When Back In Time

TWO DAYS had passed but luck was still not on her side. She still couldn't find Pepe.

Deep inside, she knew he was alright. He is somewhere out there who might be alone and looking for her. And someday she's going to see him.

And, also, she hasn't seen Bangun Bangun ever since the time she pulled her back to this year 1892.

Every day made her very anxious.

And this man who saved Esperanza is also worrying her.

She opened the wooden window of her bedroom and peeked down to see Pepe 2, her savior.

Down below, he was standing in front of his house and was having an intimate conversation with another woman. Yes. Another woman.

It's his third woman this early in the afternoon. Yesterday he was flirting with, if she remembered correctly, a dozen or more.

His fingers tuck in the woman's stray hair behind her left ear. The woman giggled sheepishly while tucking her hair in her left ear back and forth.

'This guy is a lover boy and it is not very obvious with his looks,' she thought to herself.

When the two are finished, the woman bid her goodbye and turned her back on him blissfully.

When she's no longer near, Esperanza called out to him, "Ilan ba ang mga babae mo?" (How many women do you have?)

Pepe looked up and at her in shocked and in shook his head with a smile on his face.

When Esperanza went downstairs, she saw Pepe 2 was in his study room, writing letters.

He is not a handsome man in her own opinion. But lots of girls in this town were mesmerized of his beauty, and Esperanza didn't know whether she believed them or not. 'Well people have their own preferences,' she thought to herself, 'But really? He had been flirting a dozen times and I really don't know why they fantasize him? I mean, to me, he is not handsome, he is not tall nor an ideal man. He is rather smart, based on what I observed because he always studies in his study room in his leisure time aside from flirting. I think there is really something on him that hook the women up. Maybe, he has charisma?'

She really was curious about how he can always, the moment he went outside his house, attracts many swarming ladies.

She asked him, "Nasa edad trienta anyos ka na po diba? Bakit tila napapansin ko wala ka pang maybahay? Eh, sa rami rami ng mga nagkakarandarapang babae sa labas bakit tila hindi ka pa kinakasal?" (You are on your 30's right? Why is it, as I notice, that you still don't have a wife? Eh, there are a lot of women out there chasing you but still, you are not married?)

He stopped writing and put down the feather pen on the desk. He looked at her and said, "Hindi ko kailangan pang magpakasal ulit dahil mayroon na akong inirog. At ito ay ang aking asawa." (I don't need to get married again because I already have a lover and this lover of mine is my wife)

"Ano?" (What?) Then esperanza thought to herself, 'He already has a wife but he still has the audacity to flirt with other women?'

He told Esperanza his tale. It was a long time ago when something did happen to him that caused him not to see her wife for a long time, even now.

'Why?' she thought to herself, 'Whenever I met married people they' re always apart with either their wife or husband? Just like the man I met in the woods here in Cebu whose name is Saragnayan and who was looking for his wife. And like Yawa who's still waiting for his husband's arrival. And also, Clara back in Luzon who's miserable and lonely on her house and still patiently waited for her husband. What is with this era anyway? Why all of their loved ones were apart from them? '

As he continued, It was then, he was arrested for a crime he did. A crime he did for his nation, for the sake of the people in his nation.

He admitted he was against the government and don't like how the colonizers, Spaniards, mistreated his fellow men. He also admitted that though he's a rebel but he never wields a sword to fight and shed blood on his beloved nation's soil. He believed that everything can be settled not through violence but in diplomacy. He believed that the Filipinos needed to be awakened from their slumber and blinded belief with the colonizer and started to reclaim their own nation.

He admitted that is his crime. His crime that cost him his life and opportunity to see his family for a while.

"Katulad ka rin pala ni Andres Bonifacio," she said to him (You are like Andres Bonifacio)

He looked at her in surprise and asked her how did she know Andres.

She told him that she and her friend, Pepe, once meet Andres in Tondo. Andres had helped her friend Pepe to escape the prison.

Pepe 2 said, indeed, he was the same with Andres. Andres was a very brave and patriotic lad. But he did not like his idea of revolting using bolos against the enemy. He also said that this nation did not need such harsh violence. It only needs unity from each other to conquer their enemies.

But alas, he too thinks that there is nothing he can do anymore. He just heard revolution erupted in Luzon that causes battle and bloodshed.

Esperanza looked at his sad face.

Esperanza was not from this era and did not share the same sentiments with the other people living in this era. She didn't encounter people being maltreated by the Spaniards because she was too busy running off from her pursuers. But she now could see through this man's eyes the sorrow that he and this nation was facing. As what she learned from her friend Pepe was that people here are divided with their beliefs. Some sided with their enemies and some sided to fight for their nation. Just like Pepe's father, he was a guardia civil (civil guard) under the Spanish Regime. His job is to silence all the rebel who is against the government including his son.

'And if I will not find Jose Rizal soon, will this era get worse and will the future change?' she thought to herself worriedly. 'I really do need to complete my task soon'

He continued, "Kaya nandito ako sa lugar malayo sa aking tahanan, malayo sa aking minamahal upang magtago." (That's why I'm in this place far away from my home, far away from my beloved in order to hide)

"Pero," Esperanza's eyebrows furrowed, "Itong siyudad na ito ay punong-puno ng mga awtoridad sa pamumuno ng Espanya. Sigurado at napakaimposible na hindi pa napapadito ang mga guardia civil at dinakip ka. Ibig kong sabihin, itong siyudad na ito ay napakaliit at maraming tao na nasalamuha mo ay maaaring binulong ka agad sa mga tenga ng mga awtoriadad" (But, This city is basically full of people under the authority of Spanish Regime. Surely and it is impossible that civil guard never ventured here and arrested you. I mean, this city is not that small and many people you have met might have already whispered you to the ears of the authorities)

He said that she should not be worried. He had a friend who's helping him out and the people here are not going to betray him and sell him to the authorities.

"Talaga? (Really?)" she asked.

The man looked with a smile on his face.

A feeling of vague recognition on him still bugs her. Why did he really look familiar to her? Why?

The nightfall came.

As the Pepe 2 slept on his bedroom, Esperanza went outside the house wearing a male's attire, camisa de chino (white shirt) and pants and a strawhat on her head. Underneath her strawhat, her hair was tied as a bun neatly. On her hand was, instead of a crutch, she's using a cane to support her.

She looked at the quiet surrounding under the moonlight. She then lowered her strawhat and began to walk.

It is ordained by the law that women are not allowed to go walking outside their house during nighttime and most especially after the curfew.

That's why she disguised herself as a man in hope to achieve her mission this night.

Since during the morning, she could not go outside because of the fear of stumbling upon her killer, she decided to do this during the night where people could not perceive clearly her face.

And her mission, for the time being, was simple.

She followed the road which led to a small town, not far from the Pepe 2's house. There, she observed the quiet street illuminated by torches. A small number of men were walking on the street, some were busy on their duty as a civil guard and while the other's where off to somewhere for dark businesses.

As she stood there on the street, she lifted her head to catch the sight of the biggest house in the town.

It was the biggest bahay-na-bato (stone house) with glamorous and lavish decoration from inside and out.

Her eyes scanned every window of this said house, trying to locate or even observe the movements inside.

Someone hit her from her back.

When she turned around, lowering her hat in order to prevent the person to see her face.

The person was drunk and apologized to her.

He straightened up and walked wobbly across the street towards the big house. He touched his well-trimmed mustache and c.a.r.e.s.sed it as he went inside the house, intoxicated.

That's him.

Change of plan. 'I've got a new mission for the meantime. I may have failed my missions before but I swear I will not screw this up. You are going to pay. An eye for an eye. Teeth for teeth. And blood for blood. Mark my words Agustin, you will pay for what you've done to me and to Pepe'

She thought as she turned her back, exited the lone street under the moonlight.