Ch. 12
"Be careful, honey. You don't want to step into that puddle of water and stain your shoes."
"Mommy, who'll come to our dinner?"
"It'll just be the three of us."
"Well…" The little girl tried to mask her disappointment, "I like that too. But it won't be quiet like our dinner everyday, right?"
Cristina didn't say a word.
Asha looked up at her mother for a long while, her gloomy face, her drooping shoulders, something the little girl didn't often see. "Sorrie, Mommy. Did I say something wrong?"
"No, darling." A streak of self-doubt lingered on Cristina's face. "Asha, tell Mommy honestly, are we really that quiet at dinner?"
The girl nodded. "Mrs. Smith said that if we talk when we eat, we'll choke on our food and die."
Amused by the teacher's absurd comment, Cristina replied, "Only if you talk too much."
"I will have to talk a lot if both Daddy and you don't." Asha responded thoughtfully.
The words struck Cristina like the thunder in the sky.
Just when the mother and daughter were about to shut Mrs. Smith's Peter Rabbit umbrella and dash into the car, a dark figure shuffling on the nearly empty street caught their attention.
"Where are you going? The weather is horrible." Cristina thought her patient was doing something against anyone's better judgment.
Asha's little hand tightened around her mother's. She wasn't sure who the person was, but the way how her mother was almost yelling at the man made her wonder if it was a bad person. "Who's he?" She whispered.
"Is this your little girl?" Lowering his head, he asked fondly, "How old are you?"
As good natured as she normally was, Asha didn't say a word. Her mother told her never to talk to strangers. That, however, did not stop them from looking into each other's eyes. The smile on his face drained when the truth became obvious. Instead of bothering the mother and daughter further, Samuel stepped back, ready to walk away, before he felt the firm clutch of the female surgeon. "Please, let me give you a ride to a hotel."
He probably wasn't a bad man, Asha thought to herself. "Mister, you can take my seat at the front. It's warmer there."
Sometimes, human kindness would bring tears to our eyes.