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by inah04

by inah04

FAVORITE DAUGHTER

It was 1993 then. We used to live in a two-storey house in Bulacan.

My father was working as a manager for a certain company in Manila while my mother was staying at home to take care of me since I was only two years old then. My grandparents too were actually living in Manila so we sometimes go there to visit them.

One afternoon, my mother was cheerfully chatting with a neighbor while I was playing with a kid from the neighborhood. Then all of a sudden, they heard something that fell from the balcony of our second floor. We rushed inside to go check what that was but when we got there, we didn't see anything. everything was in proper place and we didn't see any damage or broken object inside the house. My mother just shrugged her shoulders and went outside, completely ignoring what we had just heard.

At 6 in the evening, I saw her cooking for dinner. From the kitchen my mother noticed that the rocking chair in the living room was slowly moving by itself, although no wind was coming from inside the house. That rocking chair was actually a personal favorite of my grandfather. Everytime he visited us, he would sit on that rocking chair to relax and take a nap.

Then a stream of thoughts made my mother pause from her cooking. For the past several nights, she was experiencing this weird grinding of her teeth, which is actually a sign of death nearing according to an old belief. Afterwards, she left the kitchenfor a while and went to her room. But what she saw sent chills down her spine. My grandfather's slippers were actually there. "How could that be possible when my father had actually not forgotten to bring those slippers back to Manila after their last visit in our home" thought my mother. She was very sure that it was my grandfather's because of the dissimilarity in the size of the slippers. My grandfather had diabetes before and his left foot was actually a bit smaller than his right one.

Mother was perplexed by what she saw. When she went back to the kitchen, I noticed how absentminded she was since she could not focus on her cooking.

Then my father arrived home from work. She immediately told my father about the slippers. And I could see that she was very anxious and panic-stricken already. My father was trying to calm her down, gave her a glass of water, and even cracked a joke if my mother was pregnant or not.

"I'm not sure. But I will go to the doctor tomorrow for a check up," she replied.

Then my father's facial expression changed. He was silent for a few seconds, a bit fretful. then he spoke.

"Honey, your brother called me up in the office. He told me to rush at your's parents house... and when I arrived... they told me about your father..." my father paused.

"What about my father? What do you mean?" asked my mother who was staring at him intently.

"Honey please be calm. Your father.. had passed away hours earlier before my arrival. I'm sorry, honey," said my father consolingly.

My mother was in extreme disbelief upon hearing that. She was crying already. "How could that be? He was just here three days ago... and even stayed here for three days! That;s not possible!" exclaimed my mother.

My father was also feeling sorry for her. He was aware of my mother's great closeness with my grandfather. My mother was even said to be my grandfather's favorite daughter. He advised my mother to stay calmer because it would be bad for her if she was really pregnant. A few days after, it was cofirmed. My mother was expecting a baby.

Of course, my parents were happyto have a new child in the family. But still, the ultimately death of my grandpa was giving my mother a hard time those days. She painfully recollected the slippers that she saw in her room. Could it be that my grandfather was giving the signs to say his goodbye to his favorite daughter?

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