Immortal
Sunday, December 30th, 2007IMMORTAL
by Conviron P. Altatis
“Don’t cheat.” Willsher kissed Ella Mae’s forehead after he blindfolded her.
“Be sure, you will surprise me.” Ella Mae was so excited. She felt the warmth of Willsher’s breath in her ears.
“Yes, I will, Honey. That’s for sure.” Willsher whispered.
Ella Mae knows Willsher so well. Willsher, who has an impatient temperament, doesn’t love surprises. Nevertheless, she just complied to everything Willsher said just as what she has been doing ever since. They have been together for a thousand nights since they started to be young lovers when they were both fifteen. Being both good-looking and flamboyant, they were usually rumored in their neighborhood and in school. Now that they are both twenty having eschewed childishness, they inevitably trust each other enough.
It was a cold December night in Baguio City. There was nothing but silence from the moment Willsher started the car until he parked it. Ella Mae had a strange feeling knowing that they are both garrulous and they hated silence. She understands Willsher, anyway. He is sometimes quirky.
Willsher assisted Ella Mae, who was still blindfolded, from the car to the stairs until they to the place where he prepared the surprise.
“Now open your eyes.” Willsher instructed Ella Mae after he has taken off the blinfold.
There was silence again. It was earsplitting. Willsher and Ella Mae stared at each other as if they are having telepathic conversation for almost five minutes.
“Is that a surprise gift for me?” Ella Mae tried her best to smile.
Like a culprit in a whodunit, Willsher was pointing a gun to Ella Mae. “You know I mean everything I do and say since the diagnosis.”
Ella Mae wanted to speak again but it seems like there are no words to come out of her mouth.
“Do you love Lienden?”
Silence.
Willsher’s eyes widened and he raised his voice. “Do you love Lienden?”
“Yes.” Ella Mae was impelled to reply.
“Do you love Lienden more than me?”
“Wilsher- “
“Answer me!” Fury flashed into Willsher’s eyes.
“I love you, Willsher, as much as I love Lienden.”
Willsher laughed. It was a sardonic and indignant laugh. “How dare you introduce to me Lienden? You know I’m abou to die. Do you have any idea how it feels like living while knowing that you are gonna die anywhere anytime so soon but you don’t know exactly when?”
“Willsher, I thought you’ve come to accept all these things…” Ella Mae waited for Willsher to speak but he seems to be waiting for more from her. “ You had that terminal disease not because of anyone or anything.”
“I know it’s my fate to die at this point of my life. I’m not blaming anybody. That’s why I still jog at Burnham Park every morning. I still have midnight snacks. I still watch TV. I still read newspapers. I still go to the internet café. I’m trying my best to live like a normal person while dying anytime, anywhere is etched in my mind.”
Ella Mae knitted her brows. “So what is the problem?”
Willsher laughed again. This time it sounds like a psychotic laugh. “The problem is you.”
“I am the problem?”
“You know that I love you, Ella Mae, more than anyone, more than anything in this world. I love you much more than how I love myself.” Willsher took a deep breath. Tears escaped from his eyes. He put the gun down as he took his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his tears. He looked so pathetic that Ella Mae also started to cry.
“Willsher, you know that I feel exactly the same way too. But I can’t be alone for the rest of my life. That’s why I introduced to you Lienden. You have to know the man who is gonna marry me before you die.”
“You are so mean. You are so, so mean!” Willsher is now sobbing. “Don’t you know how it feels like meeting the man who is gonna marry the woman you are supposed to marry while you are about to die?”
“That’s how much I love you, Willsher.” Ella Mae is no longer crying. “I want you to know the man who is going to love me after you die. We can’t love each other while you’re dead, Willsher.”
It infuriated the sobbing man. Willsher pointed the gun again to Ella Mae. “There is no way Lienden would be my replacement.” He walked towards his bed still pointing the gun to Ella Mae.
There was somebody lying on the bed covered by a blanket from head to toe. Willsher quickly took the blanket off. “Surprise!” He laughed that psychotic laugh again. it was so loud that the neighborhoods must’ve heard it.
Ella Mae covered her mouth like trying to stop herself from throwing up. The man on the bed was bloody. He was shot on the head and obviously not breathing. Ella Mae rushed to the corpse, embraced it and wept for it. “Lienden…”
“Don’t cry for the dead horse, baby…” Willsher’s laugh infuriated Ella Mae.
Ella Mae rushed to Willsher and tried to clutch the gun from him. But she was so frail to a burly man. Willsher killed Lienden and Ella Mae feels like she must be the one to avenge Lienden. She was determined to seize the gun but she failed.
It was Ella Mae’s fate to die, not Willsher’s. Willsher accidentally pulled the trigger while Ella Mae was frantically seizing the gun. Ella Mae was shot in her heart.
“Ella Mae…” Regretful tears are flooding Willsher’s eyes. He can’t believe that he shot Ella Mae. Ella Mae is now lying on the floor, bleeding and trying her best to breathe.
“Forgive me, Ella Mae. You know that I love you. Forgive me… I actually have a surprise for you tonight-“
Ella Mae stopped breathing.
“Ella Mae!!!” Willsher is now shaking. “I have a surprise for you. The doctor just told me yesterday that I could be cured. I am not going to die so soon. But you can’t hear me now. Let death justify my fault. In death, I can tell you the good news from the doctor. N death, we could love each other again. in death, no one can separate us… not even Lienden. See you there.”
Willsher laid next to Ella Mae. His left hand held Ella Mae’s right hand so tight while his right hand pointed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
