Marven’s First Novel, chapter15

     Now in the car cruising along the streets, Michal's sister started asking her questions about recent happenings in the past few minutes.

     "That wasn't actually bad back there. I thought it was just going to be a waste of time, but I liked it," she said.

     It took Michal a few seconds to understand what was being said to her. "Oh. I'm sorry if I bothered you with my little side trip," she replied.

     "It's okay. I don't mind at all. How can I say no to you? Besides, you acted like your life depended on it."

     "I did?"

     "Yes."

     "Ooh. I'm very sorry. I'm sure it was just a passing fancy. I'm better now."

     "Yes. I can see that."

     "What does that mean?"

     "Nothing. Does it have to mean anything?"

     "No. Of course, not."

     After a pause of more or less than a minute, Michal's sister busying herself in an intersection, the latter again ventured to speak, "You're boyfriend's smoking hot, by the way. I just want to say that."

     Michal was, at first, lethargic to reply as if accepting the statement as a fact. Then she frowned and said, "Boyfriend? What makes you think he's my boyfriend?"

     "Come on. It's okay. You don't have to be shy about it. You can just say it."

     "Let's just say I'm his trusted friend and he is mine aside from you."

     "You mean it?"

     "I sure do."

     "Thank you. But is that what he also thinks?"

     "I'm sure it is. Or at least, I hope so."

     "I mean, Is that what he still thinks after you kissed him so passionately? Which was phenomenal, by the way."

     Michal frowned and said, "What are you talking about?"

     Her sister chuckled. "You think I didn't see you? I actually did. I saw you kiss him first. Then I saw you both kissed each other." She glanced at Michal quickly to see her reaction. Then she looked again before her right away. "It was beautiful. Nothing like I've ever seen. I wish I had spontaneous moments like that."

     Michal flinched and grimaced like one whose secrets doesn't want to be discovered. "Well, I haven't given him an official answer yet. And he knows it."

     "Then what was that kiss for? Gratitude? You kinda have, sis, when you kissed him like that. I mean let's face it."

     "He's a man. It may not mean anything to him. He must have just enjoyed every second of it as it was."

     "Maybe. But it seems that it definitely meant something to him... based on what I saw."

     "You think so? Are you sure?"

     "Yes."

     "Okay." Michal appeared to be convinced. Then she racked her brain and recalled and analyzed the incident.

     "I think it's you who should tell me. You're the one who was kissed, not me."

     In the end, all Michal could say as she sighed was, "Fine."

     Her sister genuinely smiled jubilantly, first looking in front of her towards the road and then quickly sideways at Michal. "When are you going to tell him?"

     "I don't know."

     "I'm happy to finally see you with a guy. I mean, it's about time."

     "What if he's not the right one for me?"

     "Huh? Why? You look good together. Perfect, in fact."

     "I think you're overestimating him. He's totally different from what he looks like. If you get to know him better, you'll eventually see the problem. You might turn away in disgust if you were in my place."

     "Really?"

     "I won't go into particulars. It's enough that I've said it. Maybe I'm an idiot in taking him."

     "Is that so? Well..." Michal's sister's face changed and she shrugged her shoulders. "Now I don't know what to say. It's up to you, then. All I can say is that let your feelings flow freely and don't stifle it."

     "I know what to do with what I feel. Thank you."

     "I almost couldn't resist him when he shook my hand."

     Michal didn't respond right away. But afterwards, she said, "No," abstractedly.

     Her sister quickly glanced at her, turned her head back towards the road, and said, "Fine. Take it easy."

     "I meant, no. You're married."

     Her sister chuckled and said, "Right. You got a point. But what can I do? You exposed me to him."

     Michal didn't respond at once. But afterwards, she said, "Well, who will see him and how he will be seen is not up to him. It's beyond his control. So it's either my fault or his."

     "I'm sure it's not your fault."

     "So it's his. But does he deserve that?"

     "What?"

     "Don't worry. As soon as I see him again, I'll begin to administer to him the punishment that he deserves in the most painful way that he won't be able to forget for the rest of his life. Slowly but surely."

     "Hey. I was just joking."

     "No. I'm going to do it. I won't let just some lowlife have any significance in me. He must be dreaming if he thinks he does. I'm going to give myself a very good time toying with him. Why not? It's actually a very-interesting idea."

     "Forget I ever said any of that. I just wanted to point out that he's so hot to the point of being ridiculously distracting."

     "That's why he needs to be punished."

     "Fine. Take it easy."

     "All-right. Kidding aside, we don't have to see him that way if we want to, if we'd only try. I'm sure not every woman does so. We can just look upon him as a person imbued with thoughts and feelings instead of an object of our vanity or desires."

     "All right. Fine. Got it. So he's something of a poor artist. Is that right?"

     "Yeah... He just had his first job recently... at his age."

     "Sexy bum? How old is he?"

     "Twenty-five?"

     Her sister was genuinely surprised. "Woah! Goodness. You're his older sister."

     "Yeah, it seems. But does it look like that?"

     "No. Absolutely not. Not really. However, I suddenly started to wonder how that's going to work?"

     "I guess I'll just be what he needs me to be. An older sister, a trusted friend... A girlfriend?"

     "Okay? Now you're talking."

     "Happy?"

     "Yes. Happy."

     It was almost night when they neared home. At this juncture, Michal said, "Can we just keep this between us?"

     "You mean...? Yeah. Sure."

     Michal chuckled. "He's not actually... How can I say this?"

     "Important? Yeah. He has that vibe."

     "I'm not belittling him, of course. He matters a lot to me. But it's better if we don't make a big fuss about this in the family. I'm sure that's what he'd prefer too."

     "My lips are sealed, then."

     "So, this information doesn't go out of both our persons, the two of us. I mean, totally zipped."

     "Yes, I get it."

     As they got back home, Michal can now be seen inside her room lying in bed and hugging a large pillow. It wasn't yet time to sleep. Behind the pillow where she almost buried her head, you could see that she's still not asleep. It was just early in the evening. Instead, if you look closer at her face, you would see her eyes filled with tears and her lips curled as if lamenting. Now she pressed her face against the pillow for half a minute and then untangled, revealing a countenance more devastated than before. She looked towards the mirror frame with a blank and sad expression, not minding the tears that sparkled her eyes and blurred her vision. Then she sprang up, gently crawled off the bed, stood up, and sat in front of the mirror. Staring at herself, she concentrated the surge that ran up her spine to her neck and head and translated those into tears that she allowed to flow freely down her cheeks as she kept herself motionless with a sad and devastated look. She was surprised when she heard the door creak and saw from the reflection her sister appearing, coming in, and then approaching her. During this interval, she briskly rearranged her face into something more presentable.

     When her sister got to her, she placed both her hands on Michal's shoulder and said, "I'm going home now."

     "Thanks for accompanying me on my errand," Michal replied in a husky and tearful voice.

     "My pleasure. Thank you also for letting me accompany you and, in the process, letting me into your love life."

     "Love life?"

     "Yeah. You gave me the honor of introducing me to your first ever boyfriend."

     "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that word."

     "You will... although he's not such a material to you." She enveloped her in her arms and kissed her on the cheek.

     "I'm going out with you," Michal replied as she stood up.

     Outside in the street, in the dark of the night, her sister, as she was about to get in the car, stopped, hugged her affectionately, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Just follow your heart. Okay? I'm with you in this."

     Surprised despite everything that they talked about, it took Michal three seconds to reply, "Thank you, sis."

     Time will tell whether Michal was right in what she chose to do earlier on that particular Tuesday.

     Meanwhile, somewhere around this time, before or after, Beatriz was sitting behind a piano keyboard and playing it one mid afternoon. She was doing it inside one of the rooms on the third floor of one of the buildings of the school where she works. This particular building overlooked a river as you gaze on windows at her back. It was a fine afternoon, perfect for the ballad with a gospel and operatic sound that she was playing. The excellent vocal quality of one of her female students who stood in front of her which she accompanies with pure piano sound was apparent, and this involuntarily impelled her to put in a lot of crunch to her playing. The voice of her student was thick as well as the sounds produced by the skillful and finesse way she pressed the ebony and ivory keys. Thus, together, they made wonderful music that afternoon inside that sort of function room. Along the way, Beatriz corrected her student on certain notes she failed to hit precisely by stopping and emphasizing their sounds on the piano keys and also telling her when to curl, smoothen, be loud, and be soft. Both of them were wearing their uniforms: that of a student and that of a teacher.

     Suddenly, a young man appeared at the door and informed Beatriz that someone was looking for her. She told him to let the person in. When the latter went away, what came in view a few seconds after him was none other than her friend Mauricia who was carrying some sort of pouch in her hand. Beatriz cordially invited her to come in and make herself comfortable. But then she remembered her student and said:

     "Oh. We're done. Great job. You may now go home. Thank you for sparing your time to practice. Till next time?"

     "Yes, ma'am," the teenager still energetically replied after somewhat straining her vocal cords. Then she packed her things and left the room.

     Beatriz then attended to Mauricia and said, "Would you like some coffee. I think I have some here, and we have hot water." Beatriz was about to set out to make some when Mauricia said:

     "Hey. I brought us some coffee. Can't you see?" She uncovered what she was carrying and placed them on a table.

     "Oh. You shouldn't have taken the trouble. Anyway..."

     Mauricia sat on an available chair, faced Beatriz, and smiled. "This campus is so big. I almost got lost here, finding you."

     "Oh, were you? Nice."

     "Nice?"

     "Yeah. I'm happy to hear that. I delight in the mystery of this place. That's why I like it here."

     Mauricia instinctively looked around and then said, "So you love it here. That's why decided to work here."

     Beatriz looked down, chuckled, and said abstractedly, "Your tone sounds familiar to me. Where did I hear that before?"

     "What was that?"

     "Nothing."

     They went on chatting animatedly about domestic life and other mundane topics.

     Moments later, they were now seen at the corridor where they continued their chat, resting their arms on the rail and looking over the campus street and the track and field oval. Beatriz continued:

     "This may sound silly to you, but it has been my dream to work here. When I was applying at schools, this was the very high school I ultimately wanted to see myself at."

     "Okay."

     "And yes. I think I know what you're thinking. We're like Peter Pan here, tutoring, each passing year, new generations of lost boys and eventually the children of the former children we used to take to childish adventures. The only difference is that we're mortals and will eventually be claimed by the land which we came from, probably still in a state of poverty."

     "Hey. Take it easy. You're sounding like an old person. We're of the same age. Remember? You're as old... or as young as me."

     "Oh, yes. I forgot."

     "I still can't get used to what you've become, Beatriz. I didn't remember you being studious or being a serious student. You weren't even in the honor roll like our common friend. And yet now, you're sounding like an intellectual or sage."

     "I guess, somewhere along the way after we parted ways, I got inspired by our teachers and wanted to be like them. Speaking of our common friend, how's he?"

     "Oh, he's just fine."

     "Is that so? How do you know? He no longer returned after that Sunday when I invited him."

     "Well... I feel obligated to break the news to you that we finally got back together during that particular Sunday... after many years."

     "Really? How come? I thought he left before you did."

     "Well, he lingered at the gate a little bit for some reasons I don't know, and I caught up with him." Mauricia proceeded to recount their date that led to it. "I didn't even plan or expected it to come to that. I just went out of my way to thank him."

     "Well... That's not a surprise. Looking at you two, I know, sooner or later, you'll get back together. So congratulations."

     "We've been seeing each other since then. I mean, he's been visiting me in the house."

     "Congratulations to both of you. You seem to be meant for each other."

     "Do you think so?"

     "Yes. Of course."

     "Okay."

     "Why do you sound unsure like that?"

     "I just don't know what to make of it yet."

     "Why? You love each other. Don't you? I remember you were so much in love as teenagers. I saw it. I wonder if that's still the case."

     "So do I."

     "Does he still love you as before?"

     "I think so."

     "Do you still love him?"

     "I think so. I mean, something like that doesn't just go away. Right?"

     "Right. I agree."

     "So yes. I still feel something towards him. And I think I'd still do even if we meet at a later time, say, for example, when we were old people."

     "Then it's settled. You're lovers once more."

     Mauricia was surprised. "Right." She chuckled. "If that's the way you want to put it."

     "Absolutely. So, in the future, we'll expect to see both of you as love birds already?"

     Mauricia looked down, chuckled, and said, "I guess so."

     The next week, on the second week of September, the elevated platform or stage beside the open basketball court in the community plaza became busy in entertaining registrations for the midyear leagues. This year, there'll be two: basketball and volleyball. The entire tournaments with last for roughly a month; therefore, the games would be seven days a week every dusk up to ten o'clock in the evening max if there would be many participants. The games would be cancelled if there's a heavy rain during those hours. The tournaments would conclude in the evening of the fiesta on the third or fourth week of October where the championship games would be held in the evening, probably two: basketball and volleyball.

     One of the team registrants for volleyball had a little argument with the man behind the table because they don't have enough members.

     "You must have at least two subs in the team; total, eight. Those are the rules," the man said.

     When they got convinced, they turned back and said, "Okay. We'll just go back."

     "Registrations will only last this week. After that, you'll no longer see us here and you can no longer join. Find your eighth member before then."

     The group went away.

from The Simple Adventures of a Simple Simpleton

by: Marven T. Baldo