After that, my family began to prepare right away. They’re going somewhere else, to my uncle’s house in Laguna perhaps for a little family reunion. Not me. I hate family reunions. It’s so sissy. I have other plans. Iturned my attention to the stack of books in my table. Maybe I’d just read books. No, bad idea. “Read books. So you can read between the lines”, my brother would always say, but I won’t mind. There’s so much that I can do than waste my time on them.
Some two hours later and I’m on my way to school. I don’t have any classes, or any meetings clogging my schedule. What sent me there is for the gimmick. The breeze going through the jeep’s window is strong and cold, perhaps because of the speed, or because the -Ber months is approaching. But it was interrupted to allow some passengers to climb in. An old lady and her child, an office girl, and some common man who looks a lot like Richie The Horsey.
This man irritated me the most. He determinedly squeezed himself through the sited people in my front as he blows his smoke unceasingly. Then he pulled something from his short pants. No it wasn’t bills or coins. It’s something you don’t want anyone else to have inside a passenger jeep. It was a six-inch kitchen knife, something like the ones our mothers used when cutting meat. And based on his look to me, I’m his prey, and he wants to cut mine. At that moment I realized. Shit happens.
Scream and panic filled the jeep. Terror and fear filled me. And before I knew it, he already grabbed my arm, swaying his steel in front of me. Shining. Cold. Deadly. Though he’s not saying a word, I know he’s after my money. I realized I should have taken the LRT instead. It’s fast, air-conditioned, convenient, and pollution-free, and it only costs 15 pesos! Perhaps I wouldn’t be right here staring face to face with death himself.
I felt great fear at that time; I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it. But what I saw in his eyes is greater fear. Yes! He’s afraid, too! Is it confusion? Is it desperation slowly devouring his sanity? Or is it the effect of the illegal substances that he injected in his veins finally taking him? I don’t know, and at that point, it doesn’t matter. What is certain now is that my fate hangs between being alive and ending up dead. And at this moment this man holds my fate.
Impatient, he decided quickly. Like a bolt out of the blue, he suddenly swung the knife to my defenseless side. I can feel the long dagger penetrate it. I don’t know why, but it didn’t hurt. It’s cold. It’s numb. I want to throw up. I want to collapse. The world revolved, and turned into a flash, then things went black. Consciousness finally escaped from me.
When consciousness returned, my heart is still pumping fast. I was in a room, and it’s so dark. No, it wasn’t a hospital room, no dextrose stand, no white walls. It’s something familiar. It was silent, very silent. Not a hush, not a sign of life. If this is afterlife finally, I have no idea.
Then I saw the clock, it’s already 7:30 pm, and I recognized the stacks of books. I’m still in my room. And my family hadn’t returned yet. I fell asleep. Damn it. Bad dream. I guess a heavy meal and an afternoon nap don’t go well. Well, my brother is kind of right, I should have read the books instead. Or better, join the family reunion. We won't be here forever.
For more about your safety, check out 10 Things You Should Know When Someone's Blowing Off Our Buses, or if it's already late at night, just go to bed, or you can read It before that.
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