An Anamnesis

Chapter 1

The Man whose Countenance Suddenly Came so High

Like a Person whose end is Coming Nigh

            September 11, 2012—that’s the day my world started to turn upside-down, the day which the clouds that had darkened his dark sky turned to rain and showed to him a glimmering blue sky which enthrones the golden sun. Truly, a sonata of an unknown spirit within him

            On that day, I came to class as early as my usual time. I came to our classroom and began my daily routine before the classes start—and that is, to study, and to study, and to study like all the books in the whole world and all the knowledge within the universe is all but inadequate for my hungry mind. In the midst of my meditating, I felt someone approaching on my back and said, “No wonder you’re known so well as the “Eloquent Princess of the Laws”. You are really wise, beautiful, sharp, and persevere in your studies. In my 2 years of study in the course of Bachelor of Laws here at the University of Cambridge, I never saw you loafed around, Ms. Anya Leenera Strephein”. “Mr. Tristan Jedidiah Fjord,” told I to him. “For 2 years that I spent in studying in this university, I never saw you so vivid and cheerful that for the first time in my life here, I saw you with a bright colour in the face. What is this, the new zeitgeist of your personality?” He answered, “Maybe it is! It’s been a long time since I had a light personality. It’s been long since I ever smiled with an intense desire and urge inside my heart.” At that point, my curiosity is triggered by his words. He may not have said it, but I knew he wouldn’t say those words without a meaning behind that mind of his, something reflecting to his past, his history.

            I thought of it, and thought I figured out that his smile on that day is connected to his past, for he will not say the words he said if he had not thought of his past, maybe his childhood. Just after I was figuring things out, the school bell rang and the classes started. Our adviser, Prof. Courtney Enfield, a famous professor and lawyer in Cambridge, placed me beside Tristan, specifically in his left. From what I observed, not much else in him had changed. He just became more actively performing, more clever, and wiser in his answers when it comes to oral questions, more critical in thought, and he started to make more friends. The only thing that changed the most in him is his attitude. He just became that cheerful like it was the last time that he would ever be. His face did not change as well—he was as white as a white man’s corpse. It just so happened that his face, his looks, and his expressions became that mysterious that even my eyes can’t pierce through those eyes of his. Those eyes are an impenetrable fortress; hard to damage, hard to infiltrate.

            After class on the same day, by a coincidence, we walked in the same direction at the same time. At that point, I made my decision and had the guts to say to him, “Tristan, you changed considerably well this year. If it won’t mind you, can I have your time for a while”?

“What for? Is there anything wrong?”

“Nope. It’s just there is something which I want to know about you. I know you are thinking about something deep within that mind of yours, so I think it will be nice if I know significant things about you.”

“Well then, what do you want to talk about, Leenera?”

“Tristan, this first day of class, you seem to be more intelligent than usual. What did you do on the last vacation? Did you have a plenty of time to read more books, or did you have plenty of time to meditate about the things we’ve studied, or you just have lots of opportunities to learn? I hope you won’t take this too personally.”

“Well, taking that question too personally is a no, and it’s just all of those three possible answers to your questions are true. I just had plenty of time to read, meditate, and learn. You know, to sharpen my own mind.”

“You have become such an interesting man this year, Tristan! I hope we could always meet in this same road, at the same time, and we’ll talk about certain things, things that’ll really matter.”

“Well, now I’m WONDERING about what you are thinking.”

“Speaking of well, well Tristan, what are your favourites?”

“Since I’m a Filipino-British, I like things like Adobo for favourite food, Fencing or Arnis for sports, swords, especially the Kalis, a Filipino cutlass-like sword, and Pinuti, a Filipino straight-edge sabre. I also love to use a Phalanx Sarissa.”

“You’re beyond what I thought you are, Tristan Fjord! You are indeed an interesting man.”

            I almost forgot the time, had it not been for the street post in which I turn right to our house. When we got there, Tristan told me, “Well, I guess this is the point where we part ways. I really do hope that you enjoyed this conversation, and that we rendezvous here at the same time… everyday! Thanks for your time”! “Thank you too”, replied I with a clever smile. With those things we talked about, I assembled the pieces of information to derive a conclusion about the reason of that smile that even my closest friend in the school, Amanda Reutscheoff, was wondering about. Friday that week, Amanda and I walked home together to have a good time at our house. As we walked, Tristan and his friend, Kyle Vercing Lessereti, joined us and chit-chatted with us. Due to a good talk with them, we (Amanda and I) decided to invite them to my house. There, we began to know each other well, and form a friendship between all of us. We found out that Kyle (he prefers to be called Vercing) is I/2 Italian and 1/2 Indonesian, that he is a brain and brawn person (though he looks like a nerd emo), and that he is a connoisseur when it comes to cars. Amanda, on the other hand, is of course, judging from her mannerism and stature that she is a thoughtful person, and Tristan and Kyle also learned that she’s a German who migrated with her family here in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The two learned that she likes sours more than sweets, and that she is a very, very good singer. Indeed she sings like that was the last night. Her voice is colder than a peaceful winter night. What they learned about me is that I graduated Criminology at Oxford University; and that I’m an expert of guns. Finally, we learned from Tristan that he already graduated a pastoral course in the Philippines, that he studied Yawyan and Modern Arnis since he was young, that he’s a good cook (he showed us proof by cooking Adobo using chicken he bought when we asked him to prove if he is), and that among all men, he’s one of the few who prefer sweets than pasta. Though he said some important things about himself, my mind still grew even more curious about him, and his history. One thing I knew: he had something complicated inside that mind of his—an unforgettable, maybe even a haunting memory from his childhood which he wanted to fight.

            After a few hours of good time, we called it a day and the 2 men went home, while Amanda stayed overnight to sleep with me in my room. There, I told her everything I was thinking about Tristan, to be surprised that she thinks something a lot similar to that of mine! From that moment, we started asking questions and arranged information about the real thing behind. We felt something bad was gonna happen. We clearly knew something bad was going on, and that a clever plan was behind that.