Chapter 4

The table where Henry and Will sat was a plastic round white table, with six chairs, five of them occupied by their friends. Henry sat beside Will, and to the right of Will was a seat reserved for Wendy and the one next to that was taken by Adam.

Seeing the chair wasn’t used, Adam moved to sit beside Will, waiting to catch up with him. Will sensed this and gave a big sigh, hoping Adam would pick up on it.

“Hey, Will. How’ve you been?”

“Good…”

“Anything new’?”

“Nope.” He answered dryly, thinking short, quick answers would send the message.

“Still programming?”

Will paused having heard his question. He fixed his attention back to the cards in his hands.

“What do my cards mean?” Will asked, showing Henry the cards he was holding. Henry observed it with knitted brows.

“It’s crap. Just fold.” Henry said.

Thinking Will hadn't heard him Adam, he asked him again.

“Someone already sits on that chair.” Will said.

“Oh, c’mon, seriously?” Adam said.

“Fold.” Will said, putting his cards down, trying not to look in Adam’s direction. “I hate this dumb poker game.” He said to himself.

“But, you love coding!” Adam continued. “Remember that time when we made that game we called ‘Samurai X’ made up of just ASCII characters, and used ‘X’ Kenshi Himura’s character?”

“Wait. What’s that now, ‘Askee’… characters?” Belle asked, a friend sitting beside Henry.

Will snorted, “Oh God,—“

“ASCII characters,” Adam explained, as he cut Will off. “it stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, it’s a coding standard – “

“It just means all those letters, numbers and those other symbols you see on your keyboard.” Will interrupted, looking at Adam hopelessly.

“Why do you always have to interrupt while I’m talking? We used to talk a lot about this--”

“Coz’ I figured you just want to look smart in front of everybody, while painstakingly and needlessly trying to explain everything about something that trivial.”

“He has a point.” Henry said.

“Thank you!” Will said. “Finally, someone –“

“Not you… Adam. You like talking about these things -- computers, programming and… other geeky stuff.” Henry observed. “Why are you suddenly avoiding it? Royal Flush! Haha, I love this game. Give me all those chocolate chips.”

“I’m avoiding long useless conversations.” Will annoyingly pointed out, while vulgarly stealing his winnings. “Like this one. And this is a stupid game.”

“You only avoid things for two reasons. Either it’s boring, or it’s something that upsets you. Since I don’t think you ever found computers boring, so that leaves–“

“I think I remember it now.” Belle said. “Wasn’t that game you made in that black window box you see when you go to start, run, and type in uh…”

“cmd or command. Yeah, that would be the command prompt. We had to use it, coz’ we didn’t really know how to use graphics yet. It was too complicated.” Adam answered. His face suddenly instantly changed after examining her statement. “By the way, I don’t think I appreciate you putting air quotes when you said ‘game’. It took us months to build that thing! You have no idea how hard it is --pulling your hair out, just trying to find where the problem is.”

“Hmm, I guess that explains your M-shaped hairline, and your personality, or a lack thereof.” Belle added, laughing heartily.

Will rolled his eyes and sighed hearing the two endlessly go on, as Wendy arrived with two plates in her hand and gave each of them to Will and Henry.

“What’s going on?” Wendy asked.

“We we’re just talking about the game Will and Adam made.”

“Oh, I remember that --”

Adam moved back to his seat Wendy before she could refuse the offer.

“Isn’t that the one where you used the dollar sign as the bad guys and the forward-slash, back-slash and hyphen as your sword? And I think the hero’s special power was being able to use them all at the same time.” Wendy continued, infecting everyone with her hysterical laugh, except Adam of course.

The two of them ate the food brought by Wendy. Henry finished a lot quicker than Will, which gave him a chance to observe his friend’s sudden silence. He saw Will frown once in a while staring blankly at his plate.

“I thought you said you guys haven’t eaten.” Wendy asked.

“We already did. Will was just trying to make a point about everything about this wake sucks.”

Henry studied Will and noticed him not even responding. Why did he suddenly fall silent? He wondered. Maybe it was something Adam said? His gaze shifted to Wendy, and noticed her observing Will in the same manner. Wendy looked at Henry with concerned eyes, seemingly reading each other’s thoughts.

Chapter 3

It was still early in the evening, and the ground surrounding the building still wet from the rain that passed. The place was filled with cars, visitors coming and going. The Edge Memorial building stands 4 stories high and it was built around 20 years ago, but it had only a few small thin cracks that are hardly noticeable.

The room where Armand’s wake was held is in the fourth floor, room 408, where it was filled with a less than festive crowd. Former classmates of Armand came to pay their respects, and so did some of the guests who are known to be influential. The guests exchanged smiles and friendly hugs. They talked about Armand, and of how rare heart attacks occur with teenagers. They also talked about Armand’s father, whose wife passed away after giving birth to his only son.

Armand’s father, Professor Martin Esperanza, is a college professor at Flores University, known to be as one of the top universities in the Philippines, and has worked there for over 15 years now. The school was named after the renowned Filipino scientist, Agapito Flores, inventor of the first fluorescent lamp.

Prof. Esperanza was quietly talking with a friend, a Judge he’s known for a while now. They were friends during their college days. The two kept in touch every once in a while, and he was his closest friend, and some would argue that he is his only one.

After seeing the visitors not having anything to drink, he excused himself from his old friend and called on someone to assist with the visitors. This someone is a student of his in his physics class, his favorite, and to him, the brightest.

“Wendy,” Prof. Esperanza called out, as he looked for his student.

A striking young woman was sitting in a table with her friends, nodded respectfully upon hearing her professor calling out to her. She then excused herself from her friends and headed towards her professor.

Wendy walked cautiously, trying to get through the quietly seated guests. She turned quite a few heads on her way to her professor. Her slender body, smooth milky white skin and wavy light brown hair that extends up to the middle of her back, made both young and old men glanced at her more than twice. Everyone always found Wendy to be beautiful.

As she reached Prof. Esperanza, he whispered to her about the guests, and requested to attend to them and ask if they needed anything.

“Sure thing.” she answered with a soft smile. “Try not to worry about everyone, ok? You’ve enough to deal with already.” Wendy continued, trying to reassure her professor.

He nodded, and gave her a smile as well.

Wendy gave one last look at her Professor before she left to serve the guests. She couldn’t stand the sight of him this way, as she always looked out for him like a caring daughter to her father.

While Wendy was serving the guests, checking up on everyone, she faintly heard two young men arguing like 5 year olds. The two entered through the door, and she recognized them immediately.

The guy she saw on the right wore a faded blue crumpled dress shirt, obviously un-ironed, with dark blue carpenter jeans, which matched his uncombed hair. He stood around 5’10’’, had a thin frame, fair skin, with an irritated look on his face. It was her friend, Will.

Henry on the other hand, wore a neat fitted black Polo shirt, with skinny jeans and polished black shoes, which looked particularly cleaner set beside Will’s not so clean ones. They have around the same height, but people usually thought Henry was taller due to his commanding posture, compared to friend’s slouched one.

Upon seeing her two friends, she waved at them and dismissed herself from the guests to be with the two.

Wendy approached her friends and gave them both a hug. “I’m glad you guys could make it.” Wendy said. She looked rather surprisingly at Will, and just as she was about to ask, how in the world Will agreed to come here, Will cut her off---

“I was taken against my will.” Will replied to her questioning look. “…by this idiot.” He continued, pointing at Henry.

Choosing not to respond to Will’s usual snide remarks, she immediately set her eyes on Henry. “So, have you guys eaten yet?”

“Nope,” Replied Will, quickly. “any Pizza around?”

“Pizza?” asked Wendy incriminatingly.”Have you ever been to a wake?”

He considered this for a second. “Hmm. Oh, I forgot. Pretentious event,” He reasoned, mockingly. “Meaning, pretentious food. How stupid of me to assume otherwise.”

“Oh Henry, Haven’t you fed our baby yet?” Wendy asked, referring to Will, playfully squeezing his cheeks. “You know how grumpy he gets when he doesn’t eat.”

Will knocked her hands away, as Wendy and Henry laughed, and left Will awkwardly waiting for it to end.

Wendy decided to move on. “Let’s get you guys something to eat.” Wendy suggested. “Oh, but before that, let me introduce you guys to Armand’s Dad.”

The two had no objections.

They all headed towards Prof. Esperanza, when Wendy suddenly stopped and turned around. Will abruptly halted almost colliding with her. Wendy warned him, pointing her finger at Will’s face. “I’m warning you, Will. You better be careful what you say. I’m really gonna kill you if you make him feel worse than he already is.”

“Hmm, ok.” Will said, insincerely, trying to walk past her.

Wendy grabbed his arm to stop him. “I’m serious, Will! He’s very important to me.”

“Yeah, yeah, he’s like a father to you. I get it. Can we go now?”Will replied, impatiently. “Seriously, let’s go, before someone we know sees us. I don’t want to talk about ‘how my day is’ again.”

Wendy keenly observed him to see if he was lying. She concluded that Will was just probably avoiding the conversation, embarrassed by any hint of humanity in him.

She wouldn’t let anything happen to her professor. He stood like a father to Wendy, always taking care of her, protecting her from kids courting her. They treated each other as a father and daughter would, and loved as much.

The three of them reached the professor at an isolated hallway with a closed glass window. There were not much people, just his friend, Judge Marcelo – who just left, to get something to eat.

Prof. Esperanza stood an inch shy of 6 feet tall, had a thin frame, dark skin, short curly hair, and wears glasses like his son. His usual energetic expression of fierce curiosity and high energy was replaced by a grimed long face, with his sunken and tired eyes.

They were both introduced to the Professor as friends of Armand.

“Did you guys know Armand well?” Prof. Esperanza asked.

Henry answered. “Well, we- “

“Yes, sir” Will said, quickly, interrupting Henry. “We knew him a lot. We used to hang out in the library all the time.”

Prof. Esperanza smiled at this, not many people knew much about his son. Will also produced a smile, showing her that he can be good with people if he wanted to.

Wendy rolled her eyes to this exaggerated lie and excused themselves to Prof. Esperanza.

“We’re just gonna find someplace to sit.” Wendy said to her professor.

“Go right ahead.” Replied Prof. Esperanza. “Oh, Wendy, can I ask you to help me out with something first?”

“Sure, but let me just get these guys a place – “

“That’s ok.” Henry interrupted. “We’ll save you a seat.”

Henry and Will left, and looked for a place to settle.

Wendy saw the two being called by former classmates, offering them place to sit. She saw Will rudely declining, but saw Henry accepting the invite anyway. Professor Esperanza was watching the two as well, and whispered to Wendy’s ear, and asked something about Will.

“Yeah,” She answered. “I’m sure he would love that.”

Prof. Esperanza excused himself from Wendy to be with his friend. He left, and Wendy smiled mischievously to herself as she looked at Will. She could not wait what she’s about to see.

William Francisco: On People

What is there to say about people? If you’re looking for absolution, of how they are all caring huggable puppies, ask Henry. I’m sure Henry will give you that kind of reassurance. He’ll probably tell you that we are all made of marshmallows, and will can never die, and maybe sing a Michael Jackson song “We are the world” somewhere. I don’t know.

We are all hypocrites. The worst part is that no one’s aware of it. Certain groups of people like let’s say “the poor” cry equality, but they never really want it, they only think that’s what they want. They just don’t like the view down there. But, when those same people who demand equality, manage to climb their way up, would you think they'd say the same things, now that their lives are better?

Another group of people to mention, which is actually a good portion of the world, believes in a higher order. They want to believe that by serving a so-called God, they can be self-sacrificing saints and that people can all go to heaven. These "servants" of God worship him not because they are selfless, they serve him only to save themselves from their fear of eternal damnation. See the confusion there?

If ever there really is a God, he’s done a crappy job creating humans.

Happy with that answer? No? Then go to Henry, maybe he could tell you what you want to hear, might even give you a free hug.

Henry Albert: On People

People are generally kind by nature, and probably are not as bad as Will would explain them. But, I am not as naive as to see them as saints. We all have urges, and sometimes give in to them, we make mistakes, and we all pay a price for it. Nothing to look in to too much. We all have our vices.

We are different and yet we're the same. We see the same things, yet interpret it differently. We all strive for peace, but pursue it in the way we only know of. Our ways collide at times, without the intent of doing so.

If we could only learn to understand what the other person has been, or is going through. If only, we are not blinded by our urge to immediately condemn people, as to put an end to our fear of what we don't understand. And, if we could only try to respect another’s way of life, give people a just a little bit space before judging them. Doing so, we may not be living in a perfect world, we'll definitely be living in a better one.

Chapter 2

It was 7:30PM in the evening as they drove past Imelda Avenue, the road where Henry should have taken the turn, to where Will’s house is. Henry knew that Will was aware he was taking him to Armand’s wake, against his will, and was not feeling guilty about it. He knows that his best friend needed this.

Having noticed that they were nowhere near Will’s apartment, driving in silence “Gee, I wonder where we’re going?” Will said dryly, as he stare at streetlights that pass by.

Henry produced a small grin. He knew it wasn’t a question, and they both knew Will was aware of where they were going.

As they were getting closer to Edge Memorial, Henry thought about how Will would behave around people who he himself admitted to be annoyed at times. “Just try to act human for once, ok?” Henry requested.

“So, what’s the plan?” Will said abruptly, ignoring what Henry just said. “Surround me with so much people who show how much they care for the dead, and hope that some of their ‘caring’ will rub off on me?” Will protested.

Henry rolled his eyes in frustration to another one if his snide remark and just chose to ignore it. Will always knew where to push people’s buttons with these kinds of comment. He always knew how to push people away. Most people are mystified as to why he does this, it would appear inhumane, but a friend knows better than to stop at that argument Henry believed, he takes this as a sign that there is still hope for him, convoluted as it may seem.

They finally arrived at Edge Memorial. The parking lot surrounding the building was full and there wasn’t a parking space to be found.

“Oh, no” Will said sarcastically. “We have to go home now. Dang it, I was so looking forward to this.”

Will knows Henry wouldn’t easily budge. It was just well worth his while to make Henry miserable.

To Will’s regret, eventually, they found a car just leaving. Will sighed at the sight of this empty parking space. Rubbing the palm of his hand against his forehead, he still cannot believe he’s just about to attend this ceremonial gathering of pretentious idiots as Will would put it.

Finally, they got of the car and head towards the memorial. It wasn’t raining anymore.

“You’re gonna thank me for this.” Henry said.

“Oh, here we go,” Will complained “I was wondering when we’re gonna have one of our sessions.”

Ignoring Will, Henry continued “You hide behind your computer all day to run away from people---”

Will cut him off. “Wow, you really never get tired of saying that.”

“You avoid any kind any kind of human connection because you can’t control them like your little programs, your video games, or you precious pornos ---”

"Yeah yeah yeah, very enlightening. But can you just shut up till’ we get there? This is really annoying, might upset the dead.” said Will bluntly. “By the way, you should really give me back my precious pornos you borrowed.”

They went on like this till they reached the building. Will deflecting, while Henry ignores what he says and continue lecturing him.