Chapter 31

Nurture your young ones while they can still learn. Children ought to understand and acquire knowledge based on what they see and hear. Serve as a teacher.

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"Big sis! Can you please get me a teddy bear? I've already tried several times but I couldn't win!"

Her teary-eyed performance dropped Aralina on her one leg, reassuring the female kid that she would have a stuffed animal.

"Poor little girl. Don't worry," patted Aralina. "Big brother Wil here shall get you a teddy bear. Right, Wil?"

Smiled Aralina maliciously. That smile on her face was coercing Wil to take on the role of being the kid's savior after losing tokens from being inexperienced at claw machines.

"Um, you should ask her mother first if we could do that. We can't be meddling with someone's daughter without their parents' knowledge."

Aralina has seen videos on the internet, regarding cases about child abuse or cyberbullying concerning kids. She does not want anything bad to happen to their precious time together, thus prompting the kid towards her mother.

"Hello," began Aralina in her sweet tone.

The mother looked back for a second and then brought her attention to what she was playing.

"What is it?"

"Ahm, ma'am, your daughter asked us if we could probably win her a prize at the claw machine. We just thought we'd let you know."

"Hmm, okay, okay! Play already. I'm losing my focus here! Ah, damn!"

Like shooing them away, the mother did not really care and was too focused on hammering on the button, catching fish, which turned into tokens.

"So unbelievable!"

The mother's lack of concern and attention to her child somehow put Aralina in a bad mood as she cursed under her breath. It went unheard but not to Wil's ears because he was just a few inches away from Aralina.

"Can you believe her, Wil?"

"Hmm? We got your permission. Let's get the kid a nice teddy bear."

Wil completely ignored Aralina's concern about the kid and the mother's behavior, making the lady feel unheard. For some reason, she did not like how Wil responded, thus giving him the silent treatment.

The female kid smilingly puts two tokens inside the claw machine and the timer starts at the first token. Wil then began moving the claw hanging by a metal to the side. Laid around the small box were the different stuffed animals with various colors, depending on the type of animal they were.

Gently, Wil pressed the button to lower the claw and grab onto the stuffed animal. It grabbed but it was too slippery for the animal to stay in the claw's grip, causing it to fall back down.

"Aww! Too bad!"

"You can do it, mister!"

The timer reset for another try. Wil made his way towards the tilted stuffed toy near the hole where the prize had to be dropped, carefully calculating in his mind the lowering of the claw towards the goal.

"It's going well. Oh! It grabbed!"

"Please, please, please!" Prayed the little girl with her eyes closed and her hands clasped together. "Have Mister get the stuffed animal, please!"

Upon grabbing the tilted teddy bear, close to it was a hanging stuffed pig near the goal. Basically, the one the claw grabbed was beside and slightly underneath the stuffed pig, thus getting lifted along with the teddy bear.

"Woah! You won two!"

Two stuffed animals were won by Wil with just a single token. The female kid opened her eyes and it widened upon seeing how Wil won her two prizes.

"Thank you, mister! Yay!"

The joy and smile on the kid's face somewhat put a faint arch in Wil's mouth. He felt the overwhelming emotions of the kid, which put him on the same pedestal as her. She was in so much joy that she could not help herself but hug Wil.

On the other hand, Aralina was as happy as him, thankful that their little effort to help the child made her extremely joyous. Happiness is contagious, and so is the child's smile.

***

Having the same reason as any other individual, suffering from the extreme heat, Baron, Eli, and Sally decided to go to the Mall. One other reason for going was because it was Eli's graduation and Sally wanted to treat her to something good as a reward for Eli having an achievement in school.

"There sure are a lot of people today."

"It's Saturday. What do you expect?"

"Daddy, can we go eat first? I'm kinda hungry!"

Baron looked at Sally. "Then, shall we go back down?"

They were on the second floor of the Mall, window shopping and canvassing for Eli's new pair of shoes.

"I feel like I can eat lots today!"

***

Through the security, Arthur was making jokes about grenades and guns to Berret, which could lead to their entrance prohibition.

"Shut your mouth if you want to go inside. Even if it's a joke, they won't let you in if you tell them your stupid puns."

Knowing full well that when Berret starts to sound serious, he is actually beginning to get angry, thus halting Arthur from throwing jokes at the security. They just normally and thoroughly went through the guards and the metal detector, and went inside the mall.

"Imagine if someone managed to bring a machine gun or a bomb inside and start a rampage, there will be a lot of people dying."

"If that happens, you're gonna die. You'll be lucky to survive if a bomb explosion ever occurs."

One week into going to the gym, Berret finally decided to get himself some proper gym clothes and shoes he could wear whenever he was going to work out. So today, Berret and Arthur came to the Mall to look and possibly buy what they needed.

"Let's go to the second floor. Gym clothes are up there."

The two stepped and rode on the escalator. As they ascended with Berret looking everywhere his eyes brought him, coincidentally his vision landed on a familiar face descending from the opposite escalator.

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