Last Legacy
By Rhincel John Ortega De Veas
There was a
pounding in Julio’s head when he woke up that cold Saturday morning. It was
already 9:00 am but there is no hint of sunshine emerging from the slits of the
blinders. It was pouring outside but the sound was oppressed by the thick walls
of Julio’s location.
Julio
whimpered out of the bed with his legs still shaking with the presence of last
night’s tequila. He wet his face in the bathroom and when consciousness struck
him, he realized he was naked. He realized he was not in his apartment at all.
Julio was in an alienated world.
On
the bed, a man was snoring while lying on his chest. The man was naked.
Julio searched
for his clothes. He was buttoning his jeans when the man woke up. There was a
blatant expression in Julio’s face. The man rubbed his head trying to shake off
the dizziness in his being. The man gave a sly smile to Julio as he proceeded
towards the bathroom while Julio was pulling on all his clothes.
While the man is
in the bathroom, there was a weird silence that accumulated inside that room.
Julio felt a pang of pain inside. The pain was not physical it was something
deeper. Something stronger than Julio himself struck his consciousness. He felt
his sense of morality striking his soul deeper and deeper. He felt like he
wanted to vomit-to eject from his body all the awkwardness and gruesome stench.
Julio knew that
he had no right to feel a deep sympathy for his state. He was a student
prostitute for almost four years now. In his opinion, he was quite used to the
job. His body became his ticket to survive poverty which limits his
opportunities to become successful someday. His mother, a pineapple vendor, was
his only relative. His mother is not that strong. She was not even strong
enough to raise his only son. Julio had to find ways to finish college and
selling himself was his resolve.
Indeed, Julio
was good at his forbidden craft. He was a good player at this game. For two
years now, he was able to keep it secret. He was top student in the morning, a
reckless animal at night ready to satisfy anyone in the right price. Indeed
Julio was able to raise himself with this dirty business and was able to send
himself to college.
But Julio was
not an animal. He was not even the evil in most spirit his kind possesses. He
was actually trembling inside. He was a child seeking love from his mother. He
yearns for her affection, her care. He was not sure if prostitution is his
rebellion but he was sure that in whatever he does, his own mother would not care
and that he would have to raise himself alone.
These thoughts
were interrupted when the bathroom door suddenly creaked. The man came out half
naked with a towel wrapped around his waist. Julio was sitting on the edge of
the bed fully dressed now. It was still pouring outside and the man bade Julio
to stay but Julio insisted that he must leave. The man handed Julio two
thousand pesos and Julio waved a last goodbye and left the man’s house.
Because he was
drunk last night, he did not know that the man’s house is just near to the
street market where his mother’s pineapple stall is. The rain was still pouring
hard as he approached the street market. He decided to go and visit his mother
and give her a thousand peso bill.
Julio fell on
his back. He stepped on a pineapple which rolled on the pavement with the
impact of his foot when he fell. On his sight, though silhouetted by the mist
of the strong rain, people clad. As Julio’s eyes adjusted, he realized that
several pineapples were scattered on the street.
Julio, soaked,
felt a shiver-a shiver that was not caused by coldness. It was something
emanating from his deeper being. He ran towards the middle of the crowding
people. His heart was pounding to his ears. His uniform and his hair were
dripping wet. His shoes were soaked to his socks.
To
his horror, what lie in the middle of the crowd was his mother and her mouth
and nose was bleeding. Her skull was cracked and blood was flowing freely
behind the sidewalk. He was stricken deeply by the scene. He clung violently to
his mother’s body which was cold as ice. He howled a scream loud-a scream that
would pierce every soul who has a mother that heard it. He was wailing.
Something inside him wanted to cry out every bit of sorrow that tragic moment had
caused him. Suddenly he felt alone, more alone ever since he was born, lonelier
that lonely.
He
held his mother’s hand and kissed it gently under the gray sky and pouring
rain. He noticed that his mother’s petrified pale hand was clutching a white
envelope. He took it quite forcibly that the envelope was torn. Two pieces of
folded paper fell out. Julio took it. One was a paper from a bank, a deposit
slip saying that Julio’s mother deposited a hundred thousand pesos. Julio was
astonished about that. Where did his mother get that amount?
The
other paper was a white paper. Julio unfolded it with his hands trembling. It
was a letter from his mother. He recognized the penmanship as if it was a part
of him. The letter says:
Sa aking Julio,
Anak,
patawarin mo ako sa lahat ng aking naging pagkukulang sa iyo bilang iyong
ina. Alam kong nagging mahina ako at pinabayaan kita sa mga oras ng buhay
mo na kailangan mo ako.
Anak,
alam kong call boy ka. Nahihiya ako sa sarili ko dahil kahit alam ko na ang
ginagawa mo ay wala pa rin akong ginawa bilang iyong nanay. Ngunit nais
kong malaman mo anak na kahit ano ka pa man, mahal na mahal kita at tanggap
kita. Ikaw ang aking kayamanan Julio.
Magpapadala
ako sa iyo ng isang daang libong piso. Alam kong kulang ito upang mapunan
ang lahat ng pagkukulang ko sa iyo bilang magulang. Inipon ko ito ng apat
na taon. Ibinibigay ko sa iyo ito ng buong puso. Nawa ay tanggapin mo ito
at gamitin mo sa pagtupad sa iyong mga pangarap.
Mahal
na mahal kita anak. Lagi mong tatandaan yan.
Ang iyong inay,
Lydia
|
Julio
was frozen beside his mother’s corpse. Tears were flowing from his eyes as the
thunder and lightning rolled beneath the gray skies above.
