The Letter of Evelyn - #10
“Adora! Of course, I remember you. You sound excited and happy.” Evelyn answered Adora.
“I graduate! I am going home!” Adora meant that she also will be discharge from the clinic.
“I am happy for you! Congratulation!”
“Thank you!”
“Stay clean, you know what I mean?”
“Yes, the poison is already banned in my life. How are you?”
“I am okay.”
“I heard your husband died!”
“Yes.” a short answered of Evelyn.
“I called you many times, but you are difficult to reach! May I know what makes you busy?”
“The last time I must entertain many lawyers. Some of them come from America.”
“Oh! Something about inheritance from your husband I guess.”
“Something like that.”
“Okay, what do you think if I invite you to come to Manila?”
“Why, what is in Manila?”
“I am going to debut. Next month I will be eighteen years old, and my father promise me a big celebration as he and my mother are happy that I graduate!” Adora explain to Evelyn why she is inviting her to come to Manila. Finishing the rehabilitation, Adora describe it that she graduated.
“Adora, I am happy for you.” Evelyn was happy for Adora, her acquired friend from the clinic.
“Now, what do you think about my invitation? I like it very much if you come!”
“How can I refuse it? We are friends, right?”
“Thank you. Do you have a pen and paper on hand? I will give you our address in Manila and our telephone number.”
The invitation of Adora was a little sunlight that got through in the cloudy times of my life. I thought, going to Manila to attend the big debut party of Adora could divert my mind. My parents were a little skeptical. They were worried because Adora was the same as me, an addict before with Meth.
“Do you think it is a good idea to come to Manila?” Teresa asked Evelyn.
“Mama, I will only attend the debut party of Adora.” Evelyn answered her mother.
“Carlos, what do you think?” Teresa asked Carlos.
“Teresa, your daughter is old enough to travel.” Carlos answered Teresa.
“That is not what I am asking. I am asking if it is good that Evelyn will go to Manila?”
“Why not? It is only a party!” Carlos has no problem on Evelyn’s plan to go to Manila to attend the party of Adora.
“Okay, but Evelyn you have to promise. No drugs!” Teresa said to Evelyn straight, what she was worried for.
“Mama, I promised you and Papa that I will never let Meth anymore in my life. I promised it also to Nelson, as my gratitude to his unsurpassable goodness and of his love to me. I also promised my son Sonny that I will be good, that I will not be a bad person anymore. So do not worry, Mama. I know how Drugs can damage one person’s life. Never again I will succumb to drugs!”
Dr. Edgar Montero, I assured my parents I will never touch drugs again in my life. I had promised Nelson too in his grave that Meth will be ban in my life forever; I promised also to him and my son’s grave that I will be a good person, at least that is what I can do to the people who loved me unconditionally, to people I terribly hurt, neglected, and abandoned.
I came to Manila to attend the debut party of Adora. Adora’s family was rich. They family residence is in exclusive subdivision only the wealthy of the wealthiest can afford.
Adora did not let me stay in a hotel. She welcomes me in their house, introduced to her parents and a brother who was a physician. Their house is a picture of extreme wealth and luxury.
“I am happy you are here!” Adora said.
“I am happy, too that you invited me.” Evelyn answered Adora.
“You will not regret. My father invited many big shots people. Congressmen, senators, and maybe the president. Actors and actresses, all known people, all celebrities.” Adora told Evelyn the possible visitors on her party.
“Wow.”
“I have only one request from you.”
“What is that?”
“The clinic is our secret; people must know nothing about it.”
“Do not worry, Adora. The clinic is our secret!”
The party of Adora, introduced me to the high society. I will be honest Dr. Edgar Montero; the flash of glamour life that night had fully taken me aghast, and at the same time, fascinated. Adora talked to me, why not resides, or live in Manila.
I talked to my parents about my plan to live in Manila. As usual, my mother protested about it.
“Why live in Manila?” Teresa asked Evelyn why she wants to live in Manila.
“For a change, Mama.”
“You know no one in Manila.”
“Mama, Nelson has a hotel-apartment in Manila. I will take one apartment there.”
“Nelson is deceased. That hotel-apartment is yours.” Carlos said to Evelyn.
“But I want to live there incognito. I do not want that the people there know that I am the owner of that place.”
“Carlos, do you think it is a good idea for your daughter to live in Manila?” Teresa asked Carlos.
“Teresa, your daughter is no minor. She can do what she wants about her life.” Carlos answered Teresa.
“But to live there alone.” Teresa was really worried about Evelyn plan to live in Manila.
“Mama, please give me the chance. I do not have a life here in our place. Wherever I go, there’s the disapproval stares, the murmurings. In one word Mama, there’s no place for me here in our town. I cannot live forever with you and Papa. I must have my own life, my own world. So please, give me a chance.”
Teresa did not answer Evelyn. She looked at her husband.
“Give her a chance. If it will not work there in Manila, she always can comeback, right, Evelyn?” Carlos gave his conclusive thought or meaning, at the same time asked Evelyn that if everything does not work for her in Manila, she will come back to her parents.
“Thank you, Papa. Yes, if nothing works there too, sure I will come back!”
My mother had doubts, but I have the blessings of my father. In Manila, I take one apartment in the Hotel-Apartment I owned. Nobody knew that I am the owner, but I like it so.
My life in Manila was okay. I am always with Adora, going with her to parties she’s invited, me, to these people I am just nobody that chaperoned her wherever she goes.
Adora again has a boyfriend that do not belong to her class, of her family status in the high society, but she was in love with him and always, Adora used my apartment as rendezvous with her boyfriend. My apartment has two bedrooms, and the one bedroom was reserved for Adora and her boyfriend. She did it because she hides everything from her family. Adora came alone and so his boyfriend, and they also leave the same way.
“I wonder what your future with Greg would be.” Evelyn said her thought to Adora in the way of asking her, one time that Adora stay for a while after her rendezvous with Greg, and Greg leave the apartment first.
“We have no future.” Adora answered Evelyn, and when Evelyn just looked at her, Adora continued, “My family do not like him. He is poor!”
“Not that poor, I guess.” Evelyn said.
“As poor as the word means, Evelyn. But he is a good man, intelligent and he is trying hard. He is studying Law but not constant. What I mean by constant is that he studies this semester, the next semester he stopped. His salary as a janitor in the Justice Hall, he must support her widow mother and two brothers. So first he has to save money in the semester that he was not enrolled to spend it the next semester.” Adora explain to Evelyn the life situation of Greg.
“He is trying very hard then.”
“Yes, and I am proud of that, my family no. So, you see, we have no future!”
“If he succeeds to become a lawyer, maybe the perception of your family will change.” Evelyn said to Adora.
“Maybe if he can work in a known Law Firm and shine, then he could become a prestigious lawyer. Maybe.”
“Then you must give him a chance, and you can wait for him.”
“I give him five years. After that I will see what I will do.”
The problem of Adora gave me some thoughts. I can do something to help my best friend. Only one call, Greg’s and Adora’s problem will be solved. For that purpose, only, I visit my parents in our town.
“Evelyn, it is a surprise!” Teresa was happy seeing her daughter. Carlos was also all smiles.
“I miss you, Mama, Papa” Evelyn gave her both parents a hug and a kiss. “How is life here?
“Why did you not tell us when you called that you are coming?” Teresa asked her daughter.
“It is a surprise, Mama.” Evelyn answered her mother.
“I am happy, and I think your father too.”
“Yes, I am also happy.”
I stayed for a week with my parents, but before I went back to Manila, I talked to my father about helping a friend, my friend Adora. ****to be continued****