Chapter Two

She said "Aunt, Roderick's ball fell into the next compound besides ours and he went to get it but .."

"But what dear, would anything happen to him?", Maria said.

Maria began to panick and Racheal started crying. Maria told herself to be strong for the kids, so after encouraging herself, she patted Rachael to stop crying.

After awhile she stopped crying and continued "the boy that lives in the next compound bullies Roderick at school, do you think he will be okay?" She asked her aunt, hoping to get a positive reply.

Maria did not know how to respond to this, she was shocked that Roderick was bullied at school, "no, no this is not the right time to think about it, I have to get Roderick out of there", she thought.

She went in to inform her brother but saw that both of them were having a good time, so she did not want to disturb. As a result, she tiptoed and went outside.

She told Rachael to wait in the visitor's room where Maria stayed. After that, she walked towards their gates to leave but noticed a car stopped.

She wondered who it was and waited thinking it was a visitor for her brother. When she noticed the car parked in front of the neighbors house, where she was going to, she immediately ran inside and got the keys to the gate.

She ran outside with the keys, inserted it into the key hole, opened the gate and walked fast to the next compound. She got to their gate and knocked loud.

The gate man came out and asked,"who are you and what do you want?"

"I am the neighbor next door and I would like to see the owner of the house", Maria said.

"What is the issue, ma. So that I can relate it to my boss since he is a very busy man", he replied

"Actually I am looking for my nephew Roderick", she said

The gate man laughed and shouted "who are you and how can your nephew be here?. Just go home young lady, you have no business here. I do not want my boss to fire me from my work".

Maria did not burger. She remained there, knocking and begging him for one opportunity to check.

The gate man did not answer her again and left her standing there. She realized that he was not going to open the gate.

After awhile, she left the gate. The gate man was relieved.

Maria walked towards one side of the fence. She thought about climbing the walls to get into the compound.

Staring at the walls, she was scared of heights but how was she going to save her nephew. "No, I must do it", she convinced herself.

She tried to look for things to climb. She found a thrash can and sat on it. She could not believe she wanted to jump a fence and was sitting on a thrash can. "No, no Maria you can not think about this right now, you have to be positive. You are doing this for Roderick, do not forget this", she reminded herself.

With that she said a brief prayer begging God to save her nephew and to give her the courage to continue this, after that she held the wall, and stood up from the thrash can.

She held her breath, she did not look down for fear of falling down. She kept telling herself to keep going.

She closed her eyes for sometime, then opened them. With that, she was ready to try jumping over it.

She put her hands on the fence as support. She then raised her legs to cross over the fence.

Her two legs were at both sides of the fence, she brought her second legs inside the compound. She looked inside the compound and saw nothing she could land safely on. She knew she could not expect anything from them since no one would want to jump his fence.

She closed her eyes, shut her mouth tightly so that she would not scream and jumped down. When she landed, she screamed and bit her hands.

She could not feel her whole body. She stayed there for awhile crying and biting her hands to minimize the noise.

After awhile, she stood up and started moving round the compound to find her nephew or hear his voice or see his ball. She silently prayed he was okay because if he was not, she does not know how to answer her brother, his wife and Racheal.

Unknown to her, the compound had cameras every single corner and her every move was recorded. A young man sat in front of a big screen and watched every move of Maria.

She heard her nephew's voice coming from a room, she could not see anything but heard two other voices. From what she heard, they were bullying and mocking Roderick while he was crying.

Her heat sank and she knew she needed to do something. She could not go to the front door and knock.

Then she remembered she saw a window that was open earlier on when she was searching for Roderick. With that she walked towards that window.

When she got there, she looked around to see if anyone was close. After that, she slid through the open window slowly so as not to make noise.

She fell into a room. When she stood on her feet, she looked around and could not believe her eyes.

Every single thing was sparkling. The room was so beautiful and that left her awed.

It was so neat and arranged. She kept admiring the house for awhile before she remembered why she was in here.

"Focus Maria, so that no one sees you and you can get Roderick out of this place", she reminded herself.

She walked towards the door wondering who owned the house. Whoever owned this house must be very rich.

"I can do this", she said.