look at Martin and nod at him. He understands and walks to his van, driving away before Claire could see him. I go back inside and brush it off as Claire asks. I think now is the time for her present. I grab the badminton set from its hiding spot and hand it to her. Forgetting about what happened she shrieked and her whole face lit up. In the meantime, my mother cuts the cake and serves it. By the time that Paul decides to leave, Claire was already fast asleep and my mother just finished doing the dishes. I lie down beside my daughter careful not to wake her up. I just hope she will take it well when her father tells her that he’s leaving for good. With that thought I drift to sleep not waiting for my mother anymore.

Waking up I hear a man shouting “Taho!” The sun was blinding my eyes and Claire shakes me asking if she could buy her favorite sweet breakfast. While I try to stand up I can already hear my mom stopping the man and asking for one big cup of Taho. I reach for my bag and dig for my wallet, taking out a 5-peso coin and walking to them. We then started our day with breakfast and some coffee. Since it’s the weekend we would probably head out to the mall. We dressed up, my mother and I taking turns at getting Claire ready and taking enough water with us. It was already noon by the time we got to the mall so we decided on eating in Jollibee. I ordered some Jollihotdog, cokefloat and peach-mango pie for myself and my mom. Claire wanted her Jollispaghetti and sundae. As we finished our lunch Claire got impatient and we step out. While looking around Claire saw a movie and excitedly asked if we have time to watch a movie. Seeing that we won’t have to pay for Claire’s tickets as she is under 12, I didn’t saw a problem. While waiting for the movie to start we buy some cheese popcorn and went to the toilets. We watch the movie for half an hour when Claire started getting cold luckily the child beside her offers to share the blanket. Seeing this I thank the child and his mother who saw it too. It was already 4:58 pm by the time the movie finished. Mom and I had to go buy groceries to stock as we won’t come back here for a while and since we would at least take an hour or two we’ve decided to drop Claire off in a playhouse in the mall. It was already 7:30 pm when we finished grocery shopping. So, we pick Claire up from the playhouse and decided to eat at Chowking. Claire told us about the other kids she played with and all the other toys she saw.

We finish eating and go home. By the time we arrive Claire is fast asleep. I carry her onto the mattress and change her clothes while my mom organizes the groceries. Changing my clothes and getting ready to sleep I check my phone one last time and see a message from my cousin who lives abroad. Reading her messages, I suddenly get excited and second thoughts.