beauty series: Not Beauty's Type

BOSTON CITY (USA)

EDMUNDO FUENTES

Hinawakan ko ang nanlalamig niyang kamay. Kung pwede lang sana habang buhay ko iyong gagawin.

She's so thin. So pale. So weak. It hurts me every time I see her.

I'm here again. With her lying down on a hospital bed for two decades. And I'm standing beside her, holding her hand.

The doctor called me for her scheduled operation today. I was in the middle of a mission. A mission that would make her dreams come true. I wanted to surprise her, but this came.

Dapat sana sa susunod pa na linggo ang operasyon kaya lang nag-iba ang takbo ng katawan niya. They needed to do the operation as soon as possible.

Kaya deretso akong pumunta dito.

If I have to choose between her and our daughter, I will choose her. Our daughter can wait, or I hope she will.

"Ed..." she called me with her soft, weak voice. Agad kong binaba ang sarili para ilapit ang aking tenga sa kanyang bibig.

She's still weak. Hindi pa nakarecover.

It's been a month since she woke up after twenty-four years of being comatose. Marami na ang bumitaw para sa kanya. Marami na ang nawalan ng pag-asa, even the doctors in the Philippines lost hope, even her parents were the same. Pero hindi ako.

Noong nawalan sila ng pag-asa, naghanap ako ng mga doktor na nakikita ang pag-asa. I don't care if I lose all my money in the process. Wala akong pakialam kung matagal bago siya gumaling. Kaya kong magtiis. Kaya kung maghintay, gumising lang siya. Gumaling lang siya.

And just a month ago, she woke up.

I praised heaven for that. Okay lang kahit matagal.

"My daughter..." iyon ang una niyang sinabi noong nakapagsalita siya. Hindi ko pa makuha noong una. I thought she was talking about something else. Pero hindi.

She was looking for her daughter. Our daughter.

Then, I remember back twenty-four years ago. During the accident. The medic told me she was gripping a piece of paper when they rescued her.

I thought it was just ordinary paper. Nagulat ako nang mabasa kung ano ang papel na iyon.

But that day, wala akong ibang maisip kung hindi ang kaligtasan niya. To give her the best doctor in the country. Ni hindi ko na nga napagtuunan ng pansin ang kaso ng nakabangga sa kanya. Good thing my parents and her parents was hands on with the case. Naipukos ko ang atensyon sa kanya.

They charged the bus driver with a felony and put him in jail, while I stayed with her until her operation was finished. It was a forty-eight hours of operation. She lost too much blood. Some bones were crushed, and the doctors lost her three times during the operation.

Though they saved her, she was comatose when they revived her. She stayed in the ICU for a year, then I transferred her here in Boston.

Ang papel na hawak nito ay nasa library lang ng bahay ko. I forgot about it. And I forgot exactly where I put it.

Buti nalang nahanap ko.