Me Without You (25 page)

Jonah looked away from Xavier and saw
the biggest tree just a few feet away from her. She remembered Hugh
doing something funny to the tree when they used to meet by the
pond to give her information about Xavier's progress. She smiled a
bit.

Jonah stood up and went to do what Hugh
did to the tree. Although, it took about three people to really
cover the whole trunk of the tree, Jonah encircled her arms around
it. She leaned her ear closer to the trunk and listened. She can
hear laughter coming from the inside of the tree. She withdrew a
bit and listened again. She heard nothing. She leaned once more and
heard the laughter again. And when she closed her eyes, she saw
different faces, among them was Hugh. Then, she sensed safety and
love. It was like belonging. She had felt nothing like it
before.

"What are you doing?" Xavier called
out, interrupting Jonah. He only knew of one person who would do
such a silly thing. He had watched Hugh once or twice clinging to a
tree and listening to it, claiming he can hear it whisper its
secrets.

Jonah opened her eyes. Embarrassed to
have been caught in what looked like an odd behavior, she said,
"Well, Hugh once told me about—"

"The secret of the trees," Xavier
finished for Jonah.

Jonah brushed herself off and went back
to where Xavier was seated. She plopped herself down beside
him."How did you feel when you first found out?" Jonah
asked.

Xavier followed Jonah's gaze and
settled on the tree. He looked like he was in deep thought and
hadn't heard her. Then, in a grave tone, he said, "First, I was
afraid. I was petrified—"

"Oh, shut up, X!" Jonah said and
laughed.

Xavier resumed pokerfaced
and began to hum the tune of Diana Ross' famous song,
I Will Survive
. Then, his
face broke into a beautiful grin, until he could no longer hold it
and laughed along with her.

Jonah and Xavier guffawed until they
were rolling on the ground and tears were streaming down their
cheeks. The laughter died down but the tears continued to flow
effortlessly. They were both lying on their backs, watering the
blood-red earth with their tears.

And when Jonah rolled to her side and
pinned her ear on the ground the way she recalled Hugh did, the
earth also whispered its secrets to her. Unlike the secret of the
tree, the earth brought nothing but anguish—the kind of sadness
known only to loss through death. As she closed her eyes to listen
some more, she saw various, nameless faces flashed through her,
among them, she recognized the familiar and smiling face of Brice.
She curled up and kept on letting the tears flow.

Xavier wailed even louder. Then, he
wailed some more. It sounded like an overly exaggerated weeping. He
built up the blown-out wailing some more until it sounded funny and
fake. Then, he burst out laughing again.

Jonah imitated Xavier and cried loudly
and dramatically. In less than a minute, she was also laughing
again.

Xavier sniffed loudly and sat up. He
wiped his face off. In a more controlled voice, he began opening up
towards Jonah. He said, "How should one feel if he was told he had
a terrible disease? I did not think about it. I did not feel it. I
was numb. Each day, I grew number. Until I could not feel a thing
anymore. Not even death affects me. It is worth than dying itself,
don't you think? Then, one day, there was you and you brought
something back. I felt it when you touched me. You gave me joy.
Now, I fear death. I fear going away and not being with
you."

Jonah also sat up and put her arms
around Xavier. She looked up and met his tearful eyes. She bent
near him as he lowered his head and both their lips locked in a
kiss.

It did not take long before Jonah felt
the hard punch in her stomach and she became limp. Xavier must have
sensed it too because he pulled away gently.

"I'm sorry," Jonah uttered
weakly.

"I know. I can feel it," Xavier said.
"The first time you touched me, I felt like I have taken something
from you and it is making me strong. I figured the effect on you is
the other way around."

"Don't you think it's funny? It's like
having an irritable bowel syndrome," Jonah said and
chuckled.

"Gosh, I never imagined I will have
that kind of effect on a woman before," Xavier replied and joined
Jonah laughing out loud.

"Is that why you think I am the new
healer?" Jonah asked when she had composed herself
again.

"Yes," Xavier replied. "Jervais said
something about sealing it—"

"Aunt Judith said the new healer has a
year and fortnight after our mother's death to complete her phase
to become truly powerful but she has to seal it by giving life to a
dying one," Jonah told Xavier. She had the vision of Xavier at his
healthiest state and her strength was coming back little by
little.

"And then, what happens?" Xavier
asked.

"I guess she becomes a full-pledge
healer—powerful and immortal," Jonah answered.

"Do you want it?" Xavier
asked.

Jonah ran her knuckles lightly through
Xavier's face. "I would want it for you," she told him.

"But I will have to die sometime. And
you— you won't die," Xavier replied. "You will live all over again
and again and again, forever. Then, we will never be together after
this lifetime. I want us to be together for eternity. Beyond
death."

"But I can't lose you—what five years
from now? Ten years from now? That is too short a time to be
together," Jonah said.

"Two years or shorter," Xavier said. "I
know. But if we both believe that death is not the end of it
all—then we will be together someday— forever."

Jonah did not give Xavier an answer.
Instead, she lay back on the ground and put her ear closer to the
earth. Tears were again cascading down her cheeks.

From a far, Hugh had an uninterrupted
view of Jonah and Xavier. He touched the ground with his bare hand
and tears began forming in his eyes. He did not only hear the
anguish of death. He also captured the pain of Jonah's heart. He
had never felt closer to her before than he did at the moment even
from a distance.

The Poisoned
Blood

The guests were all gone when Jonah
arrived from her walk with Xavier. And even Jane, Jervais and the
rest of the family members were nowhere to be seen.

The whole mansion was flooded with
lights. Everything was already in order. The table where the urn of
Brice's ashes was placed had become a miniature altar. Aside from
the white African violets, the scarf that Jonah had placed earlier
and Brice's photograph, more flowers in hues of violets and blues
were embellished around it.

"Hello!" Jonah called out. Her voice
was wavering in a rumble with the emptiness of the
place.

"Do you need anything, Ma'am?" It was
Mara, the house help, who appeared from the doorway, carrying with
her a tray.

"Where is everybody?" Jonah
asked.

"Ma'am Judith is in her room. Ma'am
Jervais, Jenseen and Jerone left together. Ma'am Jane is in her
room as well," Mara said. "Would you like me to prepare
dinner?"

"No, thank you!" Jonah answered,
thinking she did not want to eat her dinner alone. "I'll eat with
Jane later."

"Ma'am Jane had asked me to bring hers
to her room in a while," Mara said.

"Make that two, Mara!" Jonah told
her.

Jonah immediately went to her room to
change her clothes. Then, she was in Jane's room, knocking at her
door. Without waiting for an answer, Jonah peeked in.

Jonah saw Jane packing her things.
There was a large suitcase on the bed and Jane was stashing her
clothes by colors. Jane had finished all the violets and was
starting on the blues.

"Jane, what's the meaning of this?"
Jonah asked. She sat on the bed with a thump and the suitcase
jumped an inch with her.

"Be careful, Jonah—" Jane said. "I
don't have time to redo this. And you know me, I want it neat and
orderly."

"Where are you going, Jane?" Jonah
asked.

"God, Jonah," Jane said nervously. "I
can't stay here anymore. After what happened to Brice, I don't
think I will be able to sleep peacefully in this house." She went
to her closet and took out more of her blue blouses and folded them
perfectly.

"What are you talking about?" Jonah
said.

Jane stopped what she was doing and sat
on the bed, until she was face-to-face with Jonah. "The police are
ruling out suicide. It was a foul play. They think Brice was either
pushed or he was forced to jump out of the window. Nothing other
than his laptop was taken," Jane said.

"What could be in his laptop that was
so important for it to be taken?" Jonah asked.

"I don't know," Jane said. "What I know
is that this has something to do with the healer thing. We are
being hunted one by one. They won't stop unless we are all dead.
And it is scaring me a lot. If only we know something about the new
healer—"

"What good will that do?" Jonah said.
"Even if we know who the new healer is, will it spare the rest of
us who are not healers?"

"Don't you get it? Aunt Judith said the
healer's got immense power bestowed upon her. Each one of us became
easy targets because the healer is deemed to be vulnerable at this
time. But once she seals it and the power is finally hers, these
people—whoever they are—will finally leave the rest of us alone.
Think about it, does your mother face this kind of harassment ever?
People are scared shit of her." Jane said.

"But where will you go?" Jonah
said.

Jane stood up and went back to her
closet. She came out with a pile of blue shirts. "I honestly don't
know!" Jane uttered. She paused and looked around her room. "I have
been in this house all my life. And I thought, I would be spending
the rest of my life here. I could not think of any world aside from
here. But this is not a safe place anymore."

"Jane," Jonah said in a low murmur. She
wasn't even sure Jane heard her. However, she felt timid about it.
She knew that she was not Jane's responsibility. After all, she had
come of age. But she didn't know how to be on her own. Like Jane,
she never imagined any other world aside from that which was
familiar to her."What about me?"

Jane dropped the pile of shirts
carelessly on top of the others and went to Jonah. She reached out
for Jonah and hugged her. "Oh, you poor thing! Do you think I was
going to leave you here?" She stroked Jonah's hair and bent down to
kiss her soundly on the forehead. "Of course, you are coming with
me, aren't you?"

Jonah felt a sinking feeling in her
stomach. She wanted to be with Jane but she also did not want them
to leave.

"Jane, let us stay," Jonah replied. "We
need to be together now of all time. We are stronger together as a
family—"

Jane tilted Jonah's face so she could
meet her gaze, "We were never a family, Jonah. You and me, yes.
Sometimes, you and Jervais. Other times. you, Jervais and Brice.
But as a whole, we only shared the same blood running through our
veins. But this blood is poisoned. That's why we are not a family."
She stood up and continued her packing silently.

* * * * *

In the meantime, Xavier was amazed that
he had made it to his house. Right after he took Jonah home, he had
to drive himself all the way to his own home with the sudden attack
of chills which only stopped for almost ten minutes and start all
over again. He couldn't even remember if he had closed the car door
behind him as he rushed to his room and wrapped himself in a thick
blanket as the chills started again. It was all too
sudden.

Helen Lively was in a panic mode when
she heard Xavier had returned home. She was the very first person
Xavier had run into on his way up to his room. By the looks of
Xavier, Helen automatically knew something was wrong.

Fortunately, Dr. Lively was at home and
he was immediately by their side taking Xavier's temperature which
had gone up pretty fast.

Gilda was also there. She was sitting
beside Xavier on his bed and running her hands a few inches above
his outline.

Just then, Hugh arrived. He immediately
knew that Xavier was not alright.

"We need to get you to the hospital,
X," Dr. Lively announced.

"No," Xavier said stubbornly. His chin
pointed upward in a determined way. "I will never set foot in a
hospital if I can help it. You will have to drag me kicking and
fighting all the way there if you are going to force me which will
only make things worse for all of us."

"I don't have what's necessary to check
on you to see what's wrong," Dr. Lively said gently. "Son, for all
we know, you may have a sepsis or malaria. We can't be
sure."

"Don't you get it? This is because of
my poisoned blood and nothing more. But the more I try to heal
myself, the worse I get. I need to give it up and try to live. I am
still alive—NOW!" Xavier said.