Accident in the Foxhole

Flashbacks, memories of her place, the wilderness and gunshots, the dead Filipino people on the river of bloodstreams, hiding guerrillas, betrayal of 'makapili's', the Japs' officer as her fiancee who threatened her mother and she was part of the hopeless agreement. Undaunted, but all these were imprinted in her mind converted into tears, cascading to her eyes while she heard likely some noise around, still her auditory sense was weak to hear the source of clatters. Yet, she never opened her eyes and pretended to be that still and pondered in disbelief.

" Wait...I fell in that hole, maybe...this is heaven. But I am on a bed, my back could feel a very smooth cloth. My feet have...what could be those things worn by my feet, socks, they're awesomely so soft. Why my body is thickly covered, who did it? Why did he/she/they took good care of me? Are they nice? Could this be heaven? What happened to me after that accident? what was that hole for? where was the well? what was the silhouette all about? what day is it today?" Magee asked all by herself and was confused about everything. Minutes later, she thought she's already alone due to the absence of noise. Though she could just hear a huge sound of flowing waters from nowhere there had been no paces of heavy footwear stamping on the wooden floors. Unintentionally, she was able to open her eyes.

" Ahhhhhh!" Magee heavily shouted and covered her entire face while looking at the faces of big men in clean-cut - hair cut and all's wearing brown military uniforms. Her sweats exhausts on her forehead and neck like pebbles as she palpitate, turning her eyes around looked like marble spies.

" Shh..." One of the men signaled her to calm down.

Then someone waved a hand to another army guy in his mid 20's who stood at the doorway, somewhat inviting him to interpret something, to help them all communicate better. Then that Filipino guy motioned toward them and seated beside Magee.

" Hmm...Narciso they called me that way, a former music teacher, I'm also from Tikaban, what is your name, lady? By the way, the guerrillas are hiding here together with the Germans and Insular Americans. There are also five guerrillas staying around, in other words, we're into secret deployment as front liners." Then he smiled at her as a sign of reassurance and safety.

" Brother, I'm Magee...I fell from a certain hole, I was supposed to fetch water into the well, but my slippers were lost. I even wanted to search for those but I found myself hanging and was lost.

Narciso turned his head, stood up, and winked an eye to all of them, smiling.

" Strange. She could speak more than three dialects at a time and I presumed she's educated."

"Yes, she is!" George and Albrecht curiously interrupted.

" What does that mean? Can we trust her too?" Michael exclaimed.

" Of course!" The Captain looked irately to Michael.

" Maybe we can trust her. It's just two weeks since the Japs' invasion had started and I'm pretty sure they have not penetrated well in the village. But I guess we'll just question her little by little then later ask her some information we need to know when she's fully rested. She slept for two days long." Narciso smiled at the men in uniform.

" Wow! can't imagine how many dreams she'd got." The American soldiers laughed at Narciso.

One of the Germans called Bruno stood up, and stopped them from laughing.

" You guys have to allow this lady to rest, she'd suffered a lot from your damaged foxhole. It was just a miracle that she survived. Good Lord, she made it here on her way sound and safe."

" Thank you, Sir, I never thought it's a foxhole that my grandpa kept telling us. I was just looking for the well with my bucket but I was lost. So...so thank you all for making me alive." Then she cried.

"Hey, hey...you can speak English? sounds fluent though, you also can speak your mother tongue and the rest of your dialects here? Who taught you with the English alphabet?" The American soldiers rushed beside her.

" My grandpa. He's not my biological grandpa but he taught us a lot of manners, values, and of course, anything within the limits of education. He kept so many books and took them out when he's giving us lessons. He's a great writer and storyteller." Magee smiled at them

" Beautiful! " As mentioned by a German soldier Bruno.

" What's beautiful?" The Captain's eyes flared and asked.

" Uhm, her story is beautiful Sir, getting educated in a certain crash course, home-based and that's also why she's craving to learn more dialects and likes to explore learning," Bruno explained.

" I see, okay gentlemen. I want to meet all of you, outside!"

" Yes, Sir." Then all of them marked their salute.

" Lady, stay where you are, don't worry, you're safe here." Then all the men in uniform got out and followed their captain while she was left alone, analyzing things.

" Consultants. I think they are spy eyeing and tracking the Japs' movement. Whatever, but thank God...I'm out of their agreement now. Marrying someone against my will is a terrible suicide." Magee thought as she recalled all her struggles inside the foxhole then tearfully sighed.

Meanwhile, someone came in.

" Hi Magee, I'm George, from the US army. I'm one of the occupants here and one of my roles is more of briefing visitors and recruits. Can I sit down, and orient you around?"

" Sure." She smiled at him.

" Thank you."

" We are under Japs' invasion and I presumed you know that. All of us who came had some hunches that pearl harbor had been their target last week. Likewise, I'm sorry because you'll never know the 90% of information about our special orders in the army and the rest of our plans. However, since you fell from our burrowed foxhole and joined us inside this 200 square meters rocky space inside where you need to put a little sacrifice into this. But when this war is over, of course, you can freely go. There's only one entrance and exit - and that's the waterfalls, it serves as our door here. Once a member gets inside, he would take a shower from the waterfalls same as when he goes out which will take the sideways going down. The manner of sending communication is through bow and arrow. The member would write the message on a paper, using codes, insert it in the arrow and send it here, after reading it and if it requires a response we'll do the same way. Every day we burrow another hole in a different direction and shall have another passage as an exit soon. For now, these men inside serves as the planner and we have different men who execute outside. When you were sleeping for two days, we tracked your foster family and found out that Hakanori, the head combatant was your fiancee. I'm sorry to tell you but everyone in your family was executed and died...

" What? that's not true!" Then she heavily cried.

"...it was just yesterday after Hakanori knew that you were not at their wedding and thought that you escaped. Our commander was saddened by your situation and we're sorry we can't send you back home. Again, I was assigned to guide and train you around so please...just ask me whenever you need help, though our Captain was asking the least if what you can do to help us or do we need to ask you to join hands with us.

Magee got out of bed and sat down on a bamboo chair. She was still in deep sorrow thinking about the great loss her family does not deserve.

" This is the saddest news I ever have. Days ago we still joyfully shared our - last dinner then I fell into the hole and they all died."

" True. By the way, we are at war and you need to be strong-willed. We don't compare our pains because they're all heartbreaking but we all need to move on. By the way, at 1500 hrs today there'd be a meeting outside. We're informing you ahead of time so you know where you stay when they arrive. We set this small corner for your privacy. Supposed in the next days you'll be ready to help us, please let us know, Magee." He smiled and almost tap her shoulder.