From A to Z

L

Zach wiped his lips with a tissue. With his chin propped up by both of his knuckles, he looked at Adam straight in the eye and asked, "How about you? What's your story?"

"Me?"

Adam scratched his nape. He does not like to talk about himself, especially something personal like his life story. He preferred shallow conversations, but it was his fault anyway because he started this kind of conversation. This is the price of his curiosity.

"Well..." He cleared his throat. "I'm the youngest among three siblings. We are all boys. My parents only planned to have two children; but by some accident, I was conceived. You see, even after my younger kuya was born, my parents were still doing it. You know..."

His voice trailed off, unable to think of the appropriate way to describe sexual intercourse in a decent way. He contemplated whether to use words or to demonstrate the act using his hands. If Zach was like the other boys, this would have been easy. But he was a child of a holy man. He cannot talk to him about sex in a lewd way.

Zach chuckled. "No need to expound. I understand what you mean."

Adam sighed, relieved from that little dilemma. He went on: "My parents followed the natural way of birth control, through the calendar method specifically. They found the other types as 'unnatural' because they alter the human body, physically in the case of sterilization or chemically in the case of pills.

"So, one night, my parents miscalculated the counting of the days; and that mistake, that one day difference, brought me into this world ten years after my younger kuya was born."

"That is quite a gap. Do your brothers have families now?"

Adam nodded. "My older brother and his family live in Tagaytay, while the younger one lives with his wife in Cebu, but most of the time, he's everywhere."

Zach tilted his head and looked at him questioningly. His eyebrows drew closer to the bridge of his nose. "Everywhere?"

"He's a seaman," Adam clarified. "An engineering cadet, to be exact."

"I see. So, that means you only live with your parents now?"

"Yes... but not really. My dad is always away because of his work. He's always on a mission — but not the missionary kind of thing. He's a military officer, so he spends most of his time in different military camps across the country rather than our home. Our house is not far from here actually, but I don't go back there anymore because it's very lonely there. It's too quiet, too empty."

"Empty? Does your mother travel along with your father?"

Mother.

The images of his mother flashed in his eyes; images of their happy days and their sad days.

Sometimes a single word has that power to evoke hundreds and thousands of memories in an instant, including those that we have long suppressed deep inside our minds.

Those two syllables, "mother," were enough to open the floodgates of his quiet reservoir that remained unmoved for more than a decade now. He tilted up his head to prevent the waters from descending down the spillway.

He felt a tender touch on his right hand. He lowered his eyes and saw Zach's hand resting on top of his.

"You don't need to talk about it," Zach said with a warm smile on his face. It only made Adam feel weaker instead of the opposite.

He gulped down his tears. A man like him should not be overpowered with emotions; he must be tough.

"My mother... She's... She's already in heaven with God," he struggled to start. "I was only seven years old around that time, but the memory remains very vivid.