Once In A Lifetime

Chapter 5: The Unusual

   "Those we love don't go away,
They walked besides us everyday...
Unseen, unheard but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear."

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"Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up!" Denise pulled Caroline's blanket and heaved her friend out on bed.

"Denise what are you doing? I need some sleep. So don't mess with me." She wrestled with Denise as she plunged back on her bed but  Denise tossed her pillows one by one on a nearby couch determined to get Caroline on her feet. "Please, stop it Denise," she fussed.

"Hey, pretty face, do you know what time it is? It's time to get up. And have breakfast on bed." She crossed the room, got the tray of food she placed on a table when she came in. " Here, I brought you some food. Come on... Up! Up! Up!" But Caroline did not move at her command. There was a slight of annoyance in her voice as she tugged her friend once more, harder this time, "I said,  up!"

"Not now, please." Caroline begged, still drowsy.

"Huh? Are you sick or what?" She softened and  came closer to check her temperature...no fever.  She checked her heartbeat...it's normal.  They would always act as a nurse to each other  when one of them was not feeling well. Both in good and bad times, they always see to it, that they have time to care for each other.  This is how they nourished their friendship through the years.

Denise sat on the bed and leaned over to "as if" sleeping Caroline. Obviously Caroline just enjoyed being pampered for she  grunted like a babe. Denise caressed her long and messy hair, thankful, it was never caught on fire. She thought of Norianna's hair for a while, wondering how Norianna would look with a new haircut. "What's wrong with you, pretty face?" She lovingly said in a low voice.

"I still look awful."

"Oh...My beauty conscious Campus Queen, don't worry your Highness, you're still pretty as ever," she giggled at her own words and teasingly bowed down to her "highness".

"Don't toy with me Denise. You know what I mean." She was not amused. Feeling irritated, she turned her back against Denise and covered her face under the blanket.

"Okay. I'm sorry. I just want us to have fun. So, what are we going to do now?" Denise lifted the blanket  from Caroline and threw it away on the floor. Caroline did not protest this time.

"Just stay with me and that would be fine for now." Upon hearing those endearing words, Denise promptly lay down beside Caroline, giving her a comforting  hug as she did many times in the past. If there was one thing common between them,  that is, both of them are motherless.  Her mother died when she was born, and Caroline's Mom died three years ago, leaving her with four handsome men to love and cherish for as long as they live - her father and three brothers - who all love her tenderly in a very special and different ways. While she had no one, except two aged individuals - her Lolo and Lola - who would not live long enough to see her dreams being fulfilled one by one. And as for her father...he had died along time ago in her heart.

"Are you still afraid?" Denise asked the sleepy "pretty face" between embrace.

"Not anymore. Just wondering."

"About what?"

"What if we died?" Caroline's eyes widened in disbelief for what happened in the lab yesterday. She straightened up and was fully awake already.

"Oh, come on. Don't be silly, Caroline. It was just a little accident. And we're fine."

"But you're not, Denise."

"Oh me? Did I hear it right? Why did you say so?" She was now reclining against the wall. Momentarily, Caroline sat down also facing her.

"Denise, you know how much you mean to me," she clutched Denise hands and said, "But there was something about you yesterday, that I can't understand..."

Denise wondered, if Caroline saw her heart's desires ...all the pains and longings, the emptiness it contained. They were best of friends, but she never mentioned about the pains she had for her parents. In Caroline's eyes, Denise is a happy-go-lucky individual, one that has a strong sense of humor, brave, stubborn and unmoved, but a very sweet and loving friend, whose only weakness is rejection.

Denise attentively listened to what more Caroline would say. "When the fire broke free, it seemed you're about to throw yourself in it. That's why I grabbed you but you were just so strong and... and you were dragging me towards the fire. I was thinking, you were not on yourself, that you were on some kind of drugs or whatever. Then... then I saw someone... " There was a long pause. Caroline's face turned pale and tense. Her hands were shaking although Denise was holding them firmly.

"Hold on. Let's stop talking about this. You're becoming hysterical again," she insisted, avoiding the topic.

"Denise, please listen to me. There's something you should know, " she pleaded.

"But it's giving you a hard time. So let's drop this nonsense. Wait. I'll just get your food over there. You need to eat now." She stood up, determined not to discuss it anymore.

"No, I won't eat. Please, let me finish. I need to let it out or else I would go crazy." She said, seizing Denise arm.

"Okay. I am listening. You said, you saw someone. Right?"

" Yeah. Someone  like... Oh, I don't know. " She covered her face between her palm, shrugging off the memory.

Denise embraced her again. "I told you, you don't need to force yourself. Let's forget about it, okay?"

"I'm not done yet. You need to know what I saw from the fire."

She's becoming impatient already. But she knew Caroline, she had her way of getting what she wants. She resigned and said, "Okay... ?"

"I saw a woman...yes, a woman..." Denise  was not surprised at all hearing those words. She knew what was coming next. Caroline continued, "the woman pushed us away from the fire and...I...I became hysterical because, afterwards,  I saw her  being consumed by the fire.... Oh it was horrible..." Caroline was crying now.  Denise wiped the tears from her friend's eyes with her own tense hands.

"I know, there was no one out there. The police  saw no one too. And even, Kevin, when asked, did not mention about her also. But believe me, Denise, I saw her...I saw a woman, she saved you, but eventually, she was  caught by the fire. " She gasped and shook her head, the continued, "Am I losing my mind?"

"No, you're not," she soothed her and confessed, "I saw her, also." Caroline looked at her in disbelief. She fixed her gaze to Denise long enough to be sure her eyes were not deceiving her, and from the corner of her memory, she imagined the woman. How could it be?  There was so much resemblance between the two. She wondered if Denise was aware of this similarity.

Then, a long silence permeated the entire room.

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