SUBSCRIBECebu Wednesday
The meeting yesterday was a bit of a bore but its okay, at least I can listen and do some things without being obliged to take notes, butt in a few times, give suggestions or opine. Not that hectic. Its just slow and not too demanding.
Other than the ordinary, I find it a strange day. Strange in a sense that its not always that one meets friends from the distant past. First, while waiting for Wantet at Ayala Center, I bumped into Abet, a friend at the Fitness Advantage gym in F. Torres in Davao City that I frequented when I was still there. Well, nothing’s changed, except for the shorter gray hair. We said our hi’s and hellos but didn’t linger as he was leaving with his friends.
Another one, Franklin. I stopped this taxi outside Ayala Center and was supposed to embark at the Citilink terminal for a jeepney going home. I asked the driver how much is the fare from the terminal to Talisay and from that a conversation was started. After an exchange of questions, he asked me, “Are you Willy’s (my uncle) son?” I said, no, Editha’s. Then he asked if I’m Stanley. I said yes with bewilderment. I was thinking, how come this taxi driver know my uncle and me. I looked at him and tried searching in the past of people that I know who might have resembled him but just really can’t.
“I’m Franklin. I used to watch TV at your house when we were children.” Somehow I remembered that trabajantes (workers) from my grandfather’s sugar mill used to stand outside our old house (the one beside the present that’s been occupied now by my cousins) by the window and watch TV. His name sound familiar but was really having difficulty remembering those times that happened more than twenty years ago. Anyway, while driving to my destination, we talked, asked about the other taga-luyo (literally those who are from the back - a reference to those families who lived in an area at the back of the camalig [mill]) and just reminisced those innocent days.
That conversation really drove the point of being HOME. Where the heart is. And always will be even if i’m in some distant place.
