RDD 6

Chapter 6





Munching the food, I somberly thought of our current predicament. Now that I pondered it, we are in a tight situation right now. 


Two weeks ago, Roman was sick and we brought him to the doctor. The money was spent that time and we are currently facing a financial problem... 


Thankfully, it was the end of the year and I will receive my bonus and 13-month salary! Woohoo! Yes! 


I regained my composure and happily ate the cake. Eating cake in the morning was quite heavy but for a starving man like me, I will eat anything as long as it was edible. 


-- Knock knock.


Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. My wife opened it and as expected, the landlord was standing at the entrance. 


"Mrs. De Guzman. Good morning."


The woman looked old, in her 50s. She had a big belly and she was carrying a basket. 


Penelope greeted her with a smile and Mrs. De Guzman greeted her with a smile too. However, we both know the reason why the landlord visited us. 


Penelope came out of the house and closed the door. 


I heard some of their conversations. 


"Penelope, I want to go straight to the point, when will you pay the rent? You're two weeks late. If you add the electric bill and water bill, it would be around 2500 pesos. I don't want to sound like a bad guy, but you need to pay."


"Yes. Mrs. De Guzman, my husband will have his salary this week and I will pay you for sure."


I sighed as I listen. Sometimes, life was making our lives harder. 


"I understand. How's Roman? I have fruits here, you can give them to him."


Mrs. De Guzman may look bad but she was actually a nice person. She helped us back then when we didn't have a place to stay. I have a big respect towards her.


"T- Thank you Mrs. De Guzman b- but I have to refuse."


My wife was overwhelmed and tried to give the basket back to the landlord.


"Take it, or else I will force you to pay me right now."


"T- then, thank you very much."


My wife reluctantly accepted her gifts. She felt guilty that we didn't pay the rent on time. 


"The child is still young so you need to feed him healthy foods. Don't worry, I'm not angry. Just make sure that you will pay."


"Yes, I will Mrs. De Guzman."


"Oh, and you give Sophia some fruits too. I think she can eat solid food now."


"Thank you so much."


Penelope bid her farewell and returned to the house. She smiled and put the basket on the table. 


"Wow! Many foohds!"


My little girl excitedly clapped her hands. 


There were bananas, apples, oranges, and strawberries. Strawberries were quite expensive in our country, yet Mrs. De Guzman still bought them for us. 


Penelope stared at me and we both smiled. 


"We really need to pay Mrs. De Guzman."


"Yeah, I feel guilty. Don't worry, two days from now I will get my salary, bonus and 13-month salary. We will have a sumptuous Christmas."


I said and hugged her. 


"Mama and Jajjy, flirty flirty!"


Sophia said adorably and Penelope and I both laughed. 


As for Roman, he was just staring at my phone, playing snake. He only glanced at us and then returned to his game. 


"Let's see, what do you guys want to eat?"


I said and opened my wallet.


"You have money?"


My wife asked and raised her brow. I just laughed and realized that I have 1 thousand pesos in my wallet. 


If you convert it into USD, it was around 20 dollars... This is the remaining money I have, but since I want to make my kids happy, I'm ready to spend every nickel of my wallet. 


"Sophia wants cake!"


"Sweetheart, we just ate cake yesterday. It's bad to eat too many sweets."


Penelope pinched her cheeks but Sophia was just looking at me innocently. Then, her bright eyes turned red as she shed tears. 


"Wuwuuwuu, Jajjy don't love me!"


... Ugh! 


That hurt so much that I clutched my chest. 


"T- Then, I guess we will eat cak--"


"Honey, don't you dare."


My wife glared at me and I stiffened. 


"As always, you are weak to the tears of your daughter. Don't you see that Sophia is just acting?"


Penelope wiped Sophia's tears and consoled her. 


"Sophia, if we ate cake right now, then we will not eat any candy."


"Why?"


"Because of too much sugar. So you have to choose between the two. What do you want? Cake or Candy?"


"... Candy."


She sulked and looked down. She held her tears and stopped crying. She liked candy more because she could lick it longer than the soft cake. The cake was more delicious but the candy was long-lasting and she could suck them. 


"What about you Roman, what do you want to eat?"


"Fried Chicken."


... My kids were quite picky with their food. Just like ordinary children, they don't like vegetables. Roman would eat it but he would prefer meat over vegetables of course. As for my little princess, she would tantrum if you feed her any green leaves. 


"Then, I will buy chicken and candy."


"Be careful."


I left the house and went down. We are living in an old apartment building that was built almost four decades ago, our unit was at 2nd floor. 


There was a wet market close to our place and it only took five minutes to reach it. 


"Excuse me, how much for a kilo of chicken?"


"Customer, that would be 49 pesos."


"What?"


"Customer, that's already low. You can't buy chicken at that price in other shops."


The seller was probably lying. You can find chicken at other shops at the same price, perhaps lower. 


But I'm not shocked about that... No, I'm indeed shocked about the price but because of another reason. 


I know that things were cheaper back then but I never expected that it would be this cheap! Is this because I'm living in 1999 and in another world? Maybe this parallel universe was much better compared to my old planet. 


In the end, I bought a whole chicken worth 60 pesos. That should be around 1.2 dollars if converted. 



[I can't find the prices of products back in 1999 so I decided to randomly make a number, but it's obvious that products were cheaper back then. Right now, the price of a kilogram of chicken was 180 - 220 pesos. Damn.]