Greis and Rum (COMPLETED)

SPECIAL CHAPTER

Pacing back and forth, I quickly wipe the cold sweat on my forehead. My god, my god! I'm supposed to meet Santana here in my condo unit so we could go to Baler together, parang convoy ba. Hindi naman kasi siya macontact kaya I'm starting to worry about her. She seemed to be so out of herself these past few days kaya nagsuggest na rin ako na she'd take some time off this week pero she said she was fine.

"Yam?" I quickly walked to the room of my condo unit, scared after each passing second that no response resonated within the walls. I opened the door and revealed where was, resting on his side of my bed. I let out a relieved sigh, hearing my own heartbeat racing and my blood rushing to my head. Tears were starting to sting at the side of my eyes, I swallowed them back and leaned on the door frame. He was still there—with me, he's with me and forever will be.

I try my best to handle the overwhelming emotions. Accepting his death was the hardest thing I ever had to do, everything changed. And now it was almost 5 months that he came back, everything was starting to change again. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I was used to sleeping alone and empty, but it was always as if Rum knows how to calm the raging waters in me; his arms would find my stiff body in the bed and pulls me a little closer. He eases me, he still does as if it was like he never left me.

"Yam, may kailangan ka?" his voice snapped me back.

"No, uh, it's just Sants. I'm worried" I sit at the edge of the bed. He quickly sits up and moves next to me "Why don't you call her at home? We still have time left, you can go have fun with her" he suggested. I considered it naman and called her home on the way to the parking area of the building. Yes, I started to live back here in my condo since Rum came back. He sometimes stayed over but he was really busy fixing the documents back in his office most of the time. 

"Hi, manang. Si Tali ito, si Santana po?" I ask casually as I walked to my space (Pupunta daw siya ng mall saglit, Tali. Diba aalis kayo ngayon?)

"Opo kaso si Santa hindi naman macontact."

I decided to just wait around and suddenly felt like giving my dad a visit. I haven't visited again in a long time but I made sure the place was cleaned from time to time. I bought flowers for him and a touch of gloom fell upon my shoulders. There were a few candle stubs and flowers for him, the other one seemed new while the other seemed a few days old. I checked the older one and there was a ribbon at the back and was tied to the longest stem among the group of flowers. Alam ko na agad kung sino ang bumisita, Bix never forgets to do this since she was little. She used to tell me the color of her ribbon every time she came home from the cemetery; this time, she used pink. Bix loved pink.

I swallowed the tears stinging in my eyes.

It was a little silent before I had the words in my mind, "Thanks for bringing him back" it was all I could say "I was never alone, was I? If I opened my eyes to people who wanted to be there for me sooner then I would have known. I'm sorry for the hate. Nakakamiss naman si Tenthro" I remembered how she used to tell me that she was sure Dad already forgave me even before I learned how to say sorry. 

I stepped out after I felt right again. Only to find the person I was looking for.

Santana was wearing black and from where I was standing, I know and I could see her eyes glinting with tears. Not happy tears; hurt, sad, painful, broken tears of her soul.

"I've always wanted to tell you," she swallowed her tears back "I need to tell you."

We walked together in silence, comfortable and safe silence, her eyes fixed on a lot a few meters away from my Dad's mausoleum. 

I read the name, Telise Javier

"I felt her but I lost her and never saw her. I didn't know Telise, but she was mine" It was Santana's confession. I lost all the words and all I could offer her was a hug "I'm sorry, Sants. All these years of suffering..." I cried along. This was my niece, my first niece and she could have been big now and spoiled real good by her Tita.