Blue Moon

The nights's approaching. It's  nine o'clock and 15 minutes but they stayed still in the park. Spending the whole afternoon and early portion of the evening lying in the park's grass is a perfect moment. Who can imagine? Happiness need not necessairily be expensive. He noticed that all those movie moments, disco moments, special dinner moments, he cannot compare those feelings to what he's feeling right now.

Almost all the park goers have gone home for dinner. They're still there, lying in their backs on the grass, talking nonsense, talking about their dreams as they hold each other's hand.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her.

"No. Can we stay a few more minutes? I love the feeling that we are together with only the sound of nature around. Why? Are you hungry?" She asked him back with concerned tone.

"No. I was just thinking of you. We're here for quite some time."

"Indeed but the feeling to be in this way is amazing, y'know. Who knows what the future holds? We may go back in this park someday with our children..." She left the sentence hanging.

"Children??? You mean? You mean? I mean, why the concept of children came to your mind?"

"Oh come on!" She teased him as she pulled his face and deeply kissed him.

"I thought for quite some time about what you said and what you tell me almost everytime... that you really love me. We've been together for so many years and I want to say I appreciate everything. No one else cares for me as you do. I mean, what else should I look for? All is laid down good for me. It's you!"

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" He tried to relax himself and return the teasing though deep down inside he's feeling so nervous, excited and full of anticipation.

"No. I just want to tell you something important before we head for dinner. I love you, too".

"Oh God! At last I heard those words I've been dying to hear for years."

He pulled her close and they kissed for a long time. The moment they realize it's really getting late, they saw the moom so full and big and it looks like it's tainted with blue. It's a lovers' moom. They are meant for each other. His happiness tonight is so much that he could hardly breath. 

"Oh at last! Thanks God." He was whispering and grateful for this special night.

"Let's go and have dinner, Sweetheart." She pulled his hands and as soon as they're near each other, they walked with his hand wrapping her shoulders while hers is around his waist.

My Antipatic Colleague

She is always irritable. She is my colleague. She is in her early forties and I really dislike the way she acts. It seems to me that she has severe mood swing problems: one moment she is talking to me like she's my best friend in this world, and one minute later, she's gonna bark at me like a stray hound! I just don't know what's into her.

Almost everyone at work dislike her. She is really very uncongenial. However, I always try to be nice to her and be kind despite the fact that she unreasonably barks at me most of the time. I always think that behind someone's attitude, there is always a deeper reason and a deeper meaning and explanation.

I was correct!

One sunny afternoon, one of her friends visited her. They sat just a few meters away from me from the office garden. It was our afternoon 30-minute break so it was a coincidence that I was also taking some sun and reviewing my language course lessons near where they sat and discuss stuff. Naturally, I overheard their conversation.

Her visitor is the nurse of her son. The son is a vegetable (paraplegic???? or something like that?). I learned later on, both from the conversation I heard and from people who knew her better than me, that the son, two years ago met an accident in a ski lesson in Italy. The accident has damaged the spinal column area (nervous system organ) and resulted to permanent paralysis of his limbs. Thus, her son can only live if the nurse or his mother (my colleague) is attending him.

I was really saddened by the discovery that I made. I understood why she's behaving so. I found the reason for her mood swings and irritated manner. I uncovered the meaning of everything. I never regret that I always tried to be good to her. She is feeling so bad for the situation of her son. I feel lucky for myself as I am so young, at 24 years of age and healthy and no worries about the health of my loved ones.

From that discovery, I even tried to be even more good to her. I know it's so difficult from her side and understanding from her colleagues is a big factor for her. Now I am thankful that I did not try to bark back during those times she barked at me.

Armageddon

---------- ---------- If I am fire---
----------  ---------- I'll burn the world
--------------------  it is so chaotic
---------- ---------- it is no more safe;
--------------------  thus it needs cleansing.

--------------------  If I am water
---------- ---------- I'll flood all over
--------------------  I'll be everywhere
---------- ---------- an endless river
---------- ---------- happy to drown
--------------------  ---------- ---------- ---------- --              this earth forever.

---------- ----------      If I am soil
---------- ----------      I wan to be barren
---------- ----------      no one can use me,
---------- ----------      no one can produce from me
---------- ----------      as I cannot support this world's atrocity
---------- ----------      not to mention its insanity.

---------- ----------     If I am wind
---------- ----------     I'll strom the earth
---------- ----------     It is the only way
---------- ----------     I can blow away the filth
---------- ----------     that the so-called humans,

--------------------      its ungrateful inhabitants, 

--------------------  have scattered around.

--------------------  They are not humans to me but are hound!

The Fish Is Caught From Its Mouth

"Don't tell tell them about what I did yesterday", Pepay said.

"I am not telling anything," replied Aika.
But what possibly I can tell them?

Pepay and Aika are colleagues. It was early morning chit-chat in the office when they had this conversation about their drinking escapade the day before. The two are known to us all to be very close buddies and party goers. They also do a lot of bar hopping at night when they are not so busy at work.

That day, they were laughing about their experience the prior day. They are however seated apart for about five meters in the in our department's area/office so they had to make their voices louder when they have to converse and that loud conversation attracted the attention of everyone listening around. Then, everyone got curious about the thing that Pepay was telling Aika but she was so sure that it must not be known by anyone else aside from the two of them.

I was one of the curious ones. There are 16 of us in the office and aside from me, there are 13 more people who are curious about what they were talking about.

Suddenly Pepay answered, "Don't tell them that I got so drunk and threw up so much".

We all laughed because Aika need not tell us anymore what happened to Pepay. We just discovered the truth from Pepay's mouth. Indeed the fish is baited in its mouth. Funny!

A Poor Boy's Memoir: Dimension I

Pardon me If I cannot tell the story perfectly as I only finished Grade 4 of Elementary School in Philippines. But I want to tell my story. --- I was born as the second child of my parents. I am the eldest son though. We are six in all: I have two brothers and three sisters. Maybe you are thinking why my parents did not have family planning tactics. You are right in a way but not correct in another. After my sister who's next to me was born, my mother had the tubal ligation schedule at our local hospital but that very scheduled day, a typhoon hit the Philippines until she could not get another schedule so soon. In short, she get pregnant again for our 4th sibling. He's a boy too.

My childhood was not bad, I can say. My sister, the oldest in the family, she was very responsible as a child, while our younger siblings, we both played with them and we helped a lot in the house chores. We used to fetch water from a very far place, maybe around 3 kilometers away from our house. You can imagine us: I, with my one gallon of water as I move it from my right hand to my left from time to time to ease the pain of the gallon container weight, while my sister, she has each in her hand. When she's tired, or can't bear the weight for quite some time, she puts those two gallon containers to the ground and we both take some minutes of rest.

-- I remember my childhood when I saw that image in the right... that child is carrying a heavier container than what we used to do though... --

Since we are talking about those gallon containers, I tell you that we really considered ourselves to be lucky if we could find those containers to have lid. Because if not, we expect a lot of wasted along the way, maybe 20% of what we initially took from the water well. I can remember that we used to do this water fetching the moment I could walk. Water supply in my town, and many other towns in the Philippines, is such a bitch, you know.

Those gallon containers were a remarkable part of my life. Maybe because I spend almost all my childhood for that: fetching water. When our third sister started to walk, she joined the team of water fetcher for the family. Thus, we always went in teams of three with those gallon containers in our hand. That time however, Sister 2 is the one who's carrying a single gallon container as she was the smallest in the team. Sister 1 and I were both having two gallons containing water in each hand.

The fun of doing this thing was, we do it after school in the afternoon. We arrived at home at around 5:30 after running back home from the elemntary scholl that's around 5 kilometers away from home. The moment we rested our school bags and umbrellas inside the house, we would go right away to the kitchen to take those empty gallons, get them ready, and then we would change our school uniforms to house clothes. After, off we go to the water well a few kilometers away.

Since no hurry is needed when we did those tasks, sometime we played along the way. We were only afraid of the darkness which starts to hit the country at around 6 or 6:30 sometimes or maybe in a very limited number of times at 7 pm. But how could we know anyway? Wrist watches were things of luxury for us so we have none. We relied on our guts and eyes to see if darkness was coming. Thus, when the sun was still up and light was still visible, sometimes we go inside the mini-jungle along the way and climb some fruit tress and eat them. I remember those fruit trees: santol from May to June and guava for various months of the year and pomelo on a few ocassions. There were so many coconuts but it needs a cutting material to be eaten so we have not eaten any fresh cocos along the way that time. We also used to eat sugar canes but those were from sugar cane plantations and not from mini-jungles like the other fruits I mentioned. That's the fun of it! Climbing trees and eating and stealing a few sugar canes.

Despite the fact that we, my two sisters and I, worked more than play, we tried to make good of those moments and enjoy the best way we could. We only played during recess time at school from 9-9:30 in the morning and lunch break, when the sun was not so strong.

The water fetching with gallon containers is only one dimension of my life. You will know me little by little. I find my life interesting, sad, happy and a mix of everything. I will tell you another dimension soon.

Her Garden Has Something

See the story's conclusion...

Her garden is her passion. It's her trophy as well. None of their many friends and acquaintances who became a guest to their home has left without seeing their garden-her garden. Each and every of these guests always exclaim beautiful praises for her gardening works whenever any of them take a look at her garden. It seems that anytime of the year, bulbs and petals are everywhere. The colors are varied and make the viewers' eyes really enjoy.

"I'm not alone in creating this beauty. The butterflies help me", she explains every time and her guests simply smile at this nite of hers.

She has to admit that gardening is not easy. When she started, she could not count the number of dying plants and flowers that passed by her hands but she persevered and continued trying. She knew that gardening has many good things in it. Among these many good things, she thinks of the utmost good side: she is building a playground for butterflies.

She remmebered that not even a single butterfly was present when she was starting and was still in the phase that most plants were dying when she tries to do something with them. But now, she could observe a good number of butterflies flying around anytime of the day as long as it's not raining hard and as long as the sun's light is still out. She loves butterflies. For her, a garden without butterfly seem to defeat the purpose of its existence. Butterflies add color to the existing beautiful colors that her plants and flowers in the garden already have.

Seeing a color combination in motion amazes her- the color of flying butterflies in various colors and shapes. There are around at least seventy butterflies in her garden and when any of those butterfly hops in her hand while she does her gardeing, she tries to pause and converse with the beautiful creature. "Hi beautiful! What made you hop in my skin? I'm not a flower but I assume I'm sweet?" Even her make a wide grin when this situation happens and she would put the butterfly slowly in one of her garden's many blooming petals and off she goes back gardening again.

She continued this routine of talking to the butterflies as if they are humans. One day, while she was very happy doing her usual gardening stuff, as her mode of relaxation after going home from office, one very beautiful and strange looking butterfly hopped in her hand. As usual, she conversed with the beautiful creature. "How are you beautiful? Are you from this garden? I have never seen you before, have I?"

"I am doing great madam, and thanks to you. I'm from this garden of yours but I rarely go out." The butterfly talked back to her in a high pitched voice but just enough for her to hear it. Naturally she was taken aback by this fact.

See the story's conclusion...

Her Garden Has Something (page 2)

The story's beginning...

She was about to scream but she tried to control herself and calm down. She closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that it's only her imagination that plays tricks to her. Then she also told herself that she might be having stress but she knew very well that she is always relaxed and stress is not a good explanation.

When she opened her eyes, the talking butterfly was still there. Now, it seemed that it is magnified. It seems bigger! And she could see the butterfly smiling at her.

"You need not be afraid, madam. I only came here to thank you for all the kindness and beautiful deeds you have done my servants and population. I always hear good report from each of them whenever they try to collect nectars from here. Today, I decided to see you personally." This explanation of the magical talking butterfly made her calm down a bit but she's still scared and felt very strange.

"But you are a butterfly! How can you talk back to me? You make me feel like I'm crazy here making this conversation with you!"

"You are not actually talking to me literally. It's in your mind only. I am also not talking to you literally but it appears to you that I am. We are conversing in our minds. My power allows us to do it."

"Sigh... at least I wont appear stupid. If they see me talking to you, or talking alone, I bet they'd advise me to see a psychiatrist. Thanks to this telepathic communication at least."

"I came here to award you one wish as your kindness is too much for us. Now have your wish and I'll grant it."

"Oh wow! Really!? How many wishes I am entitled to?"

"A single wish my dear."

"Hmmm... Let me see... Let me think. I wish... I wish to have... I wish... I wish that all my family stay in good health which means no sickness, no accidents, stuff like that."

"I understand. That wish is granted. You indeed have a golden heart. You did not ask for money or anything highly material. Because of that, you are entitled to one more wish a year from today. I hope you keep my species stay here and collect nectar."

"That is a pleasure to me. Thanks for granting my wish and am looking forward to my second wish next year. Thanks to your species too as you make my garden more beautiful."

She stood up and see happy butterfllies around her, hopping from one flower to another. She knew good deeds always have good returns. One just don't know when it would come, where it would come and most of all, what would come! She smiled to herself.

The story's beginning...