Broken Melody

~Charles~

It was early afternoon, and Charles should have been napping at home instead of yawning while standing around in their school's soccer field. But they needed to be here during their free time to start practicing for their English class requirement. His eyes flicked over his blockmates' faces. They were clustered in a circle around a dirty tile table, gazing with rapt attention at Ronnie, who was acting as the class leader.

"So… any ideas?" Ronnie was asking them now. When no one spoke up, he singled out Honey, who was squatting on the ground and pulling on the grass with her hands, adding to the layer of freshly cut grass. "Didn’t your class win choral recitations back in high school? Maybe you can share some pointers."

"Um… we can pull out some lines from the middle of the piece and recite them at the beginning, as our introduction," she suggested, brushing the grass off her palms. "We could also get someone to sing a patriotic song at one point, as background music while the rest of us recite. That someone being Melody, of course." Everyone's heads turned to look from her face to another one that looked like hers a few feet away.

Honey and Melody were two of a set. They shared identical looks along with their triplet Aphrodite, who was currently studying in another city. They even had the same taste in clothes - big t-shirts and formless jeans in an effort to hide their weight. Charles, who was new to their block, was glad they had decided to have different hairstyles, or else he would have difficulty in telling them apart. Honey sported a boycut while Melody wore her long hair in a ponytail. Aside from that, there was pretty much nothing else that differentiated them from each other, as far as Charles was concerned at that point anyway.

"I think that's a good idea," Ronnie acknowledged. "Why don't you sing a few lines, Melody? So that the others here who haven't heard you sing yet can appreciate the effect."

Melody obliged the request and broke into song. It was the most beautiful voice he had ever heard, Charles thought in wonderment.


~Honey~

Honey was so proud of her triplet’s voice that she liked to look at people’s reactions whenever she opened her mouth. Today, while everyone watched her sister sing, she looked at everyone. Nobody else saw what she saw – that starstruck glazed look in Charles’s eyes. And nobody saw what came next - the look of mischief that crept into hers.

After everyone had agreed that singing would be a good gimmick, they recited the entire piece out loud one time before going for a water and bladder break.

“Wanna sit over there?” Honey asked then walked towards a huge Acacia tree to sit on one of the roots that jutted out of the ground. Her gang followed suit, and so did Charles. She did her best to hide a smile.

“Melody, can I borrow our cellphone please?” she requested in a voice deliberately loud enough for Charles to hear. Her ever nice sister did not even suspect a thing and just handed over the Nokia cellphone that the two of them shared. Honey made sure to hold the cellphone in such a way that Charles couldn’t possibly miss it. She was successful.

“Oh, you have a cellphone too,” Charles observed with a smile. He took out his, which was also a Nokia. “Welcome to the club.” These things were slowly beginning to gain popularity, and everyone who could afford one now had one. Honey only had half of one, she thought ruefully. But it was better than nothing. And even better than that, she could use it as a bait to hook a certain fish.

“Actually it’s half mine, half Melody’s,” she explained to her new classmate. At the beginning of the semester, she had hated their dean for breaking up their freshman block and reassigning those with the highest Accounting grades to this block, section A, but now she thought maybe it would all work out for the best after all.

“You share one cellphone?” Charles asked quizzically.

“Yes. Our parents can’t afford to buy one for each of us. Our triplet Aphrodite has her own because she needs it, being far away in Davao, but Mel and I share this 5110,” Honey explained, gesturing to the purple-encased phone in her hands. “We have different sim cards, though. I get the cell during the day, Mel gets it at night. You wanna get our numbers?”

“Yes, please,” Charles said eagerly.

“Can you give it to him please, Mel? I just badly need to pee,” Honey lied, tossing the cellphone to her sister and standing up to head across the back field to the college building toilet. When she heard Melody rattling off her digits, she knew even without looking back what expression Charles was wearing on his face. She grinned and praised herself for being such a good schemer. If her plan worked, she would land her dear sister a boyfriend before the semester ended.


~Melody~

“Ma’am Sogono is so boring. I wish it’s Accounting class instead.” Honey scribbled on a page of her binder, unsnapped the binder rings to slide out the paper and passed it to her seatmate Raven.

“I hate Accounting. My arms are sore from carrying that damn 2000-page book.” Raven penned below Honey’s words, then pushed the paper to Melody on her right.

“I think Honey likes Accounting class because of the teacher, not the subject.” was Melody’s input. She discreetly slid the page to Jewel.

“I so agree with Honey. Sir Jonathan is so so cute!” Jewel gushed in her teeny tiny handwriting before handing the slip to the last person on their row, Gem.

“What time will you be in the library this afternoon? I need to study for our short quiz on fixed assets tomorrow,” was Gem’s worried scribble. She passed the paper back down the row through Jewel.

“Charles lo-oves Melody!” Jenna sing-songed from the back of the room, interrupting Jewel, who was about to reply to Gem. Their entire row of heads turned to look towards the back, where both Jenna and Charles were seated. The entire class, including their teacher, erupted in cheers and catcalls.

Honey turned to look at Melody, ready to tease her sister, but she held her tongue when she saw that Melody was blushing.

Melody was grateful to her triplet for being intuitive like that. She wondered how deep her intuition went, though. Could she sense, for example, that this blush was not just from embarrassment but also from hiding a secret?

She liked Charles. She had liked him from the first day of the semester, when he had stood up to introduce himself, at their teacher’s instruction. It wasn’t just a crush. That was why she did not tell any of her friends about it.

Then she remembered last night and wondered if it was time to tell her sister and their gang. It had started with a forwardable text message from Charles. She had reciprocated with one of her own, and he had responded with another one, and so on until they had both run out of forwardable text messages and he finally texted a conversational one. Then he had asked for her landline number and they had chatted till midnight. It seemed like such a coincidence that he picked that night to call, when Honey wasn’t hogging the phone line like she normally did because she was asleep early due to a killer headache.

Last night’s and this morning’s events obviously meant he liked her as well. Didn’t it?


~Honey~

“I’m officially appalled that you only told us about this now!” Honey screeched. Melody darted a nervous glance towards the tile table at the edge of the field, where Charles and the rest of their classmates were gathered. They were well out of hearing range of their group, so she need not have worried. It was a week later and they were once again converging to practice their choral speech. During their break, the gang had decided to sit in the middle of the back field so that Melody could share her story in private, which had definitely been a good idea.

“But Charles has a – “ Jewel was about to say something but everyone hushed her up when they saw that the subject of their conversation was walking towards them.

“Hi girls, can I join you?” he asked, indicating their circle on the grass. When they nodded, he dropped to the ground.

“So Charles, how do you find being in our class so far?” Raven asked in an innocent voice. “Have you made friends aside from Jewel?” Charles and Jewel had been high school classmates.

“Yeah. It’s great. Everyone’s so friendly so it hasn’t been hard to fit in. I like all our classmates,” he replied with a smile.

“Uh-huh. Some people more so than others, I’ll bet,” Gem said sweetly. She grimaced when Melody nudged her sharply in the ribs.

“You’re nice, too, that’s why everyone’s nice to you,” Honey told him. “Like, you’re gonna lend me your 3210 right?” Everyone laughed. “I’m serious, though. I just wanna try playing Snake on it. I heard that its keypad is really soft compared to 5110’s so its easier to play on it and I was just curious.”

“The rumor is right,” Charles affirmed as he handed his phone to her.

“Thanks! Ooh – I brought a Song Hits mag. Maybe you want to sing, guys, go ahead,” Honey said, pulling out the magazine of song lyrics and chords out of her bag and handing it to Charles. “Since you’re our ‘guest’ Charles, why don’t you pick a song? Melody will sing it for you.”

While Charles riffled through the pages, Honey expertly clicked through his phone. “Can you sing ‘Fallin’? I love this song,” he asked Melody, who obliged.

“I’m afraid to fly and I don’t know why,” she began, her voice enough music to the ears. Though they were triplets, only Melody had pursued an interest in music and taken all the lessons that had honed her talent while her two sisters could barely sing in tune. Honey always said that they had grown up and embodied their names. Melody had her gift of song. Aphrodite was a true “goddess of love and beauty” - the only one among the three who wore girly clothes and makeup and was so good at flirting, she had a string of boyfriends whereas her sisters were NBSB (no boyfriend since birth). And Honey had friends by the dozens because of her sweet nature – a person who passed out handmade cards to all her friends and classmates on birthdays, Christmases, Valentines and friendship anniversaries. A person who would do anything to make a loved one happy – even if it involved scheming and plotting and pulling strings.

By the time Melody got to the chorus part, their leader Ronnie was calling them back to the tile table to resume practice. So they stood up and shook their clothes to get rid of grass residue that might have clung to them.

Honey handed Charles back his cellphone and thanked him. “Did you like playing Snake on it?” he asked her as they walked across the field.

“Yes,” she lied, for the second time to him that day. Firstly, it wasn’t her first time to use a 3210 and hadn’t needed to borrow it to know what it was like. Secondly, she hadn’t played Snake at all. Instead, she had sent a message to Melody’s number, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to read it till tonight when it was her turn to use their cellphone. She smiled in exhilaration, the TV show Alias’s theme song playing in her mind. So this must be how Sidney Bristow felt after a successful mission.


~Melody~

Melody slid her sim card into its proper slot in the cellphone, then replaced the battery and the back case before pushing the power button. The phone came alive with a cacophony of beeps to indicate a surge of incoming messages, typical if you keep your phone – or in this case, sim card – off for several hours. She scrolled through them one by one - the usual promo announcement from Globe, a question regarding an Accounting assignment from her classmate Dexter, a dozen or so forwardable texts from random friends, the daily “How’s the most beautiful girl in Zamboanga City?” from Aphrodite who was also praising herself with said statement because they looked identical, and a single text message from Charles. She clicked his message open. She didn’t know what she had expected to read but it definitely wasn’t this – “I love you.”

She was a bit shocked, but strangely pleased even though she knew that she shouldn’t be. Not after what she had learned from Jewel during activity hour. Activity hour was from 4:30 to 5:30 pm, a school-imposed break every MWF when no classes are scheduled and everyone is free. Orgs could take advantage of this time to schedule meetings for their members knowing that none of them would have conflicting class schedules. That was exactly where Honey had been that afternoon – in a meeting for one of her numerous orgs, while the rest of the gang gathered in the cafeteria to eat siopao, rebosao and isaw. Jewel had chosen that moment to break the news that Charles had a girlfriend – his high school sweetheart Kara.

If Charles had a girlfriend, why was he texting this to her? Melody sat and pondered how best to reply. She typed and backspaced and edited several times before finally managing to press the send button. Barely a minute later, their landline phone rang. She rushed to snatch it off the hook.

“What did I mean by what?” Charles asked after her ‘hello.’

“Your text message,” she replied, walking into her bedroom with the wireless phone.

“What text message?” Charles asked in a confused voice.

“Oh you know, the one you texted me today,” Melody replied in a voice as low as possible so as not to be overheard by anyone else in the house. Luckily, Honey was busy watching her favorite TV show Charmed in the living room.

“I did not text you today. I was just going to, actually, then I got this text from you.”

“But this came from your number – 09172250491.”

“I swear, I did not send that.”

“If you didn’t, who did?” Melody asked indignantly. The bewilderment in Charles’s voice made it obvious that he was telling the truth. Someone had pulled a prank on them.

“What does it say?”

Melody felt herself blushing as she said the words, but she needed to. “It says ‘I love you.’”

Charles was a silent for a moment before replying: “I honestly have no idea who sent that message, but whoever he is, I want to thank him, because that’s exactly want I wanted to say. He beat me to it.”


~Charles~

“Why was your phone busy? Why haven’t you called me?” Kara whined when Charles answered the phone. It had been barely a couple of minutes since he had ended his hours-long conversation with Melody. He wondered how many times she had hit the redial button and for how long.

“Dad was using the phone,” he lied, looking impatiently at his watch. It was past 9pm and he still hadn’t started on his Accounting homework. And wasn’t there a quiz tomorrow? He forgot for which subject. He had to ask someone from class. Andy. Or Melody.

“I called and texted you in your cellphone as well,” she said huffily.

“Sorry, it was on silent mode,” at least this much was true. He picked up his phone from where he had neglected it at the foot of his bed and saw that there were 10 missed calls and a capslocked “WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING THE PHONE?” message from Kara. Great.

Since he was using his cellphone anyway, he decided to take the opportunity to shoot off a quick “w/c subj do we hv a qz on 2m? hv u fnshd d acctg asynmnt yet? sori 4 d bothr.” to Melody.

“After this afternoon, Charles, I can’t believe you’d do this,” Kara said venomously.

“I already explained this afternoon that I couldn’t hang out with you and your classmates over activity hour because I needed to run an errand for my dad,” he said wearily. Kara had become so demanding lately. Had she always been like this? He tried to remember what she had been like, and what he had liked about her in the first place. It wasn’t her looks or her body or her brains, which were all pretty average. But she had been his seatmate then and their entire class had started teasing them to each other and the next thing he knew, he had developed a crush on her, pursued her, and became her boyfriend. That had been three years ago, and he couldn’t remember when she had morphed from sweet girlfriend to tiresome nag.

“That’s what you keep saying. You’re always off on your dad or mom or sister’s errands. You never have any time for me,” she complained bitterly. How many times had he heard this rant?

Just then, his cellphone lit up with “1 message received.” It was Melody’s response – “econ, qz on chptr 3. nt thru wd asynmnt yet, bt our gang wl mit @ gem’s bordng hous 2 ansr 2m.”

He smiled while typing his reply: “cn i join u?”

“Charles! Are you there?” Kara asked, bringing him back to the present. He sighed and knew that even if he wouldn’t be able to finish any of his school work tonight, he’d at least need to finish something else.

“Kara, we need to talk,” he said in a somber voice.


~Melody~

“Guys, one last performance from the top then let’s call it a night,” Ronnie yelled to get heard over the din. It was nearly 10pm on a school night but the contest was the next day and they didn’t have enough time to practice during the days. Their classmate Tina had offered her house’s roomy living room for this purpose.

Everyone scattered around the living room and bowed their heads. “Whoever knows not how to love their native tongue is worse than any beast or evil smelling fish,” they intoned in a low voice, repeating the lines two more times, each utterance louder and more forceful than the last, all the while walking into a block position in the middle of the presumed stage then freezing in place. On cue, they all snapped their heads up together to stare at the presumed audience and shout the title: “To my fellow children.”

It was a perfect performance, and the spell remained, down to their very last line in their last position, a boat formation: “Like bancas in the stormy sea, long years ago.” Then they scattered the same way they had entered, but in complete silence. Ronnie broke the spell by breaking into applause, to which everyone followed suit.

“That was very impressive,” he said happily. “Please don’t forget to wear black shirts and pants for tomorrow, and bring your malong cloth and tubao,” he instructed, before dismissing them.

Melody followed Charles outside to where his motorcycle was parked. He had volunteered to bring her home during all these late night practices. Honey walked past with Ronnie, Raven and Gem. The four of them had been sharing a cab ride home. Honey grinned when she saw Melody seat herself on the back of Charles’s motorcycle and started to sing, “Now I know that we can have it all forever.” Charles laughed.

A couple of weeks ago, when Melody had first got on Charles’s motorcycle, Honey had commented that they looked so sweet, like the couple Aga and Mikee from the movie Forever. She had then imposed that movie’s soundtrack as their theme song and the deal was sealed even more when one afternoon, while Charles, Melody, and her friends were studying for a major Accounting exam, Honey sang the first line of the song and one by one, they all contributed to singing the next lines of the song.

This has also been the same day that Jewel had gossiped about how Charles had broken up with Kara right before Charles showed up in their study place and tossed a single white rose at Melody. Not exactly the most romantic way to present a flower, but it was a sweet and lovely gift nonetheless.

Being courted by Charles was more wonderful than she had imagined it would be. Oh she had crushes and some guys had approached her before, too, but this had been the first time that the two occasions had met, when the feeling had been mutual for both parties concerned.

The only damper on the situation was the ex girlfriend and her allies, who threw dagger looks and dropped spiteful “boyfriend stealer” comments meant for her to “overhear” whenever she crossed their paths in the locker room. But she tried not to let them affect her too much, knowing that their accusations were unfounded. She hadn’t stolen Charles, not purposely. She wasn’t some wily witch who seduced him away from his girl. He had chosen her out of his own accord. They just had to deal with that, because she had no plans of turning him away.


~Charles~

Charles carefully navigated his motorcycle around the bend in the road, his body leaning along with it. He felt Melody’s arms wrapped around his middle and he waited for the familiar jolt of electricity to run through his body. It didn’t come.

It had been a month since Melody had agreed to be his girlfriend. Since Honey had cornered them, accusingly asking, “You’re officially a couple already, aren’t you?” It had been during sem break, when the class had decided to head over to La Vista beach resort and have an impromptu picnic as a celebration of sorts – placing in the top 3 of the choral speech competition, being done with the grueling finals, passing all the subjects of the first semester, and their very own Ronnie was at the top of the dean’s list.

“Yes,” Melody had admitted with a rueful smile. “But how did you know?”

“Duh, I’m your triplet. And it’s the way you’ve been serving food to Charles. It’s such a girlfriendy thing to do,” Honey had explained. “I’m so happy for you both!”

Charles had been happy then too. Melody was indeed a sweet girlfriend. But last week, when he had gone on his church’s activity for singles, he had run into Kara. Their friends had teased them, and some feelings had come rushing back. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking of her ever since, and he realized how much he missed her. Maybe he had been too hasty when he broke things off with her to pursue the girl with the beautiful voice.

He turned off his motorcycle’s engine and deposited Melody at her doorstep. He took off his helmet and sunglasses and looked into her eyes. He hated to do this to her, but he needed to. “Melody, we need to talk.”


~Honey~

Honey watched as her sister re-entered the classroom from a visit to the toilet and marveled at her composure. There was no hint of redness or puffiness in her eyes, no trace that she had actually been crying instead of taking a bladder break. She could have fooled everybody, but Honey knew better. Melody had confessed to having weeping fits all throughout the day. It couldn’t possibly be easy to see the cause of your heartbreak every day, every hour, at such close proximity.

Honey shifted her gaze to the culprit who was seated across the room. Seeing his indifferent face sent her blood boiling, and she remembered the long letter she had penned and given to him yesterday. Her last lines had been a lie. “I am not mad at you, Charles. Just bitterly disappointed.” She was very mad, of course. How dare he hurt her sister! She was also mad at herself because she felt partly responsible for what had happened. She had been the one who started it, after all. Charles had called her after that. He was surprised, saying he hadn’t realized that he had hurt Melody that much. Honey had stared at the receiver in utter amazement at how incredibly clueless and stupid men could be.

When the teacher dismissed their class in time for activity hour, Honey swept the contents of her desk into her bag and grabbed Melody’s hand. “Come on sis, let’s have satti at Green Valley. My treat.”

“I’m not really in the mood to eat,” Melody sighed as she grabbed her books and slid them against the crook of her elbow. Satti was a favorite of hers and for her to turn down the chance to eat it was a cause for concern.

“I’m sorry,” Honey said, not knowing what to say.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I still feel responsible, somehow. I want to do something.”

“Telling him off with that letter is more than enough, believe me,” Melody said wanly.

“He’s a jerk who doesn’t know what he lost. You have many other admirers, many other guys who love you. You have so many fans, you know.”

Melody gazed sorrowfully at her sister. “They love my voice. Not me.”


~Nine Years Later~

“Mel, hurry up, we’re gonna be late,” Honey called out from her bedroom.

“Be there in a sec,” Melody yelled back. She squirted some leave on conditioner onto her palms and squeezed her digitally permed hair with them. Then she took a step back and carefully assessed her face in the mirror – perfectly groomed brows, smoky eye makeup, curled and coated lashes, shiny pink lips, radiant smooth skin. She stood up and walked over to the full length mirror behind her door to take a good look at her outfit – a yellow and white floral-designed spaghetti-strapped tank top, black denim skirt and black stiletto sandals looked just right on her 115-pound frame. She grabbed a pair of large hoop earrings and waltzed out the door to meet her sister who was also made up and wearing a purple halter-necked dress.

Minutes later, they were surrounded with their college classmates and Honey was handing out “Balance $heet” newsletters to them. “Ten Years of Friendship” screamed the headline. This was their college block Christmas reunion and Honey had created the newsletters in commemoration of this tenth Christmas she had spent having them as her friends. They had reserved a room in Patio Palmeras for the occasion and everyone who was home for the holidays – from the Zamboanga-based to those who had come home from London, Thailand, Singapore and Makati – were now enjoying calamares and bangus and looking forward to knickerbocker glory for dessert while trading stories with people they hadn’t seen in a long while.

Charles was seated beside Andy, who had brought along his fiancé. They were seated across Melody, so Andy introduced them. “Krista, this is Melody, the owner of the ice cream chain around Zamboanga as well as that boutique in Mindpro.” Melody smiled at Krista and asked about her and Andy and eventually came to Charles.

“I’m an officer of Metrobank now,” he replied, mesmerized. She was a far cry from that chubby girl who wore T shirts and pants and had her hair in a ponytail. This girl had been his girlfriend, he remembered. Why had he let her go again? It was so long ago, he couldn’t recall. But maybe it wasn’t too late.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask for her number, Honey announced Melody’s name over the microphone. “And now my beloved sister will entertain us with a Christmas song.” Melody walked in front and took the microphone as the opening strains of “Grownup Christmas List” floated from the speakers. When she opened her mouth to sing, Charles was blown away. The voice of an angel. He had forgotten about that.

“And time would heal all hearts,” Melody sang, her gaze flickering over Charles. He was looking at her in admiration, the same look he had on his face on that day he had first heard her sing. Time had healed her heart indeed, she thought. She didn’t feel any pain, or any emotion at all, when she looked at him now.

Honey watched this exchange with a look of amusement on her face. She wasn’t at all surprised when after dinner, Charles approached Melody as she sat talking to the old gang and asked. “Can I join you?”

“Sure, but we’re leaving in a minute,” Melody replied.

“Can I bring you home?” he asked.

“In your motorcycle?” she replied with a laugh.

“No, it’s a car now,” he explained.

“Thanks, but we have a car.”

“Can we meet again, and you know, just talk?” he asked.

She hated to do this to him, but she needed to. “Charles, we don’t need to talk.” She smiled, then stood up to link arms with her sister, leaving him staring at her.

-----

Written in November 2009 as a birthday gift for my friend Maya, on whom Melody's character is based on.