JUST SAYING GOODBYE – Part One

By Remedios Dorio

 

ANITA was early widowed at the age of twenty-five. Her man Edmund died early when they were just six years married. When they got married, Anita was only nineteen years old and in the second-year college of the course she’s taking, the course Mass Communication.

 

Within six years of marriage, Anita gave birth to three children and when Edmund died, she did not marry again. She poured all her attention to her three children. She worked first as a sales lady in a clothing store later take the job in a call center as a customer’s service agent. Anita was already thirty-five years old.

 

She had work in the call center for almost three years when she decided to stop.

 

“You stop working?” Anita’s mother Tonya was surprised and sounded worried when she heard from her daughter that she resigned from her work in the call center.

 

“Yes, I resigned yesterday. I still have to work two days more to complete my day’s work this month,” Anita answered her mother.

 

“Why?” Tonya asked.

 

“I don’t like to work anymore in the call center. I am tired working,” Anita answered.

 

“But you know that we depend on your income? How can your children eat and go to school if you have no more income?” Tonya was really worried. She and her husband Nardo only depended to Anita’s income. Tonya was the one taking care the children of Anita when Anita worked. Nardo, who lost his one leg in an accident, also had no job.

 

“I have to stop because I am really tired working in a call center. I worked every night and on the day I sleep. I find it not normal.” Anita said to her mother. Her father was just listening, he said no words.

 

“What will happen to us now? We own this house, so we do not have to pay a rent but we have to pay the bill of water and the electricity?” Tonya asked Anita.

 

“Tonya, you cannot force your daughter to work a job that she doesn’t like,” Nardo said to Tonya.

 

“I am just worried. I am thinking about the children,” Tonya answered her husband.

 

“Nanay, I had savings in the bank. For three or four months, you don’t have to worry,” Anita said to Tonya.

 

“What will you do then?” Tonya asked Anita.

 

“I will concentrate to my vlogging,” Anita answered her mother.

 

“Vlogging? What is that?” Tonya doesn’t know what vlogging is.

 

“I have an account in You Tube, and I do vlogging,” Anita said.

 

“I do not understand. I do not know what is vlogging. Nardo, you know about that?” Tonya asked Nardo if he knows what vlogging was.

 

“You ask me, how could I know? I also do not know what vlogging is,” Nardo answered Tonya.

 

“Vlogging is making videos then upload and broadcast it in You Tube,” Anita explained to her parents what vlogging was.

 

“You earn money from it?” Tonya was interested if her daughter could earn money in vlogging.

 

“I know that some vloggers earned a lot of money, that’s why I decided to concentrate in vlogging. I will be my own boss and that I can work anytime I like,” Anita answered Tonya.

 

“If that’s so then it is indeed better than working in the call center in the night,” Tonya said.

 

“But maybe, it would take time to earn money in vlogging. I must have at least one thousand subscribers and four thousands view hours,” Anita told her mother that it would take time to earn money in vlogging. “That is what I must have before my channel would be monetized by You Tube.”

 

“Ah, do whatever you think the best thing to do, I know nothing about vlogging even doesn’t understand,” Tonya said.

 

“I will ask Aldo to be my assistant. He doesn’t work thus he would be my cameraman and driver.” Anita said. “He will have something to be busy.”

 

“Your cousin is a lazy man. He would be a cameraman and your driver, but he has no camera and that there’s no car, how is that?” Nardo asked Anita.

 

“I will first use my cell phone. Aldo knows how to ride a motorcycle. I’d talked already to Aldo, and he said to me that I could rent the motorcycle of his friend. Tomorrow we will start vlogging,” Anita answered her father.

 

“Motorcycle on a busy street, it’s dangerous!” Tonya doesn’t like that Anita would use a motorcycle.

 

“Nanay, do not worry. Everything will be okay,” Anita assured her mother that everything would be okay.

 

 

ALDO said to Anita that they must start early so that it would not be so warm for them on the street.

 

“Which way or place you want to film a video?” Aldo asked his cousin.

 

“I would be a charity vlogger. Bring me to a place where you think many people need help,” Anita answered Aldo.

 

“Okay, only a reminder but are you sure you had enough money to cover the cost of gasoline?” Aldo asked his cousin.

 

“Don’t worry about that,” and Anita put on her helmet and mounted on the motor. “ Don’t ride fast, just be slowly and carefully.”

 

Aldo brought Anita on a place where he thought answered to Anita’s wish. Anita saw people; they were scavengers on top of waste picking up what they thought could bring them a little amount of money.

 

Anita noticed a woman. The woman was pregnant and at her back she was carrying a baby. Aldo was busy filming using the cell phone. He thought he will just film randomly and its for Anita to edit. Anita said to Aldo they will approach the pregnant woman and they did. Anita had difficulty in walking thru that garbage when suddenly she fall down. A dirty and skinny man that looked very sick bumped her she did not notice was there on her way.

 

“Look out!” Aldo exclaimed and helped Anita to stand.

 

“Help him,” Anita asked Aldo also to help the man and Aldo did.

 

“Sorry,” the man apologized.

 

“It’s okay, no problem,” Anita said to the man. The man looked weak and hungry. Anita take out a one-hundred-peso bill from her bag and gave it to the man.

 

“Here, take this, you can buy food to eat,” Anita handed the money to the man but the man refused.

 

“No, thank you. I do not need money. I’m here to just say goodbye.”

 

Anita looked at the face of the man. She could not believe, a beggar refusing money? Anita looked at straight to the eyes of the man, something from the past tickled her mind and she could not understand too, what the man was mumbling. He was just saying goodbye, to what or to whom? ****to be continued****Remedios Dorio.