If she had three wishes she would ask for these: at least two hundred fifty Philippine pesos every month; gallons of paint; and a place to live.
The world where she lived wasn’t as bad as it seemed. She was the eldest of three children, a college student who looked after her two, young siblings. Although they were left by their mom and dad, she was able to go to a school and finish her studies because of the scholarship the school offered her. At present, they live with their grandmother. It was a small house packed with twenty one people. She slept on the floor wherever there was enough space. Sometimes, they would take turns to sit and sleep at certain hours to be able to fit in the room available. The interior was okay. It didn’t matter if her foot was outside the house, or her head was leaning on the wall. She was pretty contented with what she had. But sometimes, she amuses herself by fantasizing on how she could do up the space. She wanted to have a rustic look for the house even if it didn’t need much transformation. She wanted to alter things; move the carton as their mats for sleeping in this side; put some torn fabric in the holes that served as their windows hoping it would look like a curtain; and have a garden filled with flowers and plants that would keep people from seeing her when she goes to the bathroom. She wished for paint-that had every color in it; where when she pictures these in her head, it’ll all come true. She wanted a miraculous paint.
To a regular student in her school, a piso doesn’t have a value. Riding a jeepney and not asking for the exact amount of change doesn’t really matter to most of her classmates. Sometimes, they throw their money on vices and junk food that doesn’t do them well at all. She travels to school by riding the jeepney which costs her 250 pesos every month. A piso was most valuable to her. She reached deep in her pocket when she cried and struggled from the grasp of a man with a knife on the other hand. She gave up her 5 pesos which she was supposed to buy food with. She wished she always had enough money to come home from school with food for her family.
She thought hard about her last wish. She had a home; a family; and love. She just wanted a place to live-where all of these could come true; where she would carry more than 250 pesos in her pants without worrying about hunger; where she could draw across the room a picture that words could not explain; and a place to live for those children who are suffering more than she was and that they would believe in miracles such as the moment when she got her feet hurt when she was trying to find worth from the dirty, old lamp.