The Last Letter

50

Chapter L

I immediately dialed Suzanne’s brother’s telephone number as soon as I reached for the phone. Thankfully, our telephone is wireless so I could bring it where no one could hear me talking to Suzanne. Remember, no one could know my relationship with her, no one from my friends nor my family.

There was no response after three rings so I still waited for someone to pick up the call.

“Hello?” A mature voice answered the phone finally. It seems like it was from Suzanne’s sister in law that we met some time ago.

“Yes hello. This is August if you still remember me, I went there like months ago. I am a friend of Suzanne. If it is not bothersome, can I please talk to Suzanne. I have to talk about something urgent to her.”

“Oh hello August, Merry Christmas and Happy holidays! Okay, sure. Don’t hang up, she’s in the kitchen. I’ll get her to talk to you.” The woman on the line (Suzanne’s sister in law) said.

“Thank you very much! Merry Christmas to everyone there too! I hope you all are having a nice day!” I said and made my voice as lively as possible.

By the way, I went outside with the telephone. Out in the backyard away from any people, even my younger brothers. The line went silent for like a minute before I heard Suzanne’s voice at the end of the line. “Hello?”

“Thank God! Suzanne, have you texted me or anything?” I asked.

“Yes, about an hour ago. I just replied to your last message and other than that, I haven’t texted you anything. Why? Did something happen?” She answered.

I released a relieved sigh. “That’s good. My pager is missing so I was really worried that it might vibrate and someone could pick it up and read our messages to each other.” I replied. This time, with less anxiety.

“Oh, okay I’ll make sure to not message you. Just send me a message or call me again if you ever find it.”

“Yes, thank you for understanding. Anyways-“ I took a deep breath. “Ben is in my room resting, and I think my pager is in there. He just popped out of nowhere earlier after our last text.” I looked for the nearest chair I could sit to and walked towards it, with my ears still stuck on the telephone speaker. “That’s good! I thought he’ll hide from us forever. How is he doing?” She asked.

“He’s fine, just having a hard time at home I guess. It’s his birthday today and Christmas day but he doesn’t want to go home. He’ll spend the night here with me and Aries. So with that, I think that his fight against his parents is quite serious.” I said.

“Can I talk to him later? I’m sad that he wasn’t answering any of our messages for weeks. Just take care of him for the rest of his stay. I hope everything will go well for him.”

“I know, it’s sad that he won’t be able to spend the special days with his family. Sure I’ll call you again later, maybe at 10pm? You two should talk, maybe you could make him at least feel a little better. He is taking a nap in my room at the moment.”

“Okay. How about you? Where are you right now?”

“In the backyard. I grabbed the telephone and went here so no one would hear our conversation.”

“You should go inside now and make sure you wear a jacket or any thick clothes when going outside. It’s quite cold at this hour.” I looked at what I was wearing. It’s funny how I’m just wearing the same shirt and PJ’a as earlier. And I didn’t even bother to wear slippers again.

“Yes ma’am!” I whispered loudly.

She chuckled on the other line. “I’m quite busy because we’re not yet done cooking so… I’ll talk to you again later. Bye! I love you!”

“I love you too.” I said and waited until she hung up the call. I immediately went outside as I suddenly felt the chills of the cold wind running down my spine.

***

I spent an hour and a half setting up the backyard without anyone else’s help. Aries had also arrived during that time I was busy but he didn’t even lend a hand to help me out. Dad had also come home with his lechon that became the centerpiece of our dining table. Ben? He’s still asleep upstairs.

I also told mom about Ben’s situation. Unlike what I promised Ben that I would just reason out why he’s spending the rest of the night here in our house, I told my mom the truth that he’s having a hard time. Instead of more questions, mom understood his situation and told me that he could always stay here whenever he wants to. She promised to me that she won’t tell Ben that I told the situation in his home.

Mom secretly called Ben’s home with me in her back, coaching her what to say. The call went okay and Ben’s mom just told us to take good care of his son and the family wished him a happy birthday and merry Christmas. She actually sounded a little gloomy.

I was setting up the table with my younger brothers when I saw Ben coming down from the stairs. He was scratching his eyes and he obviously looks like he just woke up. I walked towards him and stood by his side.

“I already told her. Mom lets you stay whenever you want to.” I whispered.

“Okay, thank you so much. What time is it by the way? I think I overslept.”

“Quarter to nine. In the end, I set up the backyard by myself. But it’s okay, you got the energy you need for tonight so it’s alright. We won’t sleep tonight.” He just nodded and looked at the table. “That’s a feast.” He said.

“I know, they exaggerated the celebration for Christmas eve.”

“Do you still need help? In anything?” He asked.

“Not really. We’re almost finished. Aries is in the living room, you two should catch up.” I answered. He yawned and scratched his head again.

“Oh okay. I’m actually still sleepy, I’m sorry again I wasn’t able to help you in the backyard.”

“You can rest for more time. Just make sure you’ll wake up before midnight.”

“It’s okay and it’s embarrassing too. I guess I’ll just talk to Aries and let him disturb my little world with his really loud voice.” We both chuckled. He walked towards the living room and not long after, I heard my eldest brother’s loud voice greeting Ben. I shrugged it off and continued setting up the table and putting beers in the fridge for later. Mom came out of the bathroom and looked at the direction of the living room because of Aries’ loud voice.

“Don’t mind them. He was just really excited to see Ben.” I told mom.

“Oh he’s already awake? What don’t you tell him to eat?”

“Let’s just wait for Christmas mom and he’ll eat with us too.” I said.

“Okay. I'll rest for a while then.” She said and went upstairs. I nodded even though mom was already out of sight.

“Aries, keep your voice down!” I shouted as his laugh could possibly be heard across the whole house.

“Sorry!” He shouted back and laughed again. I swear he has the loudest voice among us ever.

After we finished setting up the table and making sure everything was okay for later, I suddenly thought that it was the right time to look for my pager since Ben is now awake and is in the living room. I tiptoed upstairs even though I looked really dumb doing that.

I locked my bedroom door to make sure no one could enter. I started to look for my missing pager again. If I could only turn my room upside down to find it, I’ll do it.

I turned on the light and walked towards my bed. And there I saw it. My pager was on its usual spot, my bedside table.

Like a movie, I slowly reached out my hand to get it. Did Ben put it here? I swear it wasn’t here before when I was looking for it. If Ben ever had put this here, did he read my messages? I clicked my pager to open it.

“Merry Christmas!”It was the message that flashed through my eyes as soon as I turned on my pager. I looked at who the sender is and it is from our team leader, Claire. I closed the message and saw a bunch of more unread messages from my classmates and friends. The very last unread message was from Suzanne.

“I love you! Take care!” The message read. I sighed out of relief because it was an unread message. So there’s no way that Ben could’ve read this. I felt my heart racing so I placed my pager on top of my chest and laid my back against the mattress. I closed my eyes for a couple of minutes before deciding that I should probably reply to all those greetings.

I got up and texted my friends and classmates one by one. I wish there’s an easier way to do this instead of manually typing the messages and sending it to them one after another. The very last message that I need to reply to is Suzanne’s message.

“Hey, I found my pager. I’ll secure it. I wouldn’t be able to read your messages regularly but just message me if you are done and when I could call you. Enjoy the night, okay?” I clicked the send button and turned my pager off. Maybe it’s best that I shouldn’t read any messages for now and focus on celebrating the night with my family and best friend first.

Again, I closed my eyes and like Ben’s position earlier, I placed my arm on top of my eyes. I felt my body was floating, maybe because of all those things I did earlier. It is just now that I felt a little tired. Maybe it won’t hurt to rest for a little time right?

To be continued…