JEALOUS MAN BREAKS STOVE DOOR WITH A HAMMER BECAUSE HE SUSPECTED HIS WIFE WAS HANGERED, BUT HE WAS STOPPED WHEN HE SAW A WOMAN CRYING, TRAPPED WHILE LISTENING TO THE RADIO ABOUT THE COMING TSUNAMI

The sky is dark in a small town in Guiuan, Eastern Samar. The wind is blowing hard and a fierce typhoon is threatening. But for Dante, a simple fisherman, the storm in his mind is darker and stronger. He has been consumed by intense jealousy for weeks. He has noticed that his wife, Loida, is becoming increasingly elusive. She often hides under their house—in a concrete warehouse that they have made to store old tools and nets.

Dante’s suspicions began when he saw an unfamiliar man hanging around their barangay last month. Since then, he has been suspicious of Loida’s every move. Every time he looked at his cellphone, every time he went down to the warehouse, Dante felt like he was being betrayed.

Because the weather was so bad, Dante returned home early from the sea. The storm hadn’t yet arrived, but the waves were already big and the wind was already whipping. When he went up to their house made of wood and thatch, he noticed that the surroundings were quiet. Loida wasn’t in the kitchen. She wasn’t in the bedroom either.

He went down to the warehouse. Its walls were made of thick cement because it was designed as a storm shelter back then, and it had a heavy door made of yakal. When Dante approached, he noticed that it was locked from the inside. He pressed his ear to the door.

There, he heard whispers.

A man’s raspy voice. And Loida’s voice, as if crying and begging.

Suddenly Dante’s vision darkened. All his suspicions seemed to come true in that moment. His wife was hiding a man right in their house!

“Loida! Open this door!” Dante shouted as he banged on the thick wood.

Loida shouted something from inside, but due to the heavy rain falling on the iron and the thickness of the door, Dante couldn’t understand it. It sounded like excuses to the jealous husband.

“Ah, you don’t want to open it?! You shameless people! I’ll open it!” Dante shouted.

He ran to the back of the house and grabbed the large axe he used to chop firewood. He didn’t care what happened. In his mind, he had to catch the two in the act before they could escape.

When he returned to the warehouse, he raised the axe. He slammed the sharp iron on the wooden door with all his strength.

BLAAAAG!

The sound of breaking wood resounded. He followed it up with a few more powerful blows. Pieces of wood flew out. He broke the lock part. He broke the hinges. Dante’s eyes were sweaty and red with rage as he continued to attack the door until it finally gave way and fell to the floor.

Page: SAY – Story Around You | Original story

Dante entered, axe in hand, ready to fight.

But he was stunned. His legs stiffened at what he saw.

There was no other man inside the dark warehouse. No one was hiding behind a hook.

Loida was in a corner, slumped on the cold cement. Her hands were cut, her nails bleeding from having to struggle to get to the broken doorknob from the inside. She was drenched in sweat and tears, shaking with intense fear.

Beside her was an old battery-operated radio. It was from here that Dante heard the raspy voice of the man—the announcer from the provincial disaster risk reduction management office.

“…let’s repeat, Level 4 Storm Surge warning for coastal barangays! Evacuate to higher ground! A wall of water five meters high will hit your area in three minutes! I repeat, three minutes!”

Dante dropped the axe. It was as if ice had been poured on him.

“D-Dante…” Loida sobbed as she crawled closer to her husband. “I went down to get our emergency go-bag and canned goods because of the news… P-But when I was about to close the door to keep the wind out, the old lock suddenly jammed. I couldn’t open it. I’ve been screaming for help for an hour… I thought I was going to die inside here…”

Loida doesn’t commit adultery. She has been secretly saving and preparing supplies in the warehouse for the past few weeks for the upcoming rainy season, something she hid so that her husband wouldn’t have to worry about anything in case something went wrong.

If Dante hadn’t been attacked by intense jealousy, if he hadn’t taken an axe to break down the thick door, Loida would have remained trapped under the house. The sturdy warehouse they thought was safe would have become a huge coffin filled with water.

Dante came to his senses. There was no time to apologize. No time to explain his foolishness.

“Come on! We have to run!” Dante shouted.

He picked up his wife. They didn’t think about their belongings anymore. They ran out of the house, up the high hill behind their village. They almost tripped in the mud and the force of the rain, but Dante didn’t let go of Loida’s hand.

Just as they reached the top, they heard a deafening roar from the ocean. It was like a monster screaming.

They turned around and saw a giant black wave. The storm surge mercilessly battered their village. In an instant, houses, trees, and boats were swept away. Their house was shattered like matchsticks, and the concrete warehouse where Loida was trapped completely sank under the rushing flood.

Dante sat down in the mud, hugging his trembling wife tightly. He was crying, not because of the destruction of their house, but because of overwhelming remorse and gratitude. His insane jealousy had broken down their door, but it was also the accidental key to saving his only loved one from certain death. Dante had proven that sometimes, in the midst of our delusions, a miracle awaits to give us the chance to correct our mistakes.