I just want to share this story written by Evrhoy Coja, a friend of my husband. He is presently studying at TUP Visayas. I hope you enjoy reading and learn lessons from the story.
While trying to cross the lake, my great great grandfather who was a fisherman in their town saw one piece of a pair of slipper floating in the cold water. Looking around, he wondered where it came from. He assumed it belonged to someone from an affluent family seeing its quality. He couldn't wear it as the size was that of a little boy.
While trying to cross the lake, my great great grandfather who was a fisherman in their town saw one piece of a pair of slipper floating in the cold water. Looking around, he wondered where it came from. He assumed it belonged to someone from an affluent family seeing its quality. He couldn't wear it as the size was that of a little boy.
When he arrived home, he gave this one slipper to my great grandfather. The son told his father it's completely useless having only one of the pair, and returned it back. His father insisted telling him to just keep it.
Hundred years after, I met this young beautiful lady in a party of a friend. Her name was Kris. She was so attractive that I couldn't leave the gathering without asking for her number. To make the story short, we became friends, close friends, and I started courting her.
Hundred years after, I met this young beautiful lady in a party of a friend. Her name was Kris. She was so attractive that I couldn't leave the gathering without asking for her number. To make the story short, we became friends, close friends, and I started courting her.
One day, he asked me to come over their house to meet her family.
In their house, I met more than her family; I met the pair of that slipper passed on to me by my ancestors. I could remember the night my dad showed it to me. He told me to continue that keeper's oath, preserving that piece of seemingly useless thing.
The other pair was framed in glass, and was displayed at the center of their living room. It was like I'm looking at the mirrored replica of that slipper hidden at my cabinet. Same brown sole, rattan strap, greyish instep, but this one looked more preserved.
Kris narrated the life of that other pair. It was her great grand aunt who was a chamber maid before that picked up that pair while doing her laundry at the bay side, and gave it to her sister. Her sister was Kris' great grand mother, and the keeper of the other pair was passed on their lineage.
The importance of that pair of slippers was nevertheless unimportant for me. I didn't care if it's vintage, or costs ten folds than an ordinary Havaianas. I don't even mind if it'll just turn to gold or dust one day. But having the reunion excites me, like I have never been so thrilled before in my entire life. It's like putting parts of a star and have some fancy powers to dominate earth, or assembling a toy robot to make it dance.
I broke the vow of my forefathers. I surrendered our pair to Kris' family. Even if I wasn't meant to love Kris in my entire life; I have put a happy ending to a love story that never dies for a century. It reminded me of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "A Very Long Engagement". If it's meant to happen, love shall wait.
Kris married a doctor, but I still have a chance to visit her, having the slippers as an excuse. She had her three sons. One day, when I had my visit, one of her sons sat on my lap and asked me to read to him an anecdote written on his story, as the passage states:
One day, intending to cross Laguna de Bay, the boy Rizal rode on a boat. While in the middle of the lake, he accidentally dropped one of his slippers into the rough waters. The slipper was immediately swept away by the swift strong currents. Do you know what he did? He intentionally dropped the other slipper into the water. When somebody asked why he did such a thing, he remarked, "A slipper would be useless without its mate".
Yeah, I guess Rizal never realized that it might happen a hundred years after.
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