Omens around us

There is always more to things than what meets the eye. I’ve always lived with that belief and viewed the world as layered with mysteries and hidden messages waiting to be understood. My aunt used to tell me when I was a child that there are signs, symbols, and omens all around us, constantly trying to speak to us if only we would look closely enough and keep an open mind.

She once told me a story about the night her brother died. She had been walking from the kitchen carrying a bowl of food when, without warning, it flipped out of her hands and landed upside down on the floor. She was stunned for a moment, shocked by how such a strange thing could happen. She was admittedly annoyed by the wasted meal but thought little of it. She gathered another bowl and sat down to eat. Hours later, she received a phone call. Her brother had been shot at almost exactly the same time the bowl had turned over.

On another occasion, she had just returned home from work when her room smelled like candles and flowers. She got upset and assumed someone had been in her room to light candles while she was at work. When she asked around later, she learned that nobody had entered her room at all. That very night, her aunt and uncle’s home was invaded, and they were both killed trying to defend themselves.

My aunt would often say she wished she had understood those omens and what they were trying to tell her. She wondered whether she might have made a difference if she had recognized them in time. Ever since, I have tried to live each day with an open mind, and I make sure to pay attention to the subtle signs around me, hoping not to miss the ones that matter.

A few months ago, during the start of the rainy season, our roof began to leak. Conveniently, someone in our community had a relative who was a contractor. Because we knew and trusted the family, we hired him. The repairs seemed straightforward. We thought the problem was solved until one night, a cat fell through the ceiling of my room.

It crashed onto my bed, bringing with it a large chunk of solid wood studded with nails. Had I been there, it would have severely injured me. But that night, by sheer coincidence, I was in my sister’s room watching movies. We rushed to my room to find the cat scrambling back out through the broken ceiling, unharmed. I, on the other hand, was in shock. The noise had been loud enough to wake the whole house.

Everyone thought it was strange, but no one made much of it. When we talked to our neighbors the next morning, they explained that cats sometimes crawl into ceilings, and it was probably just bad luck. But I could not shake the feeling that there was more to it. We had lived in this house for decades, and nothing like this had ever happened before. The ceiling was sturdy, and it did not make any sense for an average cat to break through. Deep down, I felt it was an omen, though I could not tell what exactly it meant.

I urged my family to investigate. I did not want to hire the same contractor again, since something about the timing unsettled me. My family disagreed initially, preferring to simply have the ceiling repaired. Then, a few nights after the incident, more strange things started to happen. One evening, as I was about to leave the house, I found a big brown frog sitting at our gate. It was so large that for a moment I could hardly believe it was real. It just sat there, still and unblinking, as if warning me not to go out. After that, at night, I began hearing noises coming from the ceiling. I grew so uneasy that I stopped sleeping at night altogether, refused to turn off the lights, and often walked around the house at midnight to check every corner. A part of me knew I might be overreacting, but I believe it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

About a week later, we hired another man to inspect the roof. Climbing up was risky, so we left it to him. To our surprise, he discovered a large hole that could allow entry into our ceiling. When he peeked inside, he noticed a slight opening directly above the storage room next to mine. What truly sent chills down my spine was what he found there: a straw hat in the ceiling. Proof that someone had been up there.

I followed my instincts and looked up the contractor we had originally hired. A quick search revealed two news articles about a man with his exact name. He had been arrested multiple times for drug dealing, illegal possession of firearms, and other offenses. The details all added up, from his age to his home address. My heart raced as the pieces began to fit together. I remembered the way he had lingered in our house, asking odd questions about how many of us lived there, showing a little too much interest in which rooms belonged to whom. I thought of the way his eyes drifted across our things, wandering and restless, as though he was memorizing the layout. It had all seemed harmless at the time, but now it struck me as deliberate, calculated, and deeply disturbing.

We gathered the hat as evidence and filed a report with the barangay. When we spoke to the family who had recommended him, they admitted that their relationship with him was estranged and that they were not really sure what he had been up to anymore. That only deepened my unease. We immediately secured the ceiling, sealed off any possible entry, and installed CCTV cameras for our peace of mind.

Weeks went by, and life slowly began to settle down, but I could not bring myself to feel the same. The night the cat fell through my ceiling still haunted me. If that incident had not occurred, I would never have insisted on having our ceiling inspected. If we had not looked into it, I shudder to think of what might have happened. There had been a man in our ceiling at night, with the capacity to slip into our house any time he wished. I do not know how long he had been there, how many nights he listened to us breathe and move about, or how close we came to danger. Perhaps my habit of staying awake with the lights on and checking the house at night made the difference.

The incident reminded me of what my aunt used to say. Maybe there really are omens all around us, though we often fail to notice them. Yet perhaps they’re trying to tell us something. There are people with bad intentions everywhere, and terrible things can happen to anyone. But if we look closely enough, perhaps these omens can save our lives.

I believe they saved mine.