When Back In Time

Esperanza was on her knees, holding tightly on the handrail of the deck.

The sky was curtained with dark clouds, the wind blew harshly, and big tidal waves kept crashing on their ship.

The storm was here and the people inside the ship were praying to God to save them.

Esperanza eyed the angry sea and to the raging n.a.k.e.d woman standing on the ocean's surface with a conch shell on her hand.

The n.a.k.e.d woman had eyes of swirling deep blue ocean. Her hair went here and there.

Esperanza closed her eyes and recollected what happened.

When Esperanza opened her eyes, she screamed as the n.a.k.e.d woman, with wrathful eyes, was finally in front of her and was riding on the big tidal wave that's about to engulf the ship.

The wave hit the ship.

Esperanza went aloft and slammed on the wall. As she hit her head on the wall, her mind blew away to the memories thirty minutes ago.

Esperanza anchored Pepe's arm around her shoulder.

Her mind was pondering on the thought about the man with the other clock. He was here. He had a clock. And his name was Agustin.

'I need to find him, Agustin!'

Pepe knelt down and puked on the hallway.

"Pepe!" Esperanza drew closer to him and patted his back. Pepe wiped his mouth and sat on the floor with beaded sweat. He did not look fine. He vomited again. "Pepe, tumigil ka na sa kakasuka rito. Baka mapagalitan pa tayo ng mga namamasukan dito. Halika sa itaas, sa kubyerta, doon ka magsusuka sa dagat." (Pepe, stop vomiting here. The employees might see and scold us. Let's get you upstairs, in the deck so you can puke outside, on the ocean)

While Esperanza was helping Pepe to get upstairs, she heard a cry from the cabin stationed near the stairs.

Esperanza stopped and the sob halted. She asked Pepe if he heard the cry. But Pepe only responded 'no' to her and halfway vomiting.

She hurriedly accompanied him towards the deck.

Pepe finally spews on the ocean, his hands on the handrail.

Esperanza rubbed her hands gently on his back. She told him he will be alright and scolded him to never drink a bottle of wine, ever again. It looked like Pepe could not handle a wine so easily.

The wind blew Esperanza's hair.

The sky was clear blue with partial clouds. The sun was up ahead, radiating its brilliant rays towards the earth. It was already noon and the heat of the sun was burning their skins.

'Why in the world Pepe drink alcohol early in the morning?' Esperanza thought to herself.

When Esperanza looked ahead, she saw the blue floor of the unending ocean.  Birds of unknown to her were flying in the sky.

Something caught her eyes. She saw, a kilometer away, a person on a boat.

The boat was called a balangay (plank boat). The person who was on the boat was paddling. What a small boat like that doing in the middle of the ocean, Esperanza had no idea why.

She left Pepe in the deck to refresh himself. She put her panuelo (a big handkerchief) over his head so that no one will know his face. She already told him not to get caught, that two civil guards were already downstairs trying to find him. She went towards the staircase to go downstairs and grabbed some water and food for Pepe. When she landed the last stairs, she heard a sobbed from the cabin next to the staircase.  

Esperanza went towards the cabin and knocked on the door. She worriedly asked if he or she was okay. A man replied that he's fine and told her to stay away.

Esperanza stepped away and sighed.

She continued walking to the path towards the kitchen. There, she ordered a glass of water and food for her friend. While she was there she heard two cooks talking about the suicide incident.

One of the cooks said that he heard the name of the woman who took away her life was Rosario Dela Cruz. She was a daughter of a middle-class merchant. She was with her boyfriend for a vacation.

And the cook also added that he heard one night, before Rosario Dela Cruz committed suicide, she and her lover had an intense argument. It happened in the deck, they were having a fight over something. And now that Rosario took away her life, her lover was left in depression. The cook also said, he always heard the man cried when he passed by his cabin near the staircase.

Esperanza, with the tray on her hands filled with what she ordered, walked down the corridor. When she was on the staircase, she glanced at the cabin next to it.  She was worried about the man who had lost his lover, Rosario.

Esperanza was about to ascend. She heard a loud thud behind the door of the man who lost his lover. The loud thud sounds like something had fallen heavily on the floor.

Worriedly, she put the tray on the floor and knocked on his door. But she heard no response but a muffled struggle.

What was happening inside? She looked around and saw there was no one to help her.

She knocked again, "Ginoo, maayos lang po kayo riyan?" (Mr., are you alright there?)

Still, she heard no response from him. She grew more worried.

She held the doorknob to open the door yet it was locked.

"Ginoo? Naririnig niyo po ba ako? Maayos lang po ba kayo riyan?" (Mr.? Do you hear me? Are you alright there?)

She heard nothing.

She held the doorknob and heave her breath. She slammed herself towards the door to open it. She did again and again until she f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y opened the door.

She looked inside the dim room. She called out but heard no response. She groped for a drawer and finally, blindly, find the lamp. She tried to light it up. When the fire finally lit (she didn't know how she did it), the light illuminated the room. When she looked around, a scream came out from her mouth when she saw a man hanged himself, his feet were still twitching.

Her scream reverberated in the ship. And soon people came towards the sound. Fortunately, the man was saved from his predicament and was not dead after people unhung him.

Esperanza was shaking in fear after seeing someone took his life and was about to die.

"Gihimo na pud nimo"

The atmosphere went down.

Esperanza felt a chill as she looked around to locate the voice. She saw the people swarming near the cabin but could not locate the person who owned the voice.

"Gihimo na pud nimo," an angry woman's voice said.

Esperanza did not know what's the meaning of the words uttered by this unknown woman. The language was foreign to her.

"Gihimo na pud nimo." When Esperanza looked to her left, a cold hand grabbed her neck. Esperanza gasped for air and tried to get rid of the hand tightly gripped on her neck. But the woman's grip was strong. The woman stressed out the same sentence, "Gihimo na pud nimo."

"W-w-what?" Esperanza said.

The woman was n.a.k.e.d and on her left hand, she held a conch shell.

Esperanza remembered her. She was that woman from the day the suicide incident happened. What was this n.a.k.e.d woman doing in here?

Esperanza's eyes roamed around and noticed people acting oddly.

They didn't notice the n.a.k.e.d woman nor her choking Esperanza. 'What is happening?'

Esperanza tried to claw on the hand of the n.a.k.e.d woman. The n.a.k.e.d woman glared at her and speak the same line, "Gihimo na pud nimo."

In her rage, the n.a.k.e.d woman blasted Esperanza upstairs with water, which came out from her conch shell. Esperanza hit the deck.

The ship was swaying on the sea unsteadily.

Esperanza sat up, her body was in pain because of the impact. Her gaze caught the abnormality happening in the sky.

She heard screams. People were panicking.

With gapped mouth, Esperanza saw what was happening.

Big tidal waves were coming.

Esperanza was on her knees, holding tightly on the handrail of the deck.

The sky, which was minutes ago clear and blue, was now curtained with dark clouds, the wind blew harshly, and big tidal waves kept crashing on their ship.

The storm was here and the people inside the ship were praying to God to save them.

Esperanza gripped the handrail tightly. She looked around to seek for Pepe. Yet she could not find him.

When she looked at the tidal wave, she saw the n.a.k.e.d woman who tried to kill her.

Esperanza eyed the angry sea and to the raging n.a.k.e.d woman standing on the ocean's surface with a conch shell on her hand.

The n.a.k.e.d woman had eyes of swirling deep blue ocean. Her hair went here and there. The n.a.k.e.d woman spoke with raging and loud voice, repeating the same foreign line, "Ginhimo na pud nimo!"

When Esperanza opened her eyes, she screamed as the n.a.k.e.d woman, with wrathful eyes, was finally in front of her and was riding the big tidal wave that's about to engulf the ship.

The wave hit the ship. Esperanza went aloft and slammed on the wall. She was drenched from head to toe. Her head hit the wall.

The storm kept raging on. Another tidal wave hit the ship.

Esperanza opened her eyes again. She saw the raging n.a.k.e.d woman gazed at her, fiercely.

"Ano bang ginagawa ko sa'yo?" Esperanza asked the n.a.k.e.d woman. (What did I do to you?)

"Ginawa mo na naman ang bagay na dapat hindi mo ginawa," the n.a.k.e.d woman spoke. "Alam mong hindi ito ang panahon mo. Wala kang karapatan na gambalahin ang agos ng buhay at kamatayan dito sa panahon na ito. Manatili ka sa iyong tungkulin at huwag na huwag mong gagambalahin ang panahon na hindi ka nararapat!" (You did the thing that you should not do. You do know this is not your time. You don't have the right to disturb the flow of life and death in this timeline. Stick to your quest and never intervene in the time that you don't belong!)

The n.a.k.e.d woman, wrathfully, slammed Esperanza with a gush of water. Esperanza hit her head one more time on the wall and finally passed out.