CH 5

A pair of young men were walking down a street heading to a bar just a few blocks away. A busy day at university would usually end with them going home and resting, but with the announcement from the government that a typhoon would land near their area and that classes were suspended tomorrow, the two were gonna have a good time drinking their problems away.

"So when are you leaving for Japon? I hear the food there are really expensive though." A rather plump kid who looked not a day over fifteen asked the person beside him. His black hair, flat nose, pink lips and rather tanned complexion was the very definition of average.

Though he was not ugly, the rather thick outline of his body did not compliment his looks. His white buttoned shirt with a breast pocket that had a symbol of a pair of leaves and the words 'Lateneo University' stitched on it and black slacks that reached all the way to his black shoes were the typical uniform of the university he hailed from.

Similar to him in attire was the boy next to him who seemed to look older than him by a few years, not to his detriment though.

His face which was a little above average with his slightly bridged nose, red lips and sharp eyes coupled with the sharp eyebrows was enhanced by the raging body he had. Perfectly fitting clothes that showed off his large biceps and thin hips and the outlines of his lower body that emphasized on strength really made him look older than he really is.

This young man who looked like a man in his prime was Zel Huertazuela.

The two of them side by side, with one looking younger than his age and the other looking older than his age made the two look like a big brother leading his younger brother out on an adventure.

"Yeah, I mean the place was something I have wanted to visit since forever!" Zel remembered how he imagined himself being there for so long that he forgot when he first had the desire to go there.

"I don't really mind having to pay more for food when I know that I would love every bite of it!"

"Man, I want to have an overseas vacation too." Karl mumbled as he gently elbowed his friend. Causing Zel to laugh.

"Haha. Tell me when you're free. I'll take you with me and we'll see what we can do about that." Zel gave his friend a smile. Karl was someone he had spent a few lifetimes being friends with. He wasn't about to stingy to him now. Especially with the direction his life was going.

It has already been three years since Zel had finally realized that his life will never be the same again. His newly realized ability to see the future, to live a life in a single night, was about to drive him crazy until he finally took a few liberties with it.

The past few years has been a storm of emotions for Zel. The dream of living a full life turned out to be a frequent thing that he had from every couple weeks to one every few nights. He was about to go crazy when he woke up for the third time, and he was still unable to figure out when the dream starts. He did this for weeks until a month later, he had another dream again. This time, he knew something was missing.

The couch.

He had done everything he wanted in those dreams, doing what you could say as 'living dangerously'. He did what he thought would be the best decisions while winging the ones he had no prior knowledge of doing. His dreams made him able to use those decisions in life and it has turned into a linchpin that kept his family floating, and more than that, his family was having a vacation for the first time ever!

Since having the ability to turn one night's sleep into long and realistic dreams, where he saw things that couldn't have felt more authentic, he changed entirely, save for some characteristics that seemed to be ever-present in Zel.

First was that he was able to find himself. His dreams, his goals, and most importantly, he figured out what was the most important part of his life. It was her. But before he could give himself the chance to find her, he needed to fix his life.

The investment did more than Zel expected, perhaps because he didn't take part this early in that vision of the future with regards to investments, he was taken aback by how much money he earned.

The fact that you only needed a phone, internet and a measly investment of $19,980 to get 15,000 shares at the price of $1.30 each that practically decupled overnight to become worth over $190,000 changed his life financially.

He took half of those earnings and put them back into that money-making machine and went on to spend the other half on things that made life a lot simpler.

The first order of business was to live the same standards as his life in that dream. A part of the money was spent on equipment and machines that were necessary to improve his life such as exercise machines like a couple of adjustable weight dumbbells, a home gym machine and a treadmill. A few cooking wares and machines like an oven so that he could prepare food himself, which was both relaxing and money-saving.

Putting his health first would make sure that even when times get hard, the last thing to give up would be his body.

He bought things for himself with his first cash-out not because he was being selfish, but because he knew that getting all this money is not a one-time thing. If his memory from that dream were right, memories that he had written as soon he thought about the possibility of him not remembering them after some time had passed, then more opportunities would come.

He was attending his classes with much less concentration, but even then, he got good grades because he knew which books to study. After all, the times he failed in the dream only to realize by his fourth year in college that the professors took their questions from books still haunted him till the day he died in that dream.

His social life wasn't as forced anymore. Now he could laugh freely knowing that not everyone was going to drag him down, because not everyone was like the him before. He realized long ago that, though their lives were not as harsh, having friends that want to spend time with you for your personality make it all easier in the end. Because you can have people to have fun with just for the heck of it.

There was also the matter of his parents that lost love with each other having started to give some life back to that spark they used to have.

Turns out money gives happiness! Whoever said otherwise probably had no money and was making excuses for themselves. When problems that relate to money are solved by slapping it with a bundle of hard cash, those problems poof out of existence in a jiffy.

Zel remembered the day he went back home to try to tell his parents that he wants to talk. His parents that were still mad at each other because of some new problem, which was most certainly related to money, were not really that thrilled to be asked to 'talk about it like people' again.

...

Two years and seven months ago…

It was a rather mundane day in the Huertazuela household. A typical sunday meant silence in the house, with one parent hanging out in the couch in the living room while the other either goes out of the house or just does housework and the two children left were staying in their rooms. You know who's who. But this time, Zel had come back home without telling them anything.

Zel took the seat in the middle of the two in the couch. He placed both his feet on the ground and his arms were on his thighs. A show of respect that demanded respect.

"I just want to ask both of you a question. Let's start with you mom." Zel pointed towards his mother with his hands open, not using just a finger.

" Sigh. Go ahead son, ask away." Zel's mother seemed to feel like this was going to be another talk that would only be another one of those talks.

Nothing really came from this kind of thing and it was tiring her heart having to hear words that hurt and having to reply with more hurtful words because of the feeling that she did not deserve this. She didn't realize that Zel's acting differently from before.

"How much is the debt?"

Zel's mother, Mel, didn't expect for Zel to directly ask her this. Usually it goes somewhere along the lines of 'Please tell me what's wrong' or 'Tell me how you feel', this was the first time he was so direct.

"What debt? I've already paid for all of it. How else would she pay for it? You think your mother would have a job? With what qualifications? What kind of job can a woman like her have?"

But before she could even reply, Zel's father, Tommy, butted in when it was still Mel's turn which made Zel angry. He took out something from his bag and hurriedly went towards his father and gave him a slap using it.

"You think everything in life is solved by your money? Do you know how much it hurts your own wife with how your words cut into something that should be something that you would protect with your life? Are you dignified by your words?" Zel kept on slapping his father with the thing he was holding. It was only when he was held back by Mel that he stopped.

He looked at his father with tears in his eyes while losing the unknown strength in the hand that held the thing in his hands.

"You son of a bitch! How dare you-!?" Tommy was unable to react to Zel's lashing as he only felt his world crumble due to the fact that his son would actually get violent. He was about to berate Mel for raising her child when he saw it.

Looking at his wife who gazed at him with anguish in her eyes, he felt something in his heart break. A feeling was looming over and creeping over his entire body. Something in his head was turning and he remembered the first time he held her hand and asked for her hand in marriage.

The day when he held her hand as they walked over the mountains where they first met, the feeling of the soft ground on his knee made him wonder if he was doing something he would regret later but, in that moment,, when her eyes watered when she saw him kneel, he knew the answer.

"I don't know what the future holds, but I know I want my future to have you." Tommy took out a ring, a simple diamond ring that he spent three months of salary on. He waited all this time, looking for the right moment. His hands were sweating as he held the ring up but she wasn't responding. He was about to stand up again when he heard her voice.

"I, I do. I mean, yes, YES! I will marry you" Mel's face that lit up from delight were clearly rewinding itself in Tommy's mind. He was able to see the pure joy in her face, and that face was overlapping with the face of the woman he was facing right now. And he couldn't help but wonder when, when was it that they started to drift apart?

Tears that he didn't know were still there came over his cheeks and he thought hard about the last time he had given her the time of day. The last time he took her into his arms and they just embraced their problems away and relaxed to the fact that even on his worst days, she was there to keep him safe. She was his home.

"Since you feel so much hatred towards your wife, it's best to just have you to separate." Zel had felt his heart getting heavier the more he heard from them. The unfairness of the situation had caused tears to fall even before he had realized they had already stained his shirt.

"Divorce yourselves and save me the trouble of trying to get through to two dumb idiots who don't know what they have until they realize that things won't get better by being the way you two are acting." He has had dreams that had his parents make up while there were times when they didn't. Though it was hard to accept, it seems reality just wanted them to break up.

"No one forgiving would mean no one will let go, well I've had it with the two of you. I'm done." Zel was fuming, red-faced and glaring hard at not only the father he had lost respect for but also his mother who couldn't get her head straight and just leave.

Though the reason would most likely be that she didn't want her children to be a part of a broken family, who cares about something like that?

Millions of children have parents that are divorced. Why is that?

Because people are stupid and not everyone is worth sacrificing your life for. Though there are reasons to fight for, there are just people you can't reason with. That's how you get broken marriages, because people don't know when to give up the fight.

"Mom, take the money and leave. And you, I'll take care of my siblings. I don't care about your reasons for daring to speak like that to your own wife but I will not stand by and let my little sisters have to take your bullshit any more than they had." Zel pointed at the money on the floor and, maybe because of his rage, didn't feel the change in atmosphere in the room.

He saw that his father was now crying, though he thought the reason was that he was not needed anymore when his own son was able to fork out the kind of cash he needed years to give out, it was not the reason.

He also saw that his mother was looking at his father the same way you would look at a beaten rabid dog that you raised yourself. Though she knew that caring for it means having to a chance to suffer, the pain of abandoning it would break your heart.

She loved him, and though she was scared, she just wanted to go back to those times were there was only him and her.

It took sometime before a noise broke the silence. But the words that came out were something Zel nor his mother ever thought they would hear.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm a shitty dad, a bastard of a husband. I knew. But I was scared. Scared that if I accepted that I was wrong that I won't be able to control myself and have nothing left. I knew that hurting you all was wrong but, what about me? I was also wronged but how come no one is protecting me?"

Zel looked at his father with eyes that had felt betrayed. He'd been lenient with his father all this time. Always giving him enough space to be the one to end this cycle of hatred but now he was saying otherwise.

'You're saying all my efforts were shit in your eyes? Fucker!' Zel didn't care about his words as he had already given up on his father. Selfish, that's what he was. While his mother was stupid. Both of them were.

"Was I wrong in saying that I provided enough but never got anything in return? I'm sorry, I'll go. You don't have to leave."

Zel stood still while coldly looking at his father's back that was heading towards the door. The back that used to look strong and mighty now seemed broken and beaten. What would take a man like that so far over the edge that he couldn't be recognized by his own son anymore?

Zel knew, but he knows that he wouldn't fall that deep. Because he knows to avoid his mistakes. But how would his father know how to fix these mistakes?

Zel's mother was watching the back of the man she loved walk away and couldn't help but tremble in sadness. Something she tried so hard to fix was now broken and she felt that he was now slipping away. The dream was over, the nightmare was over, but her heart still hurts. Why does it hurt?

Zel's father was unable to look at his family's eyes and just looked at the floor. He headed towards the familiar handle of the door and twisted it only to hear a familiar sound.

" Sniff. Sniff. " He had heard that sniffling sound a hundred times these past several years. That's the sound she makes when she wants to cry but holds it in.

'How much pain is contained in that sound? How come I never realized it until today?' He felt his temple throb as it beat to the rhythm of his heart. He made mistakes, mistakes he can't take back. He should just leave. No one needs to hurt anymore.

Then the throbbing stopped, a heat came from behind him while a pair of angelic arms wrapped around him. He thought back to the last time he was hugged by her like this.

'Was it ten years ago? When I first left home?' His held back tears flooded out, there was no more strong man who would fight for his right to blame the bad wife, only a man who wanted his wife back. To care for her again. To love her again and her love him.

"If I stay, would you be willing to give me another chance?"

Zel never thought that his father could produce such a shaky voice, even in his many dreams, the man he knew would never be able to produce such a voice, and yet he did.

Zel's father turned around to meet his wife's eyes. Her once radiant eyes now have wrinkles around them. They looked tired, but he knew why. It was him, he was the reason.

Zel saw his father return to his previous self. Not the self loathing man who felt the world betrayed him and left him with only the will to fight back the injustice from his family, no this man was the one before that. The husband who would run to the convenience store a kilometer away because his pregnant wife wanted ice cream, the father who would stay up all night just to finish the project his eldest daughter had even when she slept on him. The man he was proud to call his father, he was back.

"I'm sorry, I know this won't take back the pain I caused you, but I don't want to hurt you ever again."

"I know, I'm sorry too. I really did try to get things back together, but I was too incompetent. You should have had someone better."

"No, I should have been better. I should have been there so that you would rely on me, but I passed everything to you and took you for granted. Even if you did wrong, it was my fault and not yours."

Zel's mother turned to face those eyes that had usually looked at her with scorn and shame, but now all she saw was the face of a man who loved her. The same man who loved her with all his heart all those years ago.