DROUGHT

CHAPTER 5: THE BREAK-IN

After the incident yesterday, my uncle decided to keep the containers full of water in his secret place. It is inside his bunker. I didn't expect that he had a secret door going to his bunker behind the huge cabinet made of Narra that could not easily push by one person. The cabinet is older than I am. I watched him move the cabinet with Knight and Jasper to hide the camouflage door inside the room where the three of us stayed. Knight, me and Lucy. He knows that the military and the group he calls 'Thugs' will return to get all the supply of water that we have. That is why he hid the containers and left some for our use. Maybe six containers are left in the open—six blue containers for our three weeks of use. We need to maximize the usage of water. That is why we decided to take a bath only once a week to conserve water because what is important is we have water to drink and water to use for cooking.

"If someone breaks in. Never open this," He said while looking at us while waiting for our reply.

"Don't tell where our water is at because starting today. The water is more precious than gold and diamonds." He added, looking at his wristwatch and saying, "It is already ten o'clock p.m., and it is time for everybody to rest because tomorrow--" He paused and looked at us again.

"Tomorrow, we might not know what will happen", He added.

They left our room except for Owen, who was looking at me, flashing his baby teeth, wearing his diaper and holding his milk bottle. I looked at him with a smile because I knew he needed something.

"Owen, it's time for us to sleep, little man", Dannie, standing at the front door, called his son, but Owen didn't mind her. Instead of going to her, he went to our bed and lay beside Lucy.

"Sleep. Here" He said while shaking his milk bottle. I looked at Dannie and laughed.

"I guess he wants to sleep here," I said, and he nodded.

"Is it alright?" She asked.

"Of course, that's fine; Lucy would be glad to see Owen sleeping beside her", I answer, making Dannie smile.

"Okay, goodnight, our little man," She said, carrying Owen and giving him a goodnight kiss. Owen giggles and kisses her back. What a sweet baby boy! He put Owen back on the bed, faced me and said, "Thank you so much."

"Oh sure, no problem."

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight"

She left the room and gently closed the door. I lay down beside Owen, who was lying beside Lucy. He is drinking his milk while I am tucking him in. I am watching him drinking his milk with his sleepy eyes. He is a cute boy, and I wanted to have a baby boy before, and I was supposed to name him; Prince, but when the cheating happened. I change my mind. I don't even want to kiss Knight. Thinking that he is my husband makes my stomach sick. I am so disgusted with him. I heard the door gently open, and I heard Ellie call me,

"Ma," In almost a crying voice, she went inside. She hugged me while holding her phone.

"What is the matter?" I asked her,

"I caught Josh exchanging sweet chats with his ex-girlfriend", She answered, and instantly, I felt the pain in her voice. I stopped tucking Owen and looked at her. I saw her tears want to fall from her eyes, but she was stopping them. She is trying to be strong even if it hurts inside.

"Is it part of cheating?" She asked, hoping that I would say "no" I looked at her for a moment and answered,

"No, honey, maybe he and his ex were just friends" I lied.

"But there's a kiss emoji."

"I am sorry, honey. Boys sometimes are stupid. They don't know what they are doing," I said calmly, but I was mad at Josh behind my calm voice. I want to grab him by his neck and choke him to death.