Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cryptic Deaths - A Novel (Chapter 3)

I lay on my bed one January morning. The moment I woke up, I felt the morning chill pierce through my skin. I got out of bed and went straight to my closet and got more clothes to prevent the frosty air from biting. I returned to my bed and tried to get more sleep.
After a couple of seconds, I closed my eyes, and then opened them again. Out of the window, two flying red ribbons caught my eyes as they soared with the winds and settled in a tree. I watched them jump from branch to branch until they were out of sight. My attention was diverted to the dancing mahogany tree’s leaves. They were squirming wildly because of the winds, until a leaf lost its attachment from the tree and was blown over a hundred meters away.
I closed my eyes again, felt the warmth of my blanket, and exerted all my efforts to seize my sleep. Too bad but all my efforts failed. I just stared out of the window and suddenly, memories came back to me.
I remembered Marie. I remembered the times when she was still alive. I remembered the feeling when she was still around.
Marie Umber was a beautiful woman, half-Filipino, half-British, tall (5’8”), sexy, friendly, and generous; it was like she had no negative traits. Her beauty is unique - a blend of tall, white British woman and innocent, Asian beauty of a Filipina.
She had a nice but strong personality, had a good sense of humor, was a member of the local theatre arts group, could sing, dance, and act, was the editor-in-chief of our school paper, and had won the national teenagers beauty pageant-a talented woman indeed. But behind all the talents that were given to her, there wasn’t a time that she lifted her feet off the ground. Despite her busy schedule, she still had the time to mingle with other people, and that’s why she got the congeniality award voted by and among all graduates when we were in high school, because she could really blend well with anyone and everyone in school.
One nice day when she was still alive, my friends and I had a vacation in Kyle’s house in Manistique, Michigan. We spent one week there and enjoyed every second of our stay. We did plenty of activities like water skiing, fishing, and swimming, picnic by the Manistique Lake, wakeboarding, morning exercises, badminton, board games, and a lot more. We also soaked ourselves under the sun while watching the magnificent Lake Michigan.
I remembered my bonding with my friends especially with Marie. We had a very memorable stay there.
I also remembered that after our first dinner in Kyle’s house, we needed to wash the dishes ourselves because the dishwasher was out of order and the helpers were out for their summer vacation. We needed to work it out so we played spin the bottle and the one who was pointed three times would be the one to wash the dishes by hand. The bottle was spun for a couple of times and Marie and I were in the lead with 2 points each and the rest were pointed once. I spun the bottle, which was the last spin because it pointed Marie which means she would have to be the one to wash the dishes. I volunteered to help her because I was the reason why the bottle pointed her.
We went to the kitchen and did the dishes while we talked and laughed. We chatted about our funny childhood memories and about the future until we realized that bubbles were already flying around the kitchen.
We laughed, threw bubbles at each other, and laughed some more.
After washing the dishes, we ended up soaking wet, with bubbles spread all around the fully furnished kitchen. Naturally, we laughed again, wiped the bubbles scattered around, got tired, and had rest.
Silence and darkness covered the night as happiness invaded me. My mind stopped working and sleep came to me.
I woke up and knew that I was in my bedroom; in my house here in Bellwood, just outside Chicago. I sat up and felt a tear run down my cheeks and suddenly, I let myself burst into tears. And those were tears of joy because I saw and felt the happiness when Marie was still alive but at the same time, I was sad too because I need not dream about it when she’s still alive because I wouldn’t long for her presence.
Marie was a good person. She didn’t deserve what was done to her. She didn’t do something wrong and I’m sure about that. We’ve been friends for too long and knew almost everything about each other. To me, she’s not just a friend but a family. I treated her as my older sister that’s why it’s just so hard to accept that she died.

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