The Last Letter

25

Chapter XXV

August’s POV

Days and weeks have passed since my accident happened.

Recovering was easy but regaining my memories back is so hard unlike what I’ve initially thought.

For almost a week, my head constantly hurts even when I am asleep. Sometimes, I even thought that this kind of pain isn’t normal anymore but the doctor assured me that it was really part of the process of regaining memory. Meanwhile, my injuries in my arm and ribs are significantly improving as day passes by.

Today, I’ll be discharged to the hospital and tomorrow, I’ll finally go back to studying. I wonder how many papers, quizzes, plates and presentations I missed.

My memory? I was so embarrassed when I finally gathered all my memories back. I didn’t even provide that much information regarding my accident.

I told them the truth that I felt sick that day and that I closed my eyes but I do remember that I bumped into something hard and the impact made me fly out of the road. I recalled a man’s voice the moment I opened my eyes after landing on the grass but I was not sure since I might have been delirious that time.

As Suzanne mentioned days ago, the area where I was found is a grassy field with an elevated road where I was riding my bike. There was nothing I could bump into so it was finally ruled as a hit and run case. And it was impossible to acquire such injuries just by falling into the grassy ground where I was found lying unconsciously in the middle of the storm.

My mom scolded me so hard that day when I said I was really sick the day of my accident. She said that if I had told her the truth and how I really felt, she might’ve made me take a cab on my way to university.

To sum it all for now, my case remains unsolved. But I’m still open for questioning since my town is really sensitive to having cases of criminals roaming inside the town.

At about 5 in the afternoon, after thanking the nurses and doctors that helped me in my quick recovery, we exited the hospital where a cab dad rented was waiting for us.

On the way home, I realized how much I’ve missed my town and my neighborhood. Two and a half weeks seemed like forever inside my suffocating room in the hospital. When mom and dad are resting and I was the only one awake, I can’t even talk to anyone or do anything. I was really grateful that Ben and Suzanne and some of my closest friends in the university are constantly visiting me.

Regarding Ben and Suzanne, they seemed different than usual. I don’t know and I don’t understand. They are talking and are together most of the time, but for some reason, to me who is the third wheel of the two, they look awkward. I asked them one time if they had problems and they both said nothing.

When we reached home, I noticed the lights were still off despite the sun already setting and it was quite dark. The neighborhood is also noticeably quiet which is a rare occurrence.

Mom was furiously whispering something about my brothers being so lazy and can’t be trusted with house chores. I chuckled and said what can they do by themselves. She shutted me up by saying it was my fault that she wasn’t able to take care of my brothers and the house for a couple of days.

We all got out of the car and I carried the stuff in my mom’s hand. I was quite hurt when she said that it was all my fault, well it was true but I never wanted to worry and cause trouble to anyone, especially to my parents.

I was the first one to open our main door. When I slowly swung the door open, my heart almost popped out of my chest when the light turned on and noise from confetti poppers filled the room. I looked at them in surprise. Most of them were my neighborhood friends, uncles, and aunts and few of them were my university friends. On the back of the room, there is a big banner saying “WELCOME BACK AUGUST!”.

I glanced at my mom and dad on my back and they were smiling. Mom made a peace sign and dad just tapped my shoulders lightly.

Slowly walking from the crowd was my friends Ben and Suzanne holding a cake with lit candles.

They stood in front of me, both smiling. I blew the candles out and everyone in the room clapped. I hugged Ben and Suzanne first and walked to my closest aunts and uncles who came all the way from other provinces and paid respects to them. Next, I hugged my neighborhood and university buddies and thanked them for coming to my house.

Apparently, it was all the idea of my mom with the help of Suzanne and Ben, as well as my brothers.

I kissed my mom on the cheek and hugged her as tight as I could even though my arms still hurt a little.

Mom led me to the kitchen and to my surprise, there were so many gigantic plates of different dishes laid on the table. Probably more than enough for all the people who are here at my surprise celebration. Mom made me lean close to her and whispered.

“Suzanne helped me make almost all of these. She is a really good cook so make sure to thank her later.”

I looked at Suzanne’s direction and I saw her talking to my classmates and close friends in our department. I’ll probably look for a chance to thank her later.

Mom pulled me to our backdoor leading to the backyard and outside was about 10 tables, each with 4 chairs. It was nicely decorated with outdoor pendant bulbs. It was nice to see the backyard looking like this since I planned to make this part of our property a little more functional. But since it was tiring to do all the work by myself, I haven’t gotten a chance to do what I planned.

After a while, we let the visitors eat, especially our relatives since they need to leave early. I chatted with them while they were eating and answered all their queries ranging from accident-related to personal questions.

At about 7pm, my relatives bid goodbye one family by one family, telling me to always take care of my health and studies and to never worry my family like that again. Some of my classmates and university friends also left and told me we’ll continue the welcome ceremony at the university tomorrow.

My neighborhood friends and their moms are mostly the ones left here. The moms, including my own mom, as usual are chatting about almost anything they heard of somewhere. Some of the dads are probably outside, drinking moderately since their wives are just inside our house.

My younger brothers are playing with the neighborhood kids, excited as ever, as if they didn’t see each other just earlier this morning.

I invited Ben and Suzanne into my room since even though there were fewer people downstairs, it was still so crowded that it made my head hurt a little.

I drank my prescribed medicine as soon as I reached my bedroom. I noticed that on the floor, there were paper bags and boxes. I assume these are gifts.

Ben quickly jumped on my bed, hugged my pillows and complained about how he is so tired for today that he wishes he could sleep now. I told him to take a nap even just for a while and not to drool on my pillow.

Suzanne on the other hand was looking at the paintings and sketches of different real and imaginary sceneries I made and pasted in the walls of my bedroom.

I walked up to her and when she felt that I was on her side, she whispered “You’re very good. These are amazing!”

“Nah. They are so simple compared to anyone else’s drawings.” I replied.

“No. Don’t ever compare yourself to anybody. I can’t even draw like this when I am in the same department as you, so you should be proud of your craft.” She answered back.

“By the way, mom said you helped so much in cooking and orchestrating this event, thank you so much for your efforts and sorry for the troubles. I don’t know how I could repay you for all of that.”

“It’s okay August. It’s not much actually. I did all that because you are my friend.” She answered simply.

I nodded and smiled. I offered her the seat of my study area and I sat by the edge of my bed where Ben had already taken a nap.

“Can I take a look at this?” Suzanne asked and in her hands was my old sketchbook.

“Sure.”

She slowly turned the pages one by one. I went on her back and peeked at what she’s looking at even though I looked at those thousands of times. I sat beside her and told her the stories behind the sketches in that sketchbook. It was one of the first sketchbooks I had so it was special and sentimental for me.

The night went by so fast.

If not for mom calling us downstairs, we wouldn't know it was so late at night. There weren't any visitors left downstairs. Only mom and dad were there, cleaning some of the stuff up.

Mom packed food for both Suzanne and Ben. I guided them to Ben’s car, thanked them and gave them a friendly hug again, but now more genuine than before. I told them to learn from me and take care and be more extra careful on the road, especially for Ben.

We bid goodbyes and tell them to see you again tomorrow. That’s pretty much how my day ended. A simple homecoming from the hospital turned out to be a big celebration to bring my beloved family, relatives and friends together into a simple gathering. It was heartwarming to know so many people rooting for you to get better and welcoming you again after your dark days in the hospital.