Before the Sunset by: Mitch

The sun sank below the horizon that evening in a blaze of ruby and gold. Throughout the day, the weather had looked more than threatening. From an early hour of the morning, the wind had been constantly veering and shifting, showing a strong inclination to back. Now the sea was getting up and the white horses of Neptune had already began to gambol over the crests of the swelling billows which heaved up and down as they rolled onward with a heavy moaning sound, like one long deep- drawn sigh!

Yolanda had a sound sleep alone in their ancestral home nearby the sea. That was the only place where she lived the memories of her parents but for a series of gun shots.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!

“ No! Papa, papa, pap…! She tried her best to carry out a voice from her throat but nothing came out. She ran towards her lying father and hugged him. Suddenly, she felt a sticky, red and warm liquid in her hands. Crying helplessly, she saw a shadow running towards the dark backyard and then she heard a motorcycle speeding. She turned her head and saw a blurry figure of a man so familiar. Wanting to have a clearer description , she ran as fast as she could and follow the direction of the motorcycle.

“No, wait!”.

She became more helpless and almost lost her breath and then she woke up.

Yolanda rose from her bed full of emotion. What happened to her father had always been a nightmare to her. A sad past that dragged her not to move on. It’s been a year already. One year of longing and living in pain. Again, she remembered the most tragic scenario of her life. The enormity of that tragedy was slowly sinking to her again and weighing more and more heavily on her. The sobs broke from her like a storm on a summer evening. She lay down again powerless, helpless, completely lost and bereft. Tears streamed down her cheeks and dropped one by one to her pillow. Finally, the rivers of tears begun to dry and Yolanda felt the healing effect of a good cry. She wiped her face and looked at herself in the mirror, tried as best as she could to repair the damage. She had to realize her mission. She was occupied by a dangerous desire without thinking of the social consequences of her thoughts and action.

“Papa, don’t worry. I will give you the justice I promised.”

From the sumptuous luxury of her room, Yolanda sat in front of her make-up mirror brushing her hair, her mind miles away, searching her father in imagination. Her hand slowly lowered itself, the comb it held forgotten as she found and embraced her father. The sensation was so powerful that it might have been real. She sat there for a long time and might have stayed that way even longer but for the ringing of the phone. It startled her out of her reverie, but it took at least three rings for her to realize where she was and that her mind had been playing tricks on her. A wave of pain rushed over her as she reached for the receiver; half hoping, half dreading, the news from the other side of the line.

“Hello, good morning! “

“Good morning! This is Inspector Rolando Reyes from the National Bureau of Investigation. We would like to inform you that the result of your father’s case investigation is already available. We suggest you to visit our office a.s.a.p.”

It takes a minute for her before she was able to give her answer to the other side of the line.

She looked for her car key and without a minute she drove to the NBI Office. She couldn’t wait to know the man behind her depression.

Fire burned in Yolanda’s eyes, the fire of sheer outrage as she listened to the investigator. She could not believe it and tried not to. She felt the panic rising in her bosom, like a train coming down the tracks headed right for her. Her whole life was blowing up in her face.

“Crack!” The sound of her hand slapping the killer’s face resounded in the big room, echoing from several seconds in the stunned silence that followed.

“How could you do that to us?” raged Yolanda.” We have been so good to you all of our lives. Nobody would have thought you would ruin my life. My mother lost her life when I have mine. What I only got was papa. Have you ever thought of the hardships I encountered? Have you? Answer me!”

Yolanda was crying because of anger. She was not able to control her emotions. Her eyes were rolling up and down; pain and anger could be seen in her face.

But the man could not answer. His meager defenses had crumbled from the force of her counterattack.

“If I had not killed him, it’s the end of me…. I’ll lose everything…everything…! He looked at Yolanda piteously.

“He got everything that was mine. Even before when we were still young until he got to know the woman I love the most. And you know what? He was the reason of the desperate fate I had.”

Silence followed but after a minute she realized where she was.

“I don’t understand!” shouted Yolanda.

“ You can’t really understand. Even me, did not understand. The woman I loved was impregnated by your father’s sinuous act. Who can forget that?

“ What do you mean? I don’t understand”.

Even in business her father tried to get everything from him. Yolanda was shocked from the painful fact that she had just known. There were lots of reasons that he would get mad to her father but she find it not enough to kill him. She saw the pain and anger in her eyes and face before he sobbed.

“I am so sorry, Yolanda .” “You can’t blame me and now I am ready to pay my sin.”

“Oh no! My God…! , she sobbed.

Still shocked, she turned, clutched her stomach and ran wildly from the room.

She proceeded to her father’s gravestone and spoke out everything she had carried so heavily in her heart. She was so happy because she was able to give justice to his father but she was also sad and confused to the revelation he had just known.

“ Papa, justice is in my hand already but I have lots of things to ask you. He told me everything why he killed you. The damage has been done already; I can do nothing about it. Even if you betrayed him, it was not enough reason to kill you”, Yolanda talked to his father seems he was alive.

“Whatever might be your past pa, I don’t care anymore. He is now paying his sin in jail. It makes no difference. You and mama are both gone.”

After that cry, she felt relieved. She sat in the gravestone of his father watching the sun as it sets.