(uncut version)
Sharee Narciso
It was a sunny afternoon. An afternoon no one in their group ever wanted to come. It was the death of a friend, a loved one.
Days passed, but still there was no clue, no sign.
“This can’t go on. We need to do something,” Andi said in disappointment.
“Oh.. how can we do something, if we practically already did everything?” Carl broke in. it was hopeless. But not impossible to be solved.
“there must be something – anything.” Sharee exclaimed, trying to keep some spirit up.
“Yeah, right,” Rain whispered in a low voice, while taking off his jacket. He had been sweating real fast.
The friends lived in one unit, they bought it a few months earlier. They’ve been best friends since junior High. And a loss of a member must have been really painful.
“I thought so. We can never, ever, trust the authorities, the court, the law, the police or whoever handles this case. We filed it days, years, centuries, millenniums ago, and there we have it. We have nothing.” Carl sighed out.
“Okay buddy, don’t exaggerate that far. Our friend only died last week, man,” Jan Al replied while playing with some coins and pins on the table.
“Our friend died. And he hasn’t obtained the rightful justice for him in God’s sake! Then you tell me it’s okay?!” Carl shouted, “You are so insane.”
“Yeah,” Jan Al said in a way that he did not seem to bother.
“Stop it,” Rain uttered, his mouth almost unmoved, as he walked to the door and got his jacket from the chair.
“You’re leaving?” Andi asked.
“Hmmm… let’s see, oh… yeah,” Rain replied in prompt simplicity.
“Oooh!” Sharee fired out. She had always been concerned to her pals more than herself since Marion died; she said she realized their significance. Rain always proved to be a lot more special than the others, though she clears out that she considers him only as a good friend. Yeah. But of course, the others would not really buy that.
Rain drove off his big bike, leaving the leaves on the ground all scattered on every direction across the yard.
“I just raked those. Oh!” Ann grunted, “God, I hate that man!”
“Sure you do.” Joan meant, almost in a teasing tone.
Everyone ate their chips in front of the TV, silence ruled the entire house. Not a single word was spoken. Then Tracy came in.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hi,” some answered back simultaneously.
“What’s up?” she asked, “anything to interest me, no?”
Sharee tossed her spoon. It served well. Quite an answer, in fact.
“I’m off to shower,” Sharee was not much of in a good mood right now.
“Okay,” Tracy said, as she sat along with the others.
“Him,” Ann told Tracy in a soft voice, “Again.”
“Yah. I could see that,” Tracy replied, grabbing a bunch to eat.
“Hey, no sad faces, guys,” Andi chewed up, “anybody for some ice cream?”
“Sure,” Carl exclaimed, hoping for some pleasant aura to surround him.
“Love to,” Joan moved.
“Yeah,” Ann stood up, got some iced crème from the fridge, and they started helping their selves out.
“Oh,” Andi grunted noisily, almost pig-like, “I love these calories.”
“Believe me,” Jan Al laughed, “we already know.”
The others laughed in, too.
“Uhm.. Anyone here for a walk?” Sharee interrupted, but now with a new face, with her trademark – a sweet smile all of them loved, “perhaps to buy some ice cream? Andi seemed to eat all we had left.”
“I thank the gods of heaven for giving us the gift of cool bath and fresh water,” Jan Al joked in, “You see, all Sharee needs is one cool bath, then her temper just cools down that fast. And that’s a fact.”
“I’d like to stroll a bit,” a mysterious, masculine voice whispered, sliding from the back door. It was him.
And so the evident humongous grin on Rain’s face met halfway with Sharee’s sweet smile. And they left.
“See you later,” Sharee waved off as she rode on the back of Rain’s motor scooter. As they left, everyone can hear the tiny, sweet giggles of her joy.
“What’s going on with those? The love thing, eh?” Joan snorted.
“…” Carl replied, “Yah, I think so..”
It was getting pretty dark outside and the girls were preparing dinner. Everyone was catchy with laughs and stories during supper.
“Hey, it’s past 9, where are those two?” Andi asked while munching some rice in.
“Must’ve checked in, I suppose,” Carl giggled.
Everyone looked at him.
“I’m just kidding, sorry,” Carl withdrew, noticing the serious looks on him.
“I’m tired. I’m sleeping.” Jan Al said as he wiped his mouth with table napkin and carried his plate over to the sink, “‘night guys.”
Morning came. The two haven’t returned. The rest were still asleep, when suddenly, “GUYS! GUYS! YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE AND CHECK THIS OUT! NOW!” Joan, the early bird, shouted downstairs.
“What’s with the shouting? It’s 6 AM, people!” Tracy complained.
“Holy –” Jan Al gasped, already tear eyed.
“Oh my –” Andi said, raising her hands on her mouth.
“No. Please, no.” Tracy moaned, now wide-awake.
Everybody went downstairs now. All in their pajamas sat in front of the TV and were shocked. It was the Morning News.
Knock. Knock. Knock. Carl ran to the door.
“Good morning, sir, I’ve come to -” the police officer started out, “– to tell you, uhm.. sort of, well… bad news.”
“We know.” Carl replied, his voice struggling to put his words together.
Sharee and Rain were found dead in front of an ice cream shop, just a few blocks away from their house.
The Police said nobody else was found in the place to be suspects. Medical autopsy was proceeded with, but neither physical causes, nor health problems were found.
Tracy hugged Ann and Joan as they cried. Carl and Andi were moaning, too. But nobody could be more hurt than Sharee’s bestest friend, Jan Al.
He went out and drove his car as fast as he can, without any sure destination. Tears flew past his face, together with the swift speed of his driving. Andi was shocked with what happened, and was not able to say anything.
“I had no idea what happened,” confessed Kenneth, the ice cream vendor who was being interrogated by the investigators, “I just heard people screaming.. And then --”
Kenneth was unable to finish his horrific tale when his attention was caught by a mysterious, yet familiar man who walked past his shop’s window. The man’s face was covered mostly by a hood. He wore an unusually long and thick jacket. When the policemen deprived Kenneth’s attention once again, the man was gone.
“Come on,” Carl breathed out heavily as he pointed the others to the car. He drove off home. Nobody spoke a word since they left Sharee and Rain’s funeral.
They entered the door and sat down, exhaustion filled the air. Rain’s bike was now brought to their house, parked in the garage, still covered with dirt and soot. Everybody mumbled and hummed unconsciously around the soul-less home.
Investigations went on, though the friends already gave up hope for any clue of who the killer was. They left the house and come back home one by one, almost seemingly unknowing of where and why to go.
One afternoon, Chentel, Nina and Erika, their other friends, came home from abroad when they heard about the deaths of their other friends, though it was apparently late.
They were welcomed with tears and hugs. Sympathy and grief was most evident on the particular scene.
“Okay, I’m off to shower,” Erika said, wiping her tears.
The next morning, the friends accompanied Erika, Chentel and Nina to visit Marion, Sharee, and Rain’s graves.
“What the--” Nina whispered.
“Yes?” Chentel looked about, puzzled.
“I think I just saw someone – he was – well, I think – I think I’ve seen him before– I, I don’t know.” Nina answered, white-faced.
“Jet-lag.” Erika muttered, squeezing herself into the conversation.
“Most probable.” Joan said upon overhearing the talk while putting down the flowers on the ground. Andy and Carl were dusting off dirt on the marble coffins while Jan Al was quietly looking at the sky.
At lunch time, they decided to leave. Chentel and Joan said that they had to go somewhere else, leaving the others to go straight home.
The engine had just started up when Tracy was found in a complete halt halfway to going into the car, the vehicle’s doors still flung open – and then – a scream, two screams were heard. Almost automatically, their heads looked back and saw an Ice Crème truck beeping and stopping frantically – two female bodies were flying in mid-air – Tracy was running over to the scene – she was tugging Chentel and Joan’s bodies which were lying motionless on the ground. Then the others followed. It was a complete silence – Ann was crying, Carl was shouting madly, the ambulance siren was wildly whining, rescuers were giving instructions, on-lookers were busy buzzing around for gossip, and in the middle of the street full of deep commotion stood Jan Al, completely still and unmoved, his eyes looking straight forward.
“Not again,” Andy said, her hands on her face as she was looking down on the ground while the doctor was explaining to her. “Tell me – not again.”
The doctor then said nothing, shook his head, followed with a consoling tap on Andy’s shoulder and led off to the corridor.
After the funeral, Nina and Erika bid goodbye and moved to return abroad to go back to their jobs and families there. They left, not knowing that they will never return home again. Jan Al and Ann drove them to the airport and said their farewells.
On their way home Jan Al and Ann saw masked men, appearing to be robbers, conversing uneasily with civilians and policemen. They could not clearly hear what they were saying. But this wasn’t so important for what they heard next. A gunshot was fired by one of the masked men, missing the policeman by inches, when yet another scream was heard – the lost bullet shot straight through Ann’s body in the front seat next to Jan Al.
Next week, Ann was buried next to the grave of Marion and the others.
At home next morning, the post man came to deliver a letter. Carl read it aloud in front of everybody:
“Good day. The Ambassador of Asian Welfare here in London sent you this letter, thinking it is of your preeminent interest --”
There were pictures which Carl passed on to the others, shaken.
Nina and Erika were dead. On the event that they reached London, upon setting foot on the airport, it was also the verge of the instance that terrorists were on the loose – the wing where the two friends’ arrivals were was the spot where the rebels had their bomb planted. The pictures could only prove worse, it was even impossible to identify who the people in the pictures were. The scene was awfully gruesome and gory. Bodies were badly wounded and scarred.
That night, during dinner, Carl was extra quiet and simple. The others could not bear to talk much, so went to bed early.
A dreadfully bad smell woke them up at 6:00 AM.
Next week, Carl was next to his friends’ coffins. It was suicide.
Jan Al, Tracy and Andy were left lifeless – with no other friends except the three of them. Appetite in food and leisure was scarce. Seldom, in fact, did they eat; in fact, they just slept because they had nothing else to do.
Months passed, they were poorly nutritioned, much thinned and almost dead, when one day, the door bell rang.
“Ice Cream delivery.”
The next days came, and Jan Al was found in the cemetery alone with the men who dug holes on the ground and brought down the coffins of Tracy and Andy. But tears weren’t found on Jan Al’s face, in truth – he was almost smiling.
Kenneth was put in prison for massacre and was sentenced with life imprisonment.
~~~~~~~~
THE END.
