She starts her day with a prayer, that she may untiringly do her chores for the day. She gets up at four, prepares breakfast for the whole family, a husband and three big boys, can be quite a handful!
With kids now at school, and husband at work, she stares at a corner and visualize her typical day, a routine that she has been living all her life. She snaps out of it, shakes her head and tells herself that she can do this, and that this is what she was born to do, to take care of her family.
After cleaning the house, she glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, It's 8 am and now time to do the laundry, she goes from one bedroom to another, hoping for some great miracle that those laundry hampers would ever turn out empty. No miracle, she thought..
By 10am she would have been finished with the laundry, just enough time for a quick snack and her favorite morning show, she turns the television on, puts her feet up on the black leather ottoman, and enjoys her bacon flavored biscuit and tea, just like that, and the only time to look forward to for the day is almost done.
She would sometimes fall asleep while watching tv, but because this woman seem to have been implanted with a chip of some kind.. an auto human alarm maybe, she wakes up, just in time to fix lunch, she cannot afford to lose time, her husband is such a strict disciplinarian when it comes to managing time, she doesn't want to displease him.
1pm, just finished eating lunch alone, she then feeds Rusco, their 2 year old pitbull, she waits for him to finish eating and do his thing, so that she could clean it right away and move on to her next task.
2pm, she starts collecting the fresh smelling clothes neatly hung on the clothesline, they look like multi colored "banderitas" from afar. Three full, big baskets collected, she then neatly fold each of them, and places them back to every closet.
4pm, she stretches up a bit, took a quick bath, grabs a book and snacks on some oats and raisin cookies, she's on page 5 of a book she recently borrowed from a friend, she's tempted to read some more, but she can't! she closes the book, it's almost 5pm and the boys will be coming home from school any minute now.
5pm, her boys are here, and what took her hours to clean the house, took only a few minutes for the boys to mess it up again, books all over, socks and shoes on the floor, she tells them to tidy up as she prepares their dinner.
7pm, she prepares the table, she cooked "chicken adobo" and "stir fry bean sprouts" for dinner. She hears the car and husband is here, she moves as if everything should be in fast forward, she calls James, their "first born" to open the gate as she hurries to go to the bathroom, she looks at herself in the mirror, combs her hair, put some lipstick on and dabs a little on her cheeks to add some color to her pale skin, smiles at herself and sprays on some cologne to freshen up. She hurries to approach her husband and gets his bag, removes his socks and shoes, and hands him over his slippers. He said that he won't be eating dinner tonight, he's so tired and he just wants to sleep. He takes his bag back, gets his cellphone and takes it with him in the bathroom.
9pm, she's finished with the dishes, she helps John, their youngest with his homework, she tucks him to bed.
10pm, she took a quick shower before going to bed, she stares at her husband, sleeping like a baby, but snoring like a? she dismisses the thought.. she then says her night prayers, she needs all the strength for another day of mom and wife duties, she kisses her husband goodnight so careful not to wake him up, turns off the light, it's 11pm.
It's the start of the week again and by heart she vows to have a positive attitude no matter what, she's still preparing the kids lunch for school and she hears husband start the car engine, he hears him talking to Susy, their next door neighbor who's taking her dog for a walk, telling her that she lost some weight and that she's looking good with her new do.. He calls on the kids to get in the car, no goodbye kisses for her she thought.
She tries to do all the chores a little faster this time, she wanted to go to the salon and get herself a haircut, she hadn't have some for a long time, but soon as she got herself some thinking.. how she could buy a fancy food to cook for dinner tonight with the money that she would spend for that haircut, she quickly changes clothes and grabs some scissors and trimmed her own hair instead.
Dinner is ready and Veronica is feeling romantic with her evening setting, made sure the kids ate early so that she could tuck them early to bed, she's wearing her favorite dress that her mother got her on her last birthday, she turns the radio on to set the mood, it's already 9pm and still no husband in sight, she tucks the little one to bed, she feels so sad that she wants to cry, the little one kissed her goodnight, and told her.. "Mommy, you have bangs?" did you cut your own hair? she holds him tight, kisses him goodnight and stayed with him through the night.
The next morning, she tries to act as if everything is normal, she was waiting for him to ask her why she didn't sleep at their bedroom last night, she gives him his coffee, hoping and praying he would look at her and finally notice her new do, the same way he noticed Susy's, but he was just too busy reading the newspaper, she didn't have the guts to ask him why he came home late last night, she's got too much respect for this man who works for the family, she tries to understand him, but while she continue to do that.. she began to feel so low, looks at herself as inferior, and felt ugly...
