When Back In Time

"TAPPING THE time is forbidden for a human. You, who toyed with time carelessly shall perish. Receive your consequence, human. Forever be trapped in this time," the old man said.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Esperanza looked around and saw the old man was gone. She searched for him everywhere and found him nowhere.

The people around her passed by as if they didn't hear that loud voice of his.

"Esperanza," Clara called out as she went outside her house. Clara thought Esperanza was in the bedroom and was shocked to see her outside.

Clara led Esperanza inside the house to eat her meal. She led Esperanza in the dining room.

Esperanza sat on the chair while Clara prepared the meal on the table.

The dining room was made of wood materials. It had a Capiz shell windowpane, outside you could see the blue firmament and big mango tree. Below the window was a small open doorway-like. It had a height and wide of almost half a meter. This doorway-like was a ventilation.

Esperanza was bothered by what that old man had said.

'Tapping the time is forbidden for a human.' Tapping the time. Was he referring to her using the wristwatch, turning time to the past and to the future?

'You, who toyed with time carelessly shall perish.' Toying with time? She wasn't playing with the time, she was using it to help other people.

Perish? What did he mean by that?

'Receive your consequence, human. Forever be trapped in this time.' Esperanza's heart beats faster. What did he mean by the line 'forever be trapped in this time'?

Thoughts kept spinning and spinning on her mind, 'Forever trap? In the past? In this year 1892? In this era? If I recall correctly, this is still the time where the Spanish Regime ruled the Philippines. Oh no! Please, let all of this be a dream!'

And who was that old man anyway? 'I need to know who he is. He might know why I get here. No---he definitely knows it. '

'Oh wait----' Esperanza thought, 'That lolo (grandfather or old man) spoke in English back then. He did not speak in Tagalog like the other people here in this era.' This new discovery pumped her up.

The English language was not yet well-known in the Philippines not until the Spanish Colonization ended.

'Oh! That old man. He is not from this era that means he's stuck here just like me, or he must have the same wristwatch I have.'

Esperanza looked at her broken wristwatch. She put it on her wrist even though the watch no longer functioned. 'He surely knows why I'm here. He definitely knows how I can get myself out of this era.'

"Maari ko bang malaman? Hindi mo ba nagustuhan ang niluto ko para sa'yo?" Clara asked. (May I ask? Don't you like the food I cook for you?)

Esperanza was shocked. She didn't know Clara was there, standing and watching her.

Esperanza shook her head and replied, "Hindi naman sa ganoon. Gusto ko ang niluto niyo po kaso---- mayroon kasing bumabagabag sa isipan ko ngayon." (It's not like that. I like the food you made for me--------but there just this thing troubling my mind)

Clara sat down and held Esperanza's hand. The latter looked at Clara.

With concerned eyes, Clara asked, "At ano naman itong bumabagabag sa iyo, Esperanza?" (And what are these things troubling you, Esperanza?)

Esperanza shook her head. She could not tell Clara, 'she would not understand'.

"Kung nanaisin mo, maaari kang sumama sa akin magsimba bukas. Maaari mong ipahayag kay Padre Florentino kung ano mang bumabagabag sa'yo ," Clara said. (If you want, you can join me tomorrow, we can go to church together. You can tell Father Florentino the stuff that's bothering you)

Esperanza smiled in response. She looked around the house. She noticed that the house was big for a woman like Clara to live alone.

Esperanza asked Clara why she was living alone.

Clara looked at Esperanza with sad eyes. She told Esperanza her story. Of how she and her husband used to live here, together, happily. But then, one day he suddenly disappeared. He no longer went home. It was like he disappeared like a bubble, no one ever saw him again. It's been two years since he left.

And it's been 2 years since Clara waited for his arrival. She was still hoping he will, one day, come home.

'That's a sad story,' Esperanza thought. 'How could she live here alone while waiting for him to come back, without assurance that he ever comes back.'

***************************************

The next morning, Clara and Esperanza went to the church to join the morning Sunday mass.

The two both wore a long full wide black skirt, a white 'camisa' (chemise that went all the way their waists) and a mahogany 'panuelo' (a big handkerchief that was folded in the middle and put around their neck). Above their head, they wore black veils.

The architecture outside the church had a cupola and spires. The building was made of concrete, wood, and marble. A clock tower stood beside the church.

Clara and Esperanza went inside the church. The church was in a Baroque style. The church had 14 side chapels and a trompe'oeil ceiling.

Esperanza looked around. The church was huge from the outside and also in the inside. She saw up in the choir loft were hand-carved seats of molave. Surfaces inside the church were almost carved as a decoration. Columns and entablatures were decorated with carved garlands or flowers and fruits, shells and waves.

Many people entered the church. The men wore their Barong Tagalog (a collarless transparent shirt made of 'canga' and underneath, they wore 'camisa de chino' or a type of white shirt). Meanwhile, women wore the same dress worn by Clara and Esperanza.

Each people occupied the wooden pews.

The mass began.

Esperanza's eyes kept roaming around. She saw people lazily fanning themselves in the hot Sunday mass while listening to the sermon of the priest. Esperanza tried to fan herself using her veil. Her eyes went to her left and caught someone's eyes staring at her.

She looked at the old man wearing a 'barong tagalog' on the opposite pew. He was sitting on the edge of the pew. On his hand, he held his wooden cane. The old man didn't break his eye contact with her.

'That's him,' Esperanza thought to herself. 'He was the old man I met yesterday. He was the one who told me about tapping the time, consequences and being trap in this year 1892'.

She was about to stand up and go towards him when suddenly someone held her arm. She looked at Clara.

"Esperanza, saan ka pupunta sa kalagitnaan ng sermon ni Padre Florentino?" Clara asked, "alam mo ba na lapastangan ang umalis sa misa. Umupo ka Esperanza at igalang mo ang Diyos." (Esperanza, where are you going in the middle of Father Florentine's sermon? Don't you know that it's a big disrespect if you left in the middle of the mass? Sit down Esperanza and respect our God)

In Clara's sternness, Esperanza sat down. It was her first time being scolded by Clara.

Esperanza looked at her left, to the opposite pew, and saw the old man grinning. 'Why is he grinning at me?'

She waited a long time before the mass finally ended. Esperanza stood up immediately and was about to confront the old man when Clara stopped her.

Clara told Esperanza that the two of them must meet Padre Florentino (Father Florentino) so that Esperanza could find aid from him.

But Esperanza had no time for this. She must find the old man with the wooden cane.

She apologized to Clara and went to find the old man.

The crowd started to exit the church. Esperanza could not sight where the old man was, among this sea of people. She craned her neck, trying to look for the old man. Where was he?

When Esperanza finally went outside, she looked around and could no longer see the old man. He was gone.

Clara finally caught up with Esperanza. Clara scolded her for her sudden dashing away.

They were about to enter the church and meet Padre Florentino (Father Florentino) when suddenly a boy came and interrupted them.

The little boy, who was wearing a 'camisa de chino' (a white shirt) and mahogany pants, panted as he delivered news to Clara. The little boy was Clara's nephew.

He told Clara that he was playing with his friends near the jail when suddenly there was a jailbreak. The firing of rifles was everywhere as he and the other people scrambled away from the jail. After the incident, it was accounted that three men escaped the prison, one of them was now dead. While the other two were out there. One of the escapees was the guy who was riding the kalesa (a small and open carriage that is pulled by a horse) and hit Esperanza on the plaza.

That night a large crowd of men, holding their torches, guns and other weapons, were out to help the 'Guardia Civil' (Civil Guards) to hunt down the two escapees. Apparently, these escapees were suspected to be rebels against the government.

While the other's where out to do a manhunt, the others who were left in the town closed their houses early in the evening.

Esperanza took this chance.

Esperanza went outside the house while Clara was sleeping. She needed to find the old man. She thought, 'He must be living in this town.'

As she wandered outside, the street was quiet. The road was lit by torches. The night sky was jeweled by its fascinating luminous moon and twinkling stars.

Where should she begin her search for the old man?

Esperanza leaped in surprise as she heard someone grunted. Adjacent to Clara's house, she heard someone.

Out of curiosity, she followed the sound. She passed a couple of houses before she determined the location of the grunting person.

There, hiding in the shadow of a house, a young man grunting in pain as he gripped his wounded arm.

The young man didn't notice Esperanza. The latter drew next to him.

"Oh my gosh! Okay ka lang ba?" Esperanza gasped and tried to help the young man. (Oh my gosh! Are you okay? )

The young man, who was perplexed of how Esperanza talked, tried to push her away but he was weak and about to lost his consciousness.

"I think you are in pain. Are you wounded? Let me help you------- I mean------ hayaan mo akong tulungan ka," Esperanza said, "Malapit lang ang bahay ko dito." (Let me help you. My house is near here)

The young man could no longer resist as Esperanza shouldered his arm around her and helped him walk towards Clara's house.

At the end of the street where the light from the torch could no longer reach, the old man stood with his wooden cane. He was the same old man whom Esperanza was looking for. He was observing the two figures, Esperanza and the young man, entering Clara's house.

The old man spoke, "That girl. She really doesn't know when to stop helping other people. That silly girl, letting that young man entered their abode without knowing him. She's distorting the time again. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."

The old man turned his back and tapped his cane on the ground. The cane magically lengthens and morphed into a staff. The old man sooner became younger, no longer having that troublesome white hairs and backaches.

"I guess it's about time the god of Time pays a visit to that troublesome girl," the man, who was no longer an old man, said.