Sonora

Armand went to his grandfather’s basement, he’s always been curious about the things that their family kept for the past decades, he’s interested in history and vintage items. The first time he entered the basement, he was shocked, it was clean and organized even though it was small. He wandered there until something catches his attention, it was a big cabinet with a name on it. “Sonora’s Tapes”, as he whispered the name, something awakened inside of him. He opened the cabinet and he saw a lot of videotapes there. He saw an old tv and a VHS player at the end of the basement. He wants to watch those tapes because he finds them interesting, but he doesn’t know where to start, so he looked down at the cabinet and gets the first tape at the right to check and watch it. He played the videotape on the VHS player and it opens with a girl, she introduced herself as Sonora, she told in the video that she was 17 years old and from Manila, in the year 1975. The videotape is opaque but Armand clearly sees how happy Sonora was while talking about herself, her family, and her friends. 

As the video progresses, he smiled at her without noticing it, but after the video ends, it just fades away. He is tempted to watch more about her, so he played more videotape, and for the past few days, he felt something about her. He felt like they are communicating with each other. Whenever she is crying, he felt the pain that Sonora has and comforts her by closing his eyes same as hers. Whenever she is happy, he sings along with Sonora’s song. Whenever Sonora is just looking at the camera, he is looking at her too. Whenever Sonora kisses the camera, he kisses the tv too. All he thinks about is Sonora. His dreams are about him and Sonora actually meeting each other, having a romance between them, and making love with her. He never wants to wake up because he wants to be with Sonora. As the weeks passed, only 5 videotapes are left, which frustrates Armand. He doesn’t want to end watching Sonora. For him, Sonora is his love and fantasy. Sonora is his escape from the cruel reality.

He watched the 4 videotapes with the usual Sonora, talking about her daily life, looking at the camera, feeling in love, singing, and kissing the camera. He is hesitating at first to watch the last videotape of Sonora, but he closed his eyes and plays it. The video opens with Sonora, looking and feeling empty.  She talks about a guy that can’t be out of her mind. She talks about how she always dreamed about him for the past weeks ever since she started recording herself. Upon hearing those things, Armand felt jealousy and sadness. She talks about how handsome the guy was, even though she only saw him in her dreams, and she talks about how that guy is a fantasy in her reality. Armand wants to stop watching but he still keeps going because that is the last videotape of Sonora. Sonora closed her eyes and she talks about how that guy is the only thing that she is thinking about every time she records herself. She breathe deeply and suddenly showed a sketch of a guy, and when Armand looked at it, he was stunned by it. That drawing… is him.

END.