Google The Story of Gertrude
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       Gertrude woke up not knowing who she was and where she came from. Discover how wonderfully a smoking roasted chicken brought her to the care of the wealthy and kind-hearted Mike. Mike’s wife realized that Nema looked exactly like the young lady who introduced herself as his daughter. Is Nema his daughter, or is she someone else? Read and discover the deepest secret of Nema’s true identity. The original Tagalog version of this story was already finished on July 2012 here on Blogger.com.                                                                                              

                                          Chapter 1
           

           "I just want to talk to my father..." the tearful begging of a girl.

 

           "Get out of our house, and don't you ever come back again!"
           "Have pity on me..."
           Can't you understand what I'm saying? Get lost!"

           "Have mercy on me; could you at least give this school magazine to my father, this contains my name and my picture."

           "Fine, just give me that thing so you could leave," the lady said. The girl handed her the magazine and left afterwards.

            "I'm leaving, I'm going to the Grand Hotel to meet up with some suppliers and I might go to the showroom to check out some new cars. Are you leaving the house today huh?" the man said.  

           "Yes, I'm going downtown to buy something," the answer of the lady.

           "Could you please shut down my computer in our room, I think I left it on. What are you holding in your hands, huh?"

           "Nothing, I just need to throw this tiny trash out."

                                    Chapter 2

          "Where's this place?" wonders the young lady, she stood up from where she was laying. "Ouch, my tummy is aching..." She saw a house nearby so she approached it and knocked. But nobody was answering so she was forced to leave and slowly walked until she reached a road that was so 

noisy, too many moving cars, many people walking and in a such a hurry as if they needed to fulfill some important commitments. 

          Abruptly her hands felt her tummy. She noticed a big restaurant nearby. She approached it. She could smell the aroma of a newly cooked roasted chicken. Slowly, she walked towards the door of the restaurant. She hesitated whether she was coming in or not. And because she was really hungry she gathered enough courage and forced herself to come in. She walked slowly and quietly. Slowly she saw the newly served roasted chicken on the expensive and beautiful table. She looked at the roasted chicken for a moment, slowly she approached the table. 

         The tall and handsome man sitting at the table looked up and stared at her for some time. "Can I help you young 

lady?" he asked the young lady looking at him.

          He noticed her hesitation so he invited her to sit in front of him. "You could sit down if you want."

          Shyly the young lady
sat in front of him.

          He looked intently at her once again. "Are you hungry huh? You could eat some if you want."

          "Really," the young lady finally said.

           The handsome tall man then took some Chooks to go roasted chicken and placed it on a plate. "Here eat some, this is really delicious."

           "Thank you," she said. The young lady then ate the roasted chicken. 

           The kind man could see that the young lady liked the roasted chicken he gave her. He smiled at her.

           She smiled back at him and afterwards continued 

eating.

           "Here, drink this,” kindly, he said as he handed her a cold glass of water.

           She immediately drank the water that he gave her. Finally she was done eating. 

           He smiled once again at her. "What's your name huh?" he asked. She didn't answer so he repeated his question. "What's your name?"

          The young lady just couldn't answer. She didn't know, she couldn't remember her name, she didn't know who she was. 

          "What's wrong, you seem to be thinking so hard for my simple question." 

           On her seat, she kept on thinking what her name was but she just couldn't remember it. She kept on thinking over 

and over again, but she just couldn't remember anything.  

           The kind man looked at her once more for a moment sensing her discomfort. "I said what your name is? By the way I'm  Hans."

            "I'm really sorry but I just couldn't remember my name," the young lady's confused answer.

            "Don't tell me you've got amnesia? Are you sure you're not just making a fool of me? Seriously, you really can't remember who you are? The man asked repeatedly. "What do I call you then?"

            The young lady thought for a moment. "Ah...maybe, you can just call me Nema for now," the young lady answered hesitantly.

          "You want me to just call you Nema? What a coincidence."

          "What coincidence?" 

          "Just ignore what I said," Ernest just said. "So it follows that you also doesn't know where you actually came from," the kind man
added.

          "I really couldn't tell for sure, I just woke up moments ago feeling hungry so I started looking for something to eat," the young lady narrated. 

           "You really have amnesia then," the man finally said. "You know, even with a slightly dirty face, I could see you're a very pretty and cute young lady. I say maybe you're about eighteen years old. Wait you could easily be taken as my daughter," smiling Mike noticed.   

         "I can be taken as your daughter..." the young lady just said looking at him.  

      

         "Yeah, you kind of look like me. But I don't really have a child and I wish had one. Since we're all done eating, maybe we should start moving out from my restaurant. Any moment now, we're going to open
and the customers would start coming in," Mike narrated.

          "What, you own this place?" the young lady asked.

          "Yes, this is mine. Come, stand up," he ordered and stood.

          "Where are we going?" The young lady inquired and stood.

          "I'm going home now," he told her. "Come and follow me. I just can't leave you here like that, considering that you can't remember anything at all. Come home with me so you can clean up," Mike invited kindly.

                                       Chapter 3

          Nema noticed something when they reached the man's place. "Wait I think this is exactly where I woke up earlier today," she wondered looking around the place.

         "Really you woke up
from here? Maybe you're a child of one of my rich neighbors," Mike teased. "Come, let's go inside," Mike ordered as he went through the open gate. Nema immediately followed. Inside the house, Nema saw the big flat screen TV and the elegant sofa in the living room.

          "I'm really tired could I take a seat?" the young lady asked earnestly.

          "Yes of course," kind Mike replied.

          Nema looked around Mike's house, she saw a large aquarium beside the chair, and there were three big and beautiful vases with some dragon designs. Strangely, Nema felt the whole place was somewhat familiar to her. 

  "How come, it seems that I've already seen everything around this place before?"

          "Everything in my house looks familiar to you, really, maybe you're really a child of
one of my rich neighbors and when you're much younger one of my maids then invited you to play in my living room when I wasn't around," Mike teased. "Okay, over there, on your right you can take a shower in our bathroom if you want to. I'm worried that my wife would get mad if she sees you. She doesn't want our sofas getting stained or something. Wait, my nephew has got a lot of clothes in here. I'll bring you one that you could wear." Shortly after, kind-hearted Mike returned with a red dress. "Okay, put this on after you got yourself all cleaned up."

  

                                         Chapter 4

          Nema entered the clean and brightly lit bathroom and immediately saw her own reflection in the mirror. She carefully looked at her own reflection. She realized her face looked slightly dirty and her
hair was all messed up. She started looking around and located the shower. She tried to open it. The water started pouring down and she got soaked instantly. She grabbed the soap Safeguard and started rubbing.

          While she was cleaning herself up she couldn't help but wonder why the entire living room looked somewhat familiar to her. Given the fact that the kitchen she passed by seemed unfamiliar to her. She thought she saw it for the very first time. Even the bathroom where she was showering was new to her. When she finished taking a bath, she looked at her own image in the mirror once more and realized Mike was right, she really looked pretty. She's got a nice pointed nose, kind of small reddish lips, her eyes were black, her eyelashes a bit long, her black hair was long reaching up to her shoulders. She pulled up the white towel, dried herself up 

and immediately got herself dressed. When Nema came out from the shower, she saw Mike drinking something back in the living room.   

          "I'm glad you've
already showered come and sit beside me," like a father, Mike invited Nema.

          "What are you drinking, that seems really tasty?" Nema asked.

          "Of course this is tasty, cola always tastes great. Go grab yourself a glass of cola, I prepared one for you."

          She took the glass and drank. "My, this cola is so delicious. I don't think I had tried this before, because the taste seems completely unfamiliar to me."

          "Wait, my shoes is beginning to hurt my feet now. I wonder where I left my slippers..." Mike stated as he went on looking everywhere for it.

         "I'll pick it up for you," Nema offered and went straight to her left, near the aquarium and pulled up Mike's slippers from under the small wooden table. "Here are your slippers Mister Mike." Nema immediately
handed it to Mike.

          "How did you know exactly where to find my slippers?  Ah I think I know... you probably had seen it when we came in. You're shorter than me and you got a better view, so you easily noticed it."

          "Yeah, I saw it when we were coming in," Nema just replied but she was certain that she didn't see the slippers then. She just happened to know where Mike left it. She even got more confused.

          Moments later they heard somebody walking to their direction. "Mike you're home and you brought somebody along," the lady said.

          "By the way this is Nema," Mike introduced Nema to his wife. "She's sick; she's got amnesia so I decided to bring her home with me."

           Nema turned her face
to look at the lady who just arrived. The lady couldn't say a word; her eyes got glued to the young lady's face. "What did you say again Mike, this girl has amnesia?"

          "Yes that's what I said."

          "Mike, could you please help me with my purchases, I shopped bags and clothes, it's all in my car and it's really heavy," Sandra requested her husband.

          Mike went out shortly after to pick up and carry her purchases.

          The lady instantly approached Nema. "Do you really have amnesia, you can't tell who you really are?" she asked 

looking intently at her.

          "Yes Ma’am, I can't seem to remember my name so you can just call me Nema if you want to."

          In her mind, she was so
certain that the young lady in front of her now looked exactly like the one who introduced herself earlier as Mike's long lost daughter that she furiously drove away. So she struggled and cunningly pretended seeing her for the very first time.

          Later that night they headed for the dining table for dinner. They served Chooks to go again for this was Mike's favorite dish.

          "So you really like Chooks to go roasted chicken, I see you've eaten a lot.  Here you should try fried milkfish, you'll like this too for sure."

          She looked at the fish for a moment. "Pardon me but I 

don't think I should eat that one. I can't help but pity that fish, its eyes looks so miserable and pitiful," the young lady answered.

          "As you wish, but if there's anything you want to eat, just tell me or your aunt," good natured Mike told Nema. After they were done eating, Mike took Nema to a room he prepared for her. "From now on, this will be your room, alongside is my nephew's room Ana and the other one at the far end is the room of my younger sister."

          Upon entering the room with Mike, Nema saw the large bed covered with a white bed sheet. There was a big white pillow on the head. "You should take a rest now Nema, we'll chat again tomorrow and besides I really need to rest myself," like a father, Mike added.

          As soon as Mike had left, Nema immediately tried lying 

on the bed. She liked what she felt.  The bed was so soft and was really elegant. Nema surveyed the whole room. There was a circle-shaped lights on the middle of the ceiling. She noticed a cold air coming from her right and decided to approach it. It became even colder as she went nearer to it, she didn't know what air con is called like but all she knew was she really liked it.

          She lay down on the bed once more and soon heard someone coming. It was a voice of a young lady with an elderly woman. In her mind, these were probably Mike's nephew and younger sister. She tried peeking from her slightly opened door but all she saw were the girls' back entering their respective rooms. So she decided sleep and call it a night. She slept with the lights on simply because she didn't even know how to turn it off in the first place. 

  

                                       Chapter 5

          

          In the morning, the sound of a young lady's voice from outside her room woke Nema up. Slowly she got up and looked at her face in the mirror near the bed. She thought she looked more relaxed and rested now. She combed her hair. She then noticed the white-tiled floor; it was very clean and shiny. Slowly she opened her door and went straight out. She walked towards the living room and instantly saw a young lady seated on the sofa. When the young lady noticed her, she got slightly alarmed. "Who are you, are you Aunt Sandra's nephew?" the young lady asked softly.  

          "No, Mister Mike just brought me home so I can have a place to stay temporarily," Nema quickly responded while giving a good look at the other girl's face. She looked pretty 

too and their hair was about as long, and as black.

          She made Nema sat near her. "At what time did you come in? I don't remember seeing you when I and my mom arrived last night," she asked Nema 

          "I was in my room resting when I heard somebody coming in. It was probably you and your mom that I heard arriving last night. I peeked for a while but the two of you had already entered your rooms."

           "Yeah we came in really late last night because my mom had to take care of something for her office, and besides we also visited a pet shop so I could buy a new marine-fish. Uncle's butterfly fish just vanished mysteriously from the tank. I searched and searched for it on the floor hoping that it simply was able to jump out of its tank, but I just couldn't find it. I felt really sad; we had that fish in our aquarium for years. Wait, what was your name again?"

           "Nema, so that explains why the aquarium was empty when I arrived yesterday," Nema replied to the other girl. Nema looked intently on the new butterfly fish. She felt good looking at the new fish. She likewise noticed the fine white sands with a variety of white corals. She also got amused by the water bubbles from the tank's air pump.

          "By the way I'm Ana, Mike's niece," she introduced herself to Nema.

          "Mike had told me about you and your mom," Nema answered.

          "What year are you? Which school do you go to?” Ana asked her.

          "I can't really tell... the truth is Mister Mike simply took pity on me so he decided to bring me home. I can't remember who am I and where I came from," Nema narrated so softly 

looking at her.

          "Really, you don't recall what your name was, you've got amnesia then," Ana concluded. "Thanks goodness my uncle found you, otherwise something bad might have happened. There are just too many criminals out on the road nowadays. By the way have you seen Aunt Sandra?" she asked.

          "Yes she even asked if I truly got amnesia," Nema replied immediately.

          "Was she glad seeing you?" Ana asked softly and expectantly waited for Nema's answer.

          "I can't tell for sure, but she looked a bit worried and surprised when she saw me," Nema approximated.

          "Okay then, are you feeling hungry now? In a little while my mom and my uncle are soon coming out for