88 GATES-Return of the Fallen

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Town Square
Holland City, Phillippines
March 01, 2019
7:50 P.M.

“And now! The best part of Holland City Town Square,” said a female tourguide, entertaining a group of high school students on a field trip. With her smile that radiated a fake ambiance that may had been a cause of fatigue from working since morning, she led them out of the Town Hall.

    She breathed for another bundle of air to give herself enough strength to do a quite a bit lengthy lecture. She’s tired, but she would definitely have to finish this for an experience. If she wouldn’t, wala siyang mapapasang historical documentary report. Ayaw pa naman niyang bumagsak lalo na’t nasa third year na siya sa kolehiyo. And . . . her dad had a high expectation from her.

     The Town Hall, though old, looked amazing around the city lights and the buzzing sound of the people and transportations passing by. Ariesa Miyamoto, with a not-so-squinty eyes, shoulder-length wavy hair, quivering lips, stood before the oldest astronomical clock in the country which happened to had built between 18th and 19th century.

     Mounted on the town hall’s southern wall, the huge clock seemed to be sleeping well, watching them silently as they stood before it. Walumpo’t walong taon na ang nakalilipas nang humito ito. It just stopped and nobody had ever fixed it since then.

     “This, is the town’s astronomical clock. It was built more than 200 years ago,” started Ariesa.

     “Yeah, we know,” uttered a college girl who was chewing a gum ever since the tour had started. Her eyes was fixed on the clock, never bothered to give Ariesa an insulting look.

     “Then you must have gone an advance research on this,” she chirped back, adding a little spice of sarcasm. When the Bubble Gum girl gazed at her, Ariesa quickly said, “You must have nailed your history subject back then.” Then she gave her a winning smile before completely drawing herself into a speech. “The clock has three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various details; statues of various Catholic saints stand on either side of the clock; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.” She continued seeing how amazed the students were. “Golden Roman numerals at the other edge of the blue circle are the timescale of a normal 24-hour day. Curved golden lines dividing the blue part of dial into 12 parts are marks for unequal hours. These are . . .” She paused, tried to remember what was written on the guid book. When the words appeared in her mind, she continued, “These are defined as 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset, and vary as the days grow longer or shorter during the year.” A student was on his way of asking but she continued quickly, for her favorite part, “Inside the large black outer circle,”—she pointed her finger on the clock—“lies another movable circle marked with the signs of the zodiac which indicates the location of the Sun on the ecliptic. The signs are shown in anticlockwise order.” Now, she’s ready to accommodate questions.

     “When did it start stopping?” asked a teenage boy who was wearing glasses. With his thick black heads that covered his cheeks, he looked innocent and greedy for information.

     “Early 90’s,” she answered.

     “Exact year, please,” another girl demanded. The other students mumbled for the same request.