JUST SAYING GOODBYE – Part 2

 

ANITA for a moment was frozen, she was in dept thinking. The eyes of the beggar were disturbing her. Her mind wants to travel through her memories, back when she was still studying in high school.

 

“Come, Anita, you want to talk to that pregnant woman,” the loud voice of Aldo startled Anita. “Don’t tell me you will just stand there.”

 

Anita looked at the pregnant woman. She wanted her to be the content of her vlog but then there’s an urge that she must follow the beggar who was walking away.

 

“We return to her later, come follow me. We will follow that beggar!” Anita said to Aldo and walked to follow the beggar.

 

“You will follow him because he did not accept the money you give?” Aldo asked Anita.

 

“Just follow me,” Anita answered her cousin. Aldo can do nothing but to do what Anita wanted.

 

“You’re the Boss!”

 

As they followed the man, they wondered how a weak and sick someone could walk that fast. They saw that the man walked to a place where there were shanties, and then they saw him no more.

 

“Where did he go?” Anita asked Aldo.

 

“Maybe in one of these shanties,” Aldo answered Anita as his eyes was roaming around looking for the man.

 

“Could we look inside the shanties?” Anita asked.

 

“I don’t know. These shanties were only built-in cartons, sacks and plastic but the people that were living here, the shanty is their kingdom. We cannot just peep-in to search or look,” Aldo said.

 

“There’s a woman, come we ask her,” Anita saw a woman sitting outside her shanty and liked was crying. They approached the woman while Aldo continued filming.

 

“Good day,” Anita greeted the woman that only look at her. The woman did not answer, she had tears in her eyes.

 

“Maybe we could help you for something?” Anita continued her talking to the woman.

 

“I do not know what to do. My son was dead and I have no money to bury him,” the woman at last talked to Anita.

 

“Your son is dead? Where is he?” Anita asked.

 

“He died last night. He’s there inside,” the woman answered at the same time stood up and opened the sack that served as door to her shanty. Anita and Aldo stepped in few steps to look, and they were shocked. They looked at each other, the dead man lying on the dirty, and old mat made from Pandan leaves was the beggar they followed, the beggar that would not accept the money Anita gave.

 

Anita felt a cold breeze of wind swift into her body. Suddenly she could not breathe. She walked away few steps to have air.

 

“He died last night?” Aldo asked the woman.

 

“Yes, before midnight,” the woman answered. Aldo said no more words. He and Anita both saw the man just half an hour ago. Strange, Aldo thought.

 

“Anita, are you alright?” Aldo asked Anita as he focused the camera of the cellphone on Anita’s face.

 

“We must help her,” Anita said to Aldo. The family will be the content of her first vlog.

 

“How could we help? Do you have money to spend on his funeral?”

 

“We will go to government instances,” Anita walked to the woman who said she was the mother of the deceased. “Please do you have any ID of your son?”

 

“Yes, wait a minute,” and the woman went inside the shanty and later came back with an ID. She gave it to Anita.

 

“Thank you, do you eat already?” Anita asked.

 

“No, I don’t have money,” the woman answered. “Aldo, I will stay here and wait for you. Buy her food.”

 

‘Okay,” and Aldo gave the cell phone to Anita and went to his motor.

 

When Aldo droves away with the motor to buy foods, Anita looked where she could sit. The woman understood that Anita was looking for a stool so she entered again her shanty and came back with an empty pail.

 

“You can sit on here,” the woman said to Anita at the same time put the pail upside down so that Anita could sit. Anita sat down.

 

“Only you and your son are living here?” Anita asked the woman.

 

“Yes,” was the short answer of the woman.

 

“You do not have a husband or another child?” Anita again asked the woman while she kept filming.

 

“I am a widow. I only have two children. Him, my son, and a daughter.” The woman answered.

 

“Where is your daughter?”

 

“She went to the Middle East to work as a domestic helper. She promised to send money for the medication of her brother, but I don’t know what happened to her. I never heard from her even once for more than ten years now,” the woman had tears when she’s telling Anita about her daughter.

 

“For more than ten years she did not contact you? You do not know what happened to her?”

 

“No,”

 

“Your son was sick for a long time? What was his sickness?”

 

“I do not know what happened to him. He was a good boy, he studied good and dreamed to be a seaman. But suddenly, he was not by himself. He roamed around talking to himself. People said he become crazy because of Shabu but he never used drugs. I cannot bring him to a doctor because I had no money, besides the first doctor that examined him said I must let him admit in the Mental Hospital. I will not hear it because I know my son was not crazy, and now he’s gone and I am alone.” The woman wept.

 

Anita let the woman cried.

 

She looked at the ID she’s holding in her hand. It’s a student ID of the school. The same ID she had before, the beggar had been in the same school as she was, and looking at the photo and the name, Anita’s body trembled. She never could not forget the name, the face and the way of looking, the beggar that was lying on the ground dead, the beggar that bumped her and will not accept the money she gave as he said he was only saying goodbye was the same man, Alex Montoya, the man she once love, her first love. ***to be continued***