The Truth Berries

LVII

 Helen woke up to the sound of someone opening the door and entering the room. When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was just Miguel carrying a small brown paper bag and a small cup of hot coffee for her. So she stretched her arms and then she pulled her knees close to her until she was sitting on her bed. He sat near her and set the paper bag between them. Then he offered her the cup of coffee. Helen took it and thanked him.

       “Did I wake you?”

       She shook her head.

       “You’re just in time to see me start my day. What’s this?”

      “Some bread, still hot and oven-fresh. I woke up early for that. Always tends to go sold-out so early every morning. Go on, try it. Goes perfect with that cup you’re holding.” Miguel urged.

       She looked at him sideways. Miguel gave her a different answer for he misunderstood what she meant, but she ignored it anyway. She reached for the paper bag and opened it. Helen felt the warm steam from the bag hit her face and she savored the tempting aroma of the bread. She closed her eyes for a short duration as she tried to recall the last time she had some hot bread for breakfast. She felt like it was already ages ago. Helen took a piece of it and bit into it while he just kept on watching her.

      “What happened to fried rice and eggs for breakfast?”

      “Today’s a holiday for that. You wouldn’t want to travel with a heavy tummy.”

       Helen looked up sharply at him.

       “We’re going back there today?”

       “No, princess. We’re going somewhere else. You ever tried hiking before?” he asked with a grin.

      She almost blew out the coffee she just sipped because of that. But she gulped the hot liquid down with a grimace before speaking to him.

       “Hiking? Pardon the pun, Sergeant, but that’s not my cup of coffee. Why?”

       “That’s too bad because today we’re going hiking. Don’t worry, I have prepared everything that we’ll need for this trip. And I bought you a new pants and a sweatshirt just for the occasion. And of course, I included another pair of your . . . you know. It’s all right there hanging in the bathroom.”

       “Let me guess, the water’s full again.”

        “Uh . . . it was. Now it’s just more than half. I took a bath already. Why? Is that not enough?”

       “It’s not that. I’m just worried about you and your wound.”

       “Oh don’t worry about it. I can manage on my own now. I already changed my bandage a little while ago. I did not bother to wake both of you and Auntie.”

       “I see. Glad to see hear that.”

       “Thanks for worrying, anyway. When you’re done you can take your bath. I’ll just go pack our foods for the trip.”

        He stood up and was about to open the door when she called to him again. He froze with his left hand on the doorknob.

       “Where are we going today, Miguel?”

        Miguel saw the curiosity in her eyes so he smiled kindly.

       “We’re going to find the truth together, you and me Helen. I just figured out what the letter meant.”

       And then he went out for their food. She was left with her mouth agape, with the remainder of the bread in her mouth. She wondered how he managed to figure out the meaning of the letter for it looked nothing but gibberish to her. She fumbled under his bed and pillows and found the folded letter under them. Helen opened it and tried to read it again, hoping that it might just miraculously reveal its true meaning to her.

A tiny lump of metal molded into shape

A young sprout left to grow all alone

A farmer with a secret life to take

A life to live away from home

A veil of blue from the higher Earth

A secret hidden for the longest time

Frozen in the dark since mankind’s birth

Only a hero can know and find

Look not at their faces; look deep and far

For they truly are not who they say they are

       She tried to read it twice, trying to find out how he did it. But the more she stared into the puzzling letter, the greater her head ached. So she returned the letter under his bed and finished her light breakfast. Then she went out of the room and headed straight to the bathroom. On her way out, she saw Miguel heating some banana leaves for their food. She smiled when she smelled the pungent scent of it in the air. And then she proceeded with her shower. Fifteen minutes later, she went out of the bathroom looking like a legitimate hiker with the pants and the white sweatshirt. Miguel was done too. He had a medium backpack with him and he was wearing a white cowboy hat. It seemed inappropriate but she did not care. He still looked stunning, in her opinion. Helen came to his side and Aunt Inday came out of her room just in time to see the both of them.

       “Whoah! Where are you both going? It looks like you’re letting me out of a party that I do not know of.”

       She smiled dumbly, for she did not know how to answer her. So Miguel took the responsibility of replying to that. But what he said confused her.

       “We’re going back to Manila, Auntie. We’re just gonna tie some loose ends there and then we’re coming back for good. That is if she’s still willing after this.”

       They both looked at her, all waiting for her reply, but she was caught off-guard with everything that has happened so suddenly that she could not say anything but a dumb yes.

       “Looks like you still have the looks and the luck, Mikoy. She just said she’s still willing to come back with you after all. Would you like me to call for a car rental company again?”

       “No, Auntie. That would be unnecessary. We’ll arrange everything for ourselves.”

       “If you say so. Just take care of yourselves. You do that for me, okay?”

       “We will, Auntie. Don’t worry. We’ll leave you now.”

       They started their descent from their house. He was still leading the way while she was just behind him, looking real bothered at something from before. He noticed that from her but he did not ask her what it was all about. When they had walked quite a distance from the house, Helen could not keep it to herself anymore. She ran a few meters and caught up with him. Then she held his arm for some support while treading.

       “Why did you lie to her?”

       “I don’t want her worrying so much now. She’s already an old lady and I think she has suffered enough. A single white lie wouldn’t hurt her, I think.”

       It was true but that was not all of it. Miguel had another reason for not telling her about the journey to but he decided to keep it for a while. He had to make sure he was right first, though he secretly prayed the night before that he was wrong about it.

        “That part of coming back with you here, were you serious about it?”

       “Do you ever take no for an answer?” he asked with a smile on his lips.

       “Never.”

        “Well, that answers your question.”

       Halfway down the mountain, he stopped and looked around to see if there was anybody watching them. She was asking him why they’d stopped but he shushed her. He stood there, keeping a sharp ear for any foreign noise in the surroundings. But all they heard were the gentle breeze of the morning air and the sound of the leaves as they swayed to it. Satisfied there was no one out there, he took off his bag and pulled out a sheathed jungle bolo. Then he closed the bag once again, put it back on his shoulders and he began hacking at the wild bushes to their right. Helen watched him for a while before she realized what he was doing. He was making a new trail back to the top of the hill.

       “Why are we going back?” she asked.

       “Because we need to, ma’am.”

       “Then why don’t we just turn around and head back from where we came from? We could make a better start from there, don’t you think?”

       “I know. But that would just make me a terrible liar if Auntie saw us hiking when I told her we are going back to Manila, wouldn’t it? Just trust me on this one, okay? And try not to fall behind. I don’t have any GPS stuck on you. So if you get lost, chances are slim of finding you again. You wouldn’t want to be eaten by wild animals now.”

       Upon hearing that, she ran to him quickly.

       “You’re still a terrible liar. You know that, don’t you?”, she asked sourly.

        “Yup! Nadia always made sure to point that out too. Thanks for reminding me, though.”, he said as he kept on hacking.

       With that, she fell silent. He started to wet his shirt with his sweat from the labor he was doing. But he kept on for he said that it would be more tiring once the sun reached its peak. The cut stems and leaves of the weeds and the bushes flew left and right as he continued to move forward. She followed his advice and kept her eyes on him, afraid of getting lost in the middle of some unchartered forest. After twenty minutes or so, Miguel stopped and turned around with a smile. Then he stepped aside to reveal a path leading ahead of them.

       “We’re almost there.”

       They walked for another twenty minutes to a tamer part of the mountain before she asked him the question she has been itching to know the answer since the early morning.

       “You said you figured out what the letter meant.”

       “Yeah, I did say that and it’s true.”

       “Would you mind telling me about it, Oh Enlightened One?” she asked annoyed.

       “Well, what do you want to know about it?”

       “How about starting by telling me what it is?”

       “Okay. It’s not a letter at all. It’s a set of riddles, all bunched together. And when you answer all of them, you can derive some kind of map from it.”

       “So you answered all of it already?”

       Miguel frowned.

       “No, not all of it. I still don’t know what those last two lines meant.”

       “What do you mean? So we have a map without all the parts required? Like we are missing the part with a red X-mark on it?”

       He laughed hard at the unusual humor the extraordinary lady had.

       “It’s not like that. The first line was even answered for us already, from the very start. We just overlooked and disregarded it. It’s right before us, right on our hands.”

       “Do you realize that some people have trouble understanding riddles?” she said impatiently.

       “I know but the letter was intended to confuse the others. If you do not know the identity of the man who wrote them, you’ll surely have those troubles.”

       “Well, clearly I can tell you that I do not know your father. Never met him before, you know. So why don’t you just tell me what the first line meant and what is the answer to it, will you?”

       Instead of answering her with words, he pulled the key from his pocket and handed it to her hand. She looked at it blankly for a while before she understood.

A tiny lump of metal molded into shape

       “It’s the key!” she exclaimed.

       “Yes, princess. It’s the key itself. The first line pertains to it.”, he explained.

       “And the rest?”

       “The second line is all about me - a young sprout left alone to grow. The farmer in the third line was my father. The fourth line and half of the third one tells the story of how he lived his life and the other unknown life he had that time.”

       “And the others?”

      “You’ll understand them once we get there.”, he simply said.

       Not long after, while she was still trying to fathom the ingenuity of his father’s plan, she started to hear an unusual sound. She tried to find the source of the sound but she could not see anything around her. But it grew louder and louder with every step that they took. And when they turned around the thick grove of trees, she saw what created the sounds. It was the gushing sounds of the water from a hidden river a few hundred meters away from them. The waters shone like glass from afar and when they walked near it, she could almost see the bottom of the river for the water was immaculately clear. Then out of a sudden, she covered half of her face as she gasped at the sight before her. Beyond them was a small waterfall that gushed down from a very high and rocky cliff.

       “It’s beautiful, Miguel.”, she told him admiringly.

       “I know. I had the same reaction when I saw it. Behold the answer to the fifth line of the letter.”

       She tried to recall what the fifth line was and then she remembered.

A veil of blue from the higher Earth

       “It talks about that waterfall!”

       “Precisely, Helen. My father used to call me ‘champ’ when I was ten years old. That’s short for champion and it’s synonymous with the word hero. Only father and I know this paradise.”

       “The eighth line, isn’t it?”

       “You got it.”

       She couldn’t believe it. The whole thing made sense to her now. She was not yet done marveling at the cunning work of Miguel’s father when he just took her shirt off before her. She gawked at him for a long time before he gave her a reaching hand.

       “What?”, she asked.

       “Well, I hope you are a good swimmer, princess.”

       She swallowed some air.

       “Swimmer? You mean we’re gonna swim, like right now? Why?”

       “Because, my dear, we are going to find the answer to those sixth and seventh lines of the letter. And it’s right behind that magnificent waterfall. So, you wanna know the answer or not?”

       Helen was certain she wanted to know the answers to it

       But she did not know if she was ready for it.