Flashbacks, memories of her place, the wilderness and gunshots, the dead Filipino people on the river of bloodstreams, hiding guerillas, betrayal of "makapili"s", the j.a.panese officer as her fiancee who threatened her mother and she was part of the hopeless agreement. Undaunted, but all these were imprinted in her mind converted into tears, cascading to her eyes while she heard likely some noise around, still her auditory sense was weak to clearly hear the source of clatters. Yet, she never opened her eyes and pretended to be that still and pondered in disbelief. " Wait...I fell in that hole, maybe...this is heaven. But I am on a bed, my back could feel a very smooth cloth. My feet have...what could be those things worn by my feet, socks, they"re awesomely so soft. Why my body is thickly covered, who did it? Why he/she/they took good care of me? Are they nice? Could this be heaven? What happened to me after that accident? what was that hole for? where was the well? what was the silhouette all about? what day is it today?" Magee asked all by herself and was confused about everything. Minutes later, she thought she"s already alone due to the absence of noise. Though, she could just only hear a huge sound of flowing waters from nowhere but there had been no paces of heavy footwears stamping on the wooden floors. Unintentionally, she was able to open her eyes.
" Ahhhhhh!" Magee heavily shouted and covered her entire face while looking at the faces of big men in clean cut - hair cut and all"s wearing brown military uniforms. Her sweats goes out again on her forehead and neck like pebbles as she palpitated, turning her eyes around looked like mutated marbles.
" Shh..." One of the men signaled her to calm down.
Then someone waived a hand to another army guy in his mid 20"s who stood at the doorway, somewhat inviting him to interpret something, so to help them all communicate better. Then that Filipino guy motioned toward them and seated beside Magee.
" Hmm...Narciso tawag nilan kanak, former music teacher, taga Tikaban isab ako sang-awon, unan pangan mo bubay? ngani gahuya mga guerilla nato. Aw ini silan, mga Germans, awon isab mga Americans consultant ta. Lima isab kaming Filipino guerillas yagahuya ngani, ang iban yaga panaw-panaw o under secret deployment. Then he smiled at her as a sign of rea.s.surance and safety.
" Lumon, Magee pangan ko...yahulog ako sang kadakol na butas, pasinG.o.d ako sang balon para maghakot sang yeel, pagkatapos, yatanak kanak tsinelas, kamangon ko pa sana adon, aw, yahulog da ako sidtong butas."
Narciso turned his head, stood up and winked an eye to all of them, smiling.
" Strange. She could speak more than three dialects at a time and I presumed she"s educated."
"Yes, she is!" George and Albrecht curiously interrupted.
" What does that mean? Can we trust her too?" Michael exclaimed.
" Of course!" The Captain looked irately to Michael.
" Maybe we can trust her. Its just two weeks since the j.a.panese invasion had started and I"m pretty sure they have not penetrated well in the village. But I guess we"ll just question her little by little then later ask her some information we need to know when she"s fully rested. She slept for two days long." Narciso smiled to the men in uniform.
" Wow! can"t imagine how many dreams she"d got." The American soldiers laughed at Narciso.
One of the Germans called Bruno, stood up, and stopped them from laughing.
" You guys have to allow this lady to rest, she"d suffered a lot from your damaged foxhole. It was just a miracle that she survived. Good Lord she made it here on her way sound and safe."
" Thank you Sir, I never thought it"s a foxhole that my grandpa kept telling us. I was just looking for the well with my bucket but I was lost. So...so thank you all for making me alive." Then she cried.
"Hey, hey...you can speak English? sounds fluent though, you also can speak your mother tongue and the rest of your dialects here? Who taught you with the English alphabet?" The American soldiers rushed beside her.
" My grandpa. He"s not actually my biological grandpa but he taught us a lot of manners, values and of course, anything within the limits of intelligence. He kept so many books and took them out when he"s giving us lessons. He"s a great writer and storyteller." Magee smiled at them
" Beautiful! " As mentioned by a German soldier Bruno.
" What"s beautiful?" The Captain"s eyes flared and asked.
" Uhm, her story is beautiful Sir, getting educated in a certain crash course, home-based and that"s also why she"s craving to learn more dialects and likes to explore learning." Bruno explained.
" I see, okay gentlemen. I want to meet all of you, outside!"
" Yes, Sir." Then all of them marked their salute.
" Lady, stay where you are, don"t worry, you"re safe here." Then all the men in uniform got out and followed their captain while she was left alone, a.n.a.lyzing things.
" Consultants. I think they are spy eyeing and tracking the j.a.panese movement. Whatever, but thank G.o.d...I"m out of their agreement now. Marrying someone against my will is a terrible suicide." Magee thought as she recalled all her struggles inside the foxhole then tearfully sighed.
Meanwhile, someone came in.
" Hi Magee, I"m George, from the US army. I"m one of the occupants here and one of my role is more of briefing visitors and recruits . Can I sit down, and orient you around?"
" Sure." She smiled at him.
" Thank you."
" We are under j.a.panese invasion and I presumed you know that. All of us who came had some hunches that the pearl harbor had been their target last week. Likewise, I"m sorry because you"ll never know the 90% information about our special orders in the army and the rest of our plans. However, since you fell from our burrowed foxhole and joined us inside this 200 square meter rocky s.p.a.ce inside where you really need to put a little sacrifice on this. But when this war is over, of course, you can freely go. There"s only one entrance and exit - and that"s the water falls, it serves as our door here. Once a member gets inside, he would really take a shower from the waterfalls same as when he go out which will take the sideways going down. The manner of sending communication is through bow and arrow. The member would write the message on a paper, using codes, insert it in the arrow and send it here, after reading it and if it requires a response we"ll do the same way. Everyday we burrow another hole to a different direction and shall have another pa.s.sage as exit soon. For now, these men inside serves as the planner and we have different men who executes outside. When you were sleeping for two days, we tracked your fostet family and found out that Hakanori, the head combatant was your fiancee. I"m sorry to tell you but everyone in your family were executed and died....
" What? that"s not true!" Then she heavily cried.
"...it was just yesterday after Hakanori knew that you were not on their wedding and thought that you escaped. Our commander was saddened by your situation and we"re sorry we can"t send you back home. Again, I was a.s.signed to guide and train you around so please...just ask me whenever you need help, though our Captain was asking the least if what you can do to help us or do we need to ask you to join hands with us.
Magee got out from bed and sat down on a bamboo chair. She was still in deep sorrow thinking the great loss her family do not deserve.
" This is the saddest news I ever have. Days ago we still joyfully shared our - last dinner then I fell into the hole and they all died."
" True. By the way, we are at war and you need to be strong-willed. We don"t compare our pains because they"re all heartbreaking but we all need to move on. By the way, at 1500 hrs today there"d be a meeting outside. We"re informing you ahead of time so you know where you stay when they arrive. We set this small corner for your privacy. Supposed in the next days you"ll be ready to help us, please let us know, Magee." He smiled and almost tap her shoulder.