Norman get inside the house silently. The noise coming from the television and conversations of his beloveds in the dining room welcomed him. He sadly sat down on the couch and watched the show for them. Those simple things are the things that Sonia will never experience again.
“Dad is home!” declared Roel when he passed by him.
“Good evening, dad.”
“Good evening, young man! How was school today?” he greeted back and give him a fist bump.
“It was all fun though tiring,” Roel replied chuckling.
He looked at him flipping the pages of his book. It seems as if it was just yesterday when he can barely have time with them. He always had to work overtime for whatever decent job he finds which has never been enough to give them enough. He can’t even remember if he had ever taught them how to count one, two, three, or read ABC’s. He had rarely sung them a song too and never had he read them a bedtime story.
‘I missed a lot.’ He gulped to the thought. Unaware, he had missed those little yet important parts of their lives; while he was trying to fill in those gaps of lacks, he made a larger hole while fixing the other ones.
The years came so fast that he didn’t notice how his hair slowly turned gray and them to grown-ups.
Time and poverty robbed those little moments from them just like how death robbed the happiness of Sonia.
“Eu told that you have visited a friend of yours. How was she?”
“She is doing well though I never expected that she is that old now.”
“What was the name again?”
“Sonia Denovich.”
His youngest nodded his head and started reading. He was about to stand up when he called for his attention.
“Hmm?”
“Will you be busy this coming weekend?”
“I think I will not be. Why?”
“That’s good then. I am getting fat, and I ain’t happy with my belly. Would you mind jogging with me?”
He laughed and raised one of his brows. Seems like he will be having a grown-up Roel sooner than he expects.
“Sure.”
The night was so peaceful yet not his mind. He can no longer count how many times he took deep breaths and sighed. No matter how he tried to understand, he can’t explain how come that those letters are still new and was just found a month ago? That part of forest is not that recluse from the road. Travelers and people gathering woods could have easily found it, as well as the badge; and it is obviously wasn’t there for long. It even had no dirt that it is supposed to have if it is already there for a long time.
If the letters and the badge are really belonged to Dean, then who is the Dean that was with his family while he’s away?
His eyes widened.
‘Could it be… someone tried to take his place to be with Sonia?!’ he hilariously guessed.
‘No. That is impossible,’ he disagreed to the thought.
‘But it is possible—’ Someone interrupted him.
“Want to have a cup of coffee?” Eunice spoke and sat down on the chair half-meter next to him.
“Why are you still up?” she asked and handed him the other cup.
“I just can’t sleep,” he confessed, though half lie.
A five-minute of silence devoured them. Both are bothered.
“How about you?”
Eunice smiled and raised her right hand.
“You’re—”
“Yes, dad! I can’t believe it, too! Imagine… I am getting married!” she said in a muffled scream.
He was teary eyed realizing that his firstborn will be no longer carrying his family name anymore in anytime soon.
“I should ask Marco when he visits,” he joked.
“Dad! I am serious! He really proposed to me!”
He laughed, enough for him to let out his happiness.
“I wonder if he is sure—”
“Dad.”
“Okay, okay. So, it is really true?”
“It really is.”
He stared at her. Why is time really unfair? He can’t catch up with its pace when it is not even moving faster than him.
‘Ahh, you have some tricks, time.’
“I wonder how really fast time can be,” he stated.
Eunice gulped and warmed her palms as she shifts her eyes from him to the night sky.
“I am too. I always wonder how it can move slowly yet without us noticing that it has just leaped miles of distance from where we were just a second ago.”
“That was a deep one.”
“I always think deeply.”
He took his time to keep his silence. The night breeze blew and whistles the familiar sounds of the past.
“Do you still remember the night we came home late from the farm? We walked in the mud, and you lost one of your slippers.”
She giggled. She got bruised that time.
“And you were complaining how far the way we took,” she recalled. It was rainy season during that time.
“That was the time too when you said we will have our own car someday, so we no longer have to walk that far.”
“I was serious that time.”
“You are always serious. But look, that slipper you have lost really made you buy not just one but three cars.”
Norman hid his sadness. He had lost a lot of things too when he was young, but, the only difference is that he was never as courageous as she is.
‘It was probably Julia that she had inherited it from,’ he consoled to himself.
“So, when are you planning to announce it to everyone? Why did you get engaged so sudden?”
Eunice thanked the darkness. She doesn’t know how to stop herself from blushing.
“We talked about it, thoroughly.”
“Did you think about it?”
“Yeah—”
“For countless times?”
“Of course we did.”
“That is good then. I really hope you two will always stick side-by-side with each other, through thick and thin.”
“Like you and mom.” She smiled.
“Uh-mmm. Just like us.”
“So, what is this secret then to keep a marriage intact?” she asked.
“There is no secret,” he chuckled and tapped her head.
She looked at him, puzzled and astonished.
“There is really no secret at all. You show off—that is what matters most. Never hide anything, never conceal what you think. Never hesitate to tell him your thoughts.”