IT LASTED FOR A DAY

UNEDITED SAMPLE LITERARY ARTICLE
By Karenina Iabel Apilado Lampa
IV-Michael Faraday


It lasted for a day. But for me, it is more than enough for the whole eternity.

I never thought of the day where he would once think of me the same way again. I had tried with all that I could to make him return. To no avail, he never did. I admitted to myself that somehow, things would never be the same again. That was the hardest part, of course. To admit to myself that I would never get him back.

It felt so wrong to give up what had been, when it could still be. Well, for me...it could still have been.

So I spent hours and days and weeks trying to let the pain subside. As time passed, I never did get any better. I felt worse and worse still, and I had no ways of ever mending it. Through it, I did learn to fake a smile for everyone. Why should they share my pain? I was the one who inflicted it upon myself. I deserved it alone, and with no one else.

So I smiled for them, making them think how great I was. They told me that I looked happier. I told them I felt happier. It would have been a nice change in my dark life, if it had not all been lies. I smiled for them, I laughed for them, but never once did I mean it. It was a lie and I knew it. But why did it matter? As long as everyone though I was good, then all things were fine.

And when I turn my back on them, I would cry myself to sleep. Even with time, my wounds never healed. They got even deeper, and I did not have a clue on how to stop the bleeding. I felt like there was poison inside me that kept on circulating in a neverending path. With the time I spent away from him, my heart yearned for him even more. And the tug it had towards him...it hurt more than I could bear.

I did not have anyone to cry to or to talk to. I did not want anyone to feel my pain. No one needed it, and only I deserved it. So who cared if I was suffering to the point of falling in the pits of hell forever?

I had locked myself up in my own misery. Unexpectedly, in the middle of my internal struggle, he came one day. I was expecting another row of thorns to pierce my barely-beating heart. I had braced myself for more pain. But when I heard his voice, the exact opposite was what happened.

“I remember the days when we were at our best...”

Then and there, all poison inside me was sucked out and all thorns pricking me disappeared. The gushing blood stopped in an instant and the deep wound closed miraculously.

Before I knew it, I had tears streaming down my eyes. I did not know why nor did I ever want to contemplate on it. But I knew one thing was for sure...That was the first time he remembered something good about me...about us. Since the dawn of whenever, it had been the first time since he remembered...The first time.

Despite all the months I’ve spent fooling myself, with that one small memory of the past, my will came crumbling down. My mind succumbed to my heart, and I did not try to deny what it wanted. It wanted him...It wanted his heart.

For me, the fact that he remembered something beyond all the wrongs that I have done him meant everything. I thought he had forgotten all, but I had thought wrong. He remembered...for the first time. He did.

It was a short moment of bliss. But I was contented.

It lasted for a day. But for me, it is more than enough for the whole eternity.