Literary (Submission): Tell Me

4/27/2019 08:59:00 PM Media Center 0 Comments

13/4/2019

Mi querido amiguito,

¿Cómo estás? I have neither seen nor talked to you for almost four years. To be honest, I thought you already forgot me as your mejor amigo.

It is such an agony, considering that we have shared a lot of memories since grade school. Not to mention, we would pluck some herbs from the lush arbustos of Alhambra Park. Then we would talk about the secrets of your favorite Latin restaurants in Los Ángeles. When we get home, we would cook our favorite achiote-filled tamales. And most of all, we would indulge in them.

Through those eight years, we have built our friendship. We are like that sticky piece of tamale, I would tell myself every now and then. I would imagine our bond with each other is indestructible. Time, distance, and other people might do everything to pull us apart, but we would remain close to each other. Remember the promise we had before graduation? We pledged we would be juntos amigos, ¡para siempre!

The time zone acá might be different from yours. Manila and Los Ángeles might be miles away from each other. We might have made new friends now that we study in different schools. Pero I swear, I did everything whatever I could so that we could still keep the friendship.

I would contact you via Facetime and Messenger hartas veces, but you would not respond. I would tag you in the posts I share in Facebook, but you would neither comment nor like them. You would insist before that I go back to Los Ángeles, pero cuando I requested you to go here every verano, you would refuse to. At this rate, we might not be able to rekindle our so-called “tamale moments” anymore.

I have a lot of questions in my mind right now. But I am afraid to ask all because I might be tactless in doing so, and we might eventually cut off the friendship. Solamente una pregunta. Dime. Tell me why you would not want to talk to me.

Is it because you’re demasiado ocupado in your projects as vice president of Alhambra High School? Is it because of your hectic schedule in worship service? Or is it because you decided to make your tamales with someone else?

Te lo pido. ¡Porfa! Tell me, would you still want to be my friend?