Category: Literature

Elevator

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Ilang taon na ang nakakalipas nang mangyari ito.. noong nagtatrabaho pa ako sa call center

Madalas, sabay-sabay kaming nagla-lunch break ng mga ka-team ko. 9pm-6am ang shift. Pero bilang working student, may pagkakataon na nagrerequest ako ng ibang schedule na naiaayos naman agad. Lalo na kung kelangan ko pumasok sa school nang mas maaga, o kung gagabihin ako sa mga school works. Pag ganun ang nagyari, minsan wala akong kasabay mag-lunch break sa team mates ko

Nung nangyari ito, nagrequest ako ng mas late na pasok sa trabaho dahil may mga tinapos kami ng mga kaklase ko.

So pumasok ako sa trabaho na normal lang lahat. Nauna na maglunch break ang mga ka-team ko habang nasa calls pa ako.

Nagkataon din na wala akong nakasabay na ibang team sa lunchbreak ng requested schedule ko. Pumunta ako sa cafeteria. Pero di ko gusto yung mga putahe nung gabi na yun kaya nagdesisyon akong lumabas ng building para kumain sa restaurant o fast food.

Nasa 9th floor kami. Sakop din ng company namin ang 7th at 8th floors. Ang 5th at 6th floors ay parang ginagawa pa lang para sa bagong lilipat na company kaya walang tao at madilim doon tuwing gabi. May ibang companies sa 2nd, 3rd at 4th floors at karaniwan, pagbukas ng elevator may guwardiya agad na makikita.

Pumunta ako sa elevator at pinindot ang G. Sigurado ako na G yun.. Ground.

Bumaba ang elevator pero kung sa anumang dahilan ay huminto yun at bumukas sa 5th floor. Kinilabutan ako at nanlamig. Napakadilim. Pinindot ko ang close dahil alam ko na wala namang tao doon pero ayaw magsara. Ewan kung gaano katagal yun. Pero sobrang tagal. Pinikit ko na lang ang mata ko at patuloy na pinipindot ang close. Sa wakas, sumara ang pinto. Pero bigla itong umakyat pabalik sa 9th floor. Lalabas sana ako pero hindi bumukas ang pinto. Pinipindot ko yung open pero wala talaga kaya pinindot ko na yung emergency call.

Gumalaw ulit ang elevator kaya tinigil ko ang pagpindot. Pero tumigil ulit ito at bumukas sa 4th floor. Pagbukas ng pinto ng elevator, nakita ko ang guwardiya na nanlaki ang mata at parang binuhusan ng malamig na tubig habang nakatingin sa direksyon ko.

Nang magsimulang sumara ang pinto, nakita ko ang tayo ng guwardiya na parang natataranta ang mga binti niya pero nakatingin pa rin sa direksyon ko. Nakita ko rin na tumalikod siya at parang tumakbo hanggang tuluyan nang sumara ang elevator.

Umakyat ulit ang elevator. Hindi na ako mapakali at kanina pa mabilis ang tibok ng puso ko. Huminto na naman ito. 5th floor. Pumikit ako ulit sa takot. Gusto kong sumandal, tumalikod, o kaya maupo sa sahig at magtakip ng mukha pero di ko magawang igalaw kahit anong parte ng katawan ko dahil sa kaba.

Bumukas ang elevator, sumara ulit, saka lang tuluyang bumaba. Sa wakas narinig ko ang ingay ng mga taong nag-uusap. Dumilat ang mata ko. Sa wakas ay nakababa na ako sa Ground floor.

Anong nangyari? Hindi ko alam.

Ikinuwento ko sa mga ka-team ko ang nangyari. Isa sa kanila ay may edad na. Binanggit niya na marami ang kakaibang kwento sa site kung saan nakatayo ang building namin. Sa malapit lang siya nakatira, at aniya, parte ito ng dating sementeryo.

The Last Day

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This is the last day of high school. This is it. Graduation day. Your mother feels the pride that you made it. She never finished high school, and for her, this day is also her success. For you, it is just a petty ceremony. You get ready to go, not because of the ceremony, but because you will meet your friends and all of you will be wearing makeup and you will have your hair done. Your teachers are against wearing too much makeup on school days, but this day is for you. You will do as you want it. You put on makeup and had your hair done. You wore your school uniform and your mother helped you carry your graduation robe and cap. You see the smile on her face just by holding your robe.

You arrive at the school and part ways with her. She goes to the waiting area for parents, and you go to your classroom. The teachers use the homerooms as your holding area. This is also where you have a lot of memories with your classmates. You hear the graduation hymn start to play loudly from the school quadrangle. You believed this is just a petty ceremony. But here you are now, feeling it. You become nostalgic. It is real. It is here.

You begin to wonder about your future. What is next after this? Where do you go? Will you be able to get a university degree? Will you even make it to a university? You have never made any application. Will you find a decent job? You think that you were not a very bright student. And you admit that you did not always do your best. Your grades are just enough to make it to this ceremony. You begin to have this deep feeling of loneliness, knowing that your friends will no longer be with you in the next step. One of your best friends is going to the capital where she will live with her father while she attends the university. One will stay in this same town, but you know she has secured her spot at the local university through a scholarship. Your other friend got pregnant. She was able to finish high school too, but she would not attend this ceremony because she is due to give birth anytime now.

Your classmates are talking about the party tonight when your teacher came and ushered everyone to a line. You have practiced this a few times the week before. The school, the biggest public school in the city, has about eight hundred graduating students. It is noisier than ever. But now, you begin to hear this noise as a sound of success.

Your emotions flow. You are aware of the financial and emotional hardships your mother went through as she strived to send you to school. You had a lot of circumstances in school too, which you chose not to tell your mother because you knew she was already burdened. 

Your mother is right, you say to yourself. This is a moment of success!

The ceremony officially begins. One teacher stays on stage and calls out every class section and their respective class advisers. When your class was called, your teacher-adviser led your group to walk towards the quadrangle. You see your mother in line along with other parents at the opposite hall. You as a graduate will join your mother at the center where the hallways meet. You walk together as you enter the quadrangle, with photographers on the watch to capture this moment of each student. You will walk together for a moment for a photo, but she will be led eventually to the parents’ seats and you towards the graduates’ seats. But just before you part on this isle, tears of gratitude begin to fall from your eyes.

©2021 | J.E. Orolfo | All rights reserved

Passport

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She sat on the bus waiting to arrive at the station. She knows he is already there by now. She had no phone to use in this foreign country. There is no other means of communication except when she is using the wifi at the hotel. The last message she sent him was when she left the hotel. With other people, even with her family, she would be overcome with trust issues and doubt if this meeting could go through now that she had no means to stay in touch. But she felt secured. She knew he would be there waiting for her. 

As the bus approached the station, she saw him through the window. She thought that her heartbeats were faster. Is she just too excited? Is she nervous? She wonders. Years had passed. She thought this would not happen again. There is so much emotion. She touched her heart, and realized it was beating normally. But something in her is just jumping with extreme emotion. Some people call this the twin spirit connection. But she does not think of those beliefs. 

She grabbed her bag as the people started getting off. When she got off the bus, he was five meters to her left, but she walked along with another passenger to try to hide herself for a moment. She wanted to understand what she was feeling. She needed even a second to make sure she would be able to act normally. But as she walked towards the waiting shed, he saw her. He called her and she looked at him. He still wore the same jacket he got as a graduation gift from high school. The stain was still there, on the left chess. Both of them remember the story of the stain. 

There were many people waiting for a ride, some were getting off or getting on a bus. But she only saw him. It was as if her vision became a camera lens whose focus was set on him. All the rest of the world was thrown into the background as a blurry image. They had been apart for years, for miles, but they felt together even without talking. But when they moved towards each other to hug, to walk a few meters for less than five seconds, felt like eternity for them to cross.

They hugged for a long time, at least too long for the culture of this country where they were both foreign, but too short for an eternity they lived apart, and a forever they are about to spend together.

They both do not feel the butterflies in the love stories that she read. In his arms, she felt calm and safe. In her arms, he felt strong and fulfilled. And that, they both knew from the start, was the better emotion.

The Widow

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Koby, one of the dogs, welcomed me as soon as I entered the door. He is a black Belgian Malinois that acts as if he has known me for a long time. He looked so happy to see me again. Lucy got him when I have left the town, and he has only seen me on the few occasions that I visited. He jumped to me excitedly, then he laid on the floor asking to be petted. I crouched down to reach his belly. He smelled like the oregano leaves and his paws are full of dirt. On the floor, a few inches from where he lays are some random items that may have been left by the kids after playing: toys, clothes, powder bottle, drinking glass, Lucy’s lipstick, a piece of candy, shoes, doll, torn papers… Koby stood again and went off his way to the garden.

I sat on the chair to wait for Lucy. The twins said that she will be back soon.

Lucy has three kids: a teenager, perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old, and twin girls of about five or six years of age. She usually leaves them alone in the house when she needs to do her stuff. Whether it was for work of whatever, I have no idea. 

I remained sitting, making myself busy on the phone. Next to my chair is another chair stuffed with a pile of neatly folded clothes. I can smell the lingering fragrance of the detergent that Lucy uses.

Through the window, I could see Koby digging the soil. Near where he digs are some cooking herbs that Lucy planted: oregano, lemongrass, coriander, thyme. There were more but I could not recognize them from where I sit. Koby seemed to change his mind, stopped digging and decided to lay beside the oregano leaves. And then, I heard a growl beside me.. Kent, the other dog, is looking at me, scrutinizing my full intention of being in this very spot of the Earth. Around his neck is a collar. Not a usual dog collar, but one decorated by Lucy’s late husband.

I tried to make the look of “I am a good person” but Kent was not convinced. I have met this dog several times, even when he was still a puppy way, before Koby arrived. But he would always treat met this way once he sees me again after a long time.

“Kent, go outside,” I heard the woman said. It was Lucy’s mother. She lives next door and checks on the kids whenever Lucy leaves.

“Hey Natalie! How’s it going? It’s been like.. what? A year? Since I last saw you,” she said. “Lucy must be here by now. Oh! Hey, Mark! What have happened here?” she called Lucy’s teenage son. She was looking at the scattered mess on the floor. “Girls, come get your toys,” she said to the twins, “your mom will be upset with all these mess,” she said to them before she turned to me again. “Sorry, do you want some drinks?”

©2021 | J.E. Orolfo | All rights reserved

Walk of Faith

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Maia took a few candles from the box and dropped some coins. I did the same. We slowly walked towards an isle where there was what looked like a rack made of steel. It has small slots where you can put the candles. This isle is in a garden beside the church. Maia quietly put one candle on each slot and lit them. Again, I did as she did. I noticed now that she took seven candles. She solemnly stared at the candles. After a few seconds, her right hand gently touched her forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder, and finally the right shoulder. She then clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.

Maia’s parents both serve the church every Sunday. Her father sings in the choir, while her mother reads some sort of lines for the ceremony. Whatever they call it, I am yet to know.

Bob looked at the candles, but he was not giving too much focus as Maia did. I just realized now that he did not get his own candles.

I closed my eyes as Maia did, but I did so more briefly than her. When she opened her eyes, she did the same gestures with her hand. Her right hand gently touched her forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder, and finally the right shoulder. She smiled at both Bob and me and then we started walking out of the isle.

“What if the god that you worship is actually the aliens?” Bob asked as we walked.

“That still confirms that there is a higher intelligence, more powerful than us,” Maia replied.

Like Maia, my mother was baptized in the Catholic church. I was not. My father is a Muslim. Although my mother and I had to follow some dress code when at a family gathering, my mother says she has never been criticized by my father’s relatives even as she continues to go to Catholic churches. My father would say the same. And neither have asked me to go with them. Visiting churches, whatever religion, feel like going to museum for me.

We walked towards the church. Along the way, we would meet kids selling strings of tiny white flowers. The flowers are unbelievably very fragrant. Bob must have felt a thug in his heart looking at the kids that he bought a few of them. We all laughed when he finally asked us what he was supposed to do with the flowers. There were also a few men and women selling booklets and jewelries. Bob looked at one of the necklaces. It has an oval pendant with the face of a bearded man.

Maia and I walked towards the church. Bob kept following our steps but his eyes are on the people around. He looked more amazed and surprised than me about the customs of Christians.

Bob’s parents were both atheists. It was ironic that he went to a catholic school. But what was more ironic was that his lack of belief in god became stronger.

He abruptly stopped when he realized that we were already about to enter the church. I looked at him and he looked back at me. I saw surprise in his eyes. I was confused of his reaction. I looked at Maia.

She did not look at us. Her attention was at the statue of a man just in front of the church. She took out her handkerchief and ceremoniously wiped the statue with it. She then did the same gesture as she did at the candle isle. Her right hand which holds the handkerchief gently touched her forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder, and finally the right shoulder. Bob’s eyebrows seemed to rush towards the center and his forehead wrinkled. Maia finally looked at us and smiled again.

She then proceeded closer to the door. There were two big widely opened double doors. At the middle of the double doors was a column. Attached to the column was a decorative shell, about a meter and a half above the ground. A figure of some kind of angels were on top of it.

Maia put her hand into the shell and it became wet. She then did the same gesture again. Her right hand touched her forehead, chest, and then her shoulders.

Bob and I went close to her and curiously peeked at the shell. It was a water vessel. Bob smirked in confusion. Maia was ready to go inside. I was still tagging along

“I’ll stay outside. I’ll wait for you in that coffee shop,” Bob exclaimed.

Maia smiled at him sweetly and nodded.

©2021 | J.E. Orolfo | All rights reserved

Snow White and…

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The wind is cold and the forest is gloomy, as if horror has come. His legs were tired, his feet were numb, but Doc couldn’t stop running. Alex and the six other dwarfs are looking up to him. He would not show a hint of tiredness.

Minutes ago, they were walking together leisurely towards home when this boy came running, looking worried. He said that a stranger came to him asking for direction. He didn’t know the answer so he brought him to the dwarfs’ house where Snow White was alone, lonely and drinking alcohol. She was smitten by the stranger, they started chatting, and the stranger told Alex to leave.

An image of a naïve and helpless Snow White flashed in his mind.

Upon hearing what Alex said, they all rushed back home.

The door was open. Snow White was on the floor, unconscious. But she was not alone. The stranger is beside her… rather, on top of her, and he started kissing her.

Doc was enraged. Grumpy is grumpier than ever. Happy is not happy. Sleepy is alert. Bashful is mad. Sneezy called the police.

Even at young age, Dopy knows what is happening. He jumped to the man and punched him from the back. The man was surprised but not hurt. Dopy was so small that he fell to the ground and looked hurt, but his anger is stronger than the pain of falling. He tried to attack the man again but the man has fallen to the ground as Grumpy hit him. Three other dwarfs started thrashing him too. The man screamed, “I am the prsafa of Wkfgkals”. None of the dwarfs caught what he said for they do not care. He tried to take advantage of an unconscious young woman, that is all they know. They grabbed his arms, pinned him to the ground and continued knocking him down.

Snow White was awaken by the commotion. Doc helped her get up. At that moment, the police arrived. They broke up the fight and arrested the man.

Snow White learned of what Alex had done. She was amazed he realized she needed help even before she did. Alex made her realize that she should be careful who to trust and be more instinctive and alert.

©2021 | J.E. Orolfo | All rights reserved

Bangka

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Ang buhay niya man ay sa tubig
Muli pa rin siyang gigilid
Sa pampang na tahimik
Malayo sa dagat ng mga mang-uusig


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