December 7, 1941Evelyn remembered so well where she was that night when the news broke out about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a US naval fleet stationed in Hawaii. She had dinner with her family when the regular night show was suddenly interrupted by an ominous telecast of Japan's latest atrocity. Half of the world was already plunged into chaos for more than two years since World War II started. Everything hangs by a thread. What remained of the hopes for diplomatic reconciliation was exhausted. The trumpet was blown off. A full-scale war was inevitable.Miles away from the catastrophic devastation which befell the cities of Europe, peace, though fragile as a bird with broken wings clung helplessly at home. They held their breath as they watched the broadcast of the fate of the doomed American sailors as the ocean swallowed their sunken ships along with the lives of hundreds of hapless soldiers who died in foreign seas. A mountainous smoke erupted in the middle of the Pacific Ocean so thick that it looked as if the sky has fallen. The anchor himself struggled to stitch every bit of information as the events happened so fast. In a desperate attempt to save his academic dignity, he delivered the news that the Japanese Armada was heading for the Philippine shore. An image of horror could not be concealed behind the reporter's eyes. For the life of him, he could not believe what was written on the prompter. But the news was already out and it spread like a wildfire. 'God bless us all,' he mustered in the end.The weight of the news was crippling. Appetite for the food in front of them abandoned Evelyn and her mother. Nobody dared to talk for no one knew how to best assess the gripping reality. At the opposite side of the table, Florencio Rodriguez, her father continued to chow down on his supper, oblivious and unfazed. An air of calmness engulfed him. Desperately wanted comfort, Evelyn moved her chair closer to her father. She had always admired her dad's composure. He was her stronghold for the past few years. An impregnable castle made of flesh was exactly what she needed at that moment.At twelve in the evening, Eve was still awake. She tried everything to lull herself to slumber. Twisted and turned. Counted hundreds of sheep in the dark. None of it worked. At two, she abandoned all attempts and rose towards the veranda. Wrapped in a Kashmir shawl, she traced the stairs with her feet. The house was illuminated by the lambent moonlight which was now perched more than halfway to the west where it rested during the day. The foggy breeze of dawn licked her exposed shoulders with a chilly gust. She raised her shawl higher to keep herself warm. A bamboo chair positioned in the corner like it was a sad soul waiting for her to spend the night with, looked like the perfect spot to drown all her uncharted thoughts. She poked the seat with the back of her palm wary about the dampness. Satisfied, she settled in and took a deep breath. Earlier on, she eavesdropped on her parent's room as they discussed the next course of action they should take to address their current predicament about the impending war which manifested itself as a disease that ought to bring to its knees everything in its wake like what it did in the west. In spite of all her efforts to discern through the rumblings in her parent's room, all she could hear was no more than a dull indecipherable sound not useful than a mosquito's whining. Frustrated with what little she knew, she closed her eyes and resorted to deductive reasoning to try and predict the most logical steps that her parents would take; these were the possible outcomes she came up with in her pitiful endeavor; evacuation, seek refuge, migration. Each of these suppositions geared towards pulling her away from Renato Cruz, his clandestine lover.Of all the things that shrouded her mind that night, there was one person who had the power to ease the storm within her with nothing but the sheer force of his smile. And what a pity he was not around. A week ago, Rene' went on an expedition in the wild to slaughter a boar that wreaked havoc on his crops. He playfully called it the Erymanthian Boar, a reference to his favorite greek hero Hercules who captured the beast during one of his great labors. The creature was said to be the biggest he had seen so far, with two powerful tusks which burrowed his mound of root crops like it was nothing and craftiest at that too for it only looted once every three months when his crops were at its peak and his cornfields glittered like rows of gold under the sun. Evelyn knew hunting was his lover's favorite game. Once, he disappeared for two weeks to track a monitor lizard as big as a juvenile crocodile. The reptilian pest pillaged a poultry farm, killed a dozen brooding hens, licked the nests clean, and disappeared without a trace. Willpower, strong determination to succeed, indefatigable patience, and an adventurous spirit were the traits of a good hunter. These qualities paired with Rene's primordial charm proved lethal to Eve since the latter fell head over heels in love with him as he was to her. Both were smitten in a love they had to hide for Rene' was the last man on earth that Augusta, Evelyn's eccentric mother would have wanted for her daughter to marry. This enmity her mom felt towards Rene' was due to his social status. A farmer's son was definitely not going to satiate Augusta's thirst to climb the upper ranks of society. She would not stop at anything even if it meant she had to parade her daughter in front of accomplished men. Favorably a scholar abroad, or someone from the right family name. Luckily for Eve, she needed no introduction for hers was a beauty beyond compare.