Chapter 4
The Treasured Memoirs and the First Encounter
The sun shone early the ensuing morning and the rain had gone away. The sky was unclouded, perfect enough for the Vabuerettis to spend a picnic at the Bo Lake.
“Good morning, everyone! Yohooo! It’s a lovely day for a picnic! Grandma, Mom, Dad, Alex, Sophie, and Aunt Bea! Please, wake up! The heavy rain had stopped,” screamed Nadine, around the house.
“Philippe, honey…” Elizabeth prodded Philippe with a sleepy voice while still in bed.
“Um…?”
“Nadine’s up already and she’s screaming around the house, waking us all.”
Philippe sighed heavily and half-opened his eyes. “I guess she’s really excited for the picnic!”
“Let’s just understand her. It’s her first time to be here,” Elizabeth pointed out.
They all got up and got ready for the picnic. Moreover the excitement was for Grandma Lucy’s sake, because, at long last, a family-get-together would be happening at the lake house.
The lake house is fifteen kilometers away from Grandma Lucy’s house and it was never visited for years. Knowing that her grandchildren would visit it, Grandma Lucy instructed her servants to get it cleaned up.
When they got there, Sophia was surprised that their two-story narra-made lake house was still the same, both outside and inside. It seemed like those almost four years of her absence in Forest Green had not aged every piece of wood and wiped out their shiny appearance. Surely, one could still taste the feeling of comfort there. She explored the first floor. There stood the visual open-shelving divider, between the living area and dining area. But one thing that truly amazed her was the huge pair of deer horns on the wall that faced the main door. The whole of it was still there, still in branches and spine-chilling. It was intentionally placed there to scare anyone who visited the lake house. Then, she remembered the first time she laid her eyes on it; it scared her a lot. She opened the main bedroom across the living area and noticed the same old bed and design of furnishings. Later, she went upstairs. All were the same. One by one, she opened the three bedrooms including the guest room. Sighing, she went to the balcony, and everything from the past came back to her all at once. It always felt like the lake house was forever a home to her. She took a deep and long breath, and busied herself with a view of the lake, just below the wide and green mountains. Although it was almost lunch-time, the rays of the sun felt like it was still dawn. Gasping for another lungful of fresh air, she noticed that her family was already preparing a table outside, a few meters away from the lake water. They wished to have a lunch there, to be under the glowing bright sky, shot with gold.
Going back downstairs to join her family, Sophia’s mind began to be filled with exclusive things about Jericho. The lake reminded her so much of him. She used to play and swim there with him. It was him who taught her how to swim, how to catch some fish, and how to stay longer in water.
“Sophia, do you still remember the times when we used to come here?” Grandma Lucy asked her granddaughter as she approached her at the lake bank.
Sophia quickly grasped for some air. “Yes, Grandma! Very clearly. It seems like it was only yesterday when we were here,” replied Sophia, as her eyes were set on the lake. She already programmed herself to never mention Jericho’s name whenever her grandma was around. She knew that once she uttered his name, an explosion would happen.
“Um, excuse me for a while.” Grandma Lucy left her, to help Philippe and Elizabeth with the table.
A full minute passed, and Bea approached her.
“Remember the old days, Sophia? You used to play here around when you were just a little girl. You tried to climb the trees, you wanted to swim, you wanted to catch some fish... but your grandma never permitted you.” Bea elbowed Sophia.
“Yes, Auntie Bea! None of them escaped my memory. I remember them so well. It is funny though that I learned them all here with Jericho but grandma never knew about it...” Sophia, all of a sudden, realized that it was a slip of tongue.
“Ah, Jericho! Yes, that boy. Oh, poor boy! I remember him. You were too young for that puppy love, Sophia. But he’s still in town just in case you’re wondering. I heard he already got married!” Bea detailed.
“Really, Auntie Bea? He’s now… married?” Sophia confirmed, with a depressed voice.
“Of course, I’m kidding! He’s a doctor now, a new doctor actually! And he’s in town. He works at the town’s only hospital,” Bea delivered, bright and breezy. She was very much eager to know what would be Sophia’s next reaction.
Sophia was shocked, a little bit confused of how she was going to react. Jericho was only five years ahead of him. Why would he become a doctor that fast?
“Really? A doctor? But... he’s too young to be a doctor,” Sophia pondered heavily.
“That’s what I asked too at first. You know, Jericho is a genius. Maybe, he got accelerated,” Bea illuminated, with a shrugging of shoulders.
Sophia paused, running things in her mind, as Bea directed her own black eyes at her.
“When we were passing by the Belfast Street yesterday, I noticed that Jericho’s house was not there anymore. I wanna know what happened,” Sophia spoke again.
“Actually… here is one thing that you should know. He’s rich now, Sophia.”
“Really? How come? I mean, since when?” Sophia continued to get puzzled.
“You really missed a lot of things here, ever since you left.” Bea’s voice waned. “You know Mount Kalban, the one that we passed by earlier? It’s his family’s and it was found out that there was gold there. Jericho’s grandfather sold it to a mining company,” Bea supplemented.
“So, that started it all?”
“Yes, Sophia. Don’t you know many girls run after Jericho? He’s like the cocaine of every girl here, even of the oldies.” Bea told her in an exaggerated way to play along with Sophia’s changing facial expressions. “Do you want to see him, Sophia? Because if you do... I can find a way,” Bea offered, laughing.
Sophia smiled and brought up the topic that she was in a relationship now with Giovanni. She told her that Giovanni was a good boyfriend and he was her brother’s best friend too.
Bea also smiled but she had always known… always known Sophia’s feelings, for Jericho.
“Okay, people! Lunch is ready!” Grandma Lucy announced excitedly.
“Everybody, find your own seat now. As for me, I will bring out the barbecue,” Bea chimed in.
“Do you need some help, Auntie?” Sophia offered.
“No, honey. Just sit there and turn your flat tummy into a hump.”
Sophia stretched her lips sideways, still impressed by Bea’s good-humored nature.
Elizabeth noticed the closeness of her daughter to Bea. She knew that it was she who stood up as Sophia’s mother, when she was still a child. Because of it, regrets troubled Elizabeth again.
“Sophia, tell us something about the lake,” Alex asked, as they gathered around the table for lunch. “I’m sure you have a lot of stories to tell.”
“Yeah, Sophie! Tell us some stories, but not with a Jericho!” Nadine overlapped, kiddingly.
Grandma Lucy’s eyes, at once, dilated, and looked at Sophia penetratingly.
“Jericho? So, you’ve been mentioning him to your sister, huh?” Grandma Lucy delved Sophia, even more penetratingly.
Sophia flushed severely and acted as if she never heard a thing. The name Jericho was always poison ivy to her grandma. Thus, she fared better to just stay, close-mouthed.
“Okay, enough with that guy! And who’s that guy anyway, huh?” Alex protested.
“He’s no one,” replied Grandma Lucy and guzzled a glass of water.
The moment Sophia heard it, she asked herself why her grandmother never liked Jericho, and mulled over the fact that if Grandma Lucy already knew that he had now a profession, as a doctor, just like what grandma had always wanted for every male member of the family… What, then, would Grandma Lucy think of Jericho, now?
“Here’s the barbecue!” Bea announced delightedly as she neared them.
“I super-like barbecue, Auntie Bea. I’m glad you had them prepared,” admitted Nadine, extending both hands to grab one stick of it.
“So, you call her auntie too?” Alex asked, just to provoke his sister, a bit.
“Why? Is it prohibited to call her auntie too? Is that word exclusive for Sophie?” Nadine retorted, always in a childish way.
The Vabuerettis laughed at Nadine’s behavior, and her humor had caught everyone’s attention, including Sophie’s.
Throughout the chattering after the meal, Philippe’s eyes were entirely engrossed by the lake. He missed it so much so he offered his family a swim.
“Dad, I am really glad you thought of that.” Alex released his boredom, waiting for his father to finally ask it.
“Honey, see to it that you don’t go to the deep part!” Elizabeth warned them uneasily.
“Wow! Dad, teach me how to swim. Please, Dad! Please!” Nadine begged, hopping at where she was standing. Finally, she was on the mode to learn swimming again, after her drowning incident that caused everyone trauma.
“Okay, honey! Yes, I will.”
Nadine laughed her excitement away and looked at Sophia. “Dad, how about Sophie?” She wanted her sister to join them but she knew her sister’s fear of deep waters too. Grandma Lucy once told them that Sophia almost drowned in the lake when she was nine.
“Sweetie, your sister is also afraid of deep waters, okay?” Grandma Lucy intruded.
Sophia overheard it and flung a heavy sigh. At the back of her mind, she had already overcome it, and she overcame it with Jericho’s support.
They watched the three swim in the lake, and Sophia took photos of them.
Taking a brief look at Sophia, Elizabeth noticed her pulling face, as she focused the camera to her father and siblings.
“Hey, are you all right?” Elizabeth approached her across the dock.
“Mom, I am fine! I am! I am, Mom!” Sophia asserted so she could not take everyone’s joyfulness away.
“Are you sure?” Elizabeth flippantly confirmed as she caressed Sophia’s hair.
Sophia nodded, giving her mother a strained smile. Then she continued taking photographs to escape the clashes of her own mixed emotions.
When she finally took a lot of photos, she craved to rest her legs when, unexpectedly, she saw the huge blue stone in front of the lake house that was naturally square in shape. It was still the same where it was located, still surrounded with peanut grasses. She paced towards it and remembered the day when she was sitting there with Jericho.
It was Mother’s Day at their school but she made up her mind to skip the program. She was so downhearted that she was the only student whose mother was not there to attend it, so she swept her sadness away by agreeing to Jericho’s invitation to the lake house. That day, he waited for her outside their school with his assembled cab. It was an Italian scooter with a trunk welded with metal tubes at its side, supported by another wheel, making it a tricycle. There was a rectangular wooden plaque that served as a seat. Jericho was fond of inventing so he was able to pull them altogether. He thought of it as a means of taking Sophia to the lake house for it was, somehow, a one-and-a-half-hour trip from the town proper, and he did not want them to walk, nor to hitchhike with deer hunters.
Crystal clear, Sophia unearthed all these memories and smiled, a smile between sadness and joy. Her smile widened when she further remembered how Jericho spread a blanket onto the grasses for them to sit on, and he served her wafers and a can of soda.
At that memory, she could scarcely impede her tears from flowing. She needed to wipe them; she did not want to be seen crying by her family, so she hurried inside the lake house to pacify herself.
“Why is this still happening?” she asked herself as she opened the main door. “I thought I have moved on.”
Then, she went straight to the sink to wash her face, and ran for her shades to cover her reddened eyes.
Elizabeth and Grandma Lucy were watching the three enjoy the water when they noticed Sophia’s sudden disappearance.
“Where’s Sophia?” Grandma Lucy asked Elizabeth.
“She’s just taking pictures a while ago. I don’t know where she went.”
They continued wondering of Sophia’s whereabouts when Sophia walked down the dock and joined her father and siblings. The moment she dove into the lake, everyone was put to a tense halt.
“Sophia, no!” Grandma Lucy yelled with bursting panic but she was surprised to see Sophia swimming as if a mermaid.
“What?” Elizabeth was solidly staggered.
“Whoa! Did you just see that?” Nadine asked her father and Alex.
“I thought she’s afraid of the water,” they all asked each other.
Sophia finally got her head above the water and fixed her hair, uncomfortable with the way they looked at her, including her mother and Grandma Lucy from the bank.
“What?” Sophia asked them.
“I thought you’re afraid of the water,” Nadine answered while being carried by Philippe on his shoulders.
“Who told you that?” Sophia contemptuously asked, still uncomfortable with their reaction. Then she got out of the water and walked through the dock dripping wet, self-questioning why it was such an issue.
Instantly, Elizabeth came to wrap her with a towel and asked when she learned to overcome her phobia.
As well, Grandma Lucy went after Elizabeth to ask the same question.
“Long time ago,” Sophia replied and grabbed her flip-flops.
Hearing it, Grandma Lucy wondered heavily and drew a sharp breath.
Sophia was already shaking badly, hence, she excused herself and rushed inside the lake house.
The setting sun was already half-hidden by the wide mountains, and the Vabuerettis decided for an early bonfire.
Sophia gathered her hair in a ponytail. The wind entering the lake house was cold so she brought out her much-loved white shawl from her suitcase.
In a while, her grandma knocked on her door, with a smile so refreshing that puzzled Sophia.
“You just surprised me today,” Grandma Lucy said. “I thought you’re still afraid of the deep water.”
A nod, along with a partial smile, manifested from Sophia, hesitant to admit that she actually overcame it with Jericho’s help. But the brief silence she shared with Grandma Lucy reminded her of the bonfire.
“Um, I guess, everyone is already outside,” Sophia said in a bowed head.
“Yes. You’re right,” Grandma Lucy agreed, and they walked together to the venue.
Everyone gathered around as soon as the fire livened up, and they cheered for Nadine to perform.
Nadine was always willing and vigorous for any presentation. She sang a bubbly melody and bopped some lively dance moves before them, making everyone clap in awe, even their workers who joined them at that time.
“Okay, it’s time for Sophie now!” Nadine gamely told everyone as she went back to her seat beside Elizabeth.
“What? No!” Sophia griped.
“Sophia, Sophia, Sophia!” they cheered.
“No, I don’t sing. I don’t dance!” Sophia grumbled further. “Trust me, I’m a terrible one!”
“I don’t think so!” Alex countered, his face appearing very teasing.
“Oh, actually Alex can sing!” Sophia struggled to avert all the attention from her. “He’s in a band and really an excellent singer. I guarantee you, your cheers will all be worth it.” Sophia strongly gave fine points about her brother, desperate enough to end her agony.
It was pretty obvious to everyone that Sophia did not want to perform and so, Nadine suggested playing I’ll Act, You’ll Guess Game.
“What’s that?” they wondered.
“Oh, this is how we play it. I’ll describe a word or a phrase and you’ll guess it only through my gestures within two minutes,” Nadine explained, in full hope to be understood. “Like a charade!” she added.
“Oh! Okay! I bet that’s a lot of fun!” Elizabeth agreed.
And to make everyone participate, they grouped themselves into two. Philippe, Sophia, Bea, and two Vabueretti workers composed the first group while the other one was consist of Elizabeth, Alex, Nadine, and the other two remaining Vabueretti workers. As for Grandma Lucy, she served as the mediator and the scorer at the same time.
They tossed a coin to determine which team would go first and it happened to be Philippe’s, and Sophia was assigned to do the demonstration. She went to Grandma Lucy to listen to what she would be whispering and was surprised of what she heard: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, her grandma’s favorite song, and it was too long for her to portray it.
“All right, timer starts now,” Grandma Lucy announced as she took a look at the wrist watch she borrowed from Alex.
Sophia held up four fingers to denote four words and moved her fourth finger.
“Fourth word!” her groupmates said.
Sophia nodded agreeably and started shaping in the air a rainbow.
“Mountains?!” Philippe initially guessed.
Sophia moved her head side to side indicating that her father’s guess was wrong.
“Half-circle?” Bea also guessed.
Sophia again swayed her head, the frown in her face turning deeper while their opponent group loudly teased them.
“Um, wait! Is that a rainbow?” One of the Vabueretti workers yelled asking.
Sophia joyfully nodded and the rest of the group was now getting excited.
Sophia moved her second finger, meaning they had to guess for the second word, and she symbolized the word over by placing her right hand over her left one, doing it again and again.
“Hand over hand?” Philippe once again guessed.
“Over?” the other Vabueretti worker guessed, and Sophia again agreed.
Bea remembered the song that Grandma Lucy always listened to. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow!” she shouted.
“Yes!” Sophia leaped for joy and so did her groupmates.
“Huh?” Nadine reacted, quite disappointed. “That was difficult but it took them just a while to guess it!”
“Okay, your turn!” Philippe challenged the opponent group.
Elizabeth’s group got up from their seats, pressuring themselves that they had to guess it too and they decided Nadine to do the demonstration.
“Okay,” held Nadine in a very babyish manner and went to Grandma Lucy to listen to what she would be whispering.
Grandma Lucy paused for a minute, thinking of a phrase as difficult as the first one. But she found it hard to think so she asked them to wait for a while. Then the movie Titanic popped in her head and she instantly whispered it to Nadine.
Nadine was confident. It was just one word and it would be easier for her groupmates to guess it. Then she raised her left index finger with a wide smile.
It was, of course, a delight for her groupmates that it was just one word and it would be much easier for them compared to the previous one.
Now, Nadine started to illustrate a ship in the air and repeated it twice.
“A boat?” Alex initially guessed.
Nadine conveyed it wrong by moving her head sideways, giving them an upset look. She drew it bigger for them to identify that it was a ship, a bigger one.
Aggravated, they could not still get her.
Now, Nadine became even more irritated and repeated highlighting a big boat in the air, doing it again and again.
Sophia already had in mind that it must be Titanic but she just laughed, helping herself not to slide the word out of her mouth. They had a VHS tape of it at her grandma’s and she even remembered how Bea cried at the end of the movie; too much affected she was those days!
Elizabeth and the rest thought even harder, frustrated that they couldn’t guess it.
For Nadine, she illustrated it over and over again.
“The movie 2012,” Alex guessed again.
All of a sudden, Elizabeth realized that it might be Titanic. “Tita—”
“Oops, time’s up!” Grandma Lucy declared.
“What? Are you sure?” Nadine’s group protested.
“But I was supposed to say Titanic,” Elizabeth shared.
“Sorry, two minutes is up already!” Philippe insisted on his mother’s behalf.
“Fine!” Nadine exhaled noisily and went back to her seat, admitting their first defeat.
“You should have spread your arms. Remember, the I’m flying scene of Jack and Rose in front of the ship!” Sophia made fun of her sister.
“Whatever!” Nadine fought back, her lips pouting and right eyebrow lifted up.
It was Philippe’s group again. Unfortunately for him, he was assigned to illustrate.
This time, Grandma Lucy already thought of something and it was the Bible.
Philippe exhaled noisily and started to demonstrate. He raised his left thumb and smiled.
“What?” his groupmates wondered, unsure if he was depicting one word or he was just giving them a thumbs-up sign.
“Dad, does that mean one word... or you’re just giving us a thumbs-up sign?” Sophia confirmed, holding her laugh.
“No!” Philippe defended himself and explained to everyone that the thumb was actually the first digit and that he meant one word.
“Oops! Warning!” Grandma Lucy imposed. “No talking!”
“I’m sorry, Mom! I’m just trying to explain.” Philippe defended himself as they laughed at him in full blast.
Not to confuse his group anymore, Philippe moved his left index finger. He illustrated the Bible by shaping a rectangle in the air. Rectangle could mean a lot to them so they guessed the following:
“A door?”
“A window?”
“A flag?”
“A refrigerator?”
Philippe was already getting frustrated. He widened his eyes and looked at his hands as if he was holding a book.
“A book?” Bea guessed.
“Yes, Auntie Bea! It must be a book,” Sophia synchronized. “But what book?”
“Okay, let us guess a title of a book!” Bea told her groupmates when their opponent was already doing a countdown.
“Eight, seven, six, five...”
“Oh, no!” Sophia and the rest screeched, quite dismayed.
“Okay, time’s up! You were not able to guess it,” Grandma Lucy told them. “It’s the Bible!” she then smiled.
“Oh, okay!” Philippe’s group reacted.
Nadine abruptly yawned and everyone noticed it. It was supported by the drooping of her eyelids.
“Honey, you’re already sleepy. Time for bed now,” Elizabeth said and allowed Nadine to lay her head on her shoulder.
Hence, all of them decided to stop the game although some were still at the peak of their enjoyment.
They ended the bonfire, laughing, saying that it was a night to remember.
The night carried on, and Sophia was still up at the terrace looking for some cell phone signal. Giovanni was probably incensed now, trying to reach her. The sky was shimmering and the tall trees were dancing when she suddenly heard a flock of birds nearby. On impulse, she looked at the source, hoping to see a disturbed flock of wild birds, but as she kept on staring, something seemed to hit her head. It was a gigantic pair of white wings! And, oh so beautiful!
What a heart-stopping moment!
Hands still shaking, she realized that her senses could have deceived her, and she tried to believe so. Then, she returned to the lake house and ran to bed, still troubled by those gigantic white feathers.
