Victims of Medusa｜PUBLISHED UNDER UKIYOTO

Chapter 06

-A RAIN IN SUMMER-

     "The attempts to avoid looking at the gorgon's eyes are implied attempts of avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality of the universe, from 'Medusa of Truth'  from The Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London."

     The sky was dark, and the mountains were hushed for the crying rain was pervasively overshadowing.

     Agnes closed the book she was reading inside her room and took a gaze on the window panes where the raindrops were spraying.

     Not too long, she stood up and went outside of her room to return the book to the library.

     'It was such a dark day when I saw kuya Vanjoss in his optimum pedestal of trite. Perhaps he didn't expect an earlier loss.'

     Agnes stopped from entering the library when such view met her eyes, the instance she was able to slightly open its door. Without hesitation, she stepped back, closed the door, and walked away without leaving a hint of her presence. Natitiyak niyang kailangan munang mapag-isa ng kaniyang pinsan matapos ang nangyari sa ina nito.

     Agnes with boredom on her face put the book aside on a nearby table. Tinabi niya ito sa isang plorerang gawa sa pinintahang luwad, bago naglakad pababa sa salas. The entire house seemed to be dull, and unlively. Later that moment, she went on the backyard terrace and got a full view of the pond of little lilies.

     Upon making her stance, she raised her hand and caught the raindrops that were getting more mundane in each second.

     "Tatlong araw ka na rin palang namaalam tiyang," she whispered as if the rain was listening to her.

     "Three days since I was greeted by 'melancholy' who was once my old friend," kaniya pang sabi habang nakapinta sa mukha ang nakasanayang ekspresyon.

     'Sa araw kung kailan ang ulan ay unang bumisita sa tag-init ng taong ito, siya'y hinatid na sa kaniyang huling hantungan.'

     'Alam kong ako'y malungkot, subalit hanggang doon lang, hindi ko na ito dama.'

     'Ni hindi ko man lang masabayan sa pag-iyak ang mga taong nagdadalamhati para sa kaniyang pagkawala, sapagkat ito'y parte na ng sumpang matagal nang nakahambalang sa akin.'

     "Ganito nga ba talaga kapag ika'y isa sa kaniyang mga isinumpa? You are petrified from the lurking emotionally kindred things? 'Yong gusto mong umiyak subalit hindi mo magawa?" she asked in her undertone.

     Napatingala siya sa mga bulaklak ng punong trumpeta na malungkot na nakayuko sa ilalim ng ulan na animo'y nakiramdam sa kanilang nararamdaman.

     'I know I'm sad, but maybe being able to feel it repetitively is what makes me not feel it at all. It felt numb.'

     Agnes kept on thinking and was even unbothered by the lingering coldness as her black Lolita dress slowly gets wet by the spray of existing raindrops.

     'The attempts to avoid looking at the gorgon's eyes are implied attempts of avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality of the universe.'

     Muling naglaro ang pariralang ito sa kaniyang isip, and recalled the first day she got cursed.

     "Reality of universe?" she started questioning, while the rain starts to fall weakly.

     "Books and Western philosophers already said a lot about such, but why does it still seem to me it depends in whose perspective?" pabulong na tanong niya sa kaniyang sarili.