Chapter 4

• Five years ago…
• After Alodia finished the contract as a nanny/maid in Bucharest, she decided to go home to the Philippines. She was happy about that. However, when she arrived home, it was like her world was hit by a strong earthquake and everything crumbled down, as she learned that her beloved twin sister Alyana passed away without her knowledge.
• “What? If I weren’t home I wouldn’t know that my sister died?” she cried at her distant cousin and aunt, her only family left.
• They were dressed in black when they picked her up at the airport. She wanted to hit someone because it hurt so badly, as if her heart was torn and taken out of her chest!
• She naturally lamented for her sister’s passing.
• It was only when she was in the cab when they told her about it. And they went to the funeral home directly.
• “She would’ve picked me up at the airport. She was full of life and was happy when I called her and told her the other day that I was coming home!” she told the mother and daughter.
• Her sister was living with them because they didn’t have their own house anymore since their father left for America and never heard from him again. And it was the cause of their mother’s death, who got depressed.
• Alodia finished culinary arts in the so-called TESDA, a Philippine government program, a technical vocational education, given and open to all citizens especially for the poor ones, who couldn’t afford to go to college. However, she ended up being a nanny/maid in Romania because of certain circumstances. And she had to do it so that her twin sister could finish a degree in Business Administration. Her sister just graduated college and Alodia was supposedly here to celebrate it with her.
• Alodia continued to cry her heart out while her cousin was telling her the story why and how her sister died.
• “I think it’s that Emerson who’s the reason why Alyana killed herself.” Karen was grinding her teeth as she talked; she was seated next to her while her aunt was seated beside the taxi driver.
• She and Karen were of the same age, and because they were grew up together, they were close but not as close as her sister and her cousin who had spent more time together lately.
• Her aunt looked at them. She looked back at the older woman who was like a second a mother to her. Her eyes narrowed. She knew the man all right. It was her sister’s boyfriend and she knew that they were in love with each other, or so she thought. And she always took her sister’s word seriously when she said they were in love. But now that Alyana ended up like this, there was something terribly wrong!
• “Why? What about Emerson?” she asked her cousin, who had long black hair, wide dark brown eyes and a kind oval face. Karen had morena skin unlike like her, and she was a bit taller than her petite cousin.
• “Karen…” It seemed that her aunt didn’t want to tell her something, so she looked at the older woman once again. Aunt Korina had tanned skin and was in her early fifties. Karen took after her.
• “Aunt Korina, what has Emerson got to do with my twin sister’s suicide? Why did she hang herself?” She could almost not bear to ask such question that the last one was in a whisper. Until now, it was still unbelievable that her sister would do it to herself just because of a man! She just couldn’t comprehend it.
• Her aunt let out a sigh. She didn’t answer her right away.
• “Tell her what you heard, Ma,” Karen pressed on.
• Meanwhile, Alodia’s glance shifted from the mother to the daughter, her tears still rolling down her cheeks.
• The older woman let out another sigh before she spoke. “I heard them talking on the cellphone. They were fighting, I realized. They were fighting over a woman that Alyana saw kiss her boyfriend Emerson near the Ladies’ Room at the university. I couldn’t hear Emerson’s reason then as it wasn’t in a loudspeaker. I just heard Alyana tell him that if he wouldn’t stop being a playboy she is going to kill herself. And that fight happened a month ago, Alodia. And…” Her aunt also broke into tears and was forced to pause. And when she composed herself, she continued to speak. “And she was happy again after that fight. They got back together, from the looks of it. I could see she was happy then. When you and your sister talked the other day, before you flew home… but yesterday…” Aunt Korina began to shake her head as she looked at Alodia helplessly, couldn’t continue to speak.
• “We just found her hanging in her room yesterday morning. It was already too late. Her body was already stiff and cold. The police said that she was already dead the previous night,” Karen finished off her mom’s words as she also broke into sobs.
• Alodia didn’t want to imagine how her twin sister looked like when her cousin and aunt found her. She just cried even more because of it. She couldn’t bear to think of that horrible scene! And how her sister must have suffered when she was still alive and hanging like that! That was so terrible! She swallowed hard once again to ease out what she felt even for a little bit. She could barely breathe, like the oxygen had suddenly run out from her lungs. She opened the window of the taxi and took a deep breath while tears continued to race down her beautiful cheeks.
• “We thought she just went into her room early at the time because she was tired from submitting her application for a job that day. She’d been working hard to find a job, you know? She didn’t even eat dinner that night.” Karen continued on telling Alodia the last moments of Alyana’s life. “When I knocked on her door, she didn’t reply. I thought she just slept early… I should’ve went in and checked on her. I guess it was my fault she ended that way!” Karen said, blaming herself.
• Alodia’s head shook slowly. It wasn’t her cousin’s fault. It was not.
• Her tears just wouldn’t stop from running down her cheeks when she heard it… until they arrived at the funeral home. There were a few neighbors and some of their family friends who were present there, offered their condolences to them. Some embraced her to comfort her and some kissed her and murmured some words to lighten up her heart. She nodded and thanked all of them for being there.
• Then, the most real thing happened next. She slowly stepped closer to the coffin where her twin sister rested. She gazed at her sister’s smiling face in the picture frame that was placed on top of the open coffin. She was so beautiful on her graduation day. Her eyes reflected her happiness. She knew Alyana was so happy then because it was both their dream that she finished college.
• She caressed the face of her sister in the photo, and then, she looked at the woman lying there inside the box. Her face was pale even with the makeup on, though she still looked beautiful but serene. She caressed the glass of the coffin and cried hard; her shoulders shook and her mouth gaped open.
• “Alyana!” Her voice got hoarse when she screamed her sister’s name. She put her arms over the coffin as if to embrace her dead sister. She shook her beautiful head as she wailed for her loss. Then her cousin and aunt came up behind her and held her tightly. They tried to comfort each other while their neighbors and friends looked on with pity and sadness.