Chapter 2 NEW CITY

A few hours later...

"...and then, Miss Sarah said my spellings were all correct, but Ryan had a few mistakes and he began to cry, mama," I held Rodri's hands carefully in mine while listening to how his day at school went as we walked home.

"What happened after he cried, chipmunk?" I inquired while softly dusting off the snow that lay on his adorable off-white beanie.

My son pouts, his adorable light brown eyes staring up at me, "I'm not a chipmunk, mama. You're always calling me that even when I tell you not to."

My lashes flutter, and then I smile gently at him. "Really?" I let out in false surprise. "I believe I forgot not to, my little chipmunk."

He pouts, but then smiles, his noticeably deep dimples showing on both cheeks. "You're so silly for always forgetting, mama. But it's alright. I'll always remember you." He says in his cute little voice while slightly skipping on the snow paved footpath.

I let out a small chuckle and pulled his little body up into a big bear hug. "Thank you, my little chipmunk," I whisper softly as I inhale the comforting scent of his milk-flavored hair shampoo.

"I love you the most, mama," he whispers back and lays his head on my shoulder after settling down from the giggles he had when I pulled him into the hug.

"Me too, my darling. Me too."

Rodri still lies in my arms, our conversation about Ryan's crying momentarily forgotten, although, knowing him, he will bring it up again later when he remembers and give me the entire gist.

I look up to see that we're already at our apartment building. The building is a slightly old residential one with four floors. We moved here immediately after arriving in Ireland five months ago. The rent was quite cheap, plus our apartment was small, but manageable for both of us, and it was in the quieter part of the city, so I decided to take it after the agent took me to three other apartments with higher rent prices. Over the course of the few months we've been here, I've grown to like this place. The serenity of it and a few of the neighbors themselves, although most of them were quite eccentric to say the least.

There is Old Joe who was half American and had spent most of his life in America. He was thorny and suspicious at first when she moved in. I had thought this was because he didn't like me, but later found out from Mary who lives on the first floor that he acted like that to every new tenant who moved in. There is Mary herself who is in her fifties and plays the role of a typical gossiping neighbor. But she's been really kind and welcoming so far, although a bit intrusive at times. There are the two Emma's who school at the University of Dublin. They'd moved in shortly before me and till date, no one knew if they were sisters, lovers, friends or just mere roommates. They live on the third floor, an apartment down from mine. There's also Lorcan and Claire, the friendly couple who live on the second floor. Lorcan is in his thirties and teaches at the Dublin University, while Claire is a beautiful part-time yoga instructor in her late twenties and full-time self proclaimed medium who's been trying to get me to take yoga lessons and come to her apartment for a séance since we became friends.

There are a few other neighbors in the building, some of whom I've never even seen since I first moved here. My next-door neighbor is one of them. Mary did tell me when I first moved in that he works as a surgeon in some private hospital and is almost always being called away for emergency surgeries. Although I've never seen him, I do hear faint sounds coming from his apartment occasionally.

I quickly walk up the few flights of stairs while still holding my son, trying to not make any loud noises to avoid attracting the attention of the other tenants. I wasn't really in a talking mood this evening. When I get to the first floor, I see Mary by the stairs about to go down, all wrapped up to prevent the cold air from getting to her body. I sigh slightly but still smile at her in greeting.

"Mary, hello," I say while putting down Rodri who was wriggling out of my hold, trying to get down.

"Oh my. Good evening, Luciana," she says, her clear green eyes crinkling up at the sides in a smile upon seeing me. "I wondered who was running up those stairs like that. So it was you".

I smile sheepishly and nod while I watch her talking to Rodri, asking him how his day went. He smiles and answers her and she pats his hair softly with a smile in response.

"Anyway, I need to go out for a bit. No more running. Most especially not when you're holding little Ro," Mary scolds in her soft motherly tone before walking down the same stairs I just climbed up.

I take my son's hand and we walk up the remaining stairs slower than we did before we got to our floor. As we walk past Claire's apartment, as we hear the faint sounds of music sung by a particular French singer she almost always listens to.

The cold greets us as we step into our small, mostly bare two bedroom apartment. Rodri's tiny body shivers and I quickly go to turn on the heater after turning on the lights. He lets out a small thank you while yawning in tiredness after his busy day at school. I picked him up and took him to his bedroom to get him out of those clothes and changed into house clothes after a warm bath.

I walked into the bathroom and notice the mess, "Oh fuck." I whispered.