BLUE MOON

At the night, of her 40^th birthday, Patricia went to her balcony and sat at a bench. She shivered in coldness as something warm covered her body. She looked down and saw a beautiful shawl over her shoulders. “Happy birthday Mom! Do you like it?” her daughter, Ella, said. “Oh! Dearest daughter, it’s wonderful!” Patricia replied. They both sat down at the bench and looked up only to see a big and bright blue moon, to their surprise. From then on, every night, after supper, they would go to the balcony, chat with each other, and stare at the beautiful moon. This continued until they reached a time when Patricia was already an old woman, and Ella, a mature woman herself.  At this point of Patricia’s life, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Since the diagnosis, Ella felt very alone and helpless even with her mother still living with her. Patricia would often look at Ella blankly and not remember anything no matter how hard Ella tried to remind her. As time passed by, Patricia forgot all about Ella, and she didn’t go to the balcony anymore. She even stopped wearing the shawl her daughter gave to her. The blue moon had no more significance to her. The day came when it was Patricia’s 85^th birthday. Ella stared at her mother in pain while Patricia lay in bed very weak and silent. She was surprised when her mother suddenly went up as if she was never sick. Patricia went to the balcony and sat at the bench. She gave a long blank stare at something in the distance. Ella went out bringing her mother’s shawl with her. She put the shawl on her mother’s shoulders just like she did 25 years ago. Patricia gave her a blank stare. Ella cried in pain. As Patricia looked up to the sky, she saw a big and bright blue moon. She suddenly remembered everything. She remembered who the crying woman beside her was, and how the shawl on her shoulders used to be so meaningful to her. Ella was relieved and so they did the same thing they used to do before: sit down and have heart to heart talks. They also stared at the beautiful blue moon. Unfortunately, that was the last blue moon Patricia saw, for after she fell asleep that night, she never woke up again.

As I was browsing over my files earlier, I saw this story Janina Llaguno and I made over a year ago. It was an assignment we had for Journalism. We were instructed to tell a story where in the words shawl and moon must be used. This story brought back memories of the fun we had last year in Journalism where we had to make these stories and poems with our imagination as our limit. Our creativity was surely enhanced.