Not Into Her

XX - The Hope Worth Fighting For

Father walked our from the meeting at around one in the afternoon. He looked at his wrist watch and noticed he can't find some time to go home. So he just drove his motorcycle to a nearest restaurant and ordered a cup of rice and a bowl of beef stew. He ate his food and immediately head back to the airport and to his position.

The meeting is all about the incoming sales of the tickets and the increasing count of visitors came to the city. The Mayor himself asked the airport manager and the porterage supervisors to give extra credit to all visitors who exactly didn't know what to expect around Davao City. They must give the tourists some brochure about the city and where to dine around the city.

A couple of hours later, the afternoon became evening. It's six in the evening and the last flight of his shift went down. So he walked to his motorcycle and head home. He drove the same road he gone through when he went to work and going home. He didn't even know that I just came to the airport and fly up towards Washington.

So when he got home, he just noticed that the house is dark and looks like a haunted house. I just left the house with windows still open but the main door is closed. He drove his motorcycle at the front of the main gate and noticed the metal lock is locked in. So he walked to the nearby sari-sari store and leaned at the open door.

"Excuse me!" Father said to the vendor. "Do you know where Alex is?"

"Alex...." the vendor said and remembered something. "Ah, Alex."

The walked to their store's refrigerator and took the sticking envelope from the refrigerator's face that has been sticking with a black magnet. Then she walked back to the door and gave the letter to Father.

"Alex gave me that before he left." the female vendor said, getting their house's keys. "He said that he wanted me to give this to you when you got home. And he also entrusted me these keys."

Father took the mail envelope and the keys from the vendor and looked like he was sad. Sad because he never get a clue where I was heading. He unlocked the lock from the small gate, walked inside the gate, opened the big gate, took his motorcycle inside the big gate and closed the big gate.

Then he walked to the main door and opened the door. He even reached for the light switch at the back of the wall, at the right of the second window, and flicked it open. The lights opened and took his shoes off. He walked inside the house, with the viand he bought from a nearby outside barbeque.

He sat on the wooden bench we had and closed his eyes for a bit. Then he opened them, opened the letter and read the words on the two-paper letter with his eyeglasses on his eyes:

Father,

Wow! This house is very dark, isn't it? I imagined the house when it is unattended by a family member and looks like a haunted house or something. Remember I said before about Aunt Brenda's letter several weeks ago? Well, I accepted it. I didn't tell to you about this but here it is.

I asked you about Aunt Brenda's offer but you refused it. But, when I replied to her letter that you refused and I want it, he sent me another letter having the itinerary ticket along with the letter. And the flight is today, at noon. You never take a peek inside the airport. I was there when your meeting commenced. I wished to say goodbye to you but I haven't got a chance because of the flight.

Hope for me, Father, is very important to me. The hope of having a good life rather than a scumbag like this urged around my veins. You've got no right to choose what is mine and also got no right in choosing my destiny. I lived almost seventeen years to wait this hope and I'm not gonna lose it whatever happens to me. And whatever happens to me, even the plane I was will be crashed or gone, it's all your fault.

Well, the flight I got is a two-way trip. I took a plane to Manila, to NAIA Terminal 3, actually, and a plane towards Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport in Washington, D.C. I bet it took me a total of twenty-one hours to travel and Aunt Brenda and her siblings will gonna be happy when I got there.

So, I guess this is goodbye then. Take care of yourself and to Sister Christine too. I maybe not coming back and, if I have time, we'll be united again. But not at this time. I have to finish what I wished to do when I got to Washington. You'll gloat or mock me when I got there. You'll think that I will never have a friend when I got there. But I guess you're wrong this time. I've got some friends left in Davao and it's impossible I've got none in Washington.

So, without further ado, I'll say this in a proper way: Farewell, Father, and don't get so fear. I, your son, will never go near. My conscience is good and clear. And my intention to other lands is a not some foolishness dear.

                                                                                           Yours, and forever be,
                                                                                           Alex.

After reading the letter with a fear of me never coming back, Father put the letter on the center table and weeped.

"Oh, God!" he apologized. "Why would I never let my boy be alone on his journey? Why am I so stupid in keeping refusing on his decision? Lyn, why would I refuse Brenda's wonderful offer for him?"

Because of what he said and weeps, Father didn't worked for thirteen days. My sister gave him all his needs and some food and his medicines whenever he's out of stock. He keeps on weeping and weeping and sobbing until his heart palpitate hardly.