A Mother's Wrath

I ROAMED AROUND the place I once called paradise. My chest became stuffy as I watch the people run here and thereㅡanxiousㅡ. Gone the bright morning sun that kisses me everyday. Gone the hypnotizing aroma of Mr. Tony's newly-baked bagel that makes me get out of bed even before my mom yells my whole name for over a hundredth time.

I bit my lips, trying to suppressed my tears from falling again. I'm starving and my throat hurts due to dryness. I don't even know what time it is already. The whole place is gloomy and spooky, precluding me from distinguishing night and day. The excruciating weep of other survivors even makes the ambiance more sullenly horrifying.

I hugged myself and with a limp, I started walking like a zombie.

My family were one of those unfortunate victims who lost their lives after her wrath. I'm the only one who barely managed to get out of our house before it collapsed because of the dreadful earthquake.

I stopped and covered my eyes using my uninjured arm as the strong wind started to blew again, sweeping all the wrecked things into the air. The thunders seem like herㅡroaring in furyㅡ. The absence of trees caused by the raging fire emphasizes only the apocalyptic destruction she is giving.

I can feel it. She's showing it. Disappointment. Pain. Sadness. Indignation. Her wrath. She's showing what it means to disgrace her, to smirch her beauty, and to abuse her kindness.

She's teaching us a lesson...

I can't blame herㅡno, I won'tㅡ because I, myself, had witnessed how cruel humanity isㅡusㅡto her. It's been a year since I joined a club with the advocacy to protect her and almost everyday, almost every-freaking-day, there's a report of her being violated over and over again.

My sight became blurry, that thing inside my chest, I feel like someone is whacking it with a metal bat, nonstop.

I trembled, apologizing in whisper.

I gaped when a roof is about to crash into a kid who is unaware of it. I cursed and didn't mind the pain in my bleeding foot. I moved fast and pulled him causing the both of us to stumble on the ground. I groaned as the unexplainable pain sipped through every nerve in my body.

HELL!!!

I waited for someone who could lend me a hand but to my dismay, everyone is busy except for the kid who gently pulled my hurting body to sit.

"Thank you," he said.

I look at the kid, our eyes met. Unlike mine, his' sprouts hope. My lips thinned while staring at this brave young man. Strangely, my chest relaxed a bit.

Bravery...

Hope...

This kid...

Now I know.

In the middle of melancholy, a smile made its way on my lips for the first time since this started.

His straight brows confusedly furrowed as I bursted out laughing like a crazy woman.

He angled his head, still baffled. I shaked mine, still chuckling in amusement.

I heaved a contented sigh and held his right hand. I looked into his mystified eyes with my now-hopeful ones.

"Are you really the..." I traced, "future? Our future?"

He blinked a couple of times and tilted his head again, bewildered of what I'm saying. I spoke again, with a demanding tone this time.

"Be the future..." I squeezed his warm hand, begging, "please...let me see my future."

My eyes watered while pleading into this said future of the world. I would gladly kneel on this ground full of grime if that will make him say yes.

My hope was already gone when I lost my family but the moment I saw this kid's eyes, I felt the urge to live, to survive. I felt it again; hope.

My forehead crinkled in anticipation for his answer and when he did finally spoke, the pain I'm feeling was taken over by shame.

"You always say that weㅡthe youthsㅡare the future yet youㅡadultsㅡ never really paid attention on nurturing us to be one because you keep on doing things which give negative impacts on how we grow, act, and percept life."

My lips parted, looking for words to say but none. Those words struck like a lightning in the depth of my soul. He's right. We always say that the youths are our nation's future but the truth is...we never really care. We have that mindset but we aren't really putting enough attention in making them one.

"Weㅡyouthsㅡare not the future..."

I looked up to face him again.

"Your future isn't on my hands..." he held my hand using both of his', "it's on yours."

He smiled.

"You're already old enough, stop depending on the saying of us being the nation's future because that is an argumentative topic that even usㅡyouthsㅡhave endless discussions with."

He helped me stood up and wrapped my feeble arm around his shoulder while his other hand snaked around my waist, supporting my weight.

What he said is still lingering in my mind, his point slowly getting into me. 

We walked tardily, our steps in sync.

Her wrath already stop, for now I think?

"One's fate is on her or his own decisions and actions. That's the truth. Youㅡadultsㅡreally have high expectations on us so you get disappointed easily when we make mistakes. You keep insisting erroneous sayings to be true and depending on it, forgetting the fact that you were once the said futures too."

Who is this kid? Why does he talk so good it hurts? Every word coming out from his mouth is like a dagger, sharp and baneful.

"Our greatest enemy isn't her..."

He continued sprinkling salt on my already open wounds, severing every damage his words are giving. As we walk side by side, nearing the giant fence that protects us from the infected ones, the sight and growls that never did I thought I'll witness in person enveloped our being.

"...it's humanity...our own selves."

We stopped and stare at the people who went out of their mind after eating something from the polluted ocean. They became insane for human flesh. That's why until now we're afraid to intake something from anywhere.

My lips quivered and my eyes watered while fighting the hungry ones of my friends across the barrier. No trace of love and naughtiness, all I can see now is hunger, athirst.

"I'm grateful to that spoiled bread I'd eaten."

I sniffed, "why?"

"After having a bad stomach, I wasn't able to eat the fish our Father had taken home."

Gasp.

I looked down at him. He has this faint smile and droopy eyes. I looked beyond the hedge again, to where he's looking at, and there I saw a woman with an apron.

"Mama cooks the best foods I've ever tasted..." he sighed heavily, "that's why I'm kind of sad because I didn't get to taste them for the last time."