Anthology (A Pen of Thousand Words)

Spirit of the Herereya (a 15-year old's work)

"We're getting near!" My brother, Klein, exclaims excitedly as we see a familiar path that heads to our far-away province.

But the path is the place of my heartbreak.
I wear my headphones as I turn the music at its maximum. I cannot bear to hear the noise of the past.

Klein starts taking picture through the car's window. Who won't? The scene is exquisite, with the perfect shades of the sky, lake, and the sun in a single picturesque. But as I look outside, I see a place that is giving an intense nostalgia.

Tears start to form and I bitterly smile. My head fall back, until I have decided. I will welcome these attacking memories.

"I don't want to go back to the city!" I scream loudly. My mother eyes me angrily, showing her obvious infuriation on my childish actions.

Oh, she is now pissed! Well then, I will annoy her more. Let's see who will win!

I hug my grandmother tightly, and through my acting skills, which I developed in my school's theatre club, I successfully made my nose red and eyes teary.

"Grandma, in the city... my parents would pressure me so much. Yes, I know the importance of education, but they must not deprive me from my childhood!" I cry dramatically.

Grandma looks at me with so much pity. "Oh, my sweet grandchild." She looks at my mother with burning eyes. "How dare you, Felicia, to make my grandchild suffer with the world's burden at an early age. She is still a child. A child! She deserves all happiness."

Mother's mouth fall in shock. "But M-Mama-"

"Don't Mama me, Felicia. My son should had married Helena. Helena values the children of my late husband's orphanage. Yet you?! You cannot even value the happiness of your sweet child."

Yes. I was that stupid and manipulative. Klein used to tell me that I was just an adopted child cause my real father was Satan. But I knew what I wanted. I fell in love with my province that I couldn't afford myself leaving it. And I hated the fact that I pained my mother emotionally. But hey, I was a child back then. An unfortunate thirteen year old immature kid.

My mother is definitely furious. She pulls me by my wrist when Grandma fell asleep. Angrily, we head towards their room and she slams the door close.

Okay. I'm in trouble. No more Grandma as my savior.

"What are you trying to do, Ashera?" She asks me with gritted teeth.

I bit my lip. She is my mother and she has the capability to cut my allowance, to ground me, to forbid me in using my gadgets, and more! But Grandma is on my side. I know well that Mama fears her the most!

"I am not leaving this place, Mom," I declared with unwavering conviction.

"We are leaving," she fights back. She opens her purse and shows me four tickets back to Manila. And worse, the plane tickets are for tomorrow.

I snatch the tickets from her grip, and with so much childish anger, I rip them off!

"You didn't just do that!" My mother cries.

I raise my brow. "I just did, Mother."

I laugh at that memory. I was a very impulsive kid back then. I look outside the window once again, only to see the high slope of Herereya Mountain, the Mountain of the West.

"Stop," the word just comes out from me.

"What?" My father hesitates. But he sees my apparent longing for the place. And after some seconds, my mother begs him to let me out of the car.