She Still Does (AD) [Paper Planes book II]

Prologue

-

I saw dad's things on the sofa as I got home. Meaning he was already here which was unusual since it was just around 1 pm.

"Dad?" I asked but no one answered or no one heard me. No one's even here in the living room.

"Andito ka na pala." Ate Grace said while descending the stairs as soon as she saw me. By the expression on her face, I already knew there was something wrong. She was worried, sad, or nervous. "Sabi ng dad mo tumawag ka raw sa kanya agad pagkauwi mo."

"Ano meron ate bakit parang natataranta ka? Where's dad?" I asked. I started to feel nervous too.

"Tawagan mo na lang siya. Ako nang bahala sa dalawa." Ate Grace told me. I didn't ask again and just immediately called dad. After a few rings he answered.

"Dad..."

"Nasa bahay ka na ba?" I heard dad ask on the other line.

"Yes dad."

"Pumunta ka rito sa ospital. I'll send you the address. Don't bring the two with you." I sensed the urgency in his voice.

"W-what happened?" I asked though I didn't want it to be answered.

"Just go." Dad said then hung up. My hands were trembling. I saw ate Grace's worried eyes looking at me.

"Sige na. Mag-ingat ka at magpakatatag." She said then tapped my shoulder. None of what she said sunk in. I immediately left the house and headed to the hospital.

I entered the crowded hospital and people kept on bumping into me. I squeezed my way in. There were flashes of cameras just a few feet outside. I saw patients in stretchers who had bullet shots on different parts of their bodies, it seemed like they just had been sent here by the ambulance. There were more outside. That was my cue I immediately ran to anyone I could ask where my dad was, but people kept asking me to get out of the way. Noises everywhere I didn't know where to go, people's expressions on their faces were making me feel what they were feeling too, panic, worry, anger, and sadness. I tried contacting dad but he wasn't answering. I looked everywhere.

Then someone pulled me out of the crowd. It was my dad. He hugged me.

"Dad w-what happened?" I asked again. We stepped aside. He touched my hair then shook his head.

-

I was just a freshman, I couldn't help but complain about what had just happened. We're still too young.

The bank where my mom was working for was hold-upped, several were shots, got injured, and died. Including my mom, who was shot right on her head. She was dead on arrival. She didn't make it.

Dad said that the suspects had already been captured but we both knew that that wouldn't help us feel any better. I was finding it hard to think of how would I tell my younger sister and brother about it.

I was in the hospital's chapel sitting on one of the pews, praying for a miracle while Dad was still talking to I-don't-know-who about the incident. I even remembered my last conversation with mom just this morning, she told us to take care of ourselves when she was actually the one who should have been told that. I couldn't do anything but cry.

"Psst."

Why did You take her? Why now? Did I do something terrible? Have I sinned too much? Answer me back. We're too young to live without a mom. I couldn't help but question everything too. It was so unfair. She didn't deserve any of that, not even the half of it. She was a great mom. I wanted to feel anger but still, sadness had overcome. Mom used to tell us to always look on the positive side of everything, still look for the good things of the bad things, no matter how bad everything was. That whatever happens, there will always be a good reason why. But still, I couldn't think of any good thing of what had just happened to mom because I knew there wasn't any.