Dean Morton : The Paupers' Guardian Angel

003 - An Unhealthy Life

Dean has been living with this family for more than three years now. But this is the first time Eliza feels this kind of feeling toward him.

  

Unlike Dean who is still in the second year of academy, Eliza is not a teenager anymore. She had been dating a few men before this. Yet she still doesn’t understand why she gets this weird feeling.

  

Dean only puts on short pants and a shirt, without wearing any underwear. He just knows, when Mrs. Lawson calls him, he has to go to her as soon as possible.

  

“Where’s she?” he asks, after finding Eliza still standing near the door.

  

“She… She is waiting for you in my grandma’s room,” replies Eliza, before walking away in a rush while hiding the blush in her face.

  

“Damn! This is so awkward,” mumbles Dean, scratching his head while walking toward the end of the hallway on that same floor. “Should I apologize? How am I going to approach her after this?”

  

He reaches the room of Eliza’s grandma. The door is wide open, but there’s no one inside. He simply knocks on the door and calls for anyone.

  

“Mam?! Mrs. Lawson? Are you here? Hello!!! Mrs. Palmer? Anyone?”

  

He keeps asking as he glances around, until someone replies to his call from the bathroom.

  

“Dean? Is that you?”

  

It’s Evie Lawson currently bathing his sick mother, Audrianna Palmer, who has had a mental disorder for more than 15 years.

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“Yes, it’s me. Dean!” replies Dean as he approaches the bathroom. “Did you call me, Mrs. Lawson?”

  

Evie turns her face, and she immediately scolds him. “What the hell are you doing there?”

  

Dean is shocked, and immediately turns away, hiding behind the wall near the bathroom door. He feels so ashamed of himself for accidentally saw Evie Lawson bathing her old mother.

  

Evie Lawson doesn’t hire a nurse at all, and never lets anyone else bathe her mother. The reason is simple, her high self-esteem and pride. And for the same reason, she spits out hot lava because Dean has just seen her mother being bathed naked.

  

“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? There are only old people here, yet you still find the interest to peek?”

  

“No, Mam! I mean, Eliza said I had to see you,” utters Dean with a terrified face.

  

“But you don’t have to stand there. I’ve been bathing my mom every morning here for years, and you should have known that well enough.”

  

Evie scolds without holding back her voice, even in front of her own sick mother. And the old lady, Audrianna Palmer, she just shuts silent there with a blank face.

  

“I, I’m sorry! I didn’t see much, just her head from behind. So, what can I do for you?” asks Dean.

  

“There is a fallen tree in the backyard. Go and help Hector to take care of it!”

  

“Okay. I’ll go right away!”

  

“And don’t forget! Prepare the meal for my mother after you finish with that!”

  

“But, I’d be late to go to campus?”

  

“That’s why I told you last night to wake up much earlier! Just do it quickly! And prepare the meal for my mom before leaving for school. You know she doesn’t want to eat anything else but the meal you prepare!”

  

“Yes, Mam!”

  

He walks out by taking a deep breath without whining. He is quite considerate with the predicament Mrs. Palmer has.

  

While walking toward the stairs, he accidentally runs into Monica who has just opened the door to her room. But the girl just shuts silent, with a towel around her shoulders.

  

Her hair still looks so messy, since she just woke up a moment ago. But her eyes are so alive, burning with mounting anger. Without saying anything, she just closes the door again with a loud slam.

  

More than Mrs. Lawson’s scolding, that last one really hurts Dean’s feelings. Now he knows for sure, the things he experienced last night was not just a dream. But then again, he becomes so confused, how come all his wounds completely healed that quickly.

  

And that’s not the only weird thing he is going to experience this morning. When he helps the gardener to take away the fallen tree in the backyard, he accidentally destroys the flower field more than how it already is.

  

“Oh, God!” mumbles Hector, the old gardener.

  

The fallen tree is quite big, and Dean thought he would struggle to lift it together with that old man. But he found the tree so light, and accidentally threw it to the back, destroying the flower field behind him.

  

“What just happened?” asks the old gardener.

  

“Uh, I don’t know,” replies Dean, looking clueless as he observes his two hands.

  

He then tries to lift the tree again, and indeed he feels it much lighter than how it should be. However, not wanting to draw the old gardener’s curiosity, he puts on an act like he is struggling to move it.

  

“Need my help?”

  

“Of course! It’s heavy,” he says.

  

After clearing that fallen tree issue, now the problem is that flower field. Mrs. Lawson has been taking care of that flower field with so much affection for years.

  

There’s no way she is not going to be mad because of it. Dean just stands silent there like a stupid fool looking at the chaos he just created.

  

“It’s okay,” Hector eases his worry. “I’ll tell Mrs. Lawson that it was destroyed by the rainstorm”

  

“No, you don’t need to lie for me. A man shouldn’t run away from the mistake he has made. I’ll take full responsi, bi, li…”

  

He doesn’t continue his words, as he notices Mrs. Lawson behind the window in her mother’s room on the second floor.

  

“Oh, noo! My tulips field,” mumbles Mrs. Lawson while closing her mouth. “Hectooor!!! What have you done to my flowers? I’ve been treating them like my own children. How could you destroy those beauties?”

  

“Uh, Mrs. Lawson! It was because of the fallen tree, due to the rainstorm last night,” explains Hector.

  

“Bullshit! I saw it with my own two eyes. Those flowers weren’t like that before I left them this morning.”

  

Dean raises his hand with so much guilty. “Maaam! It’s, it’s my fault.”

  

“You shut up, and get back inside! Don’t even try to defend him for this one. And Hector! You are fired! And don't expect severance pay from me. The flower garden you damaged is much more valuable than your year's salary working here.”

  

Hector’s face turns so pale. And Dean, he feels so awkward, mixed with guilty.

  

“Um, let me explain it to Mrs. Lawson.”

  

“No, forget about it!” denies the old Hector. “Her pride is too high for her to take back her words. After all, I’m already getting too old. Staying here won’t be good for my health.”

  

The old Hector just walks away with his fallen shoulders. And Dean, he can only watch his gloomy back from behind, until Mrs. Lawson screams again to shake his attention.

  

“Dean Morton!!! Why are you still there? Didn’t you say you need to go to campus?”

  

“Uh! Yes, Mam!” replies Dean, rushing back inside the house with so much hurry.

  

He rushes to the second floor intending to get back to his room. But then when he climbs the stairs, he remembers that he has to prepare a meal for Mrs. Palmer. So he rushes back to the kitchen.

  

After he finishes preparing the meal, he finds Monica has already prepared to go to campus.

  

“Oh, shiiit! I’m going to be late.”

  

In the end, he simply leaves the meal to the maid, and rushes to his room to get changed. He doesn’t take any showers that morning, puts on his jeans, picks his bag, and then rushes to the front yard.

  

“Monica, wait!”