The bearer of bad news

"Hello? Hello? Anybody there? Echoo0O... Echo0O"

My phone was practically shrieking already, possibly exasperated from my chronic tardiness. I was sure I killed its snooze alarm at five am, thus my sudden puzzled look.

Then as if on cue, the tone just stopped. 7am. I was supposed to wake up at 6am. But as I looked onto my phone, I noticed that it wasn’t an alarm, ‘twas a missed call from an unknown number.

And as if to answer my imminent “hu u po” question, my phone started to vibrate twice.

“Itay died last night. Please call your mom and ask if she’ll be coming to the Philippines – Tita Mina.”

Pause. Then it dawned to me. A death and a task, how convenient. I have never been a good messenger of death. Should I be the one to break the news to my mom? They’ve probably thought so as I was her son.

After a few tries and a couple of answering machines, my mom’s house phone stopped it’s ringing with a husky “hello.” Not my brother Vincent. Possibly Jeff, my mom’s boyfriend (yeah, how convenient to have her american boyfriend with the same name as mine).

“Hi, Cora please?” I muttered.

(Sorry, I have to switch into tagalong mode …)

“She’s not here, who is this?” Ang sunget, parang sobrang istorbo ako. Loko to ah!

“It’s Jeff, may I speak to my mom?” Kala mo.

“Oh, hi Jeff, sorry your mom just went to work.” Malamang.

“Ok, sorry did I wake you up or something? I just wanted to talk to mom regarding somethin’” Teka, diba mga 5pm ng hapon dun? Bakit sila matutulog, napagkamalan siguro akong nagbebenta ng kung ano ano.

“I just wanted to tell her that Itay just died”

“Itay who?” Putek napagkamalan pang pangalan ang itay. Alam mo un, ung parte ng katawan na nasisira pag madalas kang uminom ng alak.

“I meant, her dad just died.”

“Oh” Ayan speechless ka. Weh….

“Is Vince there?” Siguro naman matino kausap tong kapatid ko.

“Hey, wuzzup” Vince on the line. Putek, teenager nga pala tong kapatid ko.

“I was trying to call mom on her mobile, but realized she must be at work still, so I called the house instead. Can you tell her to call me back once she gets home or something? Itay just died. ”

“Oh yeap, sure” Teenagers.

“Can you call inay? Ask her if she’s ok or something.”

“Ok”

Asus, makapag good bye na nga, sayang lang sa load.

“Thanks, bye.”

“Bye.”

It’s a bit hard being the bearer of bad news. But I guess someone has to do it. Last night I finally got hold of my mom. As expected she tried to be all formal in her replies. She spoke some instructions of the four W’s for the funeral and in case I need to help out. But somewhere in between the “good thing tito Neo just came back to the Philippines” and “at least it my lolo’s suffering would end” I heard her try to hold back tears.

Today I’ll be going to batangas with my dad (my lola’s arch enemy, ex-arch enemy pala). Glad he agreed to accompany me. It’d be weird though for him, I guess.

Sorry for no updates, been really busy lately with work and family stuff. Though February will be one of my busiest, I’ll try my best to post some heart-sy mushy post. Hehe. Till next time! :P

P.S. Thank you to those who texted and gave YM condolence messages last night.