grandma lucy’s birthday
Grandma Lucy’s seventy-sixth birthday was the longest day for Sophia’s life. And a doomed day. Everyone was bursting with enthusiasm for tonight’s occasion, and Sophia could almost pretend she was all right. Everything that happened, happened too quickly, too badly—she didn’t even know what to believe anymore. And who to trust anymore. It seemed everyone had been having fun in this circus of lies and manipulation.
She stayed in the balcony and reflected for a while when she saw something glistening in the spaces of the designed concrete wall. To her surprise, it was a feather, white as the clouds at day and much finer compared to a typical avian feather.
She refused to think that it was from Abanir or from someone of his race. Why would someone like him be ever in that place anyway, considering that the forest was quite isolated from the town?
Downstairs, there had been too many people setting up elongated tables and marvelous decorations. It was one of the most anticipated events of the town. She wanted to leave but where can she go, except to the lake house?
The celebrating hour arrived, and everything was all done in Spanish design, to indicate the Spanish ancestry in the family. Above was a majestic gemstone chandelier that scattered light in every direction across the magnificently furnished living room (that the family had taken good care of for centuries since the arrival of Giancarlo Ruy Vabueretti, who was one of the explorers that King Charles I of Spain had sent to sail the Pacific, after Juan Sebastian Elcano’s return from the Spice Islands). As everyone knew, he was the first gobernadorcillo (town mayor) of Quiño, Forest Green’s former name, when he married a beautiful native woman.
Sophia worried too much at the prospect of bumping into Jericho again. She didn’t know if what scared her the most was to feel the same feeling of desire upon seeing him again, or the jealousy she would feel when she’d see his wife-to-be.
The latter feeling came to reality the moment she saw Jericho with a woman in her late 20’s. This blonde-haired gorgeous woman was exactly the way she pictured her. This must be the famous Dr. Lee everyone was whispering about—tall and fair-skinned, just like her, but a medical professional and a non-government organization volunteer while she was the shy-type dreamy artist with a lot of personal issues.
They were polar opposites.
She and Jericho looked good together, and Sophia had no choice but to destroy her romantic memories of him and bury them deep, to a place where they could not be resurrected.
It was too much torment for Sophia, and the fear compelled her to hide quickly. She ached to call Francheska, but found out that there was a weak reception. “Why?” Her heart screamed out. “Why, now that I need to talk to her?”
Outside, underneath the frail flicker of stars, was the heart of a vanishing soul. Sophia struggled to breathe. To think. To refuse to acknowledge everything that she witnessed. Oh heaven, help! It was too late now for anything but prayers. Prayers to restore her sanity.
Seeing one of the workers help the caterers in and out of the manor, she decided to approach him and ask for the delivery truck’s keys. She needed to leave or else she would die of pain!
In his shock, Pedro was of two minds, at first. But how come he could ever refuse, when it seemed this fragile girl was now about to crack into pieces? Sophia was looking so desolate, and handing her what she asked for could probably lighten things up, a little.
“Sure, but may I know where you’re going?” Pedro asked her.
Sophia didn’t give a response, and so he restarted his wagon. The lake house was the best place, to soothe her. She arrived there and sat down at the veranda and was hurled back to the night she and Jericho tried to elope. She was sitting at the spot where he used to console her, when she was having second thoughts at running away.
For not too long, she heard a flop of wings. And it sounded as though it was only a footstep away. Then out of the blue, Abanir came into sight. She shook her head in hesitation, supposing it was all in her mind, but the presumption became real the second he moved closer to her, bearing a more masculine and stronger figure, and touched her in the most careful manner he could.
His presence was hypnotic. Sophia could almost feel she had a personal narcotic. She could hear his heartbeat and the rush of blood in his veins. What seemed to be impossible had taken place again.
Sparks heated and electrified on Abanir. But, to Sophia, she couldn’t go through with this new state of events knowing she had unsettled matters. It was hard, for the circumstances had been fooling around with her feelings. But watching Abanir’s eager bearing and majestic pair of wings, a thrill of joy shot through her.
Carefully, he began to hug her to his chest and he sprinkled kisses on her forehead. Her warmth made him doubt that he could ever let go of her. He’d been missing her for ages.
And somehow, she’d been missing him, too. Earlier, sadness was upon her. But right now, happiness descended. Yet it felt mean not to think of Jericho. And the things that Michael had said… What if it turned out that, indeed, she wasn’t related to Jericho? How about their young love, then? Their promises to each other?
Abanir finally released her and she could only respond with a vague hello. And his stare, so sharp that seemed to see past her physical body and delve straight to her soul. “I thought I lost you forever,” he whispered gently, though she couldn’t understand his words. But they were undeniably tinged with pining. And a touch of unspoken plea.
Sophia listened to them and sensed they were uttered only from the depths of his love.
He lingered, his eyes searching her eyes. He felt utterly weak, and realized she had always been his flaw. He seized her and flew with her in the air, their emotions heating up the misty air. They landed at Harem Falls, the very place where their affection for each other first began.
The plain kubot was still there. Gallantly, Abanir asked her to wait there, and he rubbed two stones to create a fire. He saw the moon climbing over the eastern clouds, almost a full moon. The night was not yet old, and underneath the starry sky were two young souls alight with pure innocence that this world cannot understand.
Beneath the full moon, as Sophia watched him tend to the fire, she realized his worth to her. At last, her heart seemed to beat of its own accord. Again.