A Paradise Lost

Please Stay

Bayani boldly went to Queen Raya’s throne hall but she was not seated on her throne. He wondered if she was drunk again. He asked her lady in waiting, Anita.

“Where is Queen Raya?”

“She is inspecting the newly built ships.”

“Thank you.”

Bayani didn’t dally. He went to the pier immediately. There, he saw Queen Raya who was busy inspecting the five newly built ships. He was glad to see her. Her face was radiant compared the other day. She was blooming.

“Hi my queen, good morning.”

“Good morning, Bayani. How are you?”

“I’m good. I’m glad to see your smiling face again. You are getting more and more beautiful everyday.”

“Thank you. What can I do for you?”

“I heard that you will be sailing soon.”

“That is right.”

“When are you going to sail?”

“A few days from now.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Of course! This is something I wanted to do all my life.”

“What about our kingdom? What will happen to us, your people, once you’ll be gone?”

“I already discuss it to you that it will be my brother, Shiloh, who will take over my place.”

“I understand. My main concern here is your safety. You will be stepping on foreign lands, what if something untoward will happen to you? What if you will meet someone worse than Miguel Lopez. We cannot afford to lost you. We can never find someone like you.”

“I can take good care of myself.”

“I know. But we never know what lies ahead.”

“Don’t worry about me. I will not travel unprepared. I’ll make sure that I have everything I need before I will embark in my journey.”

“I know that you are a very determined woman. You are young, beautiful, and intelligent. There’s still a lot more that you can do. Please do not waste your life into uncertainty.”

“Don’t worry, everything will be worthy and nothing will be wasted.”

“Please, Raya. I beg you to stay. What if you will die during the journey. It will be hard for us to find your body.”

“If it’s your time to die, it is your time, whenever and wherever you are. Death is an inevitable destiny. Don’t worry much about me. I don’t have a husband or children that will be left behind. My brother is more fitted to be our ruler since he already has heirs that will take over him once he will be gone.”

“Is there anything that I can do to make you stay?”

“Will you marry me if I will stay?”
Bayani was speechless.

“If there’s nothing else that you wanted to tell me, you may leave now. I still have a lot of things to do.”

Bayani walked slowly away from Queen Raya. He was so frustrated that he couldn’t convince her to stay.

Queen Raya was already determined to travel in another country. She would rather explore dangerous territories than not be able to marry the man she loved. She hoped and prayed that Bayani and Moonlight were already married before she would come back to her kingdom to spare her from extreme pain and jealousy. As of the moment, she didn’t have any desire to get married and have children. She’s not even certain whether she still wanted to be the Queen in Camotes Island but she’s willing to support her brother as king.

“Excuse me, ma’am.”

Rianna was startled when a library staff approached her.
“It’s already a quarter to 8:00 and the library will close at exactly 8:00 PM.”

Rianna was carried away by the book she was reading. She didn’t notice how the time flies so fast. She saw the working students arranging the books back to its corresponding shelves. There were also some who were sweeping the floor. She checked the last page of the book again to make sure that there is no library stamp. She confirmed it for the second that there was no library stamp on the book so it means that the book was not a library property. She wondered who left the book in the library. She checked the front page and the side of the book to see if there’s any name of the owner but there was none.

‘Finders Keepers.’ Rianna thought.

Rianna held her breath when the library staff inspected the book. He couldn’t take the book away from her since there’s no library stamp on the last page so he handed the book back to her. She heaved a heavy sigh of relief when she got the book back.

Rianna still didn’t feel like attending her history class because of Adrienne and Jake Donovan. She remembered Mr. Ramirez’ advice to her. She appreciated his concern. She wanted to take advantage of the week that he gave her to think things over before she would decide whether she would drop her history subject or not.

Rianna went back to the library to continue reading the story of ‘A Paradise Lost’. She still skipped her history class.