A bad dream woke me up last night.The dream was fuzzy, but I knew that it was not good. I looked at my wall clock: 2:23AM. Too early to be getting up from bed. But I had to get up. I suddenly felt uneasy.

I don’t know what triggered that feeling. The sensation that someone is watching you…and that for some reason, you feel that they are waiting..waiting for what?

Then suddenly, I remembered my dream…it was about my grandma’s ultimate ghost story.

I was already hungry to see the world when I was but a wee li’l girl. I’d often pester my mom to allow me to go and have my summer vacation with my relatives in the low lands. I particularly like going down to Tugeugarao, Cagayan. My mom grew up there, it is where she graduated in high school… where she met her first love…
I guess, like any other child, I’d like to know what it was like when my mom was young.

One summer, Mom gave in. My Grandfather (God bless his soul) helped us pack and whisked me and my two other siblings to the city of Tuguegarao. And it was a big adventure for us back then! We get to pick our mangoes from the tree, we get to ride horses (with strict adult supervision), we get swim the river (which cause my Granmother a near heart attack because it was teaming with leaches), and we get to catch our own dinner (the river was also rich with tilapia)!

We were nearing the end of our 2 week vacation spree when I noticed that my two aunts who were with us then had the same exact scar on the same exact spot over the left eye like my Mom. I asked my Grandmother about it…she looked at me..and a strange expression passed by her face. It was as if…she was afraid…

I never got my answer that day. But on the afternoon before our scheduled departure, Grandma asked me if I wanted to go with her and get berries in the forest. Ha! I’d never say no to that!

And so to the forest we went…when we were already there…we passed by a small path..but it looked like it was not used for a long time already because there were weeds and shrubs nearly covering it hiding it. I asked where the path leads and Grandma said, “It was a path to the place where your mother and 2 aunts were born.”