ORPHIC ❃ O-Dog

彡 ¦ 第三章

Barter; practice that has existed since the Neolithic period, for approximately 10,000 years – ten percent of the time of the existence of the human species. –, with the appearance of the farming-livestock society. It's an action of giving one thing and receiving another in exchange, especially when it comes to a product swap without the intervention of money.

Some examples of this act in Mikaela's life have been the same amount of coins that she had in a simple food can when she was an infant, each one impacting her greatly; At eight years old, she found herself giving her table clock to the middle-aged woman who watched the shelves of the library closest to her home in exchange for a book by Ernest Hemingway – To Have and Have Not, specifically –. The death of her adoptive mother in exchange of the bond of love with a pure being at twelve years. At fourteen years old it was difficult for her to have to put her yellow blanket in other hands for decent shoes of her size, but it was fair. Holmes's sudden death in what they called home from a complicated but successful robbery, in return of her  dependence on a rusty cell – which we somehow call the world – at the age of sixteen.

Some are easy to get back to, others just have limited time with her. It wasn't even her fault, but the jealous partner of the game's creator.

That was an abrupt blow to her growth process, but she made sure to breathe every second, and to take one step after another intelligently and safely, just as his late father had taught her. She had to stay in that house, she had no one to go with. She couldn't hide in warm arms for help, after all, there was no relative to trust because they cursed the family of three just for one — which was Julian –, and the neighbors only had momentary compassion that later would become an unlimited nuisance. The economy became an obstacle on the board, but somehow it had to be overcome. She never felt the direct push before, but just as she touched the floor because of it, in the same way she don't hesitate to get up and pay the bills of the house and the high school of which she was part: David Starr Jordan High School.

One of Holmes's wishes has been to see her with a graduation diploma, he also clarified that it was not completely necessary, but she decided to enter the academic institute for her own desire. They worked as slaves to get enough money to be able to pay the income, which after having that mission completed, Mikaela warned him that from that moment all the expense was on her part, and that she didn't want to see a simple penny that  it was earned by the sweat and blood of his father. After several months that turned into several years, where she worked non-stop, where she didn't sleep or even fed, where in the dark nights she tried to find motivational paths in the life that awaited her, she earned enough money to move from that old house in MayWood, to one in Watts.