Burden & Pain

Not only Rebekah who was startled by Susan's screams but so was the woman who had just come out of the toilet. The middle-aged woman, short and quite fat, then hurry out of the room where the four toilets are, in a panic, she wants to know what is really going on in the hallway.

When the middle-aged woman comes out of the room, she sees Rebekah is already near Susan and is calling her name in a panic because Susan who had stopped screaming looks very scared, she looks like she had just had a nightmare where she met a scary-faced figure.

"Susan! Susan!" Rebekah called out to Susan while squatting as well, just like her. The girl also shook her friend's right shoulder in the hope that Susan would stop being scared like that, but in reality, this thing does not give any effect.

Susan still looks very scared, the expression on her face, the grains of sweat coming out of her face, as well as the very irregular rhythm of her breathing really explained how much she is scared of the thing that Rebekah doesn't know what it is, the expression on her face is the most perfect in explaining how scared she is now.

"What happened, my dear?" asked the middle-aged woman to Rebekah with a little fear in both of her eyes, she also looks still shocked and still panicked because of Susan's scream that lasted for 3 seconds.

Rebekah then turned to the middle-aged woman. "I-I don't know either, Ma'am, but I'm trying to calm her down," said Rebekah, who now looks worried about Susan after feeling the same panic as the middle-aged woman.

"Is she your sister?" asked the woman.

"Yes ... she's my sister," said Rebekah, then gently stroking Susan's back and looking back to her friend.

'What happened? What's wrong with Susan? Suzie ... what happened to you while you disappeared?' thought Rebekah who doesn't know what to do but gently stroking Susan's back and give her a feeling that she is safe here and calming her down.

"Is ... is there anything I can do to help, my dear?" said the middle-aged woman to Rebekah, Rebekah then turned back to the woman before answering her, she also shook her head.

"No, Ma'am, but ... I think it might be better if there are only the two of us here, I mean ... maybe she will say something to me if there are only the two of us here," said Rebekah, she's very careful every time she uttered every single word from her lip, she does not want to hurt the feelings of the middle-aged woman.

"Oh, right, dear, perhaps that's right, I hope so," said the middle-aged woman. "All right, I'll go, take care of your sister, my dear," she continued as she walks closer to Rebekah and Susan, or rather walk out of the hallway, with a worried look on her face.

"Thank you very much, Ma'am," Rebekah replied, smiling at her, the middle-aged woman then returned Rebekah's smile with a smile as well, although she still looks worried even until she is no longer seen by Rebekah and Susan.

With the woman's departure, all four toilets are now empty, and there are only Rebekah and Susan here, so Rebekah doesn't have to hesitate to ask her friend about anything.

"Susan ... Susan, are you okay? You seem to have had a big trauma that really haunts you, what has happened to you?" Rebekah asked in a soft and gentle voice, she understands that there must be something big that made Susan's condition like this, the girl suspected that something had happened to Susan during her mission and made her like this now.

As secret agents, the two are faced with a variety of great risks that hinder them in the missions they undertake, and Rebekah is pretty sure that if one of the risks Susan faced has turned her into like this, Rebekah understands it right, because of herself had also experienced heavy and mentally tortured things as a risk of her job, and she is deeply saddened to see Susan's current condition.

They do dirty work to make the smiles of children who have the same fate as them, lost their families and many of their valuable things due to colonialism and war, but the burden and pain they have to feel for those smiles are very great, often to not comparable to the results they obtain, but for them, it is more than enough because at least the children can be free a little from the pain for which they are not entitled to it at all.