Will You Stay, My Esmeralda?

Esmeralda is a lovely, eighteen-year old lady who enjoys the simple lifestyle in the province. Everything can be simply picked from their garden and she has her poultry and piggery. Her garden gives her a bountiful harvest of spinach, okra, camote tops, tomatoes, onions, garlics, gingers, and corns. Her chickens are always healthy and lay plenty of eggs, and her pigs are always free from sickness.

Besides having a garden, poultry, and piggery, Esmeralda is also part of the chorale and dance troupe of their school. She is not only industrious but also talented. In spite of these, she remains humble and simple. She is friendly to everyone. Her beauty is captivating in its simplicity.

Her life is simple and she wants it to stay that way. She likes routine very much and changes tend to be seen as a nuisance. In fact, she really hates changes and it agitates her. She religiously follows her routine to a T and expects everyone to do so. She also has obsessive compulsion to clean all surfaces of the house and sort everything. A small wrinkle on clothes, not sorted and classified cloth pile, and a small speck of dust can stop her from wearing it or eating from it. Everything just has to be perfect. She would not stop unless it is.

Esmeralda learns that not everyone is the same as her so she gets more isolated and sad, but she cannot stop her OCD and it seems that she is part of those in the autism spectrum, too. Still, she is a high-functioning member of the society.