Eric missed his 7:30am bus. He didn't have a clue how that would change his life. He had to take the 8:00am bus to work. It was not the best situation he would want to get himself into; late for his court hearing and his client has been ringing his phone like crazy. The judge isn't going to like his late for bus excuse as well. There was nothing he could do anyway.
Aboard the bus, he was reading a ton of papers stuffed in his suit case when the a man approached him. "That would be twenty mister." He then realized that he didn't have any stash with him. He left his wallet. Not a single cent with him. He only had his credit card with him. Of course, no bus would be willing enough to accept a swipe.
"I think I left my wallet." He didn't have any other words to say as the man looked at him blankly.
"We've heard that excuse a number of times already mister. It's either you pay up or off the bus."
"I'll pay for him.", the woman in front of his seat suddenly declared.
"Excuse me?", Eric asked. "You really don't have to", he added.
"I'll pay. I don't want any ruckus happening. And I wouldn't want to be late for work if they have to stop to kick you off."
The man made no objection and got the twenty from her. Eric, stumped, moved right beside the woman as the man continued his collection with the other passengers.
"I'll pay you back."
"Let me see. Twenty? I think I have enough for me to not to starve. I think I can manage.", the woman said as she continued going through her magazine.
Eric immediately noticed how beautiful and attractive the woman was. Her legs were crossed in a pencil skirt, showing her as white as snow legs. He really didn't have anything else to say. He remained quiet in the last fifteen minutes of the ride. Finally, the bus reached its destination.
"Is this your daily bus?", Eric inquired. "If you take this same bus tomorrow, you will know."
Eric took the 8:00am bus the next day, not a good idea for him as he will be again be bombarded with questions and demands for explanation from his client and the judge, not to mention the firm he works for. For some reason, he thought that paying the little money he owed is more important than his job. And he wasn't disappointed. The same girl who saved him the previous day was there. Seated in the same place. He sat beside her.
"I guess I now have an answer to my question yesterday."
The woman just smiled as she turned her attention from her magazine she held in her hands to him. Eric reached for his wallet.
"Here you go. Thank you.", as Eric handed her the twenty.
"Is that your daughter?", she asked. Eric gave a puzzled look.
"I'm sorry. I just saw a picture of a lovely girl in your wallet."
"Oh, her?", as he realized that she was talking about the kid in his wallet. "She is actually my niece. I'm taking care of her since her father passed away.", he declared.
"That is sweet.", a lovely light suddenly brightened up her face as she said those words.
"You have a kid of your own?", Eric thought of throwing a question as he thought it was the polite thing to do.
"In fact I do." She reached for wallet in her purse and showed him the picture of a little girl closely resembling the woman's angelic face. No doubt it was her daughter.
"She is lovely. I think I know where she got it from. My name is Eric"
She answered with a shy smile. She extended her hand to him. "April."
26 November 2009
Forbidden III
Eric now sits on a bench against a wall, his back rested against it. He looked like a man who has survived a tornado attack in Texas. His suit, which looked impressive, powerful, neatly pressed, just hours ago is now like a wardrobe taken out from a pile of dirty laundry. It was now a darker shade. April's blood has dried. From one look, you would think he was the one shot or stabbed.
His once finely combed hair is now gone. He looked like he has just woke up from a nightmare, thankful for the awakening yet not since he just woke up to live in another nightmare. April was shot.
The hospital was filled with a murky stink of air mixed with chemicals meant to keep sterility. He thought how the mix of stench in the air represented how life and death meet in this place; the stench of blood and pukes for death and the stinging scent of life. It gave him a chilling feeling.
From his bench, just outside April's room - 203 - he waits; uncertain of what's going to happen next. To his right was the hallway leading to the elevator. To his left was another hallway, leading to the nurse's station. There was only one nurse left to man the station since the rest are busy attending to other patients, most of them were from the same restaurant wherein he had a dream that turned to a nightmare. A small TV played, and he could hear it from his place. It was the flash news special edition. One of those news programs that cuts of any show in the middle of it when something exciting happens. Poor Will & Grace.
Richard Gammon, he was the madman who just barged into the restaurant and shot everyone in sight to his satisfaction. Then a mugshot of the man was shown on the screen. He has been arrested multiple times for robbery and other offenses and has been rehabbed for drug addiction three times. That night was one of the nights wherein sanity has left him because of pot. According to the report, he was high on dope in an alley at the back of the restaurant. He sneaked his way into the kitchen and stabbed a couple of cooks, two of the five were critical. He then went to the main lobby through the kitchen door and started shooting on sight with a gun that he got from the streets. One of the security personnel, MIB he thought, shot him in the head causing instant death.
Photos of the victims were then flashed, one after the other. Short stories of their lives unfold before everyone glued to the boob tube. And then there was April, beautiful as ever in her photos that one could not imagine how she suffered such ordeal. He even started to wonder how they got a quick biography of her life.
April, 27 years old, married to a pilot of a popular, big time airliner. She has become successful in her chosen field of Law. She usually works with women and children's rights protection. The repart says, she was in business meeting with his partner Atty. Eric Maxwell at the time of the shooting.
As the reporter started to narrate the police’s additional findings in the case, the nurse turned the television off. It was a deafening silence. Nothing could be heard in the hallway that even a single drop of a needle would resound with such power and might in the place. It is now 1:32am, the clock hanging on the wall says. Eric never really noticed the time. He just realized that it’s been almost four hours since April was rushed to the hospital from a circus of events that left no one smiling. He felt his consciousness flee him. Then there was darkness.
His once finely combed hair is now gone. He looked like he has just woke up from a nightmare, thankful for the awakening yet not since he just woke up to live in another nightmare. April was shot.
The hospital was filled with a murky stink of air mixed with chemicals meant to keep sterility. He thought how the mix of stench in the air represented how life and death meet in this place; the stench of blood and pukes for death and the stinging scent of life. It gave him a chilling feeling.
From his bench, just outside April's room - 203 - he waits; uncertain of what's going to happen next. To his right was the hallway leading to the elevator. To his left was another hallway, leading to the nurse's station. There was only one nurse left to man the station since the rest are busy attending to other patients, most of them were from the same restaurant wherein he had a dream that turned to a nightmare. A small TV played, and he could hear it from his place. It was the flash news special edition. One of those news programs that cuts of any show in the middle of it when something exciting happens. Poor Will & Grace.
Richard Gammon, he was the madman who just barged into the restaurant and shot everyone in sight to his satisfaction. Then a mugshot of the man was shown on the screen. He has been arrested multiple times for robbery and other offenses and has been rehabbed for drug addiction three times. That night was one of the nights wherein sanity has left him because of pot. According to the report, he was high on dope in an alley at the back of the restaurant. He sneaked his way into the kitchen and stabbed a couple of cooks, two of the five were critical. He then went to the main lobby through the kitchen door and started shooting on sight with a gun that he got from the streets. One of the security personnel, MIB he thought, shot him in the head causing instant death.
Photos of the victims were then flashed, one after the other. Short stories of their lives unfold before everyone glued to the boob tube. And then there was April, beautiful as ever in her photos that one could not imagine how she suffered such ordeal. He even started to wonder how they got a quick biography of her life.
April, 27 years old, married to a pilot of a popular, big time airliner. She has become successful in her chosen field of Law. She usually works with women and children's rights protection. The repart says, she was in business meeting with his partner Atty. Eric Maxwell at the time of the shooting.
As the reporter started to narrate the police’s additional findings in the case, the nurse turned the television off. It was a deafening silence. Nothing could be heard in the hallway that even a single drop of a needle would resound with such power and might in the place. It is now 1:32am, the clock hanging on the wall says. Eric never really noticed the time. He just realized that it’s been almost four hours since April was rushed to the hospital from a circus of events that left no one smiling. He felt his consciousness flee him. Then there was darkness.
25 November 2009
THE SUN DOESN'T SHINE
The days are gloomy
I feel like a dark cloud follows me around
unmindful of the light that brightens the rest of the world
I don't feel warmth
I only feel the rain heavily pouring on me
I only have the heavens as witness of how much you mean to me
It may not be able to speak; beg and plead for me, if only it could
But all it could do is cast a shadow on me much like a spotlight, only the opposite
Longing for that day for darkness to flee me
The days seem like forever without you
It's been a thousand days since I last held your hand as us
I feel like I took my last breath when you left
All this time I have been holding my breath
I don't know how much longer I could last
But I know not for long
Please come back and save me from this misery filling my lungs
and turn my nights back into days
If only I could have your smile and your warmth
I know I would live again
Because believe me
the sun doesn't shine without you
I feel like a dark cloud follows me around
unmindful of the light that brightens the rest of the world
I don't feel warmth
I only feel the rain heavily pouring on me
I only have the heavens as witness of how much you mean to me
It may not be able to speak; beg and plead for me, if only it could
But all it could do is cast a shadow on me much like a spotlight, only the opposite
Longing for that day for darkness to flee me
The days seem like forever without you
It's been a thousand days since I last held your hand as us
I feel like I took my last breath when you left
All this time I have been holding my breath
I don't know how much longer I could last
But I know not for long
Please come back and save me from this misery filling my lungs
and turn my nights back into days
If only I could have your smile and your warmth
I know I would live again
Because believe me
the sun doesn't shine without you
05 November 2009
Dance
It wasn't exactly the most romantic of all nights. But it was one heck of a night to remember and cherish a lifetime.
Dinner was good, great even. Had grilled chops and iced tea to go with it. Your favorit Pizza Bites and your newly thought of game of ping, which up to now I can't figure how you got that idea. But it was cute though, really cute.
As time ticked and tocked, I grew nervous. It felt like it's the first time having you join me for dinner. I could see my hands literally shaking out of nervousness.
I invited you over to my place. We were supposed to talk, make sense of things that don't.
As I opened the door for her, my heart started pounding so hard. You would think that there was a little drum festival inside it, with drums being beaten as if there is no tomorrow. Easy does it. Shoot! I forgot to tidy things up. The scent wasn't al that sweet either. Way to go moron.
I played the songs that I already prepared. Songs that we have shared. Songs that have narrated our story. I approached you from where you were seated. Offered my hand to you and asked you to dance.
As the music played, we swayed and let the melody drift us to a plce where the only things that mattered was you and me. I held you tight, as tight as I could like a child afraid of losing his favorite toy or candies to strangers. All of a sudden, I just broke down, cried like a little baby longing for his mom whose only refuge he could get was from her warmth and embrace. I held you as close as I could. I felt your heart beat next to mine. I felt you skin against mine. I could hear you breathe. I just missed you so. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as if a dark cloude whose rain could offer a decade of tears or maybe even more. I also felt you cry over my shoulder. I felt you grip me tight, so tight. As a tear flowed from her eyes, I cried twice as hard.
Then the four walls of the room was no longer there. The creaky floor was nowhere to be found and no longer making its sound. The music, I could hear no more. It was just you and me. It was just the darkness of space around with distant stars providing us light, much like fireflies dancing with us at that moment as if celebrating a love that was so true and real, at least for me that time.
Two hearts that were once whole, are now together again at that moment. They once beat as one. They once share the same blood running through them. They once completed each other. But that is no longer true. The other now shares her heart with someone eles. It now beats with someone else. It now longs for someone else. I know that. But at least, I felt how beautifyl and great it is to be with you again, even for once, although it would have been better to have it forever. Dance with you 'til forever ends.
I know that it would be too difficult to have it back the way it used to be, maybe even impossible. But I won't stop loving you. I just can't because my heart belongs to you.
Dinner was good, great even. Had grilled chops and iced tea to go with it. Your favorit Pizza Bites and your newly thought of game of ping, which up to now I can't figure how you got that idea. But it was cute though, really cute.
As time ticked and tocked, I grew nervous. It felt like it's the first time having you join me for dinner. I could see my hands literally shaking out of nervousness.
I invited you over to my place. We were supposed to talk, make sense of things that don't.
As I opened the door for her, my heart started pounding so hard. You would think that there was a little drum festival inside it, with drums being beaten as if there is no tomorrow. Easy does it. Shoot! I forgot to tidy things up. The scent wasn't al that sweet either. Way to go moron.
I played the songs that I already prepared. Songs that we have shared. Songs that have narrated our story. I approached you from where you were seated. Offered my hand to you and asked you to dance.
As the music played, we swayed and let the melody drift us to a plce where the only things that mattered was you and me. I held you tight, as tight as I could like a child afraid of losing his favorite toy or candies to strangers. All of a sudden, I just broke down, cried like a little baby longing for his mom whose only refuge he could get was from her warmth and embrace. I held you as close as I could. I felt your heart beat next to mine. I felt you skin against mine. I could hear you breathe. I just missed you so. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as if a dark cloude whose rain could offer a decade of tears or maybe even more. I also felt you cry over my shoulder. I felt you grip me tight, so tight. As a tear flowed from her eyes, I cried twice as hard.
Then the four walls of the room was no longer there. The creaky floor was nowhere to be found and no longer making its sound. The music, I could hear no more. It was just you and me. It was just the darkness of space around with distant stars providing us light, much like fireflies dancing with us at that moment as if celebrating a love that was so true and real, at least for me that time.
Two hearts that were once whole, are now together again at that moment. They once beat as one. They once share the same blood running through them. They once completed each other. But that is no longer true. The other now shares her heart with someone eles. It now beats with someone else. It now longs for someone else. I know that. But at least, I felt how beautifyl and great it is to be with you again, even for once, although it would have been better to have it forever. Dance with you 'til forever ends.
I know that it would be too difficult to have it back the way it used to be, maybe even impossible. But I won't stop loving you. I just can't because my heart belongs to you.
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