Page 300- Alice's Biography
As Alice stepped out into the morning sun she felt a slight chill of uncertainty suddenly gripped her senses but she gave herself a gentle nudge to remind her of the reason she was here. The huge molave trees towered above her and the dense forest unveiled markings of a terrain astonishingly alien to modern civilization. If it were not for the rows of wooden dainty houses behind her, it would seem that she was in some deserted Amazonian jungle.
It seemed like yesterday but in reality a month had gone by when after her son had decided to move his family to the capital city so he could be close to his younger sister who just recently got married that Alice and her husband gave their children a life-changing announcement in the midst of their fine dining at their favorite Italian restaurant. They told both of their children that they would be moving to Ifugao province of Banawe to be part of the church mission in that small village. Dad would help in the church’s project to build houses for the villagers and mom being a retired preschool teacher would teach in the Parish school.
Today is technically their first day in the village since it was already very late in the afternoon when they arrived yesterday. She had quite a travel to get here so after dinner she decided to retire early. Most nights it would take her a while to finally doze off but here in this cool enchanted village she had fallen asleep in just a few short minutes. The sight of fireflies that circled the ceiling was the last thing she saw before she slipped off to dreamland.
She woke up to the sounds of nature humming around her. She liked that sound, though not accustomed to the deafening silence of the night she somehow had this peculiar feeling that she was about to fall in love with this place. She took a deep breath and the surge of fresh clean air tickled her lungs. She recalled the conversation she had with her son before they left. “Are you going to be okay there mama?” Her son asked, his face contorted into a look of worry. “It’s going to be fine, we are in good hands.” She answered him, her eyes looking upward.
Alice knew things would be different here, sacrifices would be in plentitude and there would be a lot of adjusting to do in terms of food, shelter and way of living. But there was a sense of urgency to be here, there seemed to be an invisible thread connecting them to these people. She turned her face to the direction of the sun and somehow quite spontaneously her lips twisted into a smile. For the first time in many years she felt alright with her decision to stay in this small but complete corner of the world. “Go and I will be with you till the end of time” the words seeped into her soul like a tender kiss.
The vast expanse in front of her now felt like a blank sheet, full of wishes to be written on. With the firm soil beneath her, she looked up, feet steady, eyes opened, heart fertile like the earth, she made her first step towards the path that led to the school grounds.
The End
Comments
@ Tara Benwell: Thank you for your appreciation of my work. It is really a dream of mine to be able to do this mission someday. As for joining this month's writing challenge, don't mention it really, I love doing your challenges, they are so creative and inspiring! The topics and the subject matter really piqued my interest!
@ Robbie Thank you for comparing me to such a great talent talent, I think I know this person you are pertaining to, Lady Anne admires her writing skills too. But I doubt that I should be in the same league as her, but thanks for the vote of confidence! :)
I agree with Robbie. This is very poetic! You are a talented writer. It was wonderful reading about this leap of faith that you took! Thanks for joining this month's Writing Challenge, Alice! Do you have a memoir in the works?
Wow! I love you're writing! You reminded me one Filipina here who writes beautifully like a poet from the ancient history. It's no wonder why we excel because of our heart and passion to publish a worth-reading blog post! Thank you for sharing a chapter of your life.
I hope you're in safe location since we're having monsoon rains for the past few days. Just take care of yourself. ♥
noaslpls : Hi, wow! Such a remark coming from you is a compliment indeed! I do hope its a good kind of envy you have there for me, one that makes good learning partners of the both of us! Thanks always for being kind with your comments! :)
@Expector: It really helps to have a wide vocabulary which is why I think reading blogs is such a helpful way to gain understanding of new words. Thanks for passing by! :)
@ beethoven: I hope you were able to get something from this challenge! Thanks for taking time to read it! :)
@ Anah : So kind of you to always grace my blogs with your nice comments. Thanks! :)
@Evangelina: Indeed if it was a page a day I would be only in my first year for page 300! But then it is all for the best since I don't think anyone would read a biography of 23,000 pages! I can barely get through 300! Hahaha! Thanks for the nice reflection! :)
I really envy your grasp of English, your imagination, welllllllll ... everything, to put it in a nutshell. LOL
As usual, excellent writing.
Excellent! Well done!
I really enjoyed reading this - as if I was reading a novel by an experienced novelist. What a wide vocabulary! The vivid, delicate description - thumbs up!
Keep it up!
Beautifully written. I really loved reading your blog Alice.
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