I was not alone

Electricity’s back on and here I rush to check my e-mail messages and send messages to my family and friends whom I have not been able to contact for a while.

Northern Philippines has been trashed by Typhoon ‘Juan’, internationally codenamed ‘Megi’. I was so alone in our apartment and was really contemplating on going to a friend’s house but yet the cold, splatter of the heavy rain and the flooded streets restricted me to do so. Water was everywhere—even inside our apartment. I kept myself busy on trying to block all wholes and cracks that water would enter and at the same time, keeping the doors and windows from opening and closing. I was already scarce on materials to use for blocking these cracks. I gave up. I thought it would be easier if I left it at that and maybe tomorrow, it could hold til this nightmare ends.


I tried to sleep. I tried closing my eyes and feel that great slumber everyone talks about. I didn't. Then a creepy sound brought me to my haunches. Woooooooo… The wind was so strong it felt the whole apartment building would fly off the ground into that vast nowhere we call space. The sound of the wind among the walls of the surrounding buildings brought me goosebumps everywhere. A tingling feeling run up my back and I sensed it was fear. Or was it not?

I had no one to turn to. My sister went on a field trip, I don’t know where. I wasn’t able to contact her or even my family in the province. The internet connection is out, cell phone service is down, telephone lines are down. I had no way of reaching out into the world outside and know what was happening to the others. I prayed -- like I have never prayed before. You can think as if I was summoning all the forces of the Jedi knights and all the spirits of the underworld. It was like that -- praying for my family's safety, my relatives, my friends and all the families affected by the raging storm.

I was just lying there, praying within the four apple-green painted walls that surround me--alone, tired, cold, worried, scared and I couldn't stop the flow of tears running down my freezing cheeks as  turn about in bed unaware of the world outside -- just the echo of the heavy rain banging on the rooftops and the ear-splitting shrill of the wind. Just as I was about to make another impatient turn in bed, a knock came at the door, sat me right up. And then the lights went out.

I was not alone.

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