The landlady

Every morning she would go around the condominium. Up and down the stairs, checking the hallways, the trash bins, the doors and the plants. She wore nothing but her white nightgown; rollers in her hair, a cigarette in her mouth. Her rubber slippers made slapping sounds against the cement floors, like fish being slammed into a wooden table. Always only one cat followed her around, despite the many others that meowed, stalking in and out of her small lobby apartment.

The smaller children laughed at her flabby arms when she walked around trying to fan herself with an abanico paypay. She laughed with them as she chased them, her slippers raised almost threateningly (but she would never catch them anyway, either they were too fast or she was too slow), shouting their baby names and smiling at the same time. 

Once a month she would knock on the tenants' doors, shouting "Rent! Rent", her voice loud but not so that the people hated to hear it, and often she was greeted by respectful nods. "Manang, I don't have the rent for this month," Aling Nona said, shaking her head, her eyes on the floor. "Bhoy lost his job, so now we only have enough for food until he finds another job."

"Ay, that's not good," she said, clicking her tongue. "Your husband should be more vigilant. But it cannot be helped. I will wait until next month, but you have to pay."

"I don't know if he will have a job by next month."

"We will just see."

In the mornings she would go check outside of the condominium, still in the nightgown, and chase away the stray black dog that lay in the driveway. This she did without fail, flailing her arms about like a madwoman, the rollers sometimes jumping out of her hair. The night guard would frown and scratch his head in the evenings when an unfamiliar woman would go out and leave some leftovers at the very corner of the building, and, as she left, the stray dog would come back and eat, and would bite the night guard when he came too close.

But the dog never bit the landlady, not matter how loud she screamed.

A/N: Sorry it's very short, I sort of ran out of ideas after this. XD Is it still possible for me to edit it in the near future? ~Margaret Kawsek