Siena
"Good morning!" Bagwis greeted, kissing me lightly. He was already dressed while I still lay in bed. "Aalis lang ako sandali ha? May clean up drive daw sa weekend and I was thinking we could sign up. Para na din makapunta ka na ulit sa dagat."
I lit up at his suggestion. "Okay! Sige. Pero matagal ba yun? Come back agad ha?"
He promised he would.
When he left, I thought back to the past week. Yes, it was primarily duckling making.
The first time? Horrible. It hurt like hell that I even I asked Bagwis to retreat! He did but as soon as he was out, I begged him to continue. We were both tentative because it was our first but we got through it.
The next days and nights were done with some advice from Mr. Google and turned out much, much better.
I sighed thinking about how great last night was and could already feel some stirring in my —
"Ipahinga mo naman yan. Namamaga na yata yan eh. Patingin nga!" Tala teased then proceeded to try and lift the sheets.
"Tala! No! Ano ka ba?"
"Uuuuuuuyyyyyy dalaga na siyaaaaa!"
I blushed. "Tala!"
"Uuuuyy! So ano? Masarap?"
"Tala!"
My sister laughed. "Bakit ko ba tinatanong pa eh halos hindi ka na nga bumangon diyan? Babangon ka lang kapag against the wall yung —"
"TALA! Were you spying on us?!"
She rolled her eyes and the skies saw unusual twinkles in spite of the daytime. "Hello?! Ang ingay mo kaya? Rinig na rinig ko. AT yung dagat po 'no? People have reported unusual whale activity. Ang dami daw biglang nakikitang water expelled from their blowhole PERO funny that they don't have whale sightings."
I blushed again.
"I investigated it and guess what I found?"
"Shut it, Tala!"
Tala laughed again. "Soooo alam mo na kung bakit ako naiinis kapag storbo ka sa min ni Mak?"
I nodded. "I do."
"At masaya ka naman?"
"Masayang masaya."
She hugged me tightly. "Good. You deserve it. Sobrang tagal niyo ni Bagwis naghintay. You deserve to be happy."
"Thank you."
"Pero sister?"
"Yes, Tala?"
"Ipahinga mo muna yan. Baka magasgas na."
*
As much as I enjoy the time I get to spend with Bagwis, I have a different relationship with human beings.
Some are kind and I can see why it is easy for my beautiful angel to protect humans. However, some are horrible individuals that I do not understand why Bathala keeps them on this Earth.
"There is a plan. You know this," Bagwis reminded me one time, and I often would concede that Bathala knows better.
But when he came home one time bruised because a group of men tried to take his Earthly riches, I was incensed. Unwittingly, I flooded the pool. It took Bagwis to call it out before I stopped.
Another time, our neighbors started throwing cigarette butts on our yard and pool. Bagwis patiently picked these up and kept the water clean for me. But when one of their garbage hit us while swimming, my eyes narrowed.
"Umm, Siena?"
"What?!"
"Anong balak mong gawin diyan sa water wall na ginagawa mo?"
I realized I had taken the water in the pool (including the neighbor's pool and all their water sources) and had fully intended to hurl it at the neighbors.
At the clean up drive, it was better. But when I saw a portion that was unsalvageable because of the dirt, I again got mad and crashed a few waves on the shore, much to the worry of the volunteers.
We spent the night at the resort. Bagwis looked out and worriedly said, "I don't know if we can save it. There's still so much work to do."
I worried that as well.
I liked the humans but I had trouble with what they were doing to my home. My heart still wanted reckoning.
But that meant I had to call this time to an end. And I wasn't certain I could ever part with Bagwis again.
