Chapter Thirteen [ family disagreements]

Chapter Thirteen [Family disagreements]

After spending so many days showing off their naked bodies, Nancy and Jason swear an oath that early morning before dawn and leave no trace of shame.

” You are now my bones and flesh of my flesh. You shall be my partner, my spouse, my wife, for you were taken out of me from the beginning.”

After their soul bonds, Jason said. Finally, he anticipated Nancy's loyalty, adding,

"You promise me to be faithful and remain in my love the rest of our life as you carry in your womb my own flesh and blood. And I also promise that I will always remain in our love even though they would tear us apart," Jason asks as Nancy startled responded,

“Stop making empty promises, Jason. I know how susceptible you are to being influenced and succumbing to temptation. I already accepted that reality of human weaknesses as I also find it within myself. I should learn to understand and accept our human nature. What matters right now is that I have learned how to love and be loved, and you're the best man I've ever loved. If you find someone else better than me, I promise you not to retaliate nor stop you if I see you happy with her.”

 Nancy replied as they both began to retrieve everything that had been scattered after copulation and gently descended from that wonderful nest where Jason built a tree house in the center of the forest close to the fresh, clear springs from the waterfalls.

“Thank you so much for all of your assistance, safety, and direction throughout the course of the last three days of our travel. I owe a lot from you, honey my love.”

Finally, Nancy speaks up as she wipes a piece of towel over her body and transfers it to Jason, who is also covered in muddies and weed sap from the long strings they used to come down. Despite the fact that both of them become soaked by the flowing water coming from the high water falls ahead, she wipes him with a smile and excitement as they cross the stony, slippery small creek.

"This place seems extremely different from where we were going to the mountain, honey," I couldn't recall the trail anymore.”

Nancy said, attempting to recall their correct course of action, adding,

"I should have learned it so I would know how to get back to them when I wanted to get their data," Nancy said.

Jason instantly said, "Come on, I can do it myself and bring them to you, or I can send them to your emails.”

"Are you certain?” Nancy enjoys receiving reassurance.

“Absolutely," Jason retorted.

Nancy said as they both finally arrived by sight at the gate of the Hacienda Buena Gracias: "Never forget what we had been working hard for. It worth dying for, causing our life in perilous adventures."

Jason is still respectfully requesting Nancy's choice on what to do next.

Nancy snatches his hands and leads him down the long, winding, wet concrete pathway towards Nancy's house, saying, "I hurt to tell you goodbye, honey. But I wanted to invite you to come inside our house so that Kuya Raffy and other members of the family will know you."

Everyone seems to be carefully watching their steps so as not to disturb anyone's seriousness, and everything is incredibly silent. As Nancy arrives and gets closer to the house where her former parents live, she already has a feeling that something is awry.

She prefers to first speak with her assistant officer in charge, who informed her that her father was already well and safe at home when she called him on her smartphone while she was with Jason and watching the vast, mountainous forest terrain, valleys, and plains where the enemies had been infested. However, Mr. Absence Aping’s from the doorway explains why he does not wait for her.

Her mind creeping in further, that she even paid a price of her love for Jason by sacrificing the purity she treasures and is supposed to be given after marriage in accordance with the family's traditions, due to his misinformation gleaned from the representatives and Mrs. Chairman, which left her shattered and unable to further figure out her purposes.

"I am no longer regarded as pure after spending days having sex with this man I love and developing soul links without the tie of matrimony. I still come viewing my father's dead in the grave."

Nancy began to cry in private, and she wiped her tears delicately while leaning against Jason's chest. They both appear sluggish and ragged in their old, soiled mountain outfits, and no one recognizes them.

She has been trained to be polite and well-mannered even when she is not feeling well or is ill. She was taught to be presentable to everyone and to keep her emotionally disturbed attitudes hidden from others.

She has faced challenges to her philosophical beliefs and moral values, as well as her own thoughts creeping in at the back of her confused mind.

"Father Almighty God, please give me strength, even though I have broken Your commandments, but I still believe in Your mercy and Your goodness to mankind."

Nancy prays to God while holding Jason's hands until they reach the doorway and enter the hall where her father is, and Nancy must remind Jason to simply watch, wait, and observe.

"Whatever happens, honey, please remain resilient and trust me that my love for you will never die."

Nancy said with a hoarse, low voice as she walked away from him, allowing Jason to remain behind if he is convinced by what she said.

"Fighting for good against all odds will not always win if death and loneliness enter, honey," Jason said to Nancy as she left adding,

"honey, keep every good memory and erase every bad memory that can stop us from moving forward. I will always be behind you like a wind beneath your mighty wings."

Jason finally left that message to Nancy in deep pain and heartbreak.

"I know there were many barriers between us before I decided to love you, but I am willing to take risks and suffer for the sake of our love, my beloved tough guy."

Jason said quietly as tears streamed from his eyes down to his sloven check.

Nancy has made it halfway to the main gathering hall, while Jason remains at the gateway, where other farmers are murmuring as he listens to what happened to Don Fausto in the hospital after Christmas.

"I thought Don Fausto was brought home by Mr. Apeng because he was already well. But why is he now laying down in that casket?”

The man in farmer's garb said to another farmer standing nearby as they both expressed deep sympathy.

Jason continues to listen without understanding when he hears Nancy's loud weeping and groaning for her father's burial. Jason was unable to control his emotions and reacted quickly to Nancy's longings for her father's life.

"I apologize, Daddy. I never expected this to come to an end. I just left to settle farmer disputes so you won't be distracted any longer. But why do you leave me out of your plans?"

Nancy feels and smells Jason at her back as Mr.Apeng knows him as one who assisted them in bringing Don Fausto to the hospital a few days ago, he never mind if Nancy cried against his chest absorbing additional strength for her father's death.

"Mr. Apeng, where is Mommy? " Nancy opens her eyes, startled by her thoughts and the absence of her mother.

"She takes rest inside with Raffy." Mr. Apeng said. Jason let her go gently and stayed beside Mr. Apeng setting on the long, wooden benches quietly eyes following Nancy until she vanished from his sight in the shadowy areas of the corridor.

There are elderly men and women dressed in black with a black veil, serving a cup of hot, black coffee and nibbling on crackers for the mourners that night.

Jason notices the logging in book on the stand and as he stands up to investigate, he discovers that Mr. Fausto died on December 29 while he and Nancy were both suffering from fever and trying to warm themselves from the little heat as they struggled against stormy weather.

"God, may his soul rest in peace as You received him to Your heavenly glory, forgiving all his sins committed while he was still alive in Jesus Mighty name, forgive me and Nancy also because we go against the moral standard but we love each other Father God, in Jesus’ name, I pray."

Jason says a short prayer after realizing what had happen.

" He was still smiling when he got home that night, after you and Nancy had gone on surveillance that afternoon. But when he sits in his rocky chair, he just takes a deep sigh and closes his eyes, looking up at the starry, moonlight sky. We thought he would just rest and fall asleep, but he was snoring so loud that we couldn't measure the depth and length until we noticed that he started to relax but he fell down and unable to support sitting alone in his rocking chair. I tried to bring him to the bedroom where his wife rest.

Mr. Apeng said to Jason, who was listening quietly and crying.

"I consider him to be my father as well."

As Mr. Apeng added, Jason said

"Because you and Nancy are,,,,"

Mr. Apeng put his two fingers together to show Jason that he understands their mutual understanding. Jason simply nodded and touched him to maintain the secrecy of their relationship, as Nancy had requested.

"It's all right Jason. I'll always be behind both of you and your plans," Mr. Apeng assured Jason as they parted ways.

Nancy, on the other hand, meets her Kuya Raffy inside her Mom's bedroom. Her mother is sluggishly weak because of her father's burial.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I wish I could always be here with you. But the call of obligations and duty compels me to conduct some surveillance. I'm only doing it to protect our property and settle the disputes with those intruders."

Nancy explains how her Moms quietly agreed while her Kuya Raffy responded gently, saying,

"You better find a man to help you manage this Hacienda, my dear sister. You are too beautiful and young to do it alone. Captain Dante Rocafuerte has been my longtime best friend and confidante in all my endeavors in the Navy. If he sees you, I am sure that he can be the best groom for you. You get married with him so that you have a protector against the rebels. “

Kuya Raffy stated authoritatively to Nancy, who was immediately shocked and devastated by her eldest brothers' suggestions, saying,

"Do you understand what you're saying, Kuya Raffy?”

Nancy quickly said, disgustedly turning her teary eyes to him,

"You have been absent for all those years, not even helping our parents run our property and spending our savings lavishly on your profession, and yet you have the audacity to intrude on my decision-making freedom."

Nancy yelled; her gaze fixed on her Eldest brother.

"How old was I when you left us without even asking permission from daddy and mommy? Where were you during those trying years we were facing, risking our lives while trying to respond to the farmers' rebellious struggles for claiming their land titles, which were harassed and cheated by our trusted, corrupt officials who are under our management, taking the farmers' payment money without giving them receipts, and refusing to record their names in our logbook?" Nancy is enraged, telling her Kuya Raffy everything she has learned from the mountain people and rebels, whom the legitimate farmers despise because they steal their livestock and harvested grains and crops from the farms.

"That is why I am here to settle the disputes and assist you in finding friends to protect you from them. “He grins as he say it.

"I don't need him because I can protect myself without the man you presented to me. I have my own mind, heart, and freedom to choose, which God has given to all of us. You are not God, not even my creator and designer of my life. If you can't help me, you should return to the United States and stop interfering in my personal life, kuya Raffy."

Nancy is still enraged, furious, and disgusted as she explains her side to her brothers.

"I heard someone has been with you. Is he the one you love?”

Kuya Raffy teases her while looking at her sidelong.

"That is none of your business, kuya Raffy. I have nothing to explain to you. I am still pursuing my Law degree this year. I am graduating very soon with my own efforts as University Scholar. So you don't have any reason to count on me as wasting our family's money because I studied my course for all those years in the University free of tuition fee as scholar."

” Great! That's why you're fighting me and leaving our father alone with Mr. Apeng, enjoying strolls with him."

Kuya Raffy taunted Nancy grinning.

"Stop irritating me, Kuya Raffy. I am no longer a little girl to whom you can dictate and annoy whenever you want."

Nancy responds.

"By the way, my pretty sister, why are you hot and like to fight against me?”

 Kuya Raffy asks.

"I am not fighting against you if you are in the right track. Why did you sent that representative to the mountain people to search me and told them about your plans? Because I am the newly elected administrator of our property, Kuya Raffy, I should be the one to settle the disputes."

"I was only trying to protect you when I sent him to follow you. But he said you weren't there. Where were you when they went there?”

He asks emphatically, adding,

"You failed to inform our officer of your whereabouts for three days, and our father died without you."

Her brother said this, causing Nancy to cry in agony because she feels like a loser after what she did with Jason to save her life from a feverish pestilence and virus accumulated from animals and insects.

"I just thank God for that man who saves my life, Kuya Raffy. I owe him my life now because he saves me. He even risks his life for me. He loves me more than his own. Please stop intruding my life with him. We already have a plan but not yet.

Nancy expresses herself humbly in front of her brother, while her mother smiles at her, attempting to calm her.

"Your daddy is at peace now. Stop arguing about something that is no longer beneficial and instead focus on something that is good for all, my dear children."

Nancy's mother spoke slowly and gently as she stood up, pressing her crumpled black dress, putting on her flat shoes, and taking a few steps to guide her way towards Don Fausto's casket in the hallway.

Nancy slowly moves out to guide her, holding her mother's arms as they both take a seat close to each other.

Jason is still sitting beside Mr. Apeng when they came, while Raffy's representative and the two maidens are a little further away, drinking and playing cards. Jason chose to move his steps closer to Nancy and her mother, who are sitting close to the casket, while Raffy and his wife and daughter are on the other rows in front of the lines.

Nobody dares to look at Jason because he is not dressed properly for a burial, traditional attires like the other guests close to the family. He is just comfortable in his dirty white polo shirt and dark brown sloven pants with sandals while Nancy did not change her previous outfit which Jason washed 3 days ago when they get wet before climbing to the mountain ranges.

She still appears to be a tough guy, and visitors, including Raffy's family, are afraid to look at her rugged physical appearance, which made her mother feel a little insulted as she whispered Nancy,

"My dear, first wash yourself and get your black outfit for your daddy's burial. You also invite Jason inside and let him rest inside the room so that he can gain strength. Give him some clean clothes so that people do not humiliate both of you. We will introduce him to all as your best choice who protected you all throughout the struggles while you were here."

Mommy Laura said softly to Nancy’s ears as the visitors arrived that morning.

"You eat breakfast inside with Jason. Don’t worry about your Kuya Raffy. He has his own family already. Just mind your own business, my Baby," Mommy Laura said sluggishly.