AMACon 3: Oikos - Children

Flashes

WRITTEN  BY:

hazelnsm

 Have you ever heard about the common expression "My life flashed before my eyes."? Some people who almost died (or revived from the dead) claim to have experienced the flashback. Dying people tend to talk about their past lives, chat with dead people about their past experiences. Studies support these claims by stating that dead people do have seven minutes of brain activity left after their death. In these seven minutes, the person watches vivid memories of the past, hence flashbacks.

Do you believe?

Because I do.

×××

The soft hum of what I suppose an air conditioner reverberated all throughout the room. These layers of blankets laid on me weren't helping. I still felt cold. My feet were freezing. I have been trying to move them, but I can't.

So instead, I tried opening my eyes to look around the room. My eyelids were too heavy, but I managed to open them slightly. It was too bright. I waited until my eyes adjusted to the brightness. White walls. My room is white, but not this white. Where am I?

***

7 minutes.

Me and my brother were inseparable as kids. You will never see me without him, and him without me. Having a year and eight months gap between our ages didn't give that much of a difference. We were each other's best friends, partners in crime.

One morning, we decided to wreak havoc in our parents' room. It was our favorite playground. The bed was so wide, we could jump and do pillow fights without falling off it. That was, until we found Mama sat on the floor, looking through old photographs. Albums that were usually stacked on the small coffee table in their room were scattered all over the floor.

As the curious kids that we were, we forgot about our plan to play. We joined Mama on the floor and looked through photographs as well.

I grabbed one of the two biggest tomes at the bottom of the stack. It was pink with a baby Mini Mouse printed on the hard cover. I flipped to the first page and the first things I saw were the big bright eyes. The eyes were of a baby girl sat naked in a tub of water, seemingly taking her bath. Mama laughed upon seeing my reaction and told me that the baby was me.

I really have big bright eyes.

I flipped through pages, pausing to ask who these people were or what was happening in those photos. I saw a picture of my Lolo carrying me. Though Mama says Lolo adores me, I don't remember that much about him.

I paused upon seeing another picture. It was a photograph of me and my cousins this time. We were crying in front of a coffin. I looked at Mama, silently asking her what happened then.

"Burol 'yan ni Lolo. Pinipicture-an kayo ng tita mo pero hindi kayo umiiyak, kaya pinagkukurot nya kayo ng mga pinsan mo para lumabas na iniiyakan nyo si Lolo sa picture."

I've never been so bothered. I thought people cry when someone dies? Especially someone beloved? How come we were crying just because Tita pinched us?

***

I could hear soft snores from my left, but I couldn't move to face who it was.

"'Nak," I heard someone say. I think it was Paps.