The next day he left their home for the seminary.
Alken's father and mother accompanied him when he was going to the seminary. Kenneth enthused this moment as this was the most remarkable & unexpected
final fulfillment of his dream.
Giving in to the contentment of his every child was fulfilling the dreams he' d had planned that started when he fell in-love with his only woman he first saw during the valentines singing contest he joined when he was only seventeen years old.
Despite the hardship on financial matter that they had, despite the short hoursfor his resting time, despite self-deprivation of not only his wants but sometimes his needs, his determination, perseverance, humility, responsibility & his strong faith in God resulted to a quality life he'd had dreamed to provide for his children.
Years swiftly went like a Perigrine Falcon
that flies the fastest among the birds.
The year when Alken would be ordained as a full - pledge priest had finally come.
His whole family was present to witness the said occasion. Theodore, Lizbeth & Liz Theomae, Kelly, Zeanne Leigh & their
son, Zenkeigh Ken and Kenneth Allen & Leonor were all there.
It was another significant family' s event
that a money couldn't be of its equal.
His children had paid off his kind words, his consistency, and his guidance for all of them, his humility,his loyalty, and his fidelity.
At the age of sixty one years old, he and his wife could have filed their retirement
for them to be with one another. It was now at this age when they were going to stay together at home, gardening, sight seeing, dining in fine restaurants of his son, Kelly's four hotels that were rated as five-star.
Sometimes, they had gone home to their birth place where they traced back those very few places that they had spent their sweet nothings.
They had even sponsored and organized similar Valentines Singingcontest for the teenagers of their age during his time.
Moreover, a beauty pageant contest was also held prior to the singing contest.
The same sequence of programme was done that a 'harana' (serenade) was also sang by the champion.
Having been the sponsor and Organizer of the coronation night, his inspirational speech's content inspired the audience.
Like him and Leonor, they couldn't have believed their success that begun to a mere LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT that turned out to be a TRUE LOVE.
Everybody cheered not just because of the coronation rite nor of his speech but most of all it was the meager amount of money he had shared to the most needy
people in his hometown.
They also conducted a qualifying written examination and an interview to those who were indigent but very intelligent to be scholars. These ten scholars would be living with them in their home.
Although his becoming a philanthropist was not at all one of his dreams but with his and Leonor's retirement benefits that they could never bring with them in their death, they'd suddenly decided to spend them to youth who had their own dream.
The only condition that they gave to the
ten qualified scholars was another ten youth as scholars during their retirement period like him and his beloved wife.
They made this legacy written and was notarized by their daughter who was a lawyer to continue their goal of helping one another so to decrease their home town's dilemma on unemployment and poverty.
If they had given their all-out-support to their children when they were still young and incapable yet, that time on their rest from employment period their children were already who were supporting them.
Their ten scholars were already on the path to have successful career they had chosen. Little by little they started to lift out their family from extreme poverty. They had in fact, starting to harvest the fruits of their hard work and virtuous life.
All of those that happened in their lives were closely monitored and supervised by Kenneth, Leonor and their children.
Father Alken S. Lacandula requested to be the parish priest in his father's home town for them to help more those who were needy. Both Lizbeth and Kelly were financially supporting his advocate as a
Parish Priest leading the parishioner.
Alken was forty one years old when his father, Kenneth Allen was seventy years old when a fifteen year old boy knocked at their ancestral home, (of Kenneth and Leonor's home).
He introduced himself to be Paulo Alken
Bemil whose mother had recently died. To give Kenneth and Leonor some more information about him he asked a laptop where he inserted the flash drive. They watched it and they saw that his Alken, his youngest son was amorously kissing Paula who were both naked. The rest of the scenes were made to be blurred.
Paulo told them that it was that scene when he's procreated by his biological father whom he didn't meet, even once in his life with his mother who was Paula Reyna Bemil, a public school teacher & a colleague of his father.
A DNA test was no longer needed as he was a photo copy of Father Alken. Being
young and an orphan to his mother, he'd wanted to be with his father at once.
Kenneth's who unexpectedly discovered the sudden existence of a new grandson had really amazed him. Alken never had told them of a girlfriend he'd before his
life in the seminary.
He asked one of his household staffs to accompany Paulo in the bedroom of his father. Knowing that the boy could not
hear him anymore he called Alken.
"Alken, I thought you had no girlfriend before becoming a seminarian?"
"That's the truth, Dad. I had no one." He
sincerely told him the truth.
"Really? Why were you able to have a son? In fact, he's here. He's in your bedroom." Kenneth informed his son.
"What?! How did it happen?! Why didn't I know it?" He was really startled of that news.
"If you didn't even know it, what more of us? He had a flash drive proving that you were really his father."
"Daddy, I'm dying to know him & as I'm also ver curious... Aaaahhh... Please let him stay there with you. I'll be coming to ask him."
Early the next day, Alken arrived in his big bike. He did not bother to take a rest.
He was so excited and thrilled to meet this boy who claimed to be his son.
He knocked at his own bedroom's door
which was widely opened by a fifteen years old teenager whose looks & body built were similar to his.
"Hello! You're Paulo Alken Bemil who was looking for me?"
"Are you Father Alken S. Lacandula?"
"Yes, I am."
"Can I use a laptop to show you that you are my father?"
He quickly went to the wall where the night stand was and politely called one of the maids to bring the laptop in his bedroom.
When the flash drive was plugged in its porta, he saw him kissing Paula Reyna Bemil, his former fellow teacher.
Then he heard Paulo Alken said; "Mama
told me that she raped you during their send off party that she & her friends had given you two days before going to the seminary where you had fulfilled to be a priest."
"So, my guess was right all along that we slept together that night here in this bedroom. When I went to her apartment
she was not there. I waited for her until midnight."
"She told me that she was scared with what she did with you and she said she loved you that was why she didn't want to hinder your dream."
"Where is she now?"
"She's gone. Before she died she gave me this flash drive, this home address, and related the reason why fir fifteen years I have never met you, even once."
Alken's heart ached so much that he hugged and kissed his son's forehead apologizing of his shortcomings as he had no idea of his existence.
"Would you like to come & live with me in the province?" Father Alken was hesitant to ask him.
"Won't I cause a ruckus among your parishioners?"
"Son, had your mother did not run away from me and told me the truth, I would
not had jojned priesthood. That was my goal why I waited for her."
"Mama didn't want that to happen that you would not bacome a priest because of her."
"I admire your mother. May she rest in peace."
That day, after their warm conversation they went to the school of his son to get the necessary pertinent papers so that he could be transferred to that school where his grandfather, Kenneth Allen graduated for his secondary education.
They likewise went to the apartment where Paulo Alken grew up to get the memorabilia and other important things his mother had collected and purchased.
They were left behind in their ancestral home which was placed in the bedroom of Father Alken. Only his mother and son
picture was brought by Paulo.
Three years passed after the existence of Paulo in the life of Kenneth Allen and Leonor's family.
Paulo was already in freshman college whom Kenneth and Leonor shouldered all his needs.
Their children and their grandchildren surprised them with a swanky golden wedding anniversary. It was magnificent and luxurious that every attendee had really admired it.
What these attendees admired most was how their children paid off all their sacrifices. In that celebration, Paulo Alken Bemil Lacandula was introduced formally to their gigantic circle of pals.
Paulo was not ashamed to tell them how his mother trully loved his father and how his father accepted him.
"Most of all, please do not imitate my mother's courage for the child became a victim of such Unrequited love."
Kenneth and Leonor was overwhelmed with contentment to have enjoyed the illustrious phrase given to them, "from rugs to riches" because of his love for Leonor, his one and only woman.
°°°°°°°THE END°°°°°°°°
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Thanks a lot for reading this novel of mine.
You can still go on reading my novel only that it's title is "The Run Away Single Mother."
I would finish it first before I would decide to have a sequence of this novel like the love story of Kenneth Allen's children.
Again, thanks a lot.
Your Neophyte Author,
Marina Domalaon
I am tempted to be daring and bolder in writing love stories, only that there were readers who were still in their minor age.
Hence, I am forced to be more discreet in narrating and describing every action.