ALLEN'S POINT | Completed [English: editing]

12/21/12

The world will end on December 21, 2012. That's what they said.

Many people believed and prepared for it.

My mother, who is a fan of Discovery Channel, National Geographic, didn't believe it. However, at midnight on December 20, she stayed awake preparing our emergency bag while murmuring something that I can only assume was the Lord's prayer, based on the movements of her lips. She believed that there was a slim chance but not zero percent of the world ending, not because some ancient civilization predicted it, but because God decided that it was about time to cleanse the Earth. Who knows? His plans are just ineffable.

At 6 o'clock on December 21, I was awakened by Charlie, my little brother, because of a bad dream. He was three, and I can't blame him. It was the start of the Christmas holiday, so I went to bed to sleep with him clinging tightly to my arm. My dad came to our room and said goodbye before going to work.

If only I had known how that day would end, I would've asked him to stay.

At 8 o'clock, I woke up alone on my bed. Charlie was nowhere to be found. I'm a hundred percent certain that he's already enjoying the luxury of watching Ben 10 or Doraemon on TV, alone.

The sun was shining brightly, the birds chirped, and people outside the street were busy, probably realizing that it was a waste of time and money to just sit by the window, looking out to the sky and to the Earth, and wait for it to end.

At lunch, just like a regular Friday noon, the three of us ate our lunch and talked about the end of the world, which seemed to be a bit delayed for some reason.

By 1 o'clock, my mother finally granted me permission to go to the internet café to play online games. I spent 30 pesos for 3 hours. There wasn't any 'pisonet' at that time. Most internet cafés require you to buy a ticket code that costs about 10 or 15 pesos to access the internet for an hour. The Internet cafes were often crowded with noisy customers screaming with ecstasy or agony of defeat while playing online games like Cabal, Ran, Aion, Counterstrike, or the very popular game DOTA which looks very much like Mobile Legends played on PC. 2012 is probably the final glorious year of internet cafes because tablets and smartphones have started to become cheaper and cheaper as new models emerge in market.

At four past three, my Nokia 6700 (you say it sixty-seven hundred) rang, and I got a text message from my mother telling me to get home soon.

At 4 o'clock, I came home to see a patrol car outside our house. My mother was sitting on the sofa, her face was buried in her hands while the road patrol officer was talking to her. I was in the doorway listening quietly. The feeling of creeping coldness from the soles of my hands and feet to every square inch of my skin, and some otherworldly butterflies fluttering in my stomach making me confused whether I feel the need to puke or to swallow, were deluging my senses.

My father got into a terrible road accident and the officer was afraid that Mr. Villaruel might not come home for dinner on time. The officer lied.

My father didn't come home late later that evening. My father never came back home after leaving for work that day. He never did.

Friday the 21st of December changed our lives... Our world has started to crumble...

They said the world would end on December 21, 2012. It didn't. 

And I almost wished it had...