The Sadness Collector

A Summary

The short story, The Sadness Collector is about a girl named Rica who has problems while
growing up with her father because her mother works overseas as a domestic helper. After her
mother left for Paris she’s use to send different gifts to Rica just to show her love and her
presence. To divert Rica's attention, her father told her a story about a big lady who eats sadness
away from houses at night. Her dad told her that if the big lady eats all of their mess, the big lady
might grow too fast and burst, so Rica has to be a good girl and save the big lady by not being
sad. Ever since her mother left, Rica would be so eager listen to all of the sounds at the kitchen
and waiting for the big lady to show up. One night, Rica heard noises again and because of the
story that her father made about the lady who eats sadness, she became nervous and afraid that
the big lady might burst but unfortunately it wasn’t even the big lady at all, not even her aunties.
But it was only her drunk dad. Rica told her dad about her hesitations and her thoughts about
the noise she heard and argued with her dad that it was really the Big lady. But maybe, because
of her dad’s guilt about making a story and about his wreckless actions, he said sorry and assured
Rica that big lady can’t and won’t ever get her away from him, and to top it off she assured Rica
that he really loves her. But due to her young mind Rica tends to wait patiently for Big Lady to
appear.