i i was one day dreaming of being stranded in an island, with someone who's very special to me. with tall coconut trees as background and sharks happily swimming around the little island that i will be calling home for a month or two.
but trust me, i never imagined myself getting stranded in a dark structure with tons of worried faces hovering my sight.
it was quarter to seven when i reached the bus terminal, it was packed, not of waiting buses but of passengers impatiently waiting for the big passenger trucks to arrive to take them home where they'd sit and relax after a day's work. it was a rainy thursday evening, i was actually planning to sleep during the ride home and replay in my head the things i did for that day.
as i stepped out of the lrt train i could immediately hear the loud, irritating sounds of cars slowly crowding the highways of gil puyat avenue. i walked slowly avoiding the headlights of slow moving cars in fear that someone sitting either in the driver's sit or the passenger's may have known me from the past and offer me a ride, coz i'd rather not. coz i wont feel comfortable while sitting there listening to there conversation while staring out at the window trying to picture how i could've been if i've rode the public bus instead.
and so slowly, i wandered in the car-laded highway, trying to look for a place in the dark that i was beginning to see.
'o lemery, lemery, lemery !, isa na lang oh, wala ng bus na susunod pa !'
cried the barker, i raised an eyebrow with the words he had just said, 'walang bus?', and then suddenly the dark alley became clearer, the JAM bus terminal was full of standing people, in jeans and tights, in blouses and shirts. they were chatting louder as ever and the air they were exhaling was adding to the cold air of that rainy evening.
i found a place in the line bound for Biñan. a student from makati was standing in front of me complaining on the rising flood in makati. i was irritated, from the way she moved her head and the way she laughed at the man in front of her, who was obviously flirting with her. then there was the man standing behind me, lost in his own thoughts, completely into singing songs i can't understand. he was weird, but not scary, he had his ears all for the earphones wired from his cellular phone.
the line next to ours, was bound for balibago. there were different kinds of creatures standing, they looked like monsters in the dark, with sharp teeth and pointed claws. everyone was becoming more impatient as the clock strikes 8. the man selling bottled water, then approached me and offered me a bottle. i got a ten peso coin from my pocket and handed it to him, in return for an ice cold mineral water. i stared at it for 5 seconds and then dumped it inside my backpack. i can drink it later if i were to stay in that dark terminal for another hour.
turning to face the irrtating girl, i tried to smile and ask if the flood in makati was really high, she smiled back and nodded, then she started telling me of how she walked along the dirty waters using the word 'inusog' to describe how terrible it was for her to jump into the flooded streets of makati just to get there and hoped she'd reach home earlier. then she frowned, remembering how tired she was and how badly she wanted to take a bath. i looked away and decided to turn my radio on. i bought a nokia phone with a built in fm radio for situations like that. i tuned in to my favorite station but the reception was awful so i switched to another and another until i found a very interesting station.
the disc jock was reading messages from his avid listeners, one was about a guy who was in love with his bestfriend, but can't take the risk of losing her. he was feeling depressed and alone, but all he could do is dream of having her as a wife and loving her secretly as she was loving someone else. i smiled at every word the jock said, he was good, better than i thought he was.
"...so you want to hear my piece on your situation" he started. He cleared his throat and played a soft music for the background effect, "you see...i can confidently say that you are not in love with your best girl pal. Its more of jealousy if you ask me. I can also feel that you have been misinterpreting your mixed emotions toward the idea that your bestfriend is inlove with someone. You can say that you love her, but not romantically, you are just afraid to lose your best bud for a not so good guy. i don't really know the guy that your bestfriend is inlove with but im pretty sure you think of him that way. You are in a way, afraid that if she gets into a relationship with him, then you'll be out of her life, and that's not cool man..." he coughed twice and then resumed with his short speech. "...let her be in love, you, as a bestfriend should be the first one to support her, and while you're all out there ready to support her, check your feelings for her, i can't say there's no tendencies of you really falling for her but maybe, maybe you just love being with her, and that you're not in love with her. and please do appreciate me playing this song for you." the dj's voice fades and a song then was playing in my ear. I can't remember what song it was, im not actually interested in hearing it because the intro beat was that of the 80's tracks so i'd rather not hear the entire song.
i turned off the radio and started to stare at the now very long line behind me. It was now consisted of office workers, students and construction workers who came from the site near the dominga street. They were, if not irritated, hungry and exhausted. Everyone wanted to just jump into the bus and go home to take a shower and rest. too bad the weather doesn't agree.
I turned around to talk to the man who was behind me, but to my surprise, i found an old lady in a blue striped shirt standing next to me. and all i manage to do was smile and feel sorry for the man who i guessed was feeling more irritated than everyone else in the that dark bus terminal.
[ ...to be continued... ]
