Lola Pacing is known on every street corner in Tondo. No one, not even the street vendors or the gossips who gather in the morning, can escape her sharp tongue. Especially when it is six in the morning and she has just opened her sari-sari store.

Her store is surrounded by tall, rusted iron bars, and she hands out change to her customers as quickly as if she is disgusted by the hands of her neighbors.

But among her many “customers” and passersby, there is one person she loves to scold and lash out at: Makoy.

A scruffy boy, always barefoot, shirtless, and always looking hungry. He hangs out in front of her store every day, doing nothing but staring at the colorful chichirya hanging on the shelves and the rows of candy jars.

“Hey, get out of there, you pest! You stink of the sun, you’re driving away my blessings! No one will steal here!” shouted Grandma Pacing one morning, while pouring a large jug of water that she had washed a glass with from the cooler she was selling.

Without hesitation, she poured it directly at the feet of the child who was watching.

Makoy would jump up, laugh so loudly that it felt like he was being tickled, and run to the other corner while clapping his hands.

But the next day, at exactly eight in the morning, he would return to the same spot.

This became their chilling routine for six long months.

The child did not steal, nor did he beg properly or ask for coins, he just stared at the same jar of jelly beans.

Because of her extreme annoyance, Grandma Pacing did all sorts of bullying. He yelled at her, threw candy wrappers at her, and cursed her with words that a child should not hear.

But Makoy just smiled all the time, which only made the old man’s head hotter.

Until one dark and rainy Tuesday afternoon, while Lola Pacing was counting coins, she suddenly fainted.

Her eyes widened, the coins dropped, and she fell heavily on the cement of her shop.

The old man had a stroke.

When her neighbors, who were forced to take pity on her, rushed her to the nearest public hospital, not a single relative came to take care of her.

Why would they go? She had long since fought, cursed, and thrown out all her children and nephews because of a bitter fight over a small piece of land.

For three weeks, Lola Pacing lay in a crowded and hot charity ward.

The surroundings smelled of sweat, the smell of strong medicine, and the groans of other patients.

Half of his body was paralyzed. He could not speak properly and only grunts came out of his mouth.

His small savings were gone.

He could no longer buy even his own dextrose or blood pressure medicine.

He was threatened with being discharged from the hospital and left in the hallway because he could no longer afford to pay and the bed was needed for other sick people.

He thought, perhaps this was his sad end.

He would be deprived of a life alone, loved by no one, and hated by everyone.

He began to cry, regretting his hard and cruel heart.

Page: SAY – Story Around You | Original story

As she stared at the ceiling dripping with rain, the door to the ward suddenly opened loudly.

A group of men in clean black suits entered, including the hospital director himself, sweating profusely and constantly bowing to visitors.

Nervousness and intense fear gripped Lola Pacing’s chest.

Are these syndicates? Loan sharks? Will they take her small shop in exchange for her unpaid hospital debts?

A man approached, elderly but with a trace of wealth, authority, and education in his stance.

Behind him, a familiar face peeked out.

Makoy.

But the boy was not to be messed with.

He was wearing a very clean white polo shirt, slacks, smelling of expensive perfume, and holding a large tablet.

He was eating imported chocolate.

When Makoy saw Lola Pacing lying down and looking at him, he smiled widely, clapped his hands, and waved happily.

“Is that him, son?” the rich man asked in a soft and trembling voice.

Makoy nodded quickly and laughed loudly, the same laugh he used to make when water was poured on him.

The man approached the side of Lola Pacing’s bed.

The old man cried, trying to open his twisted mouth to beg and apologize.

In his mind, this man would definitely send him to prison for his daily oppression and pouring dirty water on the child.

“Don’t worry or be afraid, Mrs.,” the man said, holding Lola Pacing’s trembling hand tightly and respectfully.

“I am Sir Eduardo, Makoy’s father. We are here to pay all your hospital bills in full. We have also made arrangements downstairs; we will transfer you to a private VIP suite in a large hospital tonight, and we will be the ones to pay for all your expensive therapy, doctors, and medications until you are finally able to walk and recover.”

The eyes of the nurses and other patients in the ward who were listening to the conversation almost popped out.

Grandma Pacing froze in shock.

What is going on? Why is the father of the child he always hurts helping him?

“Makoy has severe autism,” Eduardo explained, tears welling up in his eyes as he stroked his son’s hair.

“He disappeared from our mansion in Quezon City six months ago when the guard forgot to lock the gate. Our entire family went crazy searching. We paid millions to private investigators and the police. We got no news. We thought our only child was dead from the hardships of life on the streets.”

The man took a deep breath and laughed a little, as if he couldn’t believe the situation.

“We recently learned from old CCTV footage in your barangay that he goes to your store every day. We also learned from the neighbors that you always scold him, yell at him, and pour water on him every morning.”

Grandma Pacing closed her eyes tightly, waiting for her father’s anger to subside.

“But because you kept doing that,” Eduardo continued, his voice full of emotion, “it became a solid routine for Makoy. With my son’s condition, he loves repetitive events, even if they are sometimes strange. When you poured cold water and shouted, he thought it was a game that he looked forward to every day. If you hadn’t ‘entertained’ him in that way every day in front of your store, he would have probably wandered off to more distant and dangerous provinces, and we would have never found him. Because he hung around you every day to wait for you to shout and pour water, my search staff managed to pin him down in one place!”

A deafening silence enveloped the entire ward before the nurses who were listening burst into tears and astonishment.

Grandma Pacing couldn’t believe it.

Her cruelest behavior, the highest level of her anger and rage in the world, was the very reason why the child had stayed in a safe place—and now, that same grin had saved her own life from death.

That night, as Grandma Pacing was carefully loaded into a very luxurious private ambulance to her air-conditioned VIP room, Makoy just smiled as he clapped and waved at her from outside.

The old man’s hot tears flowed continuously, not because of sadness or fear, but because of a strange and funny joke of fate.

From then on, Grandma Pacing miraculously learned to smile, and when she recovered and returned, her shuttered shop was open, and always had free jelly beans and cold juice for all the children passing by the corner.