short stories Archives - My Unique Stories

October 15, 2020

Angels

On the first Friday of October 2020. I went to church and this day was designated as the memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels.
The church was a Catholic Community and School. I was glad to arrive early. The students had their Friday mass. Being on 50 % capacity limitation of seating, it was more exclusive for the students and staffs. When I checked inside the church all the seats were occupied with social distancing observed. I stepped out and stayed in the narthex. There were benches that I could sit on. I sat on one of the benches located by the big post and behind it was another bench. Before the mass began, there was a lady sitting on the bench behind me. She was leaning and stooping. She had her mask hanging on one ear as if she was trying to get more air. When I saw her, I asked her if she was okay? She replied that she was alright. There were colleagues that came to check on her.
On the other hand, while the mass was ongoing, I heard the front door tried to be opened by 2 gentlemen. So, I asked the one of the staffs which were helping the lady if I should open the door for the 2 men wanted to get in the church. But they advised no due to capacity was met already.
The lady was taken to the school office and one of the staffs asked me that when she came back to open the front door for her as she just needed to go to the school office.
While the mass was in progress the priest had homily about the “Holy Angles”. He admonished that we never be alone. Angles were all around us. Then I saw a teacher and a student that went to the narthex area. I thought that the student was accompanied by teacher to go to the restroom. But then I realized that she was sitting on a bench. On the second time, the staff asked me to open the front door for her as she needed to get a cold pack for the student.
At this point, it was already communion time. I checked on the student if she was okay, but she stated that she was not feeling good. She was young and about 7 or 8 grade. She was so pale. I was thinking of taking communion first, but I changed my mind instead, I went back to her and took another bench put together to another bench. I let the student lie down on the bench so that blood flow will flow into her head. Advised her to take some deep breaths. Her legs were massaged especially the calves muscle. After a while she looked better. She had better color in her face. The staff came back and helped her wheeled to the school. Student’s mom was notified and was on her way to get her.
Then, I pondered about the homily of the priest that angles were everywhere. You can be the angel to others. God sends angel to be on our side at any time.

May 20, 2020

A Morning’s Cup of Coffee

I find myself waking up to the warm embrace of the sun light, reminding me that it’s a new day and it’s time to get up, which I start to do as fast as my still half sleep body and mind let me do.

The first order of business is getting myself a cup of coffee; without it I probably would just sit across from the TV and staring blankly at it. Mind you, the TV is off, but my mind probably would not register it.

I await patiently, or as patient as I can be, for the coffee to be prepared, but once it’s ready I go for it without any hesitation and start to drink it, slowly, and this starts to wake up my mind.

Today it’s Saturday, so no need to worry about getting ready for work, the kids, or anything that usually needs to be taken care of during weekdays. Today is relaxation day!

With my cup of coffee in my hand I proceed to the living room to find my favorite spot on the couch. Am I going to look for news? Of course not, today I take a brake from that too and instead find something that I can stream from my online services. Will it be the new movie that my friend told, or how about the next episode of my favorite show?

Finally I decide that I will watch the next episode of one of my favorite series, something that should take around half an hour to do, which would be enough time for my stomach to also wake up and ask me for some food.

Once the show is over, I proceed to the kitchen and open the refrigerator. I decide on making some sunny side eggs with some toasted bread for breakfast, with some milk to enjoy it more.

It is at this moment that I hear noises coming from the rest of the house; it seems they are awake. This signals the end of my quiet time, but it will be replaced with laugher and company.

What would the rest of the day be? Will it be a relaxation time? Will it have some activities that need to be taken care of which I probably don’t know about it? It probably would be a combination of all.

Whatever the day bring I know that it would be a happy day, a day to make
more memories to those that I love.

March 29, 2020

A Friend

She was thirteen years old and freshman. The school just began for the school year. She entered the school classroom finding seats, looking at the classmates they were seated on their respective chairs with right side wide tablet arm desk. Everybody was wearing their uniforms. The skirts were covering the knees. She found a seat available at the back. She slowly walked toward the seat and sat down. Everyone was introducing each other and knowing each other. When she found a seat, she sat down and put her school stuffs on her desk.

Behind her seat was another student who introduced herself: Hi I am Anne. What was your name? I am Kikay. The two got to know each other well on the first day of school. They went to lunch together.

Anne and Kikay had some common things they liked. Both liked to sing so they joined the choir. The choir they joined was assigned to sing every 10:00 A.M. mass. Sometimes they were invited to sing as performers on town festivities.

When Anne and Kikay had misunderstanding they wrote on a small piece of paper apologizing each other of the mistakes or wrong that was done. Because of their humility the friendship continued. During lunch time they ate together and sometimes shared their foods.

One day Kikay’s father was sick and was in and out of the hospital. Kikay shared to Anne of the conditioned of her dad. How she was so sad to see her dad being in the hospital. Anne was very supportive of Kikay and tried to be there and comfort her. One day Kikay’s father passed away. Anne stood there to console Kikay of her loss. Then one day Anne lost her father due to a car accident. It was Kikay’s turn to give consolation to Anne. Their friendship was tested with different events in their lives, but they had true friendship.

When they graduated from high school, they had not seen each other after high school. They went in a different university. Anne went with her mother moved to a different place and started a new life because of her dad’s passing away. Her mom had to venture something else to support the family.

Many years had gone by, so they had not seen each other. Then one day Anne came to Kikay’s house looking for her. But during her visit, Kikay was out of town. It was Kikay’s brother that told Anne that Kikay went out of town and that she will be back in 2 weeks. When Kikay came back home, her brother told her that her friend Anne came by and was looking for her. Two weeks had gone by, Anne did not come back to see Kikay. Kikay had left the country for a job and tried to fulfill the dream career.

It was years that had gone by, before they finally see each other. That was when Kikay came back to the country to visit her family. By the time they met again, both had different careers. They shared their experiences and keeping in touch from time to time ever since. They were very thankful of the good friendship they shared.

February 22, 2020

Rhay

The place was so quiet and full of serenity. The sun was shining bright in midday. A cry was heard so loud. A girl was born. She weighed 6.8 pounds. Her height was 19 inches. She had beautiful black eyes and angelic face. Mother and father were so delighted to see their pretty daughter.

They were debating as what to name their daughter. Dad suggested to name her Rhay, but mother had a second thought. She also had a name in mind which was Maggie. Dad suggested to put the names together. That was such a good idea mom said. Therefore, they came up to an agreement that since both liked the names they had, so why not just combined the two names together. The girl was named Rhay Maggie.

Rhay grew up to be kind and obedient child. Her parents taught her good values and most of all the faith to the Lord. Rhay had so much love to the Lord. After she helped her parents in the farm, she made time to run to the church to attend mass.

When she was 18 years old, she lost both of her parents. She was despondent of her lost. She did not know what to do as she was totally lost. She felt so alone. How can she support herself? Who can she confide her problems? She was so close to her parents.

At first, she asked God, why He took her precious family. She blamed God for everything. She was on a brink of giving up her faith. Because she was so overwhelmed that she could not breath. That very moment she asked the Lord’s forgiveness. She realized that God was bigger than her problems. She remembered that her parents taught her to be strong in the midst of trials.

She pursued going to school in college. During the day she worked in the farm and at night she took classes. Her life was hectic, but she was determined. She managed to work and study until she finished school. She was humbled and happy that through the years of focusing in school and supporting herself independently, she was able to get a diploma.

She taught in school. She shared to students the experiences she had. She was hopping that through telling them her stories that they will learn to never give up. And that there was reward of having perseverance amid challenges. Doing good deeds in the middle of crisis were worth remembering.

January 26, 2020

Village

There was this village that was so rich in resources. The soils were so fertilized and healthy. Palingkay was the name of the village. It was abundant of corns and sugar farms. Coconut trees were also dominant in the village. Besides plantations the villagers had live stocks in their backyards. They had chickens, pigs, goats, and cows. Most of the farmers owned a carabao for them to use in plowing the soil. The villagers were very diligent on working on their farms. They woke up early in the morning to get started preparing their farms for sowing the seeds of corns or the sugar canes. They did not have any of the modern equipments. But the people in the village were very happy and prosperous.

A couple lived in this village. They had 3 girls and 3 boys. They believed that children were treasured from above. The father was the chief of the village. He was a very noble man. The villagers had great respect of him. He led his village with wisdom and justice. Chief Pako had a wife and her name was Lalay. She was beautiful lady and had good heart.

One day, a villager came to look for the chief that he needed his wisdom to solve his problem. The chief was asking what problem he had? The man said that he owned chickens but one of them, his neighbor claimed to be his own. The chief told the man that on Monday at dusk time or before the sunset he will meet him in his backyard. Monday came and the chief arrived around five in the afternoon. The chief was observing as to where the chicken will go. At first the chicken went to the neighbor’s backyard. The chief thought at first that the owner was the neighbor. But as it was getting darker and darker at night the chicken went to the man’s backyard and stayed there along with the rest of the chickens that the man owned. And for the rest of the night the chicken did not go anywhere but stayed with the flock. So, the chief then declared that the true owner was the man.

January 4, 2020

Thought of the day: Be Joyful

In this time of Christmas, God teaches us to have joy. Jesus comes to this world so that we have joy. In our day to day life, it is hard to find joy. But if we do things with joy for example in our work environment or doing our household chores, if we put joy, we become happier. We can plan better and come up with good decision. On the other side, if we have negative thoughts, it makes our mind blurry in our thinking and sometimes the decision we have may not what we want.

We do not let our stresses get into us, because we become grumpy and moody. As we go through our daily routines, we get distracted, especially when things do not go, how we want it. Further, I have seen too many times on the news about road rage. Instead of having anger within, make a positive turn around and find joy while driving on a busy road or stuck on a traffic. This is the time we re-focus, enjoy and do things heartily.

Begin with little things by telling ourselves to be joyful every day. We are given the choice to be happy and have joy. When we have joy within, the people that surrounds us, will become happier and joyful as well. We become like a magnet that attracts people’s attention as they want what we have – joy. So why not choose the best – to be joyful and happy. Keep spreading joy daily.

Keep in mind to always have joy and enjoy your life daily. Choose to live joyfully.

November 29, 2019

A Story Something to Tell

The flight from Houston to Florida was exciting. The weather was beautiful. There was no rain. The flight was smooth except with one tribulation when the plane encountered a turbulence. In the middle of the flight there was a shaky moment in the plane. There was an announcement that everybody take their seats and to buckle up. The flight stewardesses were kind and friendly. They made sure that everybody was safe and attended to passengers’ need. No bad accidents happened. Everyone on board came off the plane safely.

There was one student that came off from that plane who attended to a University in Florida. She went to the school for her graduation. She arrived in Florida the day before the commencement.

But the student had to go back to the airport to pick up her niece who arrived later that Thursday night, as she wanted to attend her aunt’s graduation. It was kind of her niece to make time to come for such a memorable moment.

The morning of the day of commencement, all students were required to report to the school for the practice of the walk. On the student’s assigned seat had a Chick fil A complimentary breakfast. So, the student and her niece went to get breakfast. As they pulled over to the parking lot nearby the dumpster, a man was standing beside it. He had a sign on his hand that said “hungry, need help for food”. The student told her niece that she would get food for the man. The man was so happy to get food and was very thankful for the kindness act.

After breakfast the student and her niece had to go back to the University. As they look for a parking lot, they could not find a spot. Most of the spaces were taken. They drove and drove. Finally, there were only few spots on the student’s section. They kept passing that student parking area until, it dawn to the student that she was one of the students of the University and that she had the privilege to park on that section. Her niece thought that was funny situation, therefore she called her sister and her sister’s reaction was that she could hear her aunt’s voice. Then she also called her cousin and her cousin said that was my typical mother. Finally, she called her dad and his reaction was “ hahaha…”

One of the highlights of ceremony was a speech delivered by one of the students. I got a very good impression on what she said that with our profession if we google ourselves what have we contributed to the society. To the people we serve. I thought it was amazing that what you can impact to one’s life as physical therapist.

The students were given a briefing that morning that all students must NOT use any cellphone during the ceremony. However, during the ceremony when this one student’s turn to walk on the stage, he got his cellphone and took a selfie of one of the professors. Everyone laugh and clap their hands.

Everybody got their diploma and went to their respective friends and family to celebrate.

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019

The Dwarfs

There was this place name Kaayo in the Philippines. It was full of big trees. In the middle of the trees was this small flowing river with clear water. In the banks were sands and rocks. The rocks were of variety of hues like brown and gray with different sizes and shapes. The water looked so fresh and so enticing to emerge and swim. Along the right side of the river bank, there was this circle area. The circle was bordered with beautiful ornamental plants that had variety of colorful flowers. There were these yellow dancing lady orchids that were calling your attention to be admired .Oh! How pretty these ladies on long skirts?

Then there was this young girl named Raphaella, she was only 9 years old. She had a younger sister, Julia. Julia was only 5 years old. The sisters loved to play together. Because Raphaella was the older sibling her mother whom they called Nanay asked her to fetch water. Nanay was a single mother because her husband left her. Nanay relied mostly of her older daughter to help around the house. So every time Nanay called Raphealla to assist her, the girls had to stop playing. Raphaella was kind and obedient daughter. She learned to manage her time well because she loved to spend time playing with her sister. When she was asked to fetch water, Raphaella had to walk 1/2 a mile before she could get to the water well. Every time Raphaella went to the well to get water she had to pass this beautiful circle. Raphaella had 2 pails that she carried with her on her way to the well. On her way back she decided to take a moment to rest. She never had a chance to really look and admire the small area. So this time she made up her mind to see the place. As she was getting close to it, she was surprise to see small people playing inside the circle. There were 4 of them. At first she was so scared because it was the first time to see that kind of people. The four brothers were happy to see her. They were friendly and invited her to join them with their games. She introduced herself and one dwarf said that his name was Koykoy, the other was Marco, Filipo, and the youngest one was Asocaro. Raphaella thought that their names were so unique. Since, she met them she would always stop by and play with the dwarfs every time she takes a break from getting water from the well. The dwarfs knew well Raphaella. They knew she came from a poor family. They knew that her mom was farming and had to sell the harvests to the market. Sometime Nanay had meager revenue from the sales. The money she earned was just enough to buy food for the family. Or sometimes nothing at all. Life for them was hard. But their mother tried her best to provide for the family.

One day when Raphaella went to fetch water from the well, she took her younger sister with her because she wanted Julia to meet the dwarfs, but they were surprise because they could not find the 4 dwarfs. Raphaella had been telling Julia about the 4 brothers. So Julia was excited to meet them. Julia was dismayed knowing that they were not in the circle. While they were calling their names and kept searching for them, Raphaella found a sack by the dancing lady orchid. She took a peak of it. Julia on the other hand was running away from a bug and hit her sister Raphaella who was holding a sack. Consequently, the sack fell off and coins of gold were everywhere. A small note was on the ground. Raphaella picked up the note that read “Dear Raphaella you were such a great friend and we enjoyed playing with you. We wanted to give you these gold coins to help your family. We thank you for your friendship. Love Dwarfs”

Raphealla and Julia went home. They were excited to see and tell their Nanay the gifts the dwarfs gave them. They were so happy and thankful of the dwarfs’ generosity.

October 15, 2019October 17, 2019

An Interesting Day

How many years has it been since this happened? I remember being in my early twenties, worrying about work and college, not a kid anymore but not really an adult. I had been working on this restaurant as a waiter for a few years already and got to meet quite a good number of characters. Some of them came to eat, and some of them worked there.

This day was like any other, I’ll come in and meet my manager, say hi to my friends and get all my supplies ready on my station so that I’ll be ready to meet the guests. The first thing that I would do was to prepare a pitcher of iced tea and some regular coffee. You need to have those ready from the get-go or you will find yourself in the very awkward position of telling somebody who still hasn’t have any caffeine to wait for 10 minutes. Not the best way to give a good first impression.

The first few people would usually start coming in as soon as the smell of coffee would get out the door. I would introduce myself and get to work. I should use this opportunity to clarify that this restaurant was a buffet, so my main duties as a waiter were drinks, special orders and clearing the tables. It never failed that someone would ask for a modified dish. The cooks were never very happy to see us go to them since it meant more work out of the usual.

It was probably around noon when it happened. I had been talking to my manager about her trip to another country. She was very excited to be back, although a little sick, but full of energies to keep dealing with us and the guests. We were talking at the register and one of the cashiers and another waiter had joined us. Then it happened, coughing could be heard from one side of the restaurant. Usually this is not something to worry, but when one cough turns into two, and then three, you know something is going on.

Next thing we know our manager was coughing too, joining one half of the restaurant. At that moment we started to move. We ran to the location of the tables and realized that there was a subtle smell around. We followed the smell to one of the vents in the restroom, and at that moment we got affected by this. We knew something had happened.

During the same time that we were looking for the source of the problem our manager was talking to the people and asking them to step outside the building for safety. We came back to her and told her our findings and proceeded to the nearest phone. We needed to call 911. The other waiter and I got to the phone and had a small discussion on who was going to call. He was chosen. He quickly dialed 911 and explained the situation to the operator. Once that was done, we headed back to the manager since we were ready to leave too, but at that moment I noticed a couple who was still at the table eating alone in the restaurant.

I quickly made my way to them and explained to them that they needed to step outside both for their safety and to follow the instructions of the emergency personnel that were coming. To this day I still remember how the wife turned to her husband and proceeded to tell him that she was right, and they should have stepped outside. I was really surprised to see that the priority had been their meal in this situation.

Finally, it was time for me, the other waiter and the manager to step outside. We could hear the sirens approaching and the sound of helicopters above us. It was surreal. The ambulances came in and started to help people, taking some of them back to the hospital. At the same time the firemen were inside the building quickly checking what had happened. People were scared and didn’t know what to do.

You could see all the employees on their phones calling their loved ones to let them know what had happened, to reassure them not to get scare when they saw the news about the restaurant. It was a small chaos.

Once I finished making my phone calls I turned to my fellow waiter and noticed that he was calm, not worried at all. I asked him about it, and he told me he was pretty sure that the culprit was pepper spray. Apparently, he had been sprayed in the past by his sister, an accident he reassured me, so he knew the symptoms. A few moments later a fireman agreed with him. We were safe, but at the same time this experience had created some scars for people and for the business.

Days later we were talking about it and wondering what happened. Could it have been some kids? A disgruntled employee? A random act? We would never know. The only think we knew was that this experience had become a memory, an experience that will continue to shape us and prepare us for our future. After all, we are shaped by our experiences, and by them we move forward into a better future.

October 14, 2019October 15, 2019

Welcome to Our Corner!

Welcome to our corner, filled with stories from our family that we want to share with you all. We have short stories, poems and even the thought of the day. It is our hope that as we write we will continue to grow and improve.

Why do we want to do a blog? This is a question that we have heard from anyone who we have shared our idea, and to be honest we even asked each other that question.

The answer is not very complicated, we just love to write. One day after dinner we started to talk seriously about this. We had entertained the idea of writing a book as a collection of short stories and poems from our family, but we never put it into practice. But then the idea of a blog came.

We decided that this is something that we could do. We could share what we love and get more experience, which lead us to our first blog.

We hope that you enjoy our stories and come back for more. Thank you for joining us in this wonderful new experience.

We hope that you enjoy them all. Feel free to leave some feedback and suggestion. Enjoy this ride with our family.