short disclaimer: the 'Moonbeam Festival' is entirely fictional - imagined/fake/only made up by yours truly! please kindly tell me so if this happens to offend any existing culture. :)
moonwashed [ 01 ]
❝ask for the moon.❞
to wish for something
impossible.
Mizuki's wishing tales had begun on an old wishing well when she was young. With her eyes closed, her small lips in a smile, she wished, sana hindi ako papasukin kahit isang linggo lang, and the moment she tossed the coin, she tripped over her feet and fell into the well.
Mizuki, at the age of 8, had broken her pinky finger and was unable to walk for a week . . . which somehow granted her wish of not needing to attend school.
That's when her faith on wishing started.
Na-try niya na halos lahat ng wishing strategies na alam niya: sa coin toss, shooting stars, 11:11s, sa first star ng hapon, four-leaf clovers, kidlat, sa fountain . . . at halos lahat ng mga wish niya, kahit ano man 'yan, natutupad. Medyo wirdo nga lang para sa kaniyang aminin na kaya mayro'n siyang mamahaling sneakers ay dahil nagkataong nakita niya ang 11:11 sa orasan.
Kino-consider na ni Mizuki ang sarili niya bilang isang master wisher, pero ngayon ay nagdadalawang-isip na siya.
Ngayon na lang kasi siya nahirapang humiling nang ganito.
Napabangon si Mizuki saka tumitig sa poster niya ng isang shooting star na nakadikit sa kanyang pader. It was bought by her mother five years back, as her mother was aware about how much she was fascinated by wishing. She was also the one who taught her about wishing on that day on the wishing well where Mizu broke her finger.
Had she known that none of Mizu's wishes would save her.
One of Mizuki's wishes that the universe failed to grant was for her mother to live longer - but she blamed herself partly because she wished for it on a crowded, busy Christmas night at the park. Maybe the gods didn't hear me, she thought. Maybe if I wished on a different night . . .
Napapikit na lang si Mizu sa naalala saka huminga nang malalim. What's happened has happened, and none of her regrets would bring her mom back.
Tumayo na si Mizu saka pumunta sa desk niya. Doon, mayro'n siyang manifesting notebook sa tabi ng isang jar na may lamang four-leaf clover. Umupo siya ro'n saka nilista ang mga gusto niyang mangyari. I have good grades. I have perfect health. Money comes to me naturally, and so on and so forth. When it came down to the last line of her notebook, Mizu bit her lower lip.
Her pen hovered above the paper, but Mizu struggled writing it down. It sounds bad, she thought. She went on like that for a few minutes before she dropped her pen and decided to give it up. Huminga na lang siya nang malalim saka hinawakan ang jar na may lamang four-leaf clover.
"I'll make the wish next time," sabi niya rito.
It has always been easy for Mizuki to have her wish granted, if the place is perfect and the time is right, like on a sunset with a four-leaf clover, under a full moon at 11:11, or on a fountain one deep night with nobody else around. It was amazing how she speaks her wishes to life. She believed it was sort of her quirk.
And as she sat there realizing how badly she wanted this something, why was it so hard for her to wish for it? It's not like she didn't wish for something selfish before, too - she once wished for a teacher to like her so she wouldn't fail Math - so what was stopping her for wishing for that?
Mizuki closed her eyes and inhaled.
Perhaps this time, she wants to see how the ever so mysterious fate would unfold itself, and a part of her hopes that she wants it to happen without having to make a wish.
Sumigaw si Mizuki sa hangin.
Hinga.
At saka siya sumigaw ulit.
Napakapit siya sa railing ng lighthouse. It was a fifty-year old lighthouse that's already been abandoned for a couple of years. She didn't know the reason why, but she was at least happy that she had a place she could come to whenever things frustrated her.
That day, Mizuki had seen a lightning, a four-leaf clover, a wishing well, and each time she tried to wish, she couldn't - it's like her tongue was stopping itself and her heart was giving her a red warning sign to not do it. Totoong gusto niya na hindi hilingin ang bagay na ito kasi gusto niyang kusang mangyari, pero kapag abot mo na halos ang isang bagay at kikilos ka na lang, nakakapagod pa lang maghintay.
How do people even go through their lives without wishing? She thought of that as she slammed her head against the railing. Mizuki had manipulated her life through wishing, and by the time that she decided to stop it for this one thing, she was feeling frustrated. Do non-wishing people feel like this all the time?
Napauntog na lang ulit ng ulo si Mizuki sa railing. It felt cold. Lubog na rin ang araw. Binangon niya ang ulo niya saka tumingin sa madilim na langit. She saw an airplane from the distance, and she thought that it looked pretty as it flew across the purple hue of the sky.
Mizuki felt lucky that she was born near the seaside, where there's a nice view of the sea and the skies and where there's a lighthouse everybody could enter and where there's a Moonbeam Festival that happens every first week of July.
The festival . . .
"The festival!" biglang sambit ni Mizuki. "Paano ko 'to nakalimutan?!" she exclaimed and touched her opened lips.
Sa lugar nila, may ginaganap na Moonbeam Festival para i-celebrate ang zodiac Cancer season. The Cancer is ruled by the moon, and the elders of their town believed that the moon had always taken care of them by giving them wealth, safety, and beauty, so every first Sunday of July, everybody cooks something crab-related dishes as an offering, as the Cancer is symbolized by the crab. People would also light up candles, wish on them, and blow it right before the sun rises.
Thing is, none of Mizuki's wishes came true every festival night. Naisip niya na lang na masyado kasing marami ang humihiling kada gabi ng festival kaya hindi naririnig ng buwan ang hiling niya. Habang nakatayo sa lighthouse noong oras na 'yon, naisip niya na kung hindi siya makakapaghintay na mangyari ang gusto niyang mangyari, kailangan niya nang humiling agad.
Pero bakit hindi niya kaya?
Napasinghap si Mizuki nang makarinig ng mga yapak mula sa likod. Her eyes widening, she gripped onto the railing, her back against it, waiting for whoever's footsteps those may be to appear.
When she saw the person's face, her heart raced. Totoo ba 'to? sabi niya sa isip. She hadn't even wished yet! Nanlamig ang kamay niya habang nakarinig ng panibagong eroplanong dumaan sa langit. Huminga siya nang malalim pero maski iyon ay nahirapan siyang gawin - parang nalagutan siya ng hininga sa nakita niya.
"Hi," sabi ng babaeng kapapasok lang.
Mizuki couldn't speak.
Because standing in front of her was the girl whose dusky skin was splashed with the dim moonlight, whose hair looked so soft it most probably feels like a clump of feather when touched, whose smile was so pretty Mizuki could just melt . . .
The girl who just came in was her wish, and her name was Amaris.