There was a skinny five-year-old girl with wispy bangs, chubby cheeks and a laughing face who was left in the care of her mother’s sister in the province because her father went abroad and her mother left to work in the city. Her aunt lived across the street from her grandmother and everyday she alternated going from one house to the other.

The little girl was very happy living in the province. Her aunt had a family of her own and everyone considered the little girl the youngest daughter of her aunt’s children. She played along with her cousins, got picked on, laughed at. She roamed all day long, the fields, the street, her grandmother’s house, everywhere. She even got to bring her grandfather lunch when he was cultivating the fields and got to ride a water buffalo home as a reward. All the time, she felt that there was where she belonged. She felt so carefree and contented. She loved her aunt’s family very much for she never knew any other family.

One day her aunt suggested that the two of them visit the city. The little girl was bouncing up and down with excitement, screaming in glee at the thought of visiting the city. They visited a lot of places, the zoo, the park, even the little girl’s favorite fast-food restaurant where, much to her delight, she got a free toy.

After all that, her aunt said that they would be visiting a close friend first before going home. So the little girl eagerly trailed behind her aunt, contented with playing with her new toy.

They got to the friend’s house and her aunt proceeded to talk to a woman, whom the little girl thought looked familiar. As they were talking, the little girl noticed her aunt’s face was very sad. After a few hours, her aunt looked at her tearfully and said, “I have to go. I want you to promise to be good. I am leaving you with your mother now.”

The little girl dropped her toy in surprise and ran to hug her aunt tightly, screaming with tears streaming down her face, begging her aunt not to leave her.

The little girl’s mother had to restrain her thin body which was kicking and jerking uncontrollably, desperately trying to hold on to her aunt’s departing figure. The little girls’ aunt was long gone but she was still sobbing. She was very angry with her mother for taking her beloved aunt away from her and vowed never to forgive her mother.

A five-year-old’s memory isn’t all that good it seems for she eventually warmed up to her mother and was especially happy when her father came home from overseas. They acted like a real family and her parents thought that the little girl had already forgotten her aunt.

It was when the family went back to the province for the holidays that they knew they thought wrong. The moment the family arrived at the grandmother’s house, the little girl rushed to the opposite direction, to the house across the street, to her beloved aunt’s house.

She stayed there the whole length of the holiday. She ate there, played with her cousins and even slept there, in her usual place beside her aunt. No matter how much the girl’s parents asked her to stay at her grandmother’s house, she never bulged. She just stood her ground and said, “You had me for a whole year. Now it’s time for me and my second family to be together.” Her parents finally gave in and let her be.

That holiday was followed by many Christmases, New Years and any other holiday, which the little girl always spent with her second family.

As the leaves of the trees grow, shed and grow again, the years flew by swiftly. The little girl got a little brother to play with, her cousins grew up, got jobs, had families and little girls and boys of their own.

And here she was, no longer a little girl. She got rid of her wispy bangs, lost the chubby cheeks and she no longer played like she used to with her cousins. But still, whenever there was a holiday, or any other reason to visit their grandmother, even if it was just an ordinary visit, that not-so-little girl would always rush eagerly to the house across the street. And whenever someone asks her aunt, “Is she your child?” the not-so-little girl would lift up her chin proudly and say, “Yes. I’m their youngest.”

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