heart strings

A PIECE OF CAKE
Mayet Delgado

I woke up to find the whole place enveloped in a mist. It had been a strange, cold night. Newfangled to the climate, my heart skipped a beat and before I knew it, I slept with a thick comforter, a jacket, and several pillows covered peculiarly on my face. “What happened? Why is it too dark here? Did someone turn the lights off?”,countless questions I threw up to my boardmate unhesitantly, regardless of our age gap. “Nope, it’s a matter of waking up on the wrong side of your bed. You are hallucinating, girl!,she poked.
Embarrassed as I am, my eyes turned misty like a water vapor cloud that resembles in the sky during rainy days. I don’t understand, I feel I am torn between two things at that moment: either to abhor that woman or just simply understand her patiently. Which is which, still, the situation left me in a state of confusion. Thus, I fixed myself and took my literature book, scanned the pages rashly until it completely tear down. My boardmate, being too vigilant of my actions approached me in a ravaging manner and Boom! We both dehumanized after our ends meet. I never talk to her a couple of weeks. We both spent our days silently like a deaf-mute creatures living in a crippled world. Life is meaningless for we both resist changes in ourselves. No one is willing to accept mistake because we are too ARROGANT. No one is willing to surrender in behalf of PEACE because we highly disregard RESPECT. One thing we had in common: We pronounced HUMAN PERFECTIONS.

On the following night, I leave my life open for RECONCILIATION. I took a piece of paper from my drawer and wrote Kahlil Gibran’s famous adage: “Does the song of the sea end at the shore, or to those people who listens to it?” Then, on the last space, I marked the word “PEACE?” beside my name and signed it with my precious signature. That’s how our friendship started. And from that peace offering, I discovered how rarely she grows of not becoming a woman of mediocrity. From her, I learned the best touching story I’ve ever heard from tale bearers…Her mother is a cobbler. At a very young age, her father deserted them, thereby; the painful circumstance motivates her mother to mend other people’s shoes as a source of living. Despite of poverty, she finished high school with flying colors and grabbed college diploma with remarkable scholastic records. Indeed, she is blessed with intellectual wits not to mention her numerous published articles that perpetuates under a fictitious name. To her, writing is a hobby, a leisure- time activity pursued for pleasure. She writes because she wants to entertain people who suffered from dangerous heart operation. She always believes that in one’s life, we need a nurse.
“MY mother had once a nurse, not only to me, but as well as other people’s lives most importantly to those who can not afford buying a new pair of shoes. She just offered her service for free”, my board mate muses over as she took her cap and placed it on her head neatly.
Perhaps, I run-out of words, so I asked a boomerang question. “What about the ASEAN Summit, do you think our government officials will also need a nurse to clean- up the mess?” She replied, “better not, what they need is a piece of cake to ensure not waking up on the wrong side of their beds”. And I muttered, “what if the baker won’t bake a piece of cake for them? It’s holiday, you know!” She smiled back at me leaving my protest unanswered and turned away. As I gazed upon her, I saw my own reflection. I could have been like her If only I struggle the skirmish battles and learned to overcome every trials in life. I would be happier if I choose to live a life without pretensions. My board mate taught me the best lesson in life. And from her I become pliant.
The next morning, a new light cast vibrant beams inside my room and I saw the piece of cake placed on my table. A note was inserted on the plate and I read it: The baker bakes a cake because ASEAN SUMMIT is resume due to weather update.
Isn’t it amazing? Change, is indeed the only permanent thing in this world. So, why not change for the best instead of getting worst?