THE LONG WAIT

There was this phosphorescent figure kneeling before her transformed mom. She was radiant with happiness as she gave him her hand which he brought to his lips. From  a distance she could tell he was an officer in gala uniform.  Ralph!

        “” I’ve patiently waited for so long too, my darling.  But your ordained time had not yet come. But now, it has…so come, our friends await us and they are playing our song,  can you hear it?”  His reply was like an echo in the wind.

THE  LONG  WAIT

 mimi illenberger mapa

        Bataan had just fallen into the hands of the Japanese when Carmen G. Duyan-duyan found herself widowed. She had only been married for less than fifteen months,  when her husband Ralph, a second lieutenant , became one of the many victims of Japanese atrocity during the infamous “Death March” where thousands  of exhausted prisoners died. On the long trek to prison camps, many Filipino and American soldiers, weak from hunger and disease, fell on the wayside. Ralph, who had responded to a cry for help by a fallen comrade, was cruelly stabbed with a bayonet when he left his line. Mortally wounded, his limp body was pushed into an open ditch by the Japanese guards. There he died a few hours later muttering his wife’s name.

        It took several months before the news of his death reached his spouse. She was in the garden when the sad tidings came. For a while everybody around her thought she had gone mad.

        “” You promised you wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.  You promised, you promised!” Carmen screamed as she pounded her fists on the ground until her knuckles bled. Still in a fit of lunacy, she ran to her favourite rose bush now bursting with pink flowers and began  pulling it  out  with her bare hands until  her bleeding palms were criss-crossed by wounds inflicted by sharp thorns.  And as she bled from her  cuts, , she raised her fists to heaven,  shouting  obscenities to the deities.

        A month later, already weakened by grief, hunger and nervous rantings, Carmen fell into a half-comatose slumber even as her  terrible wounds began to heal.  When she came out of her room, she was dishevelled and smelled like an animal – a totally changed person.  The once beautiful and vibrant young nurse had turned into a morose recluse overnight, refusing all the well-meaning efforts of neighbours and friends to cheer her up. Carmen believed her poor Ralph had tried to say goodbye but failed to reach her because she was mentally preoccupied with a backyard garden and a small piggery which left her dead-beat at the end of the day. She blamed herself for being insensitive to his psychic manifestations.

      Inconsolable in her remorse and grief, every sunset, the widow sought out dark, lonely places in search for her husband’s ghost. She was utterly fearless of the dark and her favourite haunt were deserted places like cemeteries, old churches and abandoned houses. . It was a miracle she did not get mugged or raped in her nocturnal meanderings which went on for months until a stray bullet nearly killed her. She was rushed to a military hospital where friends of her late husband took turns nursing her back to life..

        When peace and normalcy had returned to the country, concerned neighbours were able to convince the childless widow to go back to her home province and kin. Back in Western Visayas , she bought a house, invested in agri-business and adopted her widowed sister’s ( whose husband also died in the Death March) baby girl.  With Ralph’s pension and her income from the farm,  the childless Carmen,  now happily inspired by surrogate motherhood, prospered.

        The years rolled by. Carmen proved to be a caring, doting mom  and  Cindy grew  up to be a cheerful, smart and obedient youngster… the pride and joy of her Tita Mommy.  From the outside, the Duyan-duyan residence was  a typical, provincial middle class home that had become the center of  wholesome, youthful activity with the bubbly Cindy at its core.  But something dark was going on unbeknownst  to  Carmen’s family and immediate community… the now aging widow had remained  obsessed in her search for ways and means to contact the spirit world. With her money, she had secretly established  connections with  espiritistas and clairvoyants and spending a lot on séances which were held mostly out of town..

        As in the past, she continued to seek out dark, lonely places. But this time, because of her stature in the community, she now carried a licensed fire arm and was more discreet in her nocturnal activities. Thus,, family and friends thought nothing of her regular late afternoon visits to the nearby campo santo, or her penchant for dark places  when she wanted to pray.  Those who knew Carmen also knew that her parents were buried in the centuries-old cemetery nearby; they also found nothing unusual with her preference for  the coolness of early evening visits to their mausoleum.. She was a lonesome, prayerful woman and they respected her eccentricities.

        The month before Carmen died, Cindy who was already employed in a large five-star hotel in Manila accepted a  friend”s Invitation to spend a few days in their newly opened family seaside resort in Bataan. She decided to bring along her mother because she knew from her mom’s stories that the area of  Nueva Ecija , Tarlac and the rest of the adjoining Central Luzon provinces were memorable spots for the  old lady. And besides the wedding anniversary of Ralph and Carmen was upon them soon and this trip was her gift to her mom. She wanted it to be both memorable and special.

        After a happy weekend in Bataan, mother and daughter decided to go to Nueva Ecija. They chose to spend the night in a well-advertised pension house by the river bank. It was a modern looking edifice but somehow Carmen found it faintly familiar. Then, all of a sudden, it  dawned on her – this was the very place where she had spent a night with Ralph a month before they were married. They were on their way to inform Ralph’s family of their plans for a simple church wedding and en route they spent their first night together in his best friend’s ancestral home. Unfortunately, however,  the ancient Braganza mansion was torched to the ground shortly after Japan announced its surrender by a group of renegade Japanese soldiers.

        All throughout dinner, Carmen bubbled with excitement. Her face was flushed with an inner ,mysterious glow that somehow brought back her youthful charms;  she even giggled like a school girl. Cindy was secretly pleased at the sudden change of her mother’s countenance. The old lady was obviously enjoying herself;  could it have been the wine?

        It was almost midnight when Cindy woke up with a start. Something had awakened her. She immediately noticed Carmen’s empty bed and she was filled with dreadful foreboding. Frantic, she rushed out of the building and began searching the pension grounds. A concerned security guard suggested that she looked at the “river garden” since there was a good chance her mom would be there enjoying the cool river breeze.

        “ It’s a beautiful spot and most of our guests love to spend the evening by the river bank, dozing in the siesta chairs. It’s quiet safe, you don’t have to worry.” The guard assured her as he pointed the way to the hidden garden.

        Cindy followed the cobblestone path as directed. The guard was right, it was a beautiful and romantic place. The scent of the dama de noche , ilang-ilang, sampaguita and champaca blooms perfumed the chilly night air. Tropical plants and giant ferns lined the path walk and there were twinkling Japanese lanterns everywhere. Every now and then, the hoot of a friendly owl broke the silence and fireflies were like stardust sprinkled on palm fronds. For a moment, Cindy thought she had wondered into a dream world.

        “Ralph, is that really you? I’ve tried so hard to get in touch with you all these years, “ Cindy heard her mother happily call out. The astounded girl froze at what she saw.

        There was this phosphorescent figure kneeling before her transformed mom. Cindy saw her now youthful mother give him her hand which he brought to his lips. From a distance she could tell he was an officer in gala uniform.  Ralph!

        “” I’ve patiently waited for so long too, my darling.  But your ordained time had not yet come. But now, it has…so come, our friends await us and they are playing our song,  can you hear it?” His reply was like an echo in the wind.

        Cindy  saw her mother gently slump to one side and she wanted to rush to her aid but some mysterious force kept her rooted to the ground. Before she could cry out for help, a tuft of cloud, white as snow, lingered just above her for a few seconds and she instinctively knew it her mother bidding her goodbye.

        Carmen’s long wait was finally over. Ralph had come to fetch her himself.  –o-