Miranda was pushing her godmother’s wheel chair out into the garden of the orphanage. Carmen was discharged after two days stay at the hospital provided that a nurse visits and checks on her twice a day until she regains her strength.

They just had a Christmas party with the children; Miranda was delighted when the children sang and danced in the mini show they put up for the occasion. She handed out presents and got sticky hugs and kisses in return. This had been her annual pledge fro the orphanage and she doesnt want to stop. Everybody was in high spirits especially that they have their directress back from the hospital.

Miranda silently laughs at her godmother’s grumblings.

“I feel like an invalid in this thing, I can still walk you know.” Carmen complained.

Miranda chuckles as she puts on the brakes and walks around to sit on the bench under a tree to face her, “Not until you are able to take five steps without being out of breath. That’s what the doctors ordered, that’s why they agreed to release you in the first place. Let’s not be stubborn, ninang.” She takes hold of her hand. “And you promised.”

“Hmp! You and your condescending tone, your mother always did that to me.” She frowns at the younger version of her bestfriend.

Miranda smiles back, she was very happy that her godmother was doing fine. The woman now had a healthier color on her cheeks. She can’t help but admire how the older woman can still look beautiful even after that scare. Carmen was her mother’s childhood friend; they grew up at the ranch and were joined at the hip the moment they learned to walk. They were never apart, when you saw one rest assured the other would be lurking around. They almost looked alike; being distant cousins, save for Carmen being on the rounded side while her mother was the skinny one and more exotic looking.

“I love it when your eyes are happy.”

Miranda hears her say, she chuckles, “I’m only glad that you are okay.” She tells the older woman, she stretched to kiss her on the cheek.

Carmen laughs and pats her cheek, “Don’t underestimate me, my love. I am made of tough stuff you know.” She winks.

“I know.” Miranda tilts her head and smiles.

They turned to sounds of squeals and laughter emanating from a group of kids playing on the grounds. Carmen beams as she watched the group play tag. Miranda was watching her with a smile on her face. She was curious,

“Do you ever regret it? Not having your own children?”

Carmen slowly turns to her and shakes her head, “No, not really. But once I also had a dream of having and raising my own family, it was a long time ago, before you were born. Then your mother had you and declared your were my birthday present and that she will share you with me.” She had a faraway look in her eyes, remembering her friend. She looks at Miranda and smiles, “She said that you were our happy ending.”

Miranda just looked at her, stays quiet and listens.

Carmen laughs, “No one could have ever predicted how your mama and I would turn out to be, back then we were wild around the ranch, we pretended we were savages and would run around making those Indian noises with our mouths.” She giggles, “Your grandfather was appalled that his daughter was running barefoot all over the place and riding the horses’ .” She shakes her head at the memory. “Our champion was your grandma; she allowed us whatever we wanted, almost encouraged us in our adventures, paid for whatever we wished.” She laughs, “She e of the  rooms in your house into a laboratory once, we kept all the bugs we caught along with frogs and “specimens” that we collected when we outgrew the savage obsession and turned to mad scientist mode.”

“So I was really happy when you were able to buy back the ranch. It held so many memories for me of your mama. Thank you.” She squeezed Miranda’s hand, the girl nodded.

“Once we ran away to the capital to try out to be singers, that summer we graduated high school. We lined up for an audition for almost a day, we were young and foolish and certainly country bumpkins so it was exciting for us.” She looked proud, “When they picked us to sing on live television,” She clapped her hands suddenly, “Liv and I both thought, this is it! We’ll be rich and famous!” she gaily laughs, “We did very well you know, your mom and I had killer blending, they said we almost sounded like ABBA!” she chuckles, “That was one of the greatest days for us. Too bad we didn’t get a copy of that broadcast.”

Miranda laughs, “Why didn’t you end up famous and rich?”

Carmen smiles widely, “Oh we almost did! But your grandfather suddenly showed up and told the producers that we were underage, we were barely eighteen. Whoosh!  Everything went down the drain. Boy did we ever get a scolding. He said to me and your mom that he did not send us to school to end up as hippies!” Carmen howled with laughter. “He was all red when he herded us to the car, boy we thought we were going to get a whipping when we got home. Good thing your grandma ran and got us before he was out of the car. She was yelling and dragged me and your mom up to her room all angry; when she shut the door she smiled and asked excitedly how it was like to be on TV!" she laughs, "She spoiled me and your mom, I loved her very much. We both got grounded that summer, they made us do chores around the ranch, errands to town but your grandpa had Roberto’s dad follow us around to keep us away from trouble, the poor thing aged a lot that summer.” Carmen giggled; she looked at her goddaughter and smiled.

“Your mama and I had an epic childhood, it was like adventure after another, even after we went off to university, we enjoyed our time.” She paused when she suddenly remembers, “And then we met your dad and my Daniel.” A sad smile took over.

“Ninang, how come you’ve never talked about him to me?” Miranda was curious about the man her godmother just mentioned.

“Oh it was a long time ago and I was not very comfortable talking about him, but lately I’ve been looking back, especially with my episode a few days ago, I’ve never really talked about him except with your mom. And now looking at you I realized I should have, years ago. I am hoping I am not too late.”

“About what?” Miranda asks.

“About letting go.” She says.

Miranda was suddenly uncomfortable, she tried an excuse, “It’s getting chilly here, ninang, maybe I should move you back inside.” She moves to stand up.

Carmen clamped her hand around Miranda’s arm and pushed her back on the bench.

“No, you sit and listen to me.” She reached for her face and forced her to look at her.

“My love, you have to listen to me, please.” She waited for the younger to nod and look up at her.

Carmen took a deep breath before starting.

“Your mama and I were on our senior year at the university, we were pretty popular back then, we were always together. Your mama was the tall gorgeous one while I was the pretty chubby and funny one.” She smiles fondly, “We had boys lined up asking us out and such but we were not interested because we were into studying and we wanted to be top of the class, a reward awaited us, see, your grandfather promised that if we both graduated with top honors he was going to allow us to stay and work at the capital and a trip to Hong Kong was on the table.” She laughs, “Your mother and I were saving all our pocket money for that trip for years and we made good at the promise and your grandfather did too. He might have been a harsh man but he never went back on a promise. So to make the story short we did what he asked, he gave us the tickets the day of our graduation with your grandma giving us matching suitcases with our new wardrobe inside. We had a blast on that trip; your grandmother gave us extra money to spend on whatever we wanted. We were sorry to fly back but we met two dashing young men at the airport, your dad mad my Daniel.”

Carmen saw sadness dart in her goddaughter’s eyes, but she continued.

“Sweetheart, your father was not what you remember him to be that time. He was a perfect gentleman he adored your mom and they were really in love. So was I, Daniel was my perfect prince and he loved me back too. We thought we were lucky, your mom and I, best friends who feel in love with best friends.” She now had a sad look on her face, “We thought it was going to be like that, but it didn’t, well for me anyway. Daniel’s family didn’t approve of me, he was wealthy and his dad was a general of the Armed Forces while I was a rancher’s hand’s daughter. It didn’t matter to them that I was a successful professional and that I had your mom’s family supporting me, to them I was still a lowly peasant.” She sighs