THE STORY OF TWO SOULS Two souls who did not have the slightest idea that the

one or the other even exi sts and yet at a single strike of fate, at one opportune time, they met and real ized that the very meaning of their existence is each other. Believe me, I did not have the minutest clue when I met her that I was about to find and experience true love, and not only that, to experience a miracle. As th e cliche goes, I did not expect that I was about to take on the ride of a lifeti me. I can say the same thing for her. All her life, she was praying that she cou ld be single forever. I did not ask her for the reason but commitment and seriou s relationships perhaps scare her or maybe, she simply doesn't want one or belie ve in one. In fact, during our very first conversation last June 1, she told me she doesn't believe in true love. She said that for her to believe in true love, to accept that it does exist, something magical and fascinating must happen. Sh e was asking for signs, although she did not believe that they would even come t rue. I guess she was just playing safe. She was asking for impossible things to happen, not because she really wanted to witness the impossible but because she was avoiding the condition attached to its happening. But God, as we all know, H e works in mysterious ways, even magical and miraculous ways if it is necessary. This story, aside from not being a scary story, is also not your ordinary love tale. This is a story of how magic happened through love, with love, and in love . I believe now that nothing happens by chance. And no matter how random a thing m ay appear, there is always a reason and a plan behind it. But this is not what I always believed. In fact, when I and Nheresa met, I honestly did not think it h appened for a reason. For me, it was purely coincidental. It was like one of tho se insignificant things that happen to a person that, sooner or later, he would forget. We met because my cousin was her teacher in the University of San Carlos . But I was looking for a different girl that time who happened to be studying a t the same university. But Jen, my cousin, recommended that while she looked for the contact number of this girl that I was looking for, I should try to add som e of her students on Facebook. She told me that these are her 'good' students. O ne of whom was Nheresa Burce. I added her but I was not actually waiting for her to accept me. But few days later, while I and Jen were chatting, Jen told me th at Nheresa was online and that she told her to accept me. So Nheresa accepted my friend request. Jen told me to message her but I could not think of anything to say. I messaged her anyway and the only word that I could think of that time wa s 'hello'. She said 'hello' back coupled with that ubiquitous smiley. We chatted , mostly about music. Jen told me that she got a feeling that romance was in the air. It was quite funny how she said it but I did not know why she said that. N heresa went offline without even saying goodbye. A few hours later though, she w ent online again and messaged me to apologize for not being able to say goodbye. I appreciated that gesture very much because that was the first time someone ev er apologized to me just because of that simple reason. And I think that was the time I started to like her. I started looking at her pictures and realized that she was, in fact, beautiful. I forgot about that girl that I was initially look ing for but instead asked for Nheresa's number from Jen. She gave it to me. I st arted texting Nheresa but she seldom replied. I was sure that she did not like m e. As a guy, I know when a girl likes you or not. And Nheresa was showing all th e 'I don't like you!' signs. I would message her at 6:30 in the morning to greet her good morning, she would reply around 11 am, if she'd ever reply. I would in itiate a conversation and she would always think of an excuse to get rid of me. What was funny however was I am the kind of guy who easily gets discouraged. If I don't see any chance, I don't usually pursue something or someone. But with Nh eresa, a single text message in a day was already a glimmer of hope. I was right when came June 1. We chatted on Facebook initially. Then she told me that she h as a Skype account that she created that summer. She was chatting in Skype with

this guy. Coincidentally, I also created a Skype account that summer because I w as chatting with these girls. We continued our conversation in Skype. June 1 was our first real conversation. This conversation lasted for five hours. Until the wee hours of June 2. I could not believe that Nheresa, who was very t hrifty with words in texting me, would be chatting with me as if we were already good friends, sharing thoughts, feelings, and dreams. "You're really beautiful. Your eyes. So captivating," I told her. She replied wi th the usual, "Is that so?" Well, what began that night as a superficial exchang e of flattery ignited the fire that until now keeps burning in our hearts. That flattery actually led us to a discussion about the blue moon. I told her that th e blue moon is a rare but natural phenomenon. It only happens once in a while an d that a person is considered lucky if he sees one. I told her that she is like a blue moon because she is rare. Well, the flattery did not interest her. What c aught her attention was the phenomenon. She said that she also wanted to see a b lue moon in her life. She is amazed with these things including eclipses and vol canoes. For her to hold on to something, magical things must first happen. Indeed, the magic happened and is still happening...