Once Upon a Dream : Dream Journal

Conversion

Despite being summer, only a few people roam around the airport. This is the day we are fetching my younger cousins from their flight. They planned to spend the summer in our hometown. The sun beams softly through the afternoon clouds as we travel home after meeting them. The contacts I wore today probably gave the rays a very calming look.

The warm weather was unusual despite the season. Summer in our place is characterized by rainy days, often cloudy and the sun rarely peeking. My older sister along with her two son and my other younger siblings who lived far from home also came to spend their summers in our ancestral house. A two-story home built where the sunlight can pass through in any room due to the overly made wide windows all around the house, with its only occupants are my oldest brother, our grandmother, and me.

As soon as we reached home, I wondered what the sudden reunion was for. Why everyone was rushed to assemble, and the anxiousness in their faces they carry every time I ask. Finally, our grandmother answered my inquiries vaguely, "We'll talk about it later when everyone is gathered."

We expected our oldest sister to arrive on the same day our cousins reach home but they came a day late, and a proper explanation was not given. Granted, It has been so long since we saw each other thus they would all look different. However, my older sister's physical change was the strangest of all. Her usual round body turned into a very slim one, almost unhealthy, but it gave her voluptuous body back that was lost ever since she gave birth to her sons; now a five-year old and a two-year old.

This oddity slipped out of my mind for a few days as we enjoyed the house's liveliness due to its sudden occupants. One day, while everyone was at the table and my older sister and I were busy preparing for our meal, I once again wondered at her extreme weight loss, the situation gave me an opportunity to ask for the reason. She was nervous, but gave in to answer my interrogation due my constant persistence. She smiled after a brief sigh, seemingly unburdening herself of a heavy problem.

"Actually, this only happened a few days before we came," she lifted her shirt to show the unpleasant stretch marks across her stomach. That despite the skinny figure her clothes fit into, her skin showed proof of the sudden deflation of her body. "It was my youngest. I was sitting in our bedroom, too busy preparing the necessities for the travel, and then he got upset. You know how kids threw tantrums without reasons." She softly chuckled as she saw the confusion in my face. How in the world her kid's tantrums relate to her situation?

"I realized what it was until he launched himself at me. I didn't expect him to be like that early, and strong too! Poor thing was not able to bite deep enough and only managed to suck my fats out! Hence my current body!" she laughed, seemingly proud of the transgression her kid brought upon her. I stared at her in surprise and disbelief but quickly scoffed it as a joke, knowing she often makes tasteless jokes.

She planned to continue her story but our grandmother interrupted us. Scolding my older sister of the story she told me. They argued loudly, gaining the attention of the rest of the family. However, I was not able to understand their conversation due to the sudden headache I felt. I walked towards the bedroom thinking a rest might ease the pain. However, the moment I reached the foot of the bed, the pain became too unbearable that it crippled me.

As I lay on the floor of the bedroom in pain and screaming, I caught glimpses and heard muffled conversations between my grandmother and my siblings. They planned to move me to a more comfortable place, but their touches on my skin made the pain worse. My senses heightened causing the burning pain coursing through my whole body to amplify, making me pass out but quickly regaining consciousness due the intense pain. The concentration of the pain traveled along my bones, veins and muscles until it fixated in my mouth, my gums to be exact, and in one instantaneous moment, it stopped.