AMACon 3: Oikos - Children

The Wax and Wane - Chapter Five

"Apo, aba't sana'y hindi ka na lamang umuwi dito kung magmumukmok ka lang diyan sa kwarto mo." His lola called to him through his door.

He had been in Sta. Rosa for six days but he just stayed inside the house sulking. Apart from them hearing mass and visiting his parents' tombs the previous day, he stayed inside the house, occasionally playing with his sister but never going out.

Before he left the orphanage next day after their talk, he attempted to speak with Maine, perhaps to apologize, perhaps to convince her one more time. He changed his mind just as he was about to knock on her door. If there was someone else who she didn't tell him about, the other guy must really be that special. So with a heavy heart, he left the orphanage. And he carried that burden during this whole break.

His phone rang, it was a call from a fellow doctor.

"Sam?"

"Pare, ano na? May akyat kami, sama ka?"

He always went on mountain climbing with this doctor friend so it's not surprising to be invited to a climb.

"Ayos lang, saan ba?"

"Bagong pakulo, pare. Random roadtrip daw, hindi sasabihin ng organizer saan basta medyo challenging yung climb kaya para sa ating advanced climbers lang tsaka kaya kailangan din nila ng mga doktor. Eto pa masaya, pare. Perigee moon! Kaya maganda umakyat. Isipin mo, super moon na tapos nasa tuktok ka pa ng bundok. Ansaya nun!"

He can feel his friend's excitement and to be honest, he got interested too. This is what he probably needs.

The moment he learned where they were going, they were already traversing NLEX. He wanted to laugh bitterly. Why won't he when the place that he just left is where they will be going. The climb is set on Mt Kemalugong situated at the barangay next to where the orphanage is.

And Maine, Maine is there, his mind added. He wanted to visit the place but he'll have to put it off probably until after the climb. He knows he wanted to see her badly no matter how hurt he still felt. Heck, he wanted to fight for her so fight he would even if he didn't know who he was fighting against.

"The Paasa Peak of Mt Kemalugong boasts of its sea of clouds. So hindi lang Mt Pulag ang may sea of clouds na alam ngayon." The guide was explaining. Paasa Peak, how apt, his mind says.

The climb will take two days and they are now nearing the camp site. However, since it is a new climbing destination, the path up the mountain is still not as good as the others that RJ had climbed. A few minutes before they reached the camp site, he slipped and almost fell. Good thing he was able to hold on to a branch just as he was about to roll down further. After being cleaned up, they continued on their journey with him holding on to a crutch that he needed to use because he twisted his ankle.

The moon that night was breath taking. It was so huge that atop a mountain, it felt like you could raise your arm and reach it. After setting camp, the whole team admired this cosmic highlight over drinks and laughter. RJ interacted with them but his mind consistently wandered to the orphanage and one particular resident in there.

The others have gone to sleep while RJ was still up reading his book. He suddenly felt like something or someone was calling on to him. He looked at his phone, it was 2am. He decided to step outside the tent that he shares with Sam, noting the part on his book where he stopped reading with a marker and took up his crutch to walk.

He had walked several meters away from the camp site when he observed some movement from afar. He squinted and moved closer to see who it was for it was a female figure in a silver gossamer gown dancing under the moonlight. RJ had to blink several times, he even went to as far as rubbing his knuckles over his closed eyes just to confirm what he was seeing.

Perhaps it was because he had been thinking of her too much which was why he was seeing her here, atop the mountain.

It was Maine with her hands akimbo, swaying to a music that he could not hear. She was glowing under the light of the perigee moon and that was when she started twirling.

RJ had to blink some more. Because just then, he saw a little figure who was very familiar to him. Maine was not there anymore, it was Jane. Then it was Maine again, and then his heart stopped. She morphed into a hunched figure, it was Selina. She was Selina.

The transfiguration was so smooth, RJ could not almost see where one image started and when the other ended. It was like he was watching a speeded up development of a person from childhood up to old age.

And the three-faced goddess, Selene danced under her moon light. Following its progress as the moon waxed and waned -- the child, the maiden, the crone

Still transfixed, he stepped forward. She stopped mid-dance and saw him. She stilled in her crone form and beckoned him with her hands outstretched. "You came, you remembered." She spoke through his mind for her lips never moved.

He took another step but his injured foot slipped and he fell into the ravine. The goddess was not quick enough because she was in her elder form. As soon as she was able, in her maiden form, she flew to where he fell.

She reached him just as he breathed his last, his blood dripping from his head to the ground. Her cry of anguish was heard up to the heavens, heard by mortals in the form of a howling wind.

Through the beam of the moon, steadfast and loyal, she spoke of her sorrow.

"Through one lifetime to the next I have watched over thou, my moonlight giving thou comfort, my beams cushioning thou from any harm. In this lifetime I watched over thou from being a babe until growing to be a man. In return thou cared for me, in all of thy forms. Why is it that it was in thy presence that thou will have to succumb to death, just when thou started to remember? Zeus, lord of lords, I pray to thee. Grant me the chance to finally be with thy beloved."

From a distance, thunder rumbled.

She caressed his face now marred with blood. She whispered, "Thank you."

The doctor's body shimmered then disappeared under the moon goddess' hand that previously cradled his broken head. She cupped her hand and blew on her enclosed palm, the silvery dust flying towards the moon. The goddess then disappeared with the blowing of the wind.

Tonight, an orphanage lost a house mother and a doctor.

Tonight, the moon is at its biggest and brightest form, and all the more vivid with its reunion to its lost love.

Tonight, the campers slept peacefully, not realizing that one among them had gone.

Tonight, the moonlight falls on a deep ravine, splattered with blood but there was no body. There was only a book, opening to a page that was marked and it says

...Selene, the titan goddess of the moon loved the mortal. She believed him to be so beautiful that she asked Endymion's father, Zeus, to grant him eternal youth so that he would never leave her.

..................

Notes: Mount Kemalugong, its sea of clouds and the Paasa Peak are real places found in Laur, Nueva Ecija.

I got the parts for Endymion and Selene from talesbeyondbelief.com and wikipedia.com