Trace of Innocence

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

I WAS an orphan at six years old. I don't quite remember what happened, but I was told my parents met an accident while riding their vehicle on their way home one rainy night. It was the typical back story of a child who lost her family that usually happens in films, but yeah, it happens in real life too. I was with my nanny that time, waiting for them. Everything was a blur back then that one day, I just found myself in an orphanage.

Mr. and Mrs. Yaneza didn't have a child that's why they devoted their time in managing an orphanage. Through that, they'd feel they still had children. But I was an exceptional kid back then and they decided to adopt me and treated me as their own.

It was at this time when I met a new orphan. His name was Gimuel. Unlike me, his parents met an even more unfortunate fate. They were murdered and poor Gimuel watched it happened. He was traumatized and had to undergo therapy.

We found companion in each other. One of his activities in the therapy was writing and he taught me everything he learned. We became writing buddies. We dreamed together of becoming published authors someday.

I wrote fantasy stories, more like fairy tales, while he wrote the dark ones, mostly horrors or thrillers or mysteries. It probably had to do with his past, but he was really good at it.

We gave gifts to each other during special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. I wrote him a poem when I was 8 and gave it to him on his birthday. He gave me a Mickey mouse key chain in return on my birthday. He said he bought it using his first commission for writing a poem to someone. And so I treated it as one of my valuable possessions.

However, some friendships don't last long. Some were not just really permanent.

One day, we decided to join in a writing competition. Whoever wins shall have the chance to study abroad about writing. I submitted a story, which I thought, in my opinion, was the best story I've ever written.

I won the competition. I was so happy. But Gimuel didn't share that same happiness. He was angry at me. So angry that he said he regretted being friends with me and teaching me how to write stories. But I believed you never become good at writing just because someone taught you how to do it. You've got to have the idea so you could put words on a blank sheet.

Our friendship fell apart. I went to study abroad. I left him and I never contacted him until now just because I was never aware if someone adopted him or if he still lives.

"So Gimuel was Miguel," sabi ni Lew matapos kong magkuwento. Siguradong-sigurado siya base sa pagkakabanggit niya samantalang ako ay gulong-gulo pa rin. Paano nangyari iyon?

"Their names, Clarissa! Don't they ring a bell?" sabi niya pa dahilan para mapakunot-noo na naman ako.

Here we were, near the staircase, facing each other while trying to figure out a mystery that was Miguel.

"Miguel is the anagram of Gimuel. If you jumble the letters of Gimuel's name, you could form the other's name. Do you get it?"

Nanlaki ang aking mga mata nang isang realisasyon ang sumampal sa akin.

"Oh, you still got it."

His words rang in my mind.

No. It couldn't be. Gimuel couldn't be Miguel. He wouldn't be that evil. No, I refused to accept that.

But no matter how much I denied it, his name, his weird words about my keychain, his love for writing, everything about Miguel screamed Gimuel, my childhood friend back in the orphanage.

"Ysa, if that was really the case, it would just strengthen our claim that someone close to you framed you up," Lew finally spoke when he noticed that I've been staring at nothing in particular as I was trying to grasp this new information. "Gimuel or Miguel holds a grudge against you. You took an opportunity that was supposed to be his in the first place. Your foster parents had the capability to send you to that school abroad yet you robbed that opportunity from him by winning in that contest. Your friend probably thought that you've been unfair to him, and this was his way of getting revenge."