FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 45 ~~~~~

"About a hundred or so," Iesha said rather plainly. In which Robin, Vic and Elain merely stared at the girl with shocked confusion. Iesha merely shrugged. "You know those jars in electronic stores sometimes at the counter and it's filled with stuff? Well, one had USB sticks that could hold about 16GB for a dollar. So, I bought them all. Figured I could use it for something or someone else when taking notes."

Vic looked like she was on the verge of bursting into laughter. "W-wait... so are you telling me... you spent, like, a hundred bucks, for USBs?"

"A hundred and twenty," Iesha clarified. "That's how many were in the jar anyway, and it's not like they were that large in size."

Vic burst into laughter. "You spent a hundred and twenty dollars on a bunch of little USBs?! That's so funny! I can just picture it, and I bet the guy at the counter was so confused too!! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"It's not that funny Vic," Robin interjected flatly before looking to Iesha. "Though I can't help but wonder why you bought all of them."
"They were a dollar," Iesha clarified. "And with how expensive everything is in this economy I wasn't about to let something like that get by. And if you think I'm bad, you should have seen what my aunt did when my mom told her about it."

"What did she do?" Elain asked, genuinely curious.

"My aunt's a teacher at this private school in Toronto for little kids around six and up. When she heard what I did she rushed in and saw that the staff put out even more jars filled with USBs. She bought five hundred and plans to give a whole bunch to her students."

Wow... was all Elain could think.

"But anyway, it's not like I bought them solely for me or for those I take notes for, I also give some as gifts to people. Speaking of," Iesha pulled out a small gift bag and handed it to Elain. "This is for you."

"Oh, you didn't have to." Iesha merely shrugged as Elain looked inside the bag. Inside was another USB, a little bear dressed as a pirate, a little thing of candies, and a handmade card.

"That was made by my siblings, when I told them what happened they wanted to make something to help you feel better."

The card was of, what Elain could assume, Iesha and three other kids cheering, and on the inside was a drawing of Elain. "Am I holding a cutlass sword?"

"Yes," Iesha said. "We didn't know what you used when fighting that bastard, so they drew whatever that they could think of, plus my siblings really like pirates. I hope that's okay?"

Elain smiled. "Sure, I don't mind. Given all the other stuff I got from other people and classmates at school I bet a whole bunch of rumours have been going around anyway." Elain said while glancing at the pile of gifts that were accumulating in the corner of her room. "I wonder when it's gonna stop."

That was also something that came in droves, gifts from those who heard what Elain did, some strictly for her and others for Elain and Amalie, or just Amalie wishing them to get better. Though Elain's mom asked the other attending nurses to screen the gifts so not to get anything weird, which from what Elain heard through the nurse grapevine, there were a few... though the normal gifts ranged from food, fruit, toys and balloons, some sent games, books or comics. One person even sent a freaking PS5 with the complete Uncharted Collection. Which was now at home in her room waiting to be played.

"What happened to all the balloons?" Vic asked.

"I gave them to a lot of the little kids, same with a lot of the plushies I got, I gave those to the NICU, I thought the parents would like something for their babies so they aren't alone."