Trojan Horse

Jomardel J. Constantino @thejomable

behind the alluring eyes are the blades of vendetta the flash of thundering lies in the hidden agenda as i welcome the horse in my greatest empire trick me as you wish show me that you desire

Written in Cerulean

Coleen Jill F. Sajo @HSaijou

“Then why do you advise me to go away?”

“Because in some other country you could be happy while I could not, because you are not made to suffer...”

Chapter LXI: The Chase on the Lake, Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal

Thegears in Alonso’s head begin to move at a steady pace. Swirls of black ink that bleed out from nothing start forming lines and shapes until they become letters, and then words, and then sentences, and then paragraphs. Blocks of text in a familiar language stamped—no, printed on white page after white page. In an instant, they become bound together, and then—

Knock, knock, knock!

In an instant, Alonso’s train of thoughts come to a halt.

“Alonso! I’m back!”

He immediately perks up and rushes his way to open the door. Waiting by the entrance is the weary face of his former classmate in college.

“You’re back quite early today, Jude.”

Jude sluggishly walks straight to the living room and places his suitcase against the wall. To best describe his next immediate course of action, Jude dumps his own body onto the couch like a tired human-turned-corpse. Alonso can’t help but burst into a fit of laughter.

“Oy, instead of laughing at me, get me some water.” Jude scowls against a small pillow on the couch.

“Opo, Dok~” is Alsonso’s teasing response.

However, being a doctor is definitely no joke, especially if you are the only doctor presiding in a small barangay’s health center. It means having to stay there from early morning to late in the evening. If anything, Jude is already fortunate enough that he doesn’t have to stay there 24/7, even though he insisted before that he should. Still, the barangay chairman made it clear that Jude’s health is far more important. After all, if there was no doctor to attend the patients, it is pointless.

Alonso knows all of this, for he has been with Jude ever since the latter decided to become a doctor. He still doesn’t know—or rather, he can’t understand Jude’s reason for staying here rather than going to the urban city and working in a hospital. Regardless, the only thing Alonso can do now is to support him as a friend.

Just like how Elias did to Crisostomo Ibarra.

“Here.”

Alonso places a stainless glass of water on the small table. Jude’s head turns to look, his half-lidded tired eyes staring at the glass.

He slowly sits up and stretches out his arms. “Thanks. Sorry, I’m just really tired.”

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it.” Alonso gives him a reassuring smile. Then, as if he had come up with a brilliant idea, Alonso’s eyes widened with glee.

“How about we go out to the dock?” he suggests. “We can watch the sunset while you’re taking a break.”

Jude quickly finishes his drink after a few gulps. “I’ll change my clothes first. You can go on ahead and wait for me.”

Alonso’s smile turns into a grin. “Okay!”

However, instead of heading outside, Alonso visits his room first. He takes his pencil and two journal notebooks—one notably more worn out than the other. The more worn out journal is leather bound with some sticky note bookmarks pasted in between certain pages. The other one is a simple spiral notebook. Written on the cover with a black marker are the initials, “A.D.M.”

Carrying his belongings in a small satchel, Alonso excitedly makes his way to the beach.

Upon arriving at the wooden dock, Alonso places down his satchel. He stretches his arms out and takes in as much fresh sea air as he can. He looks beyond the horizon of the dark blue waters. The sun is already setting, its beautiful orange light reflecting against the sea.

From afar, Alonso can see a lone boatman rowing his bangka. He seems to have another companion with him, but it is pretty difficult to get a good view from a faraway distance.

“Admiring the sea again?”

Alonso turns around. Jude is wearing a white shirt-turned-tank top after cutting its sleeves, and a pair of black jersey shorts. As Alonso looks down, a thought immediately comes to mind. Oh yeah, Jude is the type of person who walks barefoot on the beach.

A smile forms in his lips, and Jude makes a noise that indicates he is suspicious of something.

“What, is something funny?” Jude asks.

“Nah, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Alonso removes his slippers before sitting down on the dock. He lets his feet dangle, even though they can’t reach the water. Jude joins him and sits next to him. When he lets his feet dangle down, Alonso is once again reminded that Jude is taller than him because he has longer legs–and he can’t help but feel a little bit jealous.

“So, how was work today?” Alonso asks.

“It was exhausting, as usual.” Jude replies. “Fortunately, there was a volunteer that came in earlier this afternoon. I was told that she would be taking over the afternoon shift starting tomorrow, so I was tasked to show her around for today.”

“That’s good to hear! That means you’ll be coming home early more often, then.”

Jude nods. “It also means I can finally have more time to do some studying and research.”

“Oh yeah, that, too…” Alonso trails off from realization. “God, you really are a busy person.”

“Aren’t you the same?”

As Alonso turns to look at Jude, the latter is already looking at him with a raised eyebrow. It is as if he is ready to refute anything Alonso is about to say.

With that expression on Jude’s face, it is evident that Alonso is in a losing battle. Thus, he sighs instead.

Then, he glances at his satchel. He grabs for his leather bound journal. He opens it and begins searching through the pages of countless notes—both written in ink and in pencil. Some of these pages have colorful sticky notes pasted.

He stops on the most recent page, which contains two written paragraphs. Bullet points of notes are written on a yellow sticky note paper that is pasted on the upper left corner. Certain words such as “Rizal”, “same person”, “armed revolution” and “patriotism” are underlined in red. They all pertain to a single topic: the character Elias from Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere.

He looks up to view the scenery in front of him. The sky is filled with shades of purple and pink, and the sun is almost gone. And yet the sea remains dark, except for the orange light reflecting off from the sun. The boatman that Alonso saw earlier is nowhere to be seen.

“You really love the sea.”

Alonso can’t help but smile. He slowly nods, knowing that Jude is also seeing the same scenery in front of him.

“I’ve always seen it since I was little,” Alonso says. “And I never get tired of it.”

There is a momentary pause before Jude speaks up. “Is that why you like Elias?”

In an instant, Alonso turns to look at Jude with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

Jude shrugs his shoulders and returns Alonso’s gaze. “I mean, he’s a man of the sea since he pilots a bangka, right?”

“He’s a man of the lake, Judas!” Alonso retorts, as he starts to laugh. “Though, I think it would be pretty cool if San Diego was a seaport town.”

“Then, why do you like him?”

Alonso does not answer immediately, taken aback by the question. Jude slowly tilts his head to the side, before he diverts his attention to the waters below. It might be difficult to see his reflection at this time of the day, but he might be looking for a temporary distraction.

“You’re writing a comprehensive essay about him, right?” Jude continues. “So, you must definitely like the character. To some extent, at least.”

Alonso hums thoughtfully to himself, as he looks at everything he has written in his journal. The previous pages are filled with rough drafts of the first few paragraphs of his essay, as well as detailed notes regarding Elias. He has made sure to note every single line of paragraph or dialogue from any chapter that indicates the kind of character Elias was in the novel.

“Well, I do like him because of his outlook on life and his immense love of the Philippines,” Alonso says.

Jude snorts, as he stops himself from laughing. “Sounds like an honor student’s answer.”

“Hey, I’m being honest here!” Alonso retorts before continuing. “But I guess, rather than liking him as a character, I actually like his dynamic with

Ibarra.”

Jude looks at him curiously, encouraging Alonso to change his current sitting position so he can fully face his friend.

“From how I see it, Ibarra and Elias are essentially two sides of the same coin,” Alonso explains. “Although they have similar beliefs and goals, they are opposites of each other. Ibarra believed in pursuing peaceful reform, and Elias believed in pursuing armed revolution. And yet, after they had this longwinded conversation where Elias found out that Ibarra’s ancestors caused his family’s misfortunes that led him into a blind fit of rage—he still came back to save Ibarra. In fact, he was willing to sacrifice his own life for Ibarra’s safety. He even knew that Ibarra, who had this sort of naive and idealistic and pure view of the country, would eventually hate it should it fall into ruins. He didn’t want Ibarra to hate the Philippines, because he didn’t want him to lose faith in the country and its people. Because he knew that those two things would help Ibarra in finding the cure to the social cancer.”

Alonso stops, as he tries to catch his breath. He did not realize that he rambled so much. He is now certain that he already lost Jude’s attention.

“So basically, you like him because he and Ibarra were good friends despite their differences?”

Alonso’s eyes widened upon realizing that Jude actually listened from start to finish. Because of this, he can’t help but laugh.

“Yes, yes, that’s exactly it!” Alonso giddily replies. “If anything, their relationship kinda reminds me of ours.”

“You’re reading the wrong novel, then.” Jude chuckles.

“Wait, what?” Alonso asks, clearly surprised.

“If we’re talking about ourselves, I’d say we’re more similar to Basilio and Isagani from El Fili.”

“Why?”

“Because Basilio was a medical student who wanted to become a doctor, and Isagani was essentially a poet who spoke in flowery language.”

Alonso has never looked more surprised than ever. “How…did you remember that?”

Jude simply smirks. “You’re not the only honor student who paid attention to Filipino classes.”

Isagani blushed. “He preached me a sermon about the choosing of a wife. I answered him that there wasn’t in Manila another like her—beautiful, well-bred, an orphan—”

“Very wealthy, elegant, charming, with no defect other than a ridiculous aunt,” added Basilio, at which both smiled.

Chapter I: On the Lower Deck, El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal