Bewilders of Life

By Fantastic Baby

Life is unfair…… a notion inculcated to the young mind of a 12 year-old

girl named toning.

In an obscure place of Davao del Norte, there lived a girl whose family
was so poor and very unfortunate. Her father was named Tanciong, a drunkard
man, who knew nothing but to roam around the neighborhood and find
someone to share his” tuba”- a native coconut wine, while his wife Ella was
working in the rice field in which her close cousin Lily entrusted to them to be
tilled.

Tanciong often went home drunk late at night and created a ruckus in
the family. For sure there would be great argumentation between the father
and the mother; the worst tanciong hurt his wife physically and emotionally. That
scene hunted toning very much, terrorized by her own father while she grew.
The situation was seemed hopeless and pointless.

The Family lived in a total misery. They had 5 children and toning was the
fourth one. Whenever her parents had a quarrel toning automatically secured
her younger brother to a safer place like their neighbor’s house, while her
parents had a fight, because her father often used weapon like knife or bolo to
scare his wife and children.

Every day, the children went to school droopy and lifeless because they
still did not get over of what had happened last night. Since the mother did the
work in the field she cannot attend the children’s basic needs before going to
school. The dress they wore was unpleasant, the slippers they used were
tattered, the children walked down the valley towards the barrio where the
school was situated, sometimes in an empty stomach.

Behind that condition, the neighborhood envied toning’s family because

every closing exercise at school, toning’s siblings were always honor students. In
fact, toning herself was valedictorian when she graduated her elementary.

However, there was a major tragic event happened to her life. Her
mother finally made a decision to leave her husband due to unbearable pain
and burden. Toning was confused on what to do, and started to question God
of her miserable life.

Toning’s family was broken and the children were distributed to the
relatives since the mother left home without a notice. Toning was so depressed
and decided to leave her family without telling them where to go. At the back
of her mind, she hated her mother of leaving them like that.

Toning went to her distant family in Surigao del Sur. Tried to forget her
unfortunate life, but still the moment she closed her eyes at night, the memories
keep on hunting her. Her great worry was her younger brother who was a 5
years old at that time.

Fortunately, her aunt Nene told her that she can enroll to high school but
she needs to do all the household chores in return. Toning pondered that
moment, her aunt had 5 children meaning she will wash all the clothes of those
5 distant cousins, cook for them and clean their two-storey house. But she
accepted the condition “Bahala na” was in her mind.

Toning woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning, started all the household

chores and cant barely finished because it’s almost 8 o’clock… She slipped
away to school and obviously the teacher will reprimand her of coming late.

She endured all those set ups for 4 years. She was so thin and pale due to
so much work.

But one day, there was man carrying a picture of a child. Asking on the
people he met if they have seen that child on the picture. Nobody recognized
the picture, due to curiosity toning came nearer to the man and she was so
shocked, it happened that she knew the girl on the picture. It was her picture!

Toning was scared why would a man was looking for her. She told no one
about it. She even covered her face whenever she met a stranger. Until one
afternoon when she arrived at school she was puzzled because everyone stared
at her, clueless of what was happening she went to her classroom. She was
greatly terrified when she saw the man who was looking for her at their
principal’s office. Toning was shivering of mixed emotions, petrified and
confused.

A little later, her teacher looked for her and asked her to go with her to
the principal’s office. She was relieved when she saw her teacher’s face, since
she was just smiling while talking to her. Indeed, at the principal’s office she met
the guy. The principal introduced to her the man, he was an NBI Agent hired by
her mother to look for her.

Ella was a run-away daughter of Don. Sebastian, a wealthy business man

from Cebu City. When Ella returned to her family and begged for forgiveness,
she was immediately forgiven by her parents since she was an only child of the
wealthy family.

Toning was astounded about what she heard from the agent. Tears were
willingly flowed from her eyes. She asked the agent to talk her mother over the
phone. They both sobbed and can hardly breathe as her mother asked for her
forgiveness of leaving them that way. But Toning perfectly understood the
situation and already forgiven her mother.

Toning was excited to meet her family. She was fascinated when they
reached the mansion house of her grandparents. The garden was so beautiful
that she can’t take her eyes away from them. At the entrance door there were
a number of maids waiting for her. The moment she stepped on the door ways,
her grandparents ran to hug her and welcomed her in their house. The whole
family embraced each other and laughed together, a picture of a happy
family.

Few months had passed; Toning never asked her mother about their
irresponsible father, everyone seemed forgotten the sufferings they had
experienced. They considered those as a worst nightmare in their lives. And no
one ever dared to talk about it.

One night Toning came home tired from school, she directly went to her
room. She was terribly pleased on her soft bed and laid on it, she stared on the
ceiling and she realized that “Life is fair”.