CHAPTER 1: The Beginning

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HANNAH FELICIANO

It was Saturday morning; everything seemed so fine.  I was still in a relationship with my bed, having a cuddle with my smooth, soft blanket while kissing my sweet, mushy pillow though it smelled a bit different but a familiar odour. Of course, you knew what I was talking about. The noise was not really tolerable, I tried to cover my ears by the used of the other pillows on my bed but it seemed like the sound resonated on my soul, and I had no choice but to check what was happening.

So, irrespective of my profound fondness to stay in my comfort zone, I rose up with a little bit of ire and grimace on my face with the growing disgust on my head. While I was heading my way to open the door of my room, I started to, somehow, decipher some words being uttered. I heard words like, “pain in my ass, change your behaviour” and other even insulting words you wouldn’t want to hear. But apart from those loud words, I even heard rowdy sounds of flying, maybe, comb, plates or any other not-really-expensive utensils in the kitchen.

Well, you got it right, the sound of the bothering argument was coming from the kitchen and it seemed like they were fighting again, yeah there were only three persons in this house, me, my grandfather and my grandmother. And for sure, they were just fighting over petty thing, was all. Then, when I opened the door to check if someone was already surrendered, or hurt or still mad or whatever, I heard my grandpa asking for help as if he were dying.

“Oh my grandchild, I’m glad you’re awake. Please help me with your nanny.”  My Lolo Claro suddenly asked help while playing defensive on the entire argument.

“No child, stay back. He needs to learn a lesson.” My nanny Rose instructed me.

After a while, the fight continued and Nanny Rose was still chasing my grandpa as if they were cat and dog fighting for the rightful owner of the food on the table. While watching my grandparents, regardless of what was the reason of the commotion, I began to smile because I knew that they loved each other so much and that was just part of their daily romance. Not until, Nanny Rose hit his head with a serving spoon. Then, I was wrong, the situation turned into chaos and I needed to meddle. And that was the moment I moved towards to my nanny and touched her shoulder.

I closed my eyes and in just few seconds, she was apologizing for hurting the love of her life. Well, maybe you were just curious what happened. Well, yeah, that’s me, I was a healer – not just an ordinary healer but emotion healer.

****

This power of mine was still a huge mystery in my life. I didn’t know why I have it. I had no clue where did it come from. I was totally not cognizant why I even have this kind of magic as what my Nanny Rose described, and I was still thinking if there was someone in the world who had the same power as mine. I kept looking for that questions but answers were somehow stuck in the middle of nowhere and I still didn’t know if they would arrive or not. I was even clueless if I was really waiting for something to arrive or it was my responsibility to look for them. But, I had no choice but to fully embrace what, maybe, God had bestowed upon me and to wield this power when someone needs it.

Growing up, I asked my grandparents about this power I had within me and they were totally lost of words when queries about this ability occurred. They were also bewildered like I do every time I raised question about it.

My nanny reiterated, “Maybe because your parents were both healer”.

Yeah, they were both healer but healer in different ways. My later Mother Tessa was a faith healer and they believed that it was God who chose her to have that ability and it something I also gained because God chose me to be the steward of this power which at that moment, I was still not convinced about it not until I would have the chance to talk to God, like really hearing his voice and telling me that, “Oh child, I gave you that gift.”

Meanwhile, my father was a Veterinarian, yeah, he didn’t heal people but he did heal pets and animals, so that made sense. Maybe we were clan of healers which were my grandparents not aware of or maybe that’s something I just really wanted to believe. But anyway, regardless of the etymology or the origin of this ability, my life was normal. I had friends, I had a great school, and I even took psychology to know more about myself and this ability. I didn’t know if that would help but at least, I guess it would - someone told me that was the nearest course matched my ability, to understand people, to understand their emotions and to understand everything about behaviour and mental processes. But wait? I didn’t tell why how this power started.

****

Back in the day, when my parents died in a car accident, a moment where we deeply mourned and I considered that day the worst day of my life. Well, what could be even worse than losing your parents? I cried almost every day, and I won’t leave my parents on the funeral. I was watching them. I was staring at them and making myself believe that they were just sleeping and soon, they would rise and get up which of course didn’t happen. Then, after several nights of mourning and hoping that they would rise from the dead, the burial arrived. I wailed when I saw them putting on the grave, I wept. I lamented. And then, I shouted as loud as you could imagine. Then, after a while, everyone stopped crying, they all stopped mourning. Then, I felt something with my hands. It was like there was an unseen voltage of energy within me and I felt like I was energized, I felt the power within. And I could not understand that at all. Well, of course, I was just 12 years old when that happened.

Then, after the burial, I was still mourning but everyone around was already fine, even my grandparents. They told me that everything will be fine and it did somehow but it took me months or even years to finally accept that my parent will never go back. Never!

Then, one night, when my grandparents were fighting over petty thing, I meddled and telling them to stop until I held their hands, both of them. There was no light, or even beam of spark or something like you used to see on a fantasy movie, my power was just touching them and making them feel fine. As day passed by, they recognized by ability to perform miracles as they wished to call it and they said that I was blessed for having that kind of gift. Although, I didn’t know the extent or even the consequences of having that ability if ever there was, but somehow I considered that as a blessing especially If I get to help people to manage their emotion well.

I knew that you had so questions within you about me and one of those was if I could heal myself. Well, I was just assuming that question but if you really do, I wanted to really tell you the truth. My power had no effect to my own emotional disturbance. Right! It was really, absolutely, totally, comprehensively ironic. The one who could heal others could not heal her own self when she’s in pain. That was totally absurd but I guess, I mean, I was totally hoping that I could learn on how to do that or I just accept the fact that I could not heal my own self.

Well, I was still in quest for delving more about that kind of gift. And if there was someone who could help me, I wished there was but I guess there’s none apart from me so far.

****

“So, tell me what happened.” I asked Lolo Claro.

We had an urgent meeting, and to resolve the present quandary, an effective family communication was really essential. Lolo Claro lost the money in gambling which made my Nanny super-duper mad, and I could not blame her for throwing all the things we had there. Well, we thought that Lolo Claro had stopped gambling but he didn’t. That’s why on that day, we made him promised about his vice to be stopped and he did promise, and the thing we need to supervise was to check if he was true to his promise or not. Nanny threatened him about pushing him away if he was able to break his own oath; he needed to face his unwanted punishment.