I love working in the garden. It's my happy place because I feel at peace. I get the chance to be around fresh flowers and plants. Arranging flowers in vases and pots is what I love the most. Aside from that, cashier work is not as stressful as handling the register in a department store or the supermarket. Only a few customers come to the garden, too, but it gets swamped on different occasions. 

I was excited to see the basket of discarded plants and flowers. My hands started arranging the flowers I had taken from the basket. So, indeed, I have something to bring my baby to tomorrow. My heart can't contain the happiness.

While arranging the flowers in one of the plastic pots, I felt like someone was watching me from somewhere in the garden. I tried looking around, but I couldn't see anyone.

"Creepy!" I said aloud. 

I continued arranging the flowers but had goosebumps when I heard whistling. I tried listening to where the sound was coming from, but it stopped.

"What the hell! Is somebody trying to scare me right now?"

I yelled intentionally to shoo away the person who was scaring me. I don't get scared quickly, but this is the first time in my two years working here that such a thing has happened.

"This isn't funny. Whoever you are, I'm not scared. You better show your face now or else!!"

I immediately grabbed the scissors I was using to cut the flowers. I walked towards the entrance of the garden, but nobody was there. I tried looking towards the right side of the garden, but still no one.

As I walk back to my station, I hear the whistling again. I stopped in the middle of the garden. Whoever is doing this prank on me is not someone I know. Only one person dares to play tricks on me, Dylan, the store manager, but he is on leave for a week. Usually, he shows himself after the first three minutes because he insists on asking me out for a date. But as always, I decline. This time it's different; it's freaking me out.

I started talking to myself aloud to calm my nerves.

"Angel, my baby, I will arrange the prettiest flowers for you. I am sorry if I haven't come for weeks now. I got so busy with all the extended hours I took. But don't worry, I will visit you tomorrow. I miss you. Baby, I love you!"

Just after I finished the arrangement, the whistling started again. This time, it was getting louder and nearer. But before I left my station, Jane showed up at the entrance.

"Hey, Aya, clock out now. We have 15 minutes to get ready for the dinner meeting."

"Oh! Holy crap! You surprised me! Honest, something is creepy in here! But I am not bothered at all!"

I told Jane aloud, wanting to ensure that whoever was whistling, whether human or not, heard me. I logged out from my register and smiled at Miles, the cashier replacing me in the garden. Together, Jane and I walked toward the locker room. We put our aprons in our respective lockers and took our bags. We passed by the washroom to freshen up and wash our hands. And we walked together to the meeting room.

Almost everyone expected from the employees' group when we entered was already waiting inside. And like in the usual scenario, the same group of "birdies" starts chirping whenever there is a meeting.

"I heard from a reliable source that the management is going to be represented by a high-ranking person," said Lily, the senior in the maintenance department.

"Maybe it's true because the menu for tonight's dinner leveled up from the usual." Dino, the funny guy from the Stocking Department, answered.

Jane and I just looked at each other. We have known each other for five years and have already mastered conversing with just our eyes. Though Jane is a supervisor, she is one of the quiet employees in WS. And without her telling me, I learned to be the same. As she always says, "Less talk, less mistake."

And it was never my style to gossip. I only want to focus on my job. I have a goal to save for my last two years in college. Jane convinced me to finish college even after how long it would take. When she declined to accept the payment I tried giving for my rent, I paid the electric bill every month since I started working in WS. From my calculation, if I keep getting overtime hours for another year working here in the W Supermarket, I'll have enough for my first year. I can stay working temporarily here while I work my way for a year, getting qualified for my grad year scholarship.

That is the plan—no, my life's goal. Inspired and motivated by Jane, I smiled, remembering why we opted for Jane rather than Mama Jane. We didn't want people to think I got in at WS because my supervisor is my Mama Jane. But she has been and is still the ever-loving mother to me in all ways.

I smiled, telling myself how lucky I was to have Jane. Life is a mystery! I now want to believe that everything happens for a reason. If Marc hadn't left me that night five years ago, who knows what life I am living now? Maybe I would still be his shadow, his dependent childhood friend, and the charity case that his family took. But I still can't deny that I owed his parents great gratitude for caring for me for years. 

"A penny for your thought." An unfamiliar voice on the vacant chair on my left startled me. 

In my two years of working here, only three people have had the chance to converse with me: Jane, Dylan, and the HR head. Not that I have a personality issue, but since I came here, I never felt at ease socializing. The night that I said I died the first time it felt like it placed me in a coffin, I got walled all around me. I felt like I needed to close myself off from others to get into my daily life. One that Jane doesn't approve of. But for myself, it is my way of protecting myself. 

"Earth to Aya!" I turned my head to whoever was this brave soul beside me who dared to call my name.

I am looking at a stranger. Male, age 25-27, brown hair, wearing faded blue jeans, white t-shirt, and black leather jacket, blue-eyed and reeks of alcohol, smirking face.

"Cid Wal... Williams at your service!" and reached out his right hand to me.

***