When will my story end? I guess this will start in introducing myself. My name is Kersh Laurel, I am 32 years old. I had a wife, her name is Sarah, and two children, Nicolas and Knyah. 5 years had passed since the death of my wife, Sarah, my son Nicolas, and my unborn daughter Knyah. They were my joy and strength. My world collapsed, 5 years has passed and I still can't move on. They were the sun of my universe and the foundation of my life. Nothing seems to be relevant in my life since then, I wake up in the same bedroom, same environment, and do the same routine. The happiness I had is no longer here. "Miserable life, I want to die. My life has no longer purpose." I am messed. A life without my family is meaningless, why should I keep living?
My best friend Edward keeps coming to check me if I'm still alive. He is annoying, "As if you can draw out this wooden stake in my heart! I am beyond repair! I can no longer live, I have no reason."
Yes, that is right! I need to end my life. How should I die? A knife, a rope?! What should I pick or should I jump out of the window?!
From that moment a breeze entered my room and the atmosphere change in to a mysterious yet familiar feeling. "Is this death?" I uttered.
"Stop, young man, Kersh!" A matured voice of a man called my name. I turned my face and look at the door and saw a strange man with a strange clothes. Oversized black t-shirt with printed Roronoa Zoro in the center of it, ripped denim jeans, white shoes, and white cap. Who is this guy? Why he dress like that? Is he making fun of me? Is this one of Edward's games? "If you came to stop me, sorry but you're late." I said it to him however he smiled at me and he said, "I can bring you back in time."
Is this guy crazy?! "I wish I could! If only I can go back in time, I will do it. I have no life in here, my family is my only life." I said it to him then again he smiled.
He clapped after that, he closed his eyes and he chanted, "Life will never be fair, if life is unfair change it and be unfair." Then after that everything becomes bright. I can no longer see the strange man. Is he gone? But after a few seconds, the bright light slowly return to normal as the room is quickly changing, like turning back to past. I recognize it. My old bed, my old wallpapers, old furniture, old posters, and everything I used to own. As if everything went back in time. Is this a new technology? If Edward's objective is to make me remember my past and to give me a reason to live, he failed. Seeing my old room means nothing. I shouldn't have shown him the photos of my old room. But still, green wall, rock band posters, and my old guitar set up. This is my room when I was in college! I remember this jewel box but is this the signature of Avril Lavigne? I never thought that Edward is a meticulous kind of man. The CD in it is same the CD I used to have. I remember it because I burned it myself before Avril Lavigne's Bonez Tour 2005 in Manila. I remember it clearly because I made two of this, one for me and one for my first girlfriend. We made it so when we came to the concert, we then ask Avril Lavigne to sign it for us. It was memorable because it is our first date.
I never told this to Edward. That is strange, and looking at it carefully, even the vintage poster I bought and all of my One Piece manga which I personally ordered from Japan with the signature of Eiichiro Oda. How is this possible? Should I check the window? Wait?! There is this one stuffed toy I have that no one knows except my father. My father bought me a white bear from Bearhuggs. I hid it inside in the secret compartment I made, it's on the 5th level of my book shelves. If it is in there then would this mean that I really came back in the past? But if there is a secret compartment then would this also prove that I came back?
I checked the 5th level of the book shelves and there is a secret compartment. "I'm nervous." I opened the secret compartment and without a doubt. The Mr. Teddie is inside. I name it Mr. Teddie. I never told this to anyone because it is white. It will ruin my childhood if my classmates learned about it. It was 1996 when my father and I visited her mother in Antipolo. It was when we bought it. We went to Robinsons Galleria to spend with Lala's birthday. I called my grandmother Lala because I can't spell Lola. Her name is Corazon. I saw this bear and it looks so cute, when my father saw me staring at it, he bought it for me. But wait a minute?! "I am currently 32, so with Mr. Teddie then it would mean that I came back?! This CD is from 2005 so I might went back in 2005?!
"Wow! College life! But wait! When exactly is this? And why college? I haven't met my wife when I was in college. We met in Metro Manila when I went there to look for a job. It took me 3 years since I went to look for a job in Metro Manila. But in this situation, I can make her mine in no time!"This is great!"
I heard a knock on my door. It knocks for fifteen times. It must be Jyna, my only younger sister. She has the hobby of knocking for 3 consecutive five knocks. "Kersh, mom is calling you." She said.
I opened the door and saw my young sister Jyna and she has auburn hair. She had this when we were young. "Mom is in the kitchen," Jyna said. "Ok, I'll go then." I replied. After that I went in the kitchen. Jyna is 3 years younger than me, we barely talk, maybe because of the age gap. But wait?! What year when our mother allowed her to have auburn hair?!
"Son, come here, look I have a cake for you." My mother said.
A cake?! I remember this cake! There's a phone inside of it! Wait a minute?! The time a received my first phone was from my 20th Birthday! So it means?! I'm about to finish my college life?! This is crazy! I was hoping to have more exciting and deep college experience in this time!
"But wait?!" If I am 20 then it means, today is February 10, 2006? I have a girlfriend?! Her name is Mary Ann Gonzalez, my first girlfriend. And if I remember correctly, today is the day when we planned do our first coitus? But I am faithful husband to my wife Sarah! What should I do, this is crazy?!
"Aren't you going to cut the cake?" My mother said. I know this one. There is a phone inside the cake. My younger self would be surprised but not me. So what should I do? Maybe I should pretend to not know and act like how I acted before. But how did I act before? Well as long as I'm surprised and thankful, it would be great!
This is crazy! Okay! Let's do this! I now opened the box, "Wow, a phone?! This is a Motorola RAZR V3! I always wanted to have this mother! Thank you for buying this for me. I love you mother, you're the best mother ever!" I said to my mother. Did I say it right, is that exaggerated or am I too creepy?
After that my mother cried. Why is she crying? Oh my?! My sister is here. I hope she didn't take this in a wrong way or maybe she really did after all with that looking shocked in her face.
"So you loved it? I'm glad." My mother said while she wipes her tears.
I don't understand, why would mother cry for such a thing?
"Ah?!" I imagined it as if a bulb appear above my head. Yes right, I remember. I was a jerk when I was in college.
"Mother, I'm sorry for the things I've done for the past few years. I'll be good from now on." After I said it to my mother, she hugged me and her tears continued.
I noticed a glimpse of a smile from my sister's lips. I guess she's happy too.
Now I know why we didn't talk a lot, it is because I was a rebellious son who goes out to party all night and came back in the morning just to have a portion of food and then sleep. I want this to last but before anything else, I have to meet Mary Ann. We planned to meet in her house at 6pm, and it still 4:30pm. I have enough time.
"Mother, I'll be going to Mary Ann's house today. I'll just say a few things and return as quick as possible." I said to my mother and then she replied, "But aren't you going to have a dinner tonight with us? Your father will come earlier than usual." Mother said.
However I and my father is on bad terms since I was 15 years old. Though he is still alive in 2018 and we never talked nor make up. I hate him, after the year since my mother's death, my father remarried and got a new family. It made me madder to him. My father is such a playboy however when he remarried, I learned from Jyna that he became a faithful husband. How come that he wasn't able to do it with our mother?! Maybe that is the reason why I don't want to forgive him.
I once saw my father and our new neighbor Aunt Gloria, a single mother. They entered a motel. It was last year on Christmas Eve. It is the real reason why he wasn't able to come on our Christmas dinner.
I looked at my mother and said, "I'm sorry mother but I don't think I can spend my birthday with him tonight."
"But why?" My mother asked but then Jyna butted in, "Let him be mom, maybe it is important. Daddy would understand."
She is obedient as ever but I know why she said that. The night at our mother's funeral, she called me on the phone and said everything she knows about our father.
She told me that our father brought a lot of women inside the house. My mother didn't know this even the day she died. She work as a clerk in a bank here in Leyte which is why whenever my father brought women in our house she wouldn't know.
My father is a professor in Divine Word University of Tacloban and then at that time Jyna was the only one in the house. I was out all day having fun with my bad influence peers.
Thinking about it, it is not fun at all. While I'm out, my father brings one women to another in the house, it could be a student, a mother of the student, a younger or older sister of his student, a relative of his students, a co-worker or a women he met in a bar. It is actually ironic on how I end up like my father, becoming a professor.
I took a bachelor of arts in history because of my father. I never really liked it however because of it I met my wife. I didn't work as a professor since I graduated instead I just became a parasite in our family.
My grades are not bad thanks to my father. He talked to my professors to make an adjustment and of course if the professor is a beautiful woman, he will surely make a move. I remember him saying, as long as the woman is beautiful and in legal age, he will make a move. I always hate him and seeing my face makes me madder on how alike our face is. That maniac Robert! I hate him.
My father only married my mother because my mother got pregnant. She's one of my father's women. From what I've heard to my Uncle Garry, my mother is the most beautiful women that my father brought in their house. My Uncle is even jealous. Uncle Garry is a straightforward man and an honest man, I hope he's my father and not this maniac Robert. My mother was a freshman on that time when she first met my father. It is because of my father's talent in socializing why he easily persuade a woman. My mother fell in love in him with the same reason. My mother fell in love with him not just in him, a one sided love.
My mother was 18 when my father first make a move on her. Uncle Garry knows about it because he used to be a classmate with mom. My father was 28 at that time and without expecting, my mother got pregnant. I don't think that there's something I would do for my family to make it better nor I don't even want to forgive my father.
For now my goal is to find a job and I will take my mother and sister away from him. I walked towards my sister and slowly hold her hands and I said, "Things will be alright, I promise you." After that I went out to go to the house of my current girlfriend, Mary Ann.
I will make things right, I will take my mother and Jyna to Metro Manila then meet Sarah. I never really wanted to live in here, it was a mistake when I took the ownership of this house. This house is the reason why my family died, though this is mother's house. She got it from her parents. My mother was actually from a middle-class family. Which is why they bought this land and house for us and for this pathetic father of mine. Anyway I have to talk to Mary Ann to end our relationship.
