“Happy got unlucky”

I consider myself the luckiest. I was the happiest. I had the most loving and supportive
family a kid can have. Siblings that guides me and at the same time lets me do crazy stuffs. I
remember there was this Christmas eve and I wanted to give my mom and dad a present but
couldn’t afford something at the nearest department store so I just had to sneak out to their
bedroom and stole some of their unused jewelries and clothes, i didn’t even bother wrapping it
but instead i made a card and put it under the Christmas tree. I remember her, the days I wake up
because of the smell she create with those green leafs in the kitchen. The smell of new clothes
she wraps for me every year celebrating my birth. The warm hugs I get every cold morning and
evenings. The laughters we share especially when it’s Sunday and it is movie night where we got
to sleep together even in a small space in our living room. Sure wish we can still do that. Until
one day in the month of May, I lost my ally. I lost my other half. I lost my one and truest friend.

My rain started on one problem which changed the wheel of our lives, the day we lost
her. That one cold night, we were at a place far from home to visit her friend. We were enjoying
the show when all of a sudden it all turned black everywhere, I can hear some kids screamed and
footsteps near. I invited her and her friend to go to their house already because I was so scared
but she told me that when the electricity comes back we will be going to her friend’s house
where we will stay for the night. When there were already light, the program continued, I forgot
what she said. And again we were enjoying the show, her arms rest in my shoulders and I can
feel her breathing deeply, I didn’t bother that because I was so captive by the performers.
Suddenly I felt her arm loosened and then I saw her facing the floor with her arms crossed in
front her twisted face. I didn’t know what to do, some shouted, some came and helped us and
what I noticed was the girl behind her was giving me a bottle of water so I let her drink it and it
didn’t work. Until some rescuers came and rushed her to the nearest clinic. They weren’t that
trained to identify what happed to her or what is happening to her. We rode a car where she is
laid down with her feet up and a cord connected to her arms, then she began saying something I
cannot understand, she started to remove the cord and there I began to panic. I hold her tight,
hugged her, and closed my eyes. I prayed. I prayed that this wasn’t real, that I am just dreaming,
this is just a night mare. I can’t. She can’t. Not now. Not ever. On our way to the nearest hospital
I heard a girl beside me crying, saying her name. No it can’t be. We arrived at the hospital and I
didn’t bother going in, I asked my sister to give me water, I sat in front of the hospital entrance
and found a church in front. Again, I closed my eyes, asking Him this isn’t real. As I say my
prayers I once again heard a cry, my sister is crying. I closed my eyes even more. I heard her
shouted a name. I pinched myself, it is real. I drink the water, I just sat there until my dad and
aunt arrived. I didn’t really know what happened before that. Then a year after, my father was
put in jail. I continued studying at Tarlac and live there with my aunt and her family. It was hard,
they were cruel. 2years of serving them and I gave up, begged my grandma to come and get me
and bring me back home. It was a heavy rain that made us drown into sadness. Until now that
rain never stopped, it grew stronger and became typhoon of problems and it flooded my heart
that it almost made me give up my life. I wanted to be with my mother. I wanted to rest. But I
conquered those memories, my bad past.

I still have my siblings, my relatives and my friends that gave me an umbrella of faith,
love and patience to ease the pain. I will wait for the rainbow after this typhoon and will really
shine and will make me say, "The faith and patience that I've wasted after that typhoon was
worth it." But most of all, I always trust in God's promises and plans that He is the rock I stand
for.

Ma. Luzaida Bernardino

12- HUMSS Bernas