Chapter 17
The Visit
Nothing served to comfort Sophia as they made their way to the cemetery. Her hands were shaking, her thoughts were somewhere else, as she sat silently beside Alex at the back seat, while their parents were in front of the car. Nobody dared to make a noise, and there was the sudden need for Nadine’s talkativeness. But Nadine was at home, left to accompany Grandma Lucy, while they were away.
It was past nine in the morning when they reached the cemetery, and they were surprised to see a car parked near Giovanni’s grave.
Giovanni’s ex-girlfriend, Loren, was also there to visit, but when she saw the family coming, she dashed to leave. Her then-unsuitability for Giovanni had been more obvious when she saw the gorgeous Sophia gliding out of the car.
Loren and Giovanni were star-crossed lovers until Sophia walked into St. Thomas Academy, with an aura that she had yet to explore the world. Loren knew that she and Sophia were exact polar opposites. She knew she could never live up to Sophia’s beauty and kindness. Not even close. So, she just let Giovanni fall into Sophia’s allure. But unfortunately for Loren, Alex saw her and chased her. And this, Loren hated.
“Loren, hey!” Alex yelled, while pursuing her. “I haven’t seen you at school for months. Where have you been?”
Loren turned, with no intention of answering his query, but Alex lingered, waiting.
“We’re here to visit Giovanni’s grave,” Alex talked again, with conspicuous grief in his eyes.
“Yes, I see,” Loren finally spoke, letting her breath out with rustling impatience.
“I wonder if you want to join us,” Alex dared.
“I have to go, Alex.” Loren swiftly ended their small talk, and left without looking back.
From afar, Sophia saw her, as if she was absconding from anything dangerous. She wished she’d remembered Loren so she could be more confident to say hi, but nothing, so far, really served as a hint. (Sophia never intended to take Giovanni away from Loren. In fact, she never knew about the two of them, never knew if there were other girls in Giovanni’s past. All she had in mind before was... she loved Jericho so much that she needed to forget him. And that was the time that Giovanni popped in, at Alex’s recommendations, too.)
Sophia approached her brother and asked who the girl was.
“She’s Loren, our band’s former lead singer. She’s here to visit Giovanni’s grave,” Alex said in detail, with no intention of spilling out that she was actually Giovanni’s ex-girlfriend. He knew that Sophia was not yet ready to know more of Giovanni or his past.
Still wondering why Loren left in a cold-blooded way, Sophia watched Loren’s back until the latter finally left, with her car.
Alex sat down beside Giovanni’s grave, and began reminiscing, in agonizing silence. The more the memories rushed in, the more they seemed to kill him. He tried so hard to ignore the pain, but his conscience demanded to be felt. He was worn into shreds, forcing to gather himself back again, and carry on. Then he looked up at the cloudless blue sky and blinked back those unwanted tears.
Sophia, holding a bouquet of flowers, joined her brother. Slowly, she knelt down, placed the bouquet beside Giovanni’s engraved name, and turned even more quiet.
Philippe and Elizabeth remained standing, watching how Sophia traced Giovanni’s name on the asphalt tablet. It reminded them so much of Giovanni, of how he had always been polite everytime he would ask Sophia out. He’d always been thoughtful, and always had something to offer on the table everytime he would join the family for a meal.
The Vabuerettis spent one more hour at the cemetery, accompanied with prayers and small laughs, as they recollected more of Giovanni’s blissful memoirs with them.
Sophia stayed silent, listening to every word her family was sharing.
“I think we should go now,” Philippe suggested suddenly.
Elizabeth looked at her daughter, discerning she was ready to leave, but she could feel the hushed agony in Sophia.
“Sophia.” Elizabeth put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder, sending Sophia the comfort she needed.
Sophia, after the long wait, stood up as she repeated to herself, Giovanni’s name. She wanted to stay longer, but the pain would only lose, if she left, while it was still early.
They were about to leave when a black Audi arrived.
Alex recognized it. “Gio’s family is also here to visit,” he mumbled, gazing at the slow-moving car.
The Habendards saw them too and went to them immediately. They were all wearing black.
“Mr. and Mrs. Vabueretti, hi!” Giovanni’s father greeted them cordially.
“Oh, hello there!” the Vabueretti couple greeted back. “We’re here to visit Giovanni’s grave.”
“I see,” Giovanni’s father reacted in delight, looking at Sophia with a splodge of pity.
“We’re glad you’re here!” Giovanni’s mother supplemented, also taking a peek at Sophia, who now appeared iced-up, in awkward timidity.
For a while, Alex and Sophia stood with them, wordless as they listened to their parents’ conversation with the Habendards. Then, a cute little girl emerged from the car, captivating Sophia’s attention. She was Anna, Giovanni’s younger sister.
Watching her, Sophia did not need to ask if she was Giovanni’s younger sister. Her face already spoke for it.
Anna looked at her too, and passed the same message of grief through her beatific eyes.
Sophia remained staring at her, craving to talk to her, but Giovanni’s mom approached Sophia, and blocked her curious look at Anna.
Sophia stiffened as Mrs. Habendard offered her a warm embrace. For a moment or two, they carved up the same longing for Giovanni.
“I pray for your memory to come back,” Mrs. Habendard whispered in her ears, as her clasp tightened.
Standing still, Sophia was not able to return a response. Mrs. Habendard’s cuddle was intense enough so that it seemed to paralyze every muscle of her mouth.
Coming to Sophia’s rescue, Elizabeth thanked Mrs. Habendard and repeated that they were glad to see them again.
“Yes, we share the same thing.” Mrs. Habendard finally released Sophia and stepped back to continue her talk with the Vabueretti couple.
“We should be leaving now,” Philippe incorporated carefully, noticing the sky turning hotter. “And we’re very glad to see you.” Now, Philippe handled all the talking, as Sophia and Alex started getting inside the car.
As their car moved, Sophia glanced back at the Habendards, and once more, offered her silent goodbye to Giovanni.
It was lunch time when Philippe saw a Southeast-Asian-looking restaurant. “Hungry?” he asked.
“Yes. Please pull over,” Elizabeth responded.
Then, they got inside the diner, noticing its ethnic designs and strange music.
It was all unusual. The people were eating with their bare hands and no one seemed to feel uncomfortable.
“It’s the way they eat here. They don’t use any utensils,” Alex told Sophia under his voice. “It’s the attraction of the restaurant, as well as the indigenous kind of music.”
Sophia continued, observing. She was distracted when a Filipino waitress recognized her.
“Oh, Ma’am Sophie! You’re here! It’s been months since you last visited our restaurant.” The waitress spoke in a perfect English accent as she led them to a special table.
To her utter surprise, Sophia lost her words.
The waitress’ face increasingly crumpled. Typically, Sophia would smile at her. But this time, she seemed different.
“She doesn’t remember you. She lost her memory in a car accident,” Elizabeth spoke for her daughter, and sat down on a varnished wooden chair.
The waitress, shocked, couldn’t make a move. It was ages before she recovered. “I see, ma’am. May I take your order, then?” she finally said.
Sophia looked at her in the eyes and asked, “What did I use to order here?”
“Oh, you and Sir Giovanni always ordered “adobo” and rice, topped with chopped leaves of pandan,” the waitress gleefully detailed, unaware of Giovanni’s passing away.
Philippe, Elizabeth, and Alex passed a message through their eyes, and quickly turned close-mouthed.
Sophia came to a thorny hush. Knowing that she used to go there with Giovanni, she had enough of emotional torture.
More and more confused, the waitress asked them again about their order.
“Okay, give us then that “adobo” and rice,” Philippe demanded without more ado, in hopes of cutting the creeping awkwardness.
“And your drinks, sir?” the waitress, again, inquired.
Sophia noticed the coconut shells displayed at the restaurant reception area and gawked at them steadily.
The waitress shadowed Sophia’s distant look at them and asked if they wanted coconut water.
“Yes, coconut water for the four of us!” Philippe, again, rushed to answer.
The waitress finally left them, but a designed wall seized Sophia’s awareness. The wall was a message board for the restaurant’s avid costumers. There were displayed photos and love notes, mostly by teenagers of the wealthy kind.
With its magnetic pull on Sophia, Sophia approached it and saw a photo of her and Giovanni. Beside it was Giovanni’s love note during their first week together. It said,
I suppose I am the happiest guy already.
The girl beside me on the photo is my girlfriend,
my beautiful, endearing girlfriend. I feel so lucky
blessed that she chose me over the other guys out
there, chasing her like she’s on extinction.
This feeling I can’t explain. Perhaps this is what
people call ecstasy. She smiles as I write this.
It’s her lips that I thirst to kiss. She has these eyes
that weaken me. It bothers me that guys stare at her
tonight and if she’s a candle, she could have melted
already. But it makes me proud that she’s all mine.
I love her and I always will.
Sophia’s chest grew heavier, realizing how this Giovanni loved her so much. At once, she stopped herself from getting more emotional and wished for a tower of strength, just a snatch away, to prevent her legs from collapsing.
Elizabeth followed her daughter and saw the photo.
“The food’s ready.” Carefully, she stopped Sophia’s track of thoughts about Giovanni.
Sophia slowly glared at the floor, and turned to face her mother, wordless.
Tangled up with the oodles of emotions surrounding them, Elizabeth held her daughter’s hand and led her back to the table. “Let’s eat now.”
“Um, this is good!” Alex expressed while eating. “The taste is weird but it’s really good,” he kept on, with his mouth chock-full.
“Yes, I have to agree,” Philippe coincided, savoring every bite of “adobo.”
Chewing, with no energy, Sophia noticed someone from the reception area. He was watching her from time to time, making her lose interest in her eating.
“Sophia, what is wrong?” Elizabeth asked and followed her daughter’s distracted eyes.
Curious, Alex did the same and saw Enzo, one of Sophia’s keen suitors before, who was also the son of the restaurant’s owner.
“Oh, Enzo!” he screeched in discomfort.
“You know him?” Sophia’s forehead wrinkled.
“A little, sis. I wonder if he’s working here.”
“What do you know about him?”
“That he’s a jerk!” Alex gnashed his teeth, his angry eyes entirely targeting Enzo.
“You think I knew him?” Sophia stiffened, and examined Enzo sneakily.
Within their parents’ presence, Alex chose not to provide her any answer. He was simply careful not to let slip any mischief he did before, involving Enzo.
“What is it, Alex?” Elizabeth butted in.
Philippe did the same, his face displaying inklings of Alex’s naughtiness.
Alex sighed, deciding in his mind. But in the long run, he finally spilled all the beans.
“Sophia, that guy...” he spoke initially, discerning his father’s irritated impression. “Um, he used to stalk you before,” he finally admitted, already prepared for their parents’ shock.
“What?” Philippe turned shaken.
“And because of that… Giovanni and I used to punch him in the face.” Now, Alex conceitedly announced it.
“What?” Philippe and Elizabeth reacted simultaneously, their eyes continuously dilating.
“How come we never knew this, before?” Elizabeth freaked out modestly.
“Well...” Alex self-righteously shrugged his shoulders.
“Come on, honey! Let’s eat fast so we could go. I’m glad I’m getting to know more of your brother’s bad behavior,” Elizabeth told Sophia, with a penetrating glance at Alex.
Sophia nodded, pondering everything she heard from them.
At the Vabueretti residence, Jericho was stealthily observing outside the house. He was in his car, away from the gate, waiting for Sophia to come out, but for hours, he did not see any of her silhouette.
Still patiently waiting, Jericho finally saw a car coming and thought that it might already be the Vabuerettis. He hid himself in the car and carefully looked out from its window.
Their gate was opened by Grandma Lucy.
The moment Jericho saw her, his nervous system immediately plunged down. Determined enough, he endured it all, so as to study the place again.
At last, Sophia appeared in his sense of sight, as she gracefully glided out of the car.
Euphoric, he smiled and then left.
