Meanwhile, somewhere along the countryside, in a small town, the evening finally cast her dusky gown. Esther heartily welcomed the amber glow radiating from the moon above her. Seated alone inside the once-grand garden of the Calderon mansion, she felt more alone than ever. It was the time when slower thoughts arrive, moments when with open eyes her brain became an empty horizon. Feeling the soothing breeze of the night, she reveled in the music of crickets and the sound of other nocturnal animals. She took a deep breath and then allowed the gentle energy of nature to wash over her aching heart.
     
Perched on the only usable bench, she coiled both her legs and brought them towards her chest. She looked up at the blanket of stars that reached infinity. For years, the gnawing grief kept her awake at night. What went wrong? How could things have turned out the way they did? Questions upon questions piled up in her head as the years went by, but the answer remained elusive like the rarity of the exotic flowers that blanketed the entirety of the garden. Seated there alone, misery was written all over her face.

“Gen, my poor, poor Gen,” she murmured, nearly choked by her tears. Her body shivered as the cold gust of wind cradled her old wrinkled skin. Two days and Esther's allowed but supervised visitation in the psychiatric hospital would arrive. Oh, how she yearned for those days; days where Gen's presence was enough to wash away her agony.

However, Esther couldn’t help but wonder if the girl, no, she should say, woman, even remembers her as she stares mindlessly with empty eyes at her whenever she came to visit. Did Gen blame her, hate her? Esther reasoned that sending Gen to the institution was the best course, not that she had a say, to begin with. The court willed it. But Gen's pleading voice, her face streaked with tears, arms outstretched towards Esther on the day of her verdict, remained fresh in her head just as it did seven years ago, turning her nights and days into everyday torture. She abandoned that crying girl and allowed justice to prevail, but the question remained, did Gen blame her?
     
When fatigue overcame her, Esther dropped her legs from their confines and headed towards the mansion. Throwing a final glance at the star-dotted sky, she entered the house and walked towards her bedroom, a place which seemed more like a prison with walls filled with pain, regret, and anguish, and of course, endless sleepy nights accompanied by the torturous music of her tears.

***
     
The old mansion slowly came alive with the chirping of birds as dawn broke, yet Esther remained awake. No matter how she shifted, positioned her body or endless calming tea cascaded from her mouth to her throat, sleep remained elusive. She looked at the clock on her bedside table and it showed three forty-five. Esther gave up and sat down. She absent-mindedly willed herself towards the rocking chair positioned near the window. Silently rocking, she closed her eyes and retraced the events that consumed their lives.
                                                                                    ***
Nine years ago, on the morning she went to town and found out about Gen's boyfriend leaving town for college, Esther arrived at the Calderon mansion only to find Gen sprawled on the bathroom floor, in a fetal position, face contorted and her breathing shallow. Esther walked up to her and crouched down near her leg, she tried to lay a hand on her arm, but Gen jerked away, fear prominent in her eyes. She opened her mouth and murmured something incoherent, So Esther leaned over to hear her, but Gen had closed her eyes and passed out.

The grotesque condition of Gen was enough to have her mind careening in different places. Gen was a mess. But Esther hadn't given it much thought. Gen was someone who like to stray in the forest behind the mansion. She probably got this messy and wounded because of the branches again," Esther thought to herself. But still, Esther had her doubts. Gen was too... The only word she had thought of was disarrayed.

Filled with fear from the panic which steadily crept throughout her body, Esther carried Hen out of the bathroom and placed her on the bed. She took it upon herself to clean the girl. Her blood and dirt-stained clothes clung to her body like a second layer of skin. Her arms and legs still streaked with dried blood and mud crushed the old housekeeper's heart. Esther, with her hands shaking, needed every ounce of courage within her to rid the girl of her clothes. She cleaned her body with a wet towel and put on a new pair of pajamas on her while wiping the stubborn tears that kept falling from her old and tired eyes.
     
When finally, the girl was washed and fully clothed, Esther walked out of the room and headed for the kitchen.
     
Mindlessly, the housekeeper went on with her daily chores pushing all her worries, questions, and fear aside. She convinced herself that everything Gen was doing or experiencing was due to the sudden departure of her boyfriend Mike and her constant need to play in the forest. But when afternoon reached its peak, Esther once again heard a scream. That time it was feral and louder. She ran, ran as fast as she could, but when she arrived in front of the girl's room and twisted the knob, she was surprised to see that it was locked. Like a bolt of lightning, Esther ran to her room and took the spare keys inside her drawer, then hurriedly ran back upstairs, but to her confusion, she found the previously locked door ajar. Although confused, Esther carefully walked towards it, like a hunter would when stalking its prey.

With her heart rapidly drumming in her chest, she pushed the door wider and stepped inside. She craned her neck from left to right searching for Gen and found her standing beside her bathroom door. For a brief moment, Esther felt an immeasurable fear creep up inside her, where it came from remained unknown to her to this day, but concern rid her of said emotion when she fully took in the image before her. Gen was gawking at something on the ceiling, her arms out with palms forward, her body shaking from head to toe made it seem like someone was out to get her. Then she startled Esther as she crazily screamed profanities at the ceiling.
     
“Stay away from me,” she yelled furiously at her chandelier, “Don't you come near me,” she screamed again. She sidestepped to her right; eyes still fixed on the ceiling. “Ahhhhhh,” the girl screamed as her outstretched arms quickly coiled around her shoulders wrapping herself in her own arms as she fell to the floor. “Stay away from me,” she cried out again, squirming as if she was in pain. Gen's words were still directed at the ceiling, but at that time, her tone was faint and low as if she was slowly freezing from the inside out.
      
“Please,” Esther heard her beg.
     
Despite the scene before her, the old housekeeper remained rooted in front of the door, horrified by the episode. “No!” came a loud yell, and that jolted Esther to awareness. It propelled her numbing feet forward. As she reached Gen, she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her shaking body.

Esther held her for God knows how long until her shaking subsided and her breathing became even. Then, she carefully pulled away but kept her arms on the girl's shoulder. She stared at Gen but failed to hold her gaze because Gen continued to stare at something past her. So Esther glanced back and tilted her head up, but she saw nothing. She looked at the girl again, Gen's eyes held immense fear. The housekeeper leaned her head to the side, and with furrowed brow asked her what was wrong. The girl did not respond, instead, she closed the small distance between them and buried her face in Esther's chest.
     
They both stayed that way until Esther's leg screamed with pain. The old sticks that kept her walking for the past years were not as strong as they were before, nor did they have the capacity to withstand the lack of movement required in their position.
                                                                     ***

A car honking brought Esther back from her reverie, she had kept her eyes closed all that time and failed to notice the rising sun, casting a rosy hue across the sky.
      
Honking.
      
Honking.
     
Esther released a frustrated sigh and got up from her chair. She wrapped a shawl over her shoulders muttering words of irritation to whomever it was making noise at an early hour.
     
"Yes, yes, I'm coming,” she yelled, but honking persisted. Esther quickened her pace and opened the front door, clearly irritated. "What do you want?" she asked angrily not bothering to check who the person outside was.

But when her sight fell on her unlikely visitor, her blood turned cold and her face contorted.
     
A woman, the same age as Gen, whom Esther held great resentment for, stepped out of the car. Esther's eyes widened with the promise of death. "Lovely," she muttered in disbelief.

The visitor wasn't given a chance to say why she was there because the housekeeper's anger spiked, and with her fist clenched on both sides, she sprinted towards the woman. “You,” Esther yelled as she delivered a painful slap on the face of her unwelcomed visitor.