Moonlight Angel

If I'll be the moon, I'd choose to be a halfmoon, because I know that the other half of me... is you.

“Hey! Go out and watch the moon!”

It was already 9:38 pm. I received her text about two hours ago. “Why? What’s with the moon?” I replied. I received no answer. Perhaps it means I just have to see it myself. But I was late. The moon has gone. That was Thursday, the last Thursday of January.

I wonder what’s with that moon that night that made it different from any other moon at other nights. When I received her message, I first thought she’ll converse with me like the ubiquitous “quote” circulating in almost every person’s phone; like this:

Girl: How far is the moon from here?
Boy: It’s very far that you can’t count the distance.
Girl: Wow, really?
Boy: Yes, really.
<silence>
Boy: Why did you ask?
Girl: Nothing. I love you. I love you from here to the moon.
Boy: I love you more.
Girl: You can’t love me more. From here to the moon is already countless.
Boy: Yes, I can. Because I love you from here to the moon…and then back.

How sweet, right? But I was wrong. She just really wanted me to watch the moon. Nothing more. Or perhaps, I just know nothing more. I hate hanging statements like this. It keeps me restless and sleepless for nights. “Well, who told you to be so assuming?” some would say. But what d’you want me to do? Sleep and just dream of that moon? As what Dr. Seuss would say, “When you’re in love, you can’t sleep, because reality is better than your dreams.” But if ever she loves me only in my dreams, let me be asleep forever.

I have been a friend to that girl for about five months already. But I have known her since the start of the first semester. I saw her watching artworks in the Art Gallery. “She must really love paintings,” I thought. It was also there when I have known of her name, thanks for the guestbook. Now you know where to search for someone special this love month! =’)

The next night after her text that day, I go out and came to see her instead. I have no idea of what’s really with the moon the previous night so I ask her. This would be the first possibility of the conversation:

Girl: Have you seen the moon last night?
Boy: No, why? What’s with the moon?
Girl: I wonder how far it is.
Boy: Its distance is countless. Why?
Girl: Nothing…

Cut. That was not the first possibility. Let’s flip again.

Girl: Have you seen the moon last night?
Boy: No I’m sorry, it was already near 10 pm when I received your message. Why, what’s with the moon? Love?
Girl: Haha. No. But it’s kinda. It was crescent with the planet Venus on top. It seems so happy.
Boy: It must be smiling for you then.
Girl: I don’t know. Perhaps.
Boy: It is… for it makes you happy too.
Girl: Hmm…
Boy: D’you want to see it again?
Girl: Of course.
Boy: Then you will. And everyday you’ll see that moon, not just for tonight.

That was an unfinished statement. It’s already late in the evening so we bid each other goodnight.“I want to see that moon again. I’m on darkness. I need light.”I read her shoutout. Knowing how she’s feeling makes me sad for some reasons too. I wanted to ease her pain. One early morning, I texted her.

Boy: Hi, know what? I’m invisible!
Girl: Ows, talaga?
Boy: Oo.
Girl: Di nga.
Boy: Can you see me?
Girl: Oo naman.
Boy: Cool! How about tomorrow, 7 pm?

Haha. I commend those brilliant minds who made these love quotes. That night, we met. “Hi ‘Angel Jane,’ what’s with the moon tonight?” I asked her. “Nothing, I’m still waiting to see it again,” she wishfully replied. “You’ll see it tonight,” I assured her.

The school is still open because of the Arts Month activities. I brought her to the ArtGallery and let her see a painting of a crescent moon with the planet Venus on top. The painting, my own painting, was a smiley, the same smiley I received in her first text when we have known of each other. “Don’t look at it for too long, it might frown,” I jocosely remarked. She smiled though. I can see the glow in her eyes. She must be happy then.

“I have written a thousand words to paint your face in my heart,” I sincerely told here. I looked into her eyes like I never did before. She was speechless. She just thought she’ll never see that moon again. But that moon is not what she’s hoping to see in the sky every night. That moon is right beside her, in that very place, at that very moment in time.

“I want to be that moon to light your way since your sun had stopped to shine. But I promise you, unlike that moon, even if it’s daylight, you can always see me, I’ll always be around. Will you share with me the same sky?”