Castaway

PRIMO AND DEVANNA

“Grandma?” I woke up in the morning, and grandma wasn’t there anymore.

I smelled a slice of nice grilled meat from the outside, and it made me hungry. I watched the clock hanging above the old frames of photos and saw it was already 10 pm. I like how mom and dad didn’t wake me up during our vacation. Of course, how is it supposed to be a vacation if I couldn’t do whatever I want?

I stood up from the couch and slid the glass window. I saw them having a barbeque party without me.

“Isn’t this a bit unfair?” I asked them.

They smiled and waved at me, telling me to come down.

They told me they also woke up late and decided to have a barbeque for our brunch. Grandma also cooked a spare ribs soup to pair it with dad’s barbeque.

“Oh, grandma, where did your story stop last night?” I asked her.

She smiled.

“Did you tell Olivia the story of the last Primo and Devanna?” dad asked her.

“I caught her drinking some milk yesterday, and I thought maybe she couldn’t fell asleep. You had your nights like that too when you were a boy,” she laughed.

“You know your father always beg me to tell him the story of Primo and Devanna. That put him to sleep even if he heard them a lot of times,” she told me.

“Really? Why haven’t you told me that, dad? You had me struggling with what I’m supposed to present the next time I met Mrs. Coles.” I crossed my arms while looking at him.

“Well, I forgot some parts of it,” he said while thinking.

“Wait, did you do something in Mrs. Coles’ class again?” he asked me.

“Well, we have an assignment,” I lied about the “we” part.

“It’s about myths or folklores our families knew that was passed down to each generation,” I told them.

“It’s kind of absurd. Not all families had their own stories, aren’t they?” I asked them.

They looked at each other, including mom, and they shrugged their shoulders altogether.

“Well, tell me what happened next, grandma. I think that would be the one I’m going to present in front of our class,” I told her.

“Sure,” she said.

“Oh, wait.”

I immediately ran inside the house and took the notepad and pencil I had with me in my room. It was a good idea I brought these with me. I came across a mirror when I went downstairs and saw my morning hair, my eye gound, and my saliva that dried up on my face when I was asleep.

“How unattractive you are!” I told myself and went to the kitchen sink to wash my face.

I pulled up my sweater’s sleeves and opened the faucet. I washed my face with running water and brushed my teeth. I was wiping my face and my hands with a towel when my birthmark caught my eye. It’s not that big, but it wasn’t that small either. It was placed on my wrist like I had a permanent tattoo that looked like a bracelet.

“Grandma told me yesterday about that girl’s cursed mark that appeared on her wrist. Am I cursed too?” I asked myself.

“Yes, you are. Because you woke up late, daydream a lot, a bit clumsy, and you talk with yourself. Now bring this to your mother, and I have to get the big umbrella from your grandma’s storehouse at the back,” dad told me.

I pouted.

“Is it too hard to pick up the salt and pepper?” mom shouted out.

I hurriedly carried the salt and ground pepper dad gave me and went outside. Mom is a little bit impatient when she asked you to pick things for her.

-0-0-0-

Limo is unconscious for six days already. He was lucky to survive the accident but unfortunate enough to lose all of his family that day. He might not be able to carry on with the pain if he ever wakes up.

Mike died even after he was brought to the hospital. His sister, Molly, died two hours after his dad. His mother, Laura, tried to fight but only lasted for three days.

His girlfriend, Brenda, visited him again. She was there almost every day, hoping he’ll wake up. But even the doctor couldn’t tell when.

She took his hand and kissed it. She looked at him with eyes almost hopeless.

“Tomorrow’s your birthday, Limo. Aren’t you going to wake up?” she asked him but heard no reply.

She stared at him, and every time she did, she can’t help but cry.

“Miss?” the nurse asked her on the door.

“Yes?” she said while trying to wipe her tears.

“Visiting hours is almost over,” the nurse smiled.

“Oh, yes. Thank you. I’ll leave soon,” she said.

The nurse nodded her head and left. Brenda fixed her face. She took her cardigan and the umbrella she brought earlier. There were no stars, and the moon is hiding. The air is a bit chilly, yet people are sweating.

“It’s going to rain,” she said as she looked at the sky on the window from Limo’s room.

She closed the window along with the curtain. She emptied the table and put the chair in order. She took one last look at his room before she closed the door and left.

She was at the hospital’s entrance when she saw the nurse earlier. She smiled.

“Are you going to revisit him tomorrow?” the nurse asked.

“Uhh—“

The thunder was loud enough that it surprised a lot of people.

“I’ll go ahead,” the nurse smiled.

Brenda opened her umbrella and glanced above to where Limo’s room was. She sighed.

“I’m sorry, Limo. I won’t be able to visit you again tomorrow,” she said.

“Or even the next day and the day after.” Her voiced cracked while she tried to suppress her tears.

“Either way, I still love you. Happy Birthday, Limo,” she said.

She walked away from the hospital as the rain went along with her tears.

Devanna looked at how that goodbye ended. She’s at the rooftop on the building across from the hospital. She looked at Limo through his window, where his curtain had opened a bit. She was soaked but didn’t mind the rain.

“Can I say goodbye like that, too?” she asked herself.

She saw a nurse went in on his room. She checked the machines attached to his body and left after.

“To be left alone, how pitiful you are, too,” she said.

“Isn’t this the cursed child?” she heard a familiar tiny voice asked her from behind, a demon.

She turned around and saw no one.

“A shadow,” she mumbled.

“Am I?” she heard it laughed, and something appeared on a corner, a black cat with a pair of bloody eyes.

She saw how the cat turned into a bat and flew away.

“Catch me, or your Primo will die.”

She saw it flew down into a dark alley beside the hospital and turned itself into a young nurse. It looked at her and smiled wickedly with eyes as red as a rose. It went inside the hospital using the backdoor.

“Sh*t!” she cursed.