Each Note

The Phone of the Wind

Author's Notes:

The inspiration I got for today's story comes from a tear-jerking documentary on a phone in Japan that has served as a way for survivors of the tragic tsunami in Fukishima to talk to their loved ones who passed away from that incident. They called it the phone of the wind.

The story below is my answer to AMACONOFFICIAL's DAY 26 prompt - "She listens with her eyes. He listens with his ears."

As with all prompts from AMACON, this was in no way easy at all to think up. 😅 I hope you appreciate this effort. 🙏🏻

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Regret takes his coffee slowly, not in the morning but late in the evening, like RJ does, overlooking the sea, under a mantle of stars, protected only by glass from the wind, cozily seated in a leather couch, the aroma of lavender candles along with the coffee they are drinking infusing the air.

Regret likes to tip his head sometimes and shrug before asking, "What do you think will we hear tonight?"

To which RJ always responds by remembering the number of people he had seen up the phone booth and hazards a guess based on how hard they were crying when they left.

Regret then proceeds to ask whether they can start to listen now.

RJ, as he has done for the past five years, stands up from the couch he occupies, plays either a cd of classical music or a cd filled with the sound of ocean waves or water flowing, and then presses play on a recording of voices as broken as his... the voices of people who travel miles away from Manila or any part of the country, towards a mountain side in Zambales, where a white phone booth stands, and a landline that records their messages to their deceased loved ones waits... voices of people who sometimes live with the same man he does – the one sipping coffee nonchalantly, Regret.

Regret has the face of RJ's older brother – handsome, dependable. He also has his voice which is steady and calming. He has his built, the way he walks is the same, and sometimes he even responds to the same name... Jake.

However, he never smiles.

RJ could not remember the last time he saw his brother smile.

Was it eight years ago when he went home from London and told RJ he met someone really special?

Was it seven years ago when he announced to him that the special person in his life has become his girlfriend?

Or was it six years ago when he smiled at RJ as he left their estate, disowned, because he wanted to marry someone of lower stature, and RJ fought for him but he stopped him?

From the day his brother's back had turned away from him, walking out of their family home, and up until that unfortunate day five years ago when he was told during a conference in Texas that his brother had passed away due to a car accident... there has been nothing but regret in RJ's heart.

Especially when he thinks not only of his brother but of his brother's wife whom he had never met and was ostracized by their family and was forbidden to see his brother until he was buried.

RJ always thought that he should have done more for Jake because his brother deserved so much more and he berated himself with this fact over and over and over again.

But all he could do was create a memoriam for Jake in the place they both loved – a memoriam that has now become a popular place for others to remember their loved ones by, a place that allows one person to wallow in grief.

"I don't know if I am at the right place...", a soft lilting voice came on, "but from where I am I can see everything you told me about this place – the emerald sea, the clear blue sky, and it is as if I can hear your voice laughing from somewhere along the beach, telling me to hurry up because there is still so much you want to show me. I can see all of it with my own eyes now and I can hear you smugly reminding me about the number of times you have told me how beautiful it all is."

RJ put his mug down the coffee table and wondered who the owner of the voice could be.

In his head he tried to picture what he had been watching this morning and knew that there was only one woman who visited today that could fit the voice he was listening to.

Petite, almost waif-like, big round eyes, chocolate hair, and dressed in a yellow sun dress – the woman whose image came to mind had been the only one who left the booth today with nary a tear in her eyes.

It seems she has let all of out in the booth.

"I miss you Jake", she continued and it was as if the whole world stood still for RJ, "It has been years but even up to now I still cannot say goodbye... I still feel as if I would just look out the porch and you would be standing there announcing that you're home. In every picture I see of you, in every shirt, and every memento... I could still hear your voice as though it was only yesterday when you last said you loved me."

As RJ listened, he could see her as she looked around the glass phone booth and seemed to take in the view.

He could see her when her voice finally broke down...

"I love you and I miss you so much", the woman was fighting through her tears, "I love you so so so so so much."

RJ ran like the devil himself was on his heels.

He headed for the phone booth, where a directory of all the visitors can be found.

Each person who makes a call can log in their name and contact information.

It is as though they are waiting for a call back, a tradition that one of the first callers started, and RJ just helped maintain to help all the others who grieve like he does.

He has never looked at that directory unless to check whether it is full and he needed to replace it already.

When he began this, all he wanted was to keep safe all of these records and play the voice messages to be heard by the wind, praying all those souls would hear it.

Never did he think that it might be a way for him to find his brother's wife too.

He almost stumbled inside the phone booth and as he reached for the directory, he found a name that could match the image conjured in his head by that voice.

Maine Mendoza, Bulacan

A phone number was written below it and though RJ knew that it might still be possible that this isn't his brother's wife at all... he could not help the feeling of hope springing up his chest.

"Is it her?", he asked Regret.

"I hope", the other man answered and then smiled.

RJ's heart almost jumped out of him with that smile.

He had thought he would never see it again.