On tin cans and borrowed boxes

TRAILS UP NORTH
Glo Abaeo Tuazon

The land is tilted and the soil loose from excavations caused by slides and people digging up the victims underneath the rubbles. Everything is in disarray and probably will stay that way for a long time. The look on everyone’s face is grim, as grim as the future that for now seemed a long distance away, the vision covered by the hulking mass of disturbed earth.

On the other side a tiny lady looks away after staring at a spot where her house used to stand, her eyes moist from the bitter memory and an uncertain future. Nada is the word, nothing. Nothing left of what used to be life for her family. What she and her family have are the clothes that are now clinging to their bodies and the crackers they nibble on given by people.

The children that noisily used to run and tumble along the terrains of the mountain are now quiet, the eerie silence slowly eating up their innocence. A trauma that would leave them dented for the rest of their lives. Some would eventually cope up, pick up where they left and start life again. Some would be stunted by the facts. The children should be crying, but after a few days from the tragedy, they are somber and silent which is a scary thing. We would not know what’s on their minds.

An aged man sat crumpled in a corner, holding on to his walking stick like it was comfort. He refused to eat for awhile, shooing away the plastic cups of noodles given to him. Water is enough he says. He mourns in the corners of his mind, his child and his grandchildren lined in body bags before him. Silently in his grief, he asks why he couldn’t have gone instead of them. He is old and shriveled anyway, done his time and dealt with life. Can he bargain for even one life exchanged for his? He slinks away and curls in the cold corner.

In most evacuation centers, a group comes then and again, bringing with them tin foods and plastic packets of noodles to give around to affected families -- a few pieces of used clothes to use while they figure out how to move on. A few pounds of rice and a toy or two for the kids, its not much but it does a lot of good for the moment.

Walking back to the school where the bodies were first taken, i went in to check and found it unoccupied except for less than a dozen empty makeshift coffins. Lifting the lids showed signs of use. These were part of the many coffins made and donated to house the many bodies during the recovery operations. Though some families bought commercial coffins with the help of relatives later on, most lost everything and could not provide coffins for their dead. These used coffins are now vacated, awaiting the new wave of casualties when they would have been found and recovered.

There is terror in most eyes coupled by uncertain, empty stares. Death and destruction took their toll and slumbered in satisfaction, hibernated for awhile until they get hungry again and look for unsuspecting land and people to feed on. The Gemini couple knew that the human specie is a hard lot. People should learn and start from this. -- Email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com