Me Without You (7 page)

Jonah may not know how sick Rebecca
was, she believed her mother would bounce back the way she always
did. "Come to think of it, the woman rarely gets sick!" Jonah
thought out loud. She had no memory of Rebecca getting ill, not
even a common cold. So for people to visit Rebecca like she was
already on her deathbed was almost amusing. It would not be a
surprise to Jonah anymore if Rebecca was found out to be immortal.
There was just something in Rebecca that made her
invincible.

Jonah tried to open the door to see
more clearly. "Maybe her unwanted guest had already left." She
silently turned the knob when her bandaged hand slipped its grip,
making a noise as the lock bolted back to its place. Horrified that
Rebecca’s guest and her mother had the clearest idea she was
snooping, Jonah jumped to her bed immediately.

Should anybody come
knocking… they’d think I am asleep…

All of a sudden, she felt pain surged
through her stomach. She curled to her side to contain the pain but
it continued to throb. She was feeling like a ball of air was
running inside of her belly and wherever it touched, it
hurt—cutting off her breathing. Then, she sensed a tingling
sensation, numbing her hands down to almost half of her
arms.

The physical pain was in no match to
the feeling of panic which came over. It was the worst thing. The
feeling of the inevitable reality of death, approaching—just like a
knowing thought that she was going to die. It was so horrible and
frightening.

The sensation was not new to her. She
had the same episode once when she had thought about Xavier, which
prompted Jane to bring her to a shrink as soon as it was arranged.
Jonah had to conclude, it was the physical manifestation of all the
stress she was having concerning Xavier.

Jonah crawled out of her bed to go the
loo when the door adjoining Jonah and Rebecca’s rooms burst open
without warning. And her oldest sister, Jane entered her room in a
rush. Jane came in still bringing Rebecca’s medicines and stopped
on her tracks.

"Jonah!" Jane blurted out.

Jonah stood up clutching her tummy. She
had the strange inkling that Rebecca was dead! It had to be the
trigger why she felt the way she did.

Jonah looked towards Jane, who stared
back at her and instantly they both knew. Jane’s lips trembled and
painfully wailed. Jane was weeping with no tears welling up her
cheeks to match her anguish.

"Your mother is dead!" Jane announced
solemnly, confirming Jonah's initial thoughts. "Your mother is
dead!"

It was evident from her sister’s
swollen eyes that Jane had been crying. But Jonah felt nothing!
There was no surprise. No grief… Nothing!

Why can’t I cry, too?
Of all the things that entered Jonah's mind, she
was mindful of the most natural thing to act at times when somebody
died—like crying.

"I killed her," Jane said much to
Jonah's amazement."Change your clothes," she instructed. "Aunt
Judith will talk to all of us before the coroner come up with—
"

"The coroner? What’s with the coroner?"
Jonah interrupted.

"Somebody killed her, Jonah," Jane
answered flatly. "Your mother was murdered!"

There were people waiting sullenly for
the demise of Rebecca Blood. Others hoped for it. Everybody got
what they wanted. She died that night, not of natural causes. She
was murdered! And unknown to the world, a potent power of healing
was relinquished upon her death.

With the death of the greatest healer,
a new healer was born that same night. Unfortunately though, it was
not the beginning of healing…not for Rebecca Blood and those she
left behind.

The Seven Deadly
Sinners

"Gross!" Jonah looked at her fingers
which revealed something that looked like burned skin. Actually,
she had rubbed them violently that the skin had been badly scraped.
A few areas were already bleeding and juicing out to a
pulp.

However, the sight of her battered
hands did not stop her from scratching last night. It was so
tempting that her skin crawled. It was the worse attack of skin
asthma she had.

Worst, Jonah couldn’t sleep in her
bedroom that she had to go and share with Jane in her room. Jonah
had watched Rebecca's body taken in a gurney to the morgue hours
after she died. But Jonah felt a part of her mother lingered on. It
was crazy how Jonah was already feeling like she was seeing a ghost
in Rebecca’s form wherever she looked.

And Jane had to insist, I
accompany her
… Jonah thought.

Jonah and Jane were at the morgue the
very next day. Jane had asked Jonah to come along as Aunt Judith
was at home together with their other siblings supervising what
could be an investigation after Rebecca’s death.

Jane had been gone longer than expected
as she went inside the morgue with the man in charge. Jonah
thought, they would just be providing what Rebecca
needed.

Does she need people to wait
on her when she is dead?
Jonah reflected.
She was waiting at the manager’s office of the funeral house which
was just as cold as the morgue adjacent to it. Once in awhile,
Jonah would hold her breath afraid, she might be inhaling some
toxic substance in the air amidst the dead bodies
inside.

Jonah fingered the two boxes with
Rebecca’s gowns on each of them. She had wanted to take a peek on
what Rebecca will wear in her deathbed. It was Jane who chose to
bring along the two gowns to see what will look better. Jonah
shuddered involuntarily with the thought of Rebecca fitting into
them like she was still alive.

What a mockery that the
gowns were designed by Brice
…

In bright hues of red and gold which
would have made the Blood matriarch really stand out, Brice had
desired to design the gowns for Rebecca when she was still alive,
hoping to earn a grain of approval. But their mother never
appreciated the creation. She never even wore them. It wasn’t the
right color she reasoned. Rebecca Blood had always preferred
something white.

And now in her deathbed…she
will be dressed in a very festive mood. It was so
ironical
. Jonah thought.

The family had no time to discuss how
to bury their mother because of the surprising turn of events.
Their father had been cremated when he died. Rebecca had
single-handedly decided the cremation even when some of Jonah’s
siblings had begged off to wait for awhile to see their
father.

Brice, in particular, had been
travelling somewhere in Asia when their father died. He had wanted
to see their father and pleaded to wait until he arrived. Being the
only male child in the family, Brice had been implicitly handed
down the responsibility of looking after the whole clan. However,
he had chosen another path in his life which dismayed their father
totally.

Rebecca, on the other hand, had been
triumphant when she found out Brice was gay and desired not to be
the forerunner of the Blood legacy after their father died. Rebecca
had wanted Jemmah to take the responsibility.

"It’s in Jemmah’s blood to become like
me," Rebecca had once told Jonah. She had not understood the kind
of responsibility their mother intended. Not that their holdings
were far too unmanageable with every help they had.

It was always Jemmah before she left
home. The rest of the children including Jerone, Jenssen and
Jervais were all supernumerary characters in Rebecca’s
eyes.

Jerone would have made a good manager
being educated in that line. Jonah mused. Jerone was the
business-type among the Blood children. But she was also the one
who did not really know her own strength. Jerone was always seeking
and searching for something that she did not even know in the first
place.

Jenssen would have shone in all their
father’s foundations with her compassionate heart and preference
for the marginalized. She was so caring nobody would think she had
Rebecca for a mother who was totally calloused where the idea of
true love was concerned.

And
Jervais
… Jonah thought. She could
understand why Rebecca never paid any attention towards her.
Jervais had two faces. When Rebecca was around, Jervais became
quiet. She was aloof and often preferred to be ignored. However,
the people who got close to her knew she has a nasty sense of humor
and a spirit of adventure. And that was the true face of
Jervais.

However, Rebecca did not even care to
tap Jerone’s expertise and allowed her to carry on after their
father died. Their mother hired so-called experts to manage the
business empire that Joshua Blood established with his bare hands.
She only made them sinfully rich when some of her children were
there waiting for her to give them a little push.

Jenssen had to beg funding agencies for
her causes when her family could very well support her. Rebecca
just ignored her.

It had always been Jemmah…

Jonah was thinking there was almost
like a pattern where the favor of Rebecca was concerned. There was
almost a two-decade gap between the older to the younger with Brice
coming in between the women. It seemed like Rebecca went after the
last of the first three older sisters, Jane, Jerone and Jemmah—who
were in their forties. And when she failed, she shifted her
attention to the last among the next three younger ones, Jenssen,
Jervais and Jonah—who were in their twenties with Jonah having only
celebrated her eighteenth birthday.

"That’s why she was into me," Jonah
reflected presumably. She ran her hands through her arms feeling
suddenly cold all over.

Although, Jonah had reacted negatively
when Rebecca’s attention shifted to her after Jemmah left their
home, she often wondered if it was intentional. In truth though,
perhaps she liked the idea that Rebecca wanted her to follow in her
footsteps. Maybe she did…

Unlike their father, Rebecca will
probably have the traditional burial rites with the visit to the
morgue and the two boxes of gowns Jonah was carrying. Jane had also
mentioned about going to the church after the funeral house to
arrange for a religious service.

Rebecca will surely twist and turn
inside her coffin. It was a common knowledge that Rebecca was not
in good terms with the Church ever since they can remember. To have
a religious funeral service was almost a sacrilege for Rebecca’s
own style of religion.

I wonder who will give the
eulogy
… Jonah thought to herself. "Jane
would probably arrange the church services after this. But where is
she? Jane, come on. Where are you?" Jonah said out loud
impatiently. She was already feeling restless waiting for her older
sister. And she did not like the thoughts which entered her
mind.

The loud ringing of Jonah's phone which
bounced off through the walls of the funeral house was both a
welcoming and embarrassing interruption. Anxious that the sound
will summon the dead to life, Jonah hastily picked the
phone.

It was Hugh.

"I heard about your mother," Hugh
immediately blurted out. "I'm sorry!"

It's weird but I am not
sorry
… Jonah almost said out loud. She just
kept silent not knowing what to say.
Of
course, Hugh probably had already heard it. Well, who wouldn’t have
heard the rumors going on around? Aunt Judith and Jonah's other
siblings took care of the details for the talks to make its rounds.
Aunt Judith had vehemently insisted that the rumor spread out.
Although, Jonah could not quite comprehend the whole reason, it was
of utmost importance that people will think so for the safety of
Rebecca’s children.

Rebecca Blood was poisoned
to death by her seven children— the seven deadly sinners.
Jonah thought.

Jonah mused it could not be considered
a rumor anymore. As far as people were concerned, it was a reality.
Rebecca’s children, all seven of them, had the motivation to kill
their own mother.

"Jonah?" Hugh asked. "You
there?"

"Yeah," Jonah answered. "Hmm, so you
haven't left yet?"

"I am leaving. Then, I heard—" Hugh
said. Jonah heard a pause from Hugh's end. She was feeling him
hesitate for a while. She imagined somebody was trying to tell him
the next thing to say. Jonah hoped it was Xavier.

"Is X with you?" she shoot him the
unexpected question, longing that her intuition was right. "You
still there?"

"Huh?" Hugh stammered. "Yeah— I— I am
still here. So how are you taking it? How are you
feeling?"

"Yeah— X is with you? Can I talk to
him?" Jonah said getting excited.

There was another pause and a muffled
silence. "He sends you his—"

"Love?" Jonah said and laughed
sarcastically."Yeah, right!" In her mind, she saw Xavier quite
clearly, turning his back on Hugh after knowing she wanted to talk
to him.

"Condolences," Hugh
supplied.

"You still owe me, you know!" Jonah
told Hugh.

Hugh chuckled out loud. "I don't
believe you. You have a mother to bury and you are still thinking
about—" he stopped in mid-sentence.