Best Pal Ever

There's this girl named Hannah amazes me the most. She owns a Labrador retriever named Charlie since 8 years old. She loves to play with him everyday. They play after school and during weekend.

When I first saw her at the park from a far, I thought she's a very shy girl. She's sitting on one of the bench 2 kilometers away from the playground. She looks afraid of the people around her. But in her eyes I knew that she wants to play and try all the amenities in the park. She never plays like a normal child at her age do. I guess something's bothering her and just stay where she is. I can't leave my eyes off her. What she'll do next? And as time passes, she's contented observing the children at the park playing. I learn from her nanny that she has asthma. Maybe it is the main reason she is prohibited to play hard games. How did I know? That's for you to figure out.

Today is summer season in the Philippines. It is during the month of April and May where students from Grade School and High School take a break from school. And yeah we have so much time to mingle and play. Every afternoon, I accompany my sister to the park where she loves to play. Honestly, she's not my sister since birth. We have no blood relationship because they adopted me but I am proud to tell the world that she and her family love me so much. They treated me like a family member. I am the youngest daughter to her parents. I faithfully care and love them. I would give my life to protect them. That is how much they mean to me.

My 18 year old sister, Mary likes the swing where she usually sit and rest. The slide and the seesaw are part of the trail she does during exercise. The spot where the mini rocket ship statue resides is her tracking field where she runs 20 times around. She also loves to ride the Mary go round when she's a kid. As for me, I do the different kind of exercise. I do running, crawling and jumping to complete the courses here at the park. I should at least finish 3 rounds a day to keep me fit and healthy. There's this special area for pals like me should be. After I am finish with the course, I go bond and play with my friends while waiting for my sister. When it's time for them to go home, I just sit on the grass and enjoy watching the people around me. That's when I usually see Hannah and her dog, Charlie.

When Hannah first got her dog, she was excited. It was her birthday that day when her mom brought her a puppy as a birthday present. Of course, its child's instinct to be curious. It's her mom's best friend that gave the puppy. Since they've been told that her dog gave birth to 3 puppies. And it's enough that they can only keep 2 dogs to be well taken care of. So, they decided to accept it assuming it could make Hannah happy.

Hannah is very close to Ate Sayong like her second Mom. Ate Sayong lived with her husband before in USA. Since her husband works there as an IT architect and consultant, there's no need for her to work. There she gave birth twice. Living in a foreign country becomes boring for her because she used to be a workaholic employee. She asked her husband to fly back to the Philippines with her children giving an excuse of wanting them to adopt the Philippine culture. Ate Sayong's husband agreed. When she met Hannah's parents, they became friends, she never gets bored. At first, the parents only let Hannah play with her son and daughter during weekends since she's an only daughter. They are happy together. But as time passes, Hannah's parents become very busy and go home late even weekend. Hannah's parents have the same work as her husband so she understands the urgency and time allotted for work. So Sayong decided to offer her home for Hannah to stay when she's alone in the house. Both their houses have maid for laundry, cook and driver so Hannah won't worry for the house cleaning, washing clothes and she surely won't starve. She insist even they don't agree to that. Sayong knew that they are just shy to give the responsibility of looking out and taking care of their daughter which should be them. She told them that Hannah kills her boredom and that her daughter, with the same age like her, would be very happy. And she also treats her like her daughter too. In the end, they agreed.