A Past with an Alien

CHAPTER 45

IRIS

I kept fixing the sleeve of my Filipiniana gown, estimating whether the cut was correct or sewn just as I expected. I couldn't breathe, or maybe I had gained weight again. I was inside our blue Honda Civic car parked on the sidewalk near the school perimeter fence. My son Hector was beside me, and he drove me here. I am forty-five now, while my son is twenty-two. He is a civil engineering student in Manila. We were here because today was Poblacion Elementary School's 2017 grand alum homecoming.

I put out the compact mirror inside my bag and checked my makeup. I did it alone because I was too lazy to attend a beauty parlor. I spent more time on my Filipiniana outfit, which looked too tight-fitting. My face was plump and rounder now, but in all fairness, I still had no signs of wrinkles at all.

"Ma, could you stop looking at your face in the mirror?" Hector protested. They said he looked more like Albert when he was the same age as him, but others say he had my eyes. "You're already beautiful," he said.

He was such a sweet talker, like his father. Last night he kept bantering that I'm not sexy anymore and that I shouldn't expect if all my clothes don't fit me anymore. He and Albert had much in common when they talked to me like that.

"Knock it off! You've been saying that since last night. I'm leaving now." I grasped the car door lock and glanced at him one last time. "Wait for your father on Skype tonight."

I smacked him on his left cheek and climbed out of the car. The homecoming program should be at four, yet we arrived at three in the afternoon.

Walking towards the school's gate, I noticed the cars, SUVs, and vans flooding the sidewalk. I smelled fresh paint on the walls because the renovation had just ended yesterday. And today was Saturday, so I expected more alums to come tonight. I passed the gate while the security guard greeted me with a smile. Along the way, some of my co-teachers greeted me too, and they were the younger batch of teachers here. I'm a senior teacher now.

When I entered the campus, I passed a new three-story building that used to be part of the quadrangle. As time has passed, the number of students enrolling in this school has tripled. Whenever I walk this path, I can't help but reminisce about what happened here twenty years ago—that gruesome war with the aliens. I will never forget it.

Sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night because it was always a part of my nightmare. But now, I have learned to live and cope with it. Those memories have become a part of my everyday life. I would not have lived for twenty years without conquering all the anxiety and trauma I got from them. That will always be my secret.

I have not heard of Marinagua anymore, which makes me wonder. We last saw each other ten years ago, but I still have the shell they gave me, and I put it in a box. I hid it from my family because I had to protect them. I don't want them to suffer like I did twenty years ago. It's enough that it only happened to me.

Sometimes I feel like I have a memory gap. I don't remember what happened to me ten years ago. The twenty years were unforgettable, but my life leaped one decade further. Or maybe I'm just too busy with my job that I never think about what day it is at any moment. I work hard every day because it helps me cope with my trauma.

I saw people hanging around in the school corridors and checked my classroom first.

"Iris!" Someone called my name, which stopped me from going.

I glanced behind my back, and my eyes widened in surprise. "Miranda!"

She just popped in front of me like an apparition. That made me crazy when I saw her. I rushed toward her and curled my arms around her waist.