Fog
(this one is a failure. Enjoy it anyway.)
Sitting at the back seat of the car, Lacelle looks through her veil to the other vehicles her ride is passing one at a time. The engine is quiet and she could hardly feel any tremor though the driver cuts from one lane of the road to the other and then back. She holds the box she carried with her, wrapped neatly as a present near to her thigh to prevent it from falling off the seat. A card was placed on top of it, with the words: “Why this? Goodbye. Joseph”, which she quickly hid under the seat to prevent the driver to notice it. The sky is rather dark and there are tiny traces of rain drops on the car window when she notices the driver turns on the windshield wiper as the sky began to cry.
Biting her lower lip, Lacelle wishes to see more cars pass through theirs when her ride turns towards an open gate of a church. She could see a couple of people who seems to be waiting for someone whom they are expecting anytime to arrive. One of them walks back and forth from one side of the main door of the church to the other while another kept on wiping his face with a white handkerchief.
Lacelle looks at the other direction to the fence of the church. It is made up of metal bars with pointed end. A bird tries to land on one of the posts but because of its wetness, it slips and caught one of its wings to the tip of a spike making it fall senseless to the dip canal on the other side of the fence.
She crumples her skirt yet she could not feel the texture of the silk she is wearing due to the white gloves on her hands. Looking at her feet she barely recognizes it as her own because of the glass shoes with tiny chains they are wearing. She had one before, when she was still young, yet she could barely remember it. The ones still fresh to her mind are the black flat-heeled shoes she wore for six years until her eighteenth birthday four months ago when they finally gave in to their tiring work. Her father tried to give her new ones but could not afford to do so. An old associate of him gave Lacelle the ones she wore for the past 4 months. She received different gifts everyday since. Until that last gift she did not accept, a 21 carat diamond ring.
A strong right hand touches Lacelle’s shoulder, taking her away from her day dream. The car is now in front of the church’s main door. A man carrying an umbrella awaits her outside the back seat door of the car. He wears a matching black coat and pants with black tie and an earphone on his right ear. The man opened the door for Lacelle and waits for her to step out. She could barely move to the open door. The chains of her shoes seem to be connected to metal balls. The man looks inside the car, his eyes directly stares at Lacelle’s. Her heart beats faster making her move quickly yet burdened as she steps out of the car. Wetting her glass shoes, she left the box in the car.
The members of the entourage start to move a few moments after the organ started to play. Though the sound of the organ could be heard to the other side of the street, it evaded the eardrums of Lacelle who could only hear every drop of rain falling from the umbrella to her long skirt. Each drop sounding like the ones she heard on the sink three months ago while she was washing dishes. Mr. Karl Lopez gave her another gift.
“Another one?”
“Another one.” Karl answered with a grin. “Just think of it as a birthday present.”
“You gave me a birthday gift a month ago.” Lacelle continued her wok. Her eyes looked directly at the dishes she was washing. “Why?”
“It was your birthday. It is not everyday that you turn eighteen.”
“No Mr. Lopez,” Lacelle looked straight at the forty-five year old man wearing white pants and a white coat with a black shirt. “Why this? Why give me gifts even if it’s no longer…”
“I wanted to.” Karl interrupted touching his newly clean shaven chin. “What Karl wants, Karl gets.”
“Sir, you are a good friend of my father,” Lacelle set her eyes again to her task at hand. “But I could…”
“Why don’t I open it for you?” Karl reached for the small box on the side of the sink and slowly opening it. “I’m pretty sure you would want this.”
“Mr. Lopez… its…” Lacelle could not take her eyes off the item. “No. I’m sorry, I could not…”
Lacelle could see fog slowly crawling, going inside the church. Her head followed it, though it seems she was the only one paying attention to the phenomena. The man holding the umbrella slightly pushes Lacelle to make her start walking the aisle. All eyes turn towards the bride who seems to float towards the altar on a cloud made by her wedding gown. She carries a bouquet of white tulips with both her hands. Beads formed white roses on the right chest side of the of the tube designed gown. Its long veil covered her face as if preventing her to move far from where she is walking. She is moving too slow, still burdened by the glass shoes. She did not walk like this before. She moved swiftly with her flat shoes as if her feet had wings. She could always hear Joseph complain.
“For God’s sake Lacelle,” Joseph stopped for the third time. They were walking for fifteen minutes straight up this hill. “Wait up! Are you planning to leave me?”
“Is that a metaphor?!!!” Lacelle answered with a smile peeking from her lips when she saw him walking again.
“No!!!” Joseph shouted when Lacelle moved further. “Of course not!!!”
Lacelle was carving her name on a tree by the time Joseph reached the peak.
“The tree is lucky,” Joseph pouted.
“Think so?”
“Know so,” Joseph sat on the grasses while extending his left hand to Lacelle.
She is about to accept his hand when an organ playing snaps her back to reality. Mr. Karl Lopez is extending his hand to her. As if a marionette’s, her hand accepted his and let it guide her to the side of the groom. She could see Karl’s false teeth when he grinned though he tries to hide them. His face is clearly covered with make-up foundation to hide the wrinkles on the far end side of his eyes. Lacelle turned her eyes to the priest who already began the ceremony.
(“In the name of the Father, and of the son…”)
“You were late,” Karl whispered to Lacelle, keeping his eyes to the priest. “Why did you keep me waiting?”
(“We are gathered here today to…)
“I’m sorry Mr. Lo…” Lacelle bit her lips, trying to find the right words he would want to here. “I mean… Karl, we hit…. traffic.”
(“Are there anyone present here who wish to…)
“Better wish traffic would be the only one that would hit you today,” turning his head slightly, Karl’s eyes stare at Lacelle.
A sudden chill crawled all over Lacelle’s neck. Her body wants to shiver yet it could not, as if every nerve is tied and then petrified. The words shouted by the speakers of the church found their way to her ears yet they faded to the abyss of her mind. She heard but could not hear. Lacelle looks to the door to her left, the fog is now half way in.
One of the bridesmaids with one of the groomsmen, as if battery operated, steadily marches towards the couple. Lacelle could see them carry an eight shaped chord, with black and white stripes that looks like giant handcuffs with small chains connected to each other. She carried one before, but forgot what its use is. The bridesmaid, now on Lacelle’s side, loops Lacelle inside the smaller loop of the chord that seems to give Lacelle just an inch of space for breathing. Lacelle looks at the groomsman as he loops the larger loop of the chord to Mr. Karl Lopez, giving the groom an entire world to own. Loops and knots were never Lacelle’s friends. She could make some but never really perfected the craft. The first time she tried to tie a knot ended with her trying to undone what she tied for three hours but seceded only after she used a knife she borrowed from Joseph. Now she is tied inside a loop that others would say impossible to undone, but she knew she did it before, she could do it again.
Lacelle let her eyes roam to her left and notice that outside, the wind now whips the leaves that are falling from the bending branches of the trees that are lined parallel to the side the church, looking like the people, who are with the man who carried the umbrella, now divided to pairs at each side of all ten doors of the church. Their shooes are all covered by the fog. She could not find traces of sunlight no matter hard she tries. The only light she could find are the ones given by the fluorescent lights scattered inside the church.
A pair from the entourage makes their way to a candle standing a few steps from the altar. The groomsman took out a lighter from his pocket and uses it to light the candle with the help of the bridesmaid. The flame dances with the whipping wind for a few seconds then died. The pair quickly re-lighted the candle yet the wind killed the flame with a single gust. Beads of sweat start to fall from the groomsman’s forehead as he looks at Mr. Karl Lopez now looking at him without a single blink. Trying again, the bridesmaid re-lighted the candle, using both hands to protect the flame right after she lighted it. Contented that the flame would no longer be blown out, the pair makes their way back to their seats, yet as they seat down to their places the flame flickers out.
Lacelle notices the irritation of Mr. Karl Lopez. He could not take his eyes from the candle. She knows Mr. Karl Lopez is grinding his teeth. She giggles to the thought of his false teeth would fall off because of what he is doing. Though she could not see them directly, she knows the groom already shifted his eyes from the candle to her. Hairs from her nape stand with the chill which is crawling from her head to his feet. Looking down, her glass shoes are now shaking. A feeling she first felt outside that hospital room.
“I will help, but..’’ Mr. Karl Lopez said while touching his chin. “But you must do what I want, when I want it.”
“Mr. Lopez?”
“No questions. No buts or no operation for your father.”
“You are friends with my father.”
“No my dear. Your father is a tool,” he took a cigar and bit off the tip, spitting it at the base of the door. “All worn out.”
“I thought..”
“And no thoughts.”
Lacelle hears two loud words coming out from the mouth of the man beside her. “I do,” he said. The words echoed through out the church. Her ears try to not hear those words but they could not stop the words pushing their way to Lacelles’s eardrums. The words circled around Lacelle’s brain, recording there selves to her nerves, exploring every nerve until it flows with the blood, like needles following the veins, to the bride’s heart.
Not a sound could be heard after those words. Lacelle could not even hear herself thinking. Lacelle feels a tight grip on her wrist. She sees an aged hand holding her tightly. Blood could no longer reach her finger nails turning their ones rosy color to white. Her eyes are fixed to the priest she could hardly see. Not a single sound comes out from the speakers and she could not smell the incense being prepared by the altar boy. The taste of her cherry flavored lipstick now left her lips and the chill given by the cold wind could not pierce through her skin. But the pain given is there, it is with the fog now starting to cover her knees. And she heard herself say the recorded words.
“I do”
The priest asks for the ring bearer to bring the ring to the couple. Lacelle looks at the boy who seems to be just five years old. She always dreamt of having a little brother. But all was just a wish. When she was ten, her father was forced to sell all of his business stocks to Mr. Karl Lopez for him to pay for her wife’s legal representative; she was accused of being a swindler. But all was in vein for her mother was jailed. They never found out who accused her. A few months later, Lacelle’s mother died of disease inside the prison. Ever since, Mr. Karl Lopez became sort of a friend of their family.
The rings are being blessed by the priest after the boy started to return to his seat. Although not having the same size, the rings are both twenty-one carat gold adorned with tiny pieces of diamond. The larger one seems to belong to Mr. Karl Lopez who has the larger finger, while the other seems too small even for the fingers of Lacelle.
Lacelle felt his hand being raise to her shoulder level by a hand owned by the man beside him. She turned her head towards the man he ones knew as Mr. Karl Lopez, the man who helped their family for her mother’s case, the man who spoiled her with gifts, the man who she asked for help for her father’s sickness.
“You are going to marry me,” the man holding the cigar with his mouth told Lacelle.
“If I say no?”
“I will ask you something else as payment for your father’s operation and funeral,” Mr. Lopez lighted the cigar. “Didn’t I tell you that no questions?”
“Bu..” Lacelle stopped the word on her throat.
“Good, you are learning. Remember my dear, what Karl wants, Karl gets.” He puffed smoke to Lacelle’s face. “And I want you, the way I wanted your father’s business.”
Lacelle’s eyes widened with what he said. “It was you!”
“You really are a bright girl.”
Lacelle is now wearing the ring. Tough it was finish; she never really heard Mr. Karl Lopez’s vows. Now she must recite hers. As she reaches for the other ring, Lacelle holds the hand of that man.
“Take this ring as a symbol of my eternal,” Lacelle looks at the man as she forces herself push the next word out of her throat. “Love.”
“For better or for worst, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.” And With a hard breath, Lacelle finally said, “Till Death do us part.”
Lacelle feels herself being guided to stand, her whole body turning to the direction of Mr. Lopez. The she feels coldness pressing on her lips, totally different from the warmth she felt from Joseph.
Lacelle could barely walk through the aisle. She could already swim on the fog that now covers her to her shoulders. But Mr. Lopez walks as if his shoes have wheels, almost dragging Lacelle to the door. The clapping of hands from the crowd sounds like as if they are choreograph. Greetings from the guests are heard over and over although each time they are heard from another mouth.
Almost at the door, Lacelle sees the man with the umbrella opening the door of a car waiting outside the church. The rain stopped but the sky is even darker as if it is going to bleed as long as it can.
Mr. Karl Lopez enters the car first. He sees the box Lacelle left earlier.
“Get in here,” he says as he shoves the box off the seat. “Who’s this from?”
“A friend.” Lacelle answers her face blank.
The man with the umbrella closes the door and the driver starts the engine of the car. Lacelle looks again to the fence of the church, still seeing no bird on it.
“Thoughtful friend,” Lacelle hears Mr. Lopez speaking.
“I asked him for it.”
“Him?”
“Joseph”
“That is nice of him.”
Think so?”
“I said..”
“Yes. No questions.”
Mr. Karl Lopez looks directly at Lacelle’s eyes. She looks back.
“I asked for this gift from him to get the one from yours.” She says as she opens the box.
“And that is?”
Lacelle takes out a newly sharpened knife from the box.
“You’re Life!” she says as she stabs Mr. Lopez’s chest, one hit after the other. The sky now bleeds as the fog covers Lacelle’s head.
