MGA PAKIWARI AT PAGMUMUNI-MUNI (An AlDub Collection of Poems and Short Stories)

To Listen (A4Day26)

A/N: I dunno if I did this correctly or if I interpreted the prompt right. 😭 Bear with me please.

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She listens with her eyes, he sees with his ears.

"Have you ever been in-love?" he asked me as I slowly pushed his wheelchair on the boardwalk, the clackity-clack of the wheels prevalent as I walked towards the far end, where we would be able to feel the ocean air more. We were at his family's beach house and I was invited to tag along. As always.

Yes. With you...

"Hmmm... I don't really know," I answered him, sounding unsure, even though my heart has always been beating for him. I stopped by the edge of the boardwalk, parking his wheelchair and fixing the blanket on his lap. He smiled towards my direction as he gently touched my hand.

"Are we already by the ocean?"

"Yes. Don't you hear it yet?"

"Hmmm..."

Richard and I had been friends since we were in diapers. Being neighbors - and the only kids in our block - we naturally gravitated towards each other. We started as playmates, later on as schoolmates as he was three years older than I was, and now - as his caregiver, given that I graduated with a nursing degree with a minor in physical therapy. He also specifically asked his parents and mine - for me to take care of him. And I was only too glad to do it.

He lost his eyesight when we were in high school due to a very bad car accident that also took his ability to walk. He shattered his lower spine and no amount of physical therapy could help him regain the use of his legs.

He was only eighteen then.

He was the popular guy back in school as I remember, as well as his class' valedictorian and the school's star quarterback. He had a great future ahead of him, what with numerous college offers from different university football teams. But all of that was all taken in a blink of an eye.

Naturally, as one of the popular guys at school, he would get invited to parties and such and being the friendly guy that he is, he always couldn't refuse.

One rainy night, he asked me to go with him to this party that one of his teammates was throwing at their house. I declined, saying that I had homework to do. He simply shrugged and drove away, promising to drop by my house after the party - telling me that he would only stay for two hours before heading back.

I remembered waiting for him after the second hour was up. I remembered going to his house and seeing Auntie Rosie worried since he didn't even call home. I remembered the knock at midnight by the police telling us that he was taken to the hospital. I remembered the panic as well as the feeling of helplessness when we all saw him in the O.R - several doctors were on him as they tried to make sure that he would live and come back to us.

Turns out, he was hit by a drunk driver and since it was rainy that night, the drunk driver lost control of his pickup truck and hit Richard's car head on. My parents hugged me tight when they saw his totaled car and saw the passenger side crumpled in on itself - showing them that had I went with him, I would have died.

That drunk driver went to jail and Richard's parents made sure that he wouldn't endanger any more people.

Now, ten years later - and Richard had been trying to live as normal as possible, despite not being able to walk and not seeing the world as it once was.

"Maine?"

"Yes?"

"Come here."

I walked to his front and took his extended hand, making him smile as he gently pulled me and wordlessly asked me to sit on his lap. I did but not without raising my brow at him, which I belatedly realized he wouldn't be able to see.