Upon arriving at the cemetery, the first thing I did was remove some dried leaves and wipe my mother's tombstone. Then I arranged the cake that I bought and poured a glass of rice wine that I bought on the local store near the cemetery. It has been a year since she died of a car accident. The driver helped us though, but that event officially made me an orphan.
I don't know who my father is but Mom told me he loves us both so much. I did not buy it though. How can he love us if he has neglected us. And so I consider him dead. It is better that way than be angry and confused all the time.
And as time pass, I learned to accept the fact that I don't have a father. That's mainly because Mom never let me feel incomplete.
She worked hard for the both of us. She never let me work to help in our finances. She said I should focus on my studies and then find a stable job so I will not end up like her.
I admire her a lot. That's why her death was such a huge blow to me. I almost dropped out of school because of her death. But also because of that did I realize that I need to work harder now, not just for myself but to prove to everyone that Mom did a good job raising me.
***
In the early weeks that she's gone I usually stay here overnight. The guards would come up to me to push me back home, later on maybe they got tired of scolding me because they just let me do what I want to do.
I like staying here for long hours, I feel like my mom is just here with me. And I usually talk about everything that's happened while weeding the area around her tombstone as if she is listening.
Tonight, I talked with mom about school, work, and all those crazy stuff that I went through today.
Then I heard a coughing streak. When I looked around, I saw an old man a few meters away standing in front of a tombstone. I'm already familiar with this old man, he's a regular visitor in this cemetery as well, and once in a while we would nod and smile to each other. He might have noticed me as well as he waved his hand to me. I waved back and then he started to walk towards the cemetery's gate.
I stayed a little bit longer. I only stood up after the last of the candle's flame was gone. There's only thirty minutes left before the last train trip back to the city. If I start walking towards the station I will still have some spare time.
Two blocks before the station I stopped when I saw four men huddling at a corner. The area I'm in, though close to the station is a bit isolated. Not many pass through this side and street lamps are placed a bit far from each other.
They say it is better to be safe than sorry, and I practice that. So I hid myself in one of the two lamp posts on that block until the men started moving. Fortunately they went the other way so they'll never know I am hiding there.
Just as I started walking did I notice that there is another one left on the place where the men were earlier. But this one seems older and was kneeling on his knees.
I suddenly felt something was wrong and so I ran to the old man. When I reached him, he already fainted and fell flat on the road. I checked his breathing and then I saw his face. This is the same old man I was with in the cemetery earlier.
***
"Is he alright?" I asked the doctor that attended to the old man. After he fainted, I managed to bring him near the train station, and when the guards on duty saw us, they helped and called the ambulance. While waiting for the ambulance, I tried looking for anyone who knows him but no one recognizes the old man. And I can't really leave him without knowing he'll be alright so I went to the hospital with them.
Fortunately, nothing serious happened, just a few bruises and cuts that were already taken cared of and bandaged. While he was being taken cared of in the emergency room, a nurse came to me to ask for information about the old man. I said that I do not know him so we tried looking for information on his bag. But we did not see any identification card or wallet. Probably it was taken by those thugs earlier. It's a good thing that there is a phone book inside. Who brings a phone book everywhere in this day and time? I gave the phone book to the nurse so that they can contact the old man's relative. And then I was left to continue waiting outside the room.
Two hours later, I was called inside by the same nurse. The patient has woken up. When I came in, the doctors are checking his vitals again just to be sure. Later on, he was asked to stay another night since he still needs to do some tests the next day.
When the doctor left us, we talked a little. I learned that he is Mr. John Morris and that he just went in that place to visit a relative. I answered all his questions about what happened. And when the hospital confirmed that they have informed his relatives, I said goodbye and left the hospital.
***
It was already late. The good thing is the hospital is within the city so it is easy to travel back home.
Once I'm inside our house I went straight to my bedroom and said goodnight to my mom's picture on the bedside.
It was such an eventful day and I am really exhausted. I slept right away after touching the bed.
Who would have thought that one day I'll look back on this day and smile. If anyone would ask me if I knew that this day would change my life in the future, I would not know what to answer.
***