Child's Play

One day while I was walking along Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard I saw a woman and her young sleeping boy begging for alms from hurrying passersby at the steps of the pedestrian overpass in Sta. Mesa.

I got a 20-peso bill from my pocket and gave it to the woman who smiled back at me in silent gratitude.

I then went on with my business and proceeded to J.P. Laurel Street near Malacanang to meet an old buddy who is now working with the Media Bureau in the Palace but I couldn’t help but wonder and think about the lives of the woman and her child.

There are a lot of stories--that they earn more from begging than most ordinary employees and they are usually used by criminal syndicates in exchange for some food and security.

There are also stories that the children in their arms who are asleep most of the time are in reality drugged and are not really their own but abandoned babies sold to the syndicates by unscrupulous employees of government hospitals in Metro Manila.

When the meeting was over, I decided to drop by at Wendy’s for a quick-lunch and read the Sunday papers to kill time.

After a while I decided to have a stick of cigarette in my mouth and went to the adjacent 7-11 convenience store and bought a pack of Mild Seven and began chain puffing…

It was when I was on my third stick when the idea came into my mind- that maybe I can help that baby out of his miseries…

I flipped the stub into the pavement and quickly headed for the overpass.

Along the way I counted several people, mostly tired stragglers waiting for a ride home and at 2:30 pm of a hot and humid March, not much people are using the overpass on the corner of C. De Dios Street.

As I climb into the flight of stairs I saw the woman sleeping soundly with the child at her side lying on a piece of dirty cardboard with a yellowish towel that serves as his cover.

In one swift motion I grab the child by the feet and hurled him out and up into the open air without disturbing the woman in her siesta and continued to walk down the stairs in a very casual manner.

In the corner of my eye, I watched his frail body soared into the bright blue sky; dropped and fell head on and exploded in crimson unto the windshield of a speeding gray Mitsubishi Sedan driven by an old Chinese guy shattering the afternoon peace in the process.

The busy stretch of Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard halted to a stop amid the commotion; shouts of horror and bewildered faces of the people on the streets was the last thing I noticed as I made my exit and walked away from the madding crowd towards Vicente Cruz Street and hailed a cab to take me to my rented apartment in Sampaloc for a well-deserved rest.

Easy does it

I woke up this morning with a throbbing ache in my head. I went straight to the medicine cabinet and got 2 tablets of Tylenol and popped them simultaneously into my mouth chased by a glass of ice- cold orange juice.

I sat down on the dining chair and I started to leaf through the pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for my daily dose of the latest happenings in the local scene as well as around the world.

I asked the maid for a cup of black coffee and lighted a stick of Marlboro Lights and puffed the cigarette away for a minute or two and continued my morning readings.

I put down the newspaper, took a quick hot shower, got dressed and went out to drive myself in my black Ford SUV to work. I turned on the radio and tuned in on my favorite FM station playing Classical Music as my car cruised along the lonely stretch of Roxas Boulevard.

The traffic was heavy at the corner of the old Buendia Avenue now renamed after that Senator from the old rich family whose name at the moment escapes me because I’m beginning to get a bit sleepy. :)

So I bid my time…

My car is literally crawling on a very slow traffic of vehicles in a very congested road in a very congested city.

Damn this traffic and damn the officials who can’t get their acts together and just turned a blind eye on this mess!

Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!

My patience is starting to slip away. The anxiety of being stuck in traffic for hours while tons and tons of unfinished paper work are waiting for me at the office is gnawing into my nerves.

I rolled down the glass window and lighted a stick of cigarette as I watch the white smoke made its way into the open air followed by thoughts of all the things that had happened and could have happened in my life.

My thoughts are running in circles aided by the chaos that is unfolding into my very eyes; aided further by the blaring sounds of the horns of the cars around me whose impatient drivers are also caught in this monstrous traffic jam.

Then it moved.

Yes, finally the traffic moves.

I shifted my gear and followed the car behind me. I will be in the office on time so I thought when all of a sudden the car in front of me suddenly made a stop! Then I realized that we were now caught in another red light on the corner of the South Super Highway. Damn…

I then lighted another cigarette stick. Fuck it, I was now chain-smoking since about an hour ago all because of this #$*!? traffic!

Finally the traffic light turned into green.

Go! Go! Go!

I then stepped on the accelerator like crazy and watched as the sight of the cars and the buildings turned into a blur. Wahoo!

I soon find myself into the parking lot on the third floor of the building near the Asian Institute of Management where I worked for a multinational company.

I slowly gt out of my car, fixed my YSL tie and proceeded to the gun-metal colored entrance of the elevator that will carry me up to the sixth floor. But like the roads outside where it was crawling with traffic, the elevator is also one hell of a mess! It’s full of sweaty people trying to squeeze themselves in, so that they can still be on time to punch the clock and not be late for office.

Madness!

I figured out that it’s better to use the stairs than- wait. So, I went to the stairwell and made my way up. I stopped by at the fifth floor to freshen myself up. I looked into my wristwatch and read 7:30 am. I was early.

Then I saw her.

She was standing near the window and smoking her Marlboro. It was the smoke before the proverbial fire, eh?

I look around and noticed that we were alone. I smiled to myself and walked stealthily towards her.

Gliding like a panther, light as a feather…

Before she could react I manage to grab her by the neck and the back part of her leather belt, lifted her effortlessly and threw her with all my might out of the open window!

I heard a loud shrieked of fear followed by a loud thud as I casually walked into the stairs and reached the door of my office on the sixth floor.

The authorities ruled it a suicide.

A flash of triumph beamed in my face.

I could not believe it.

Once again, it was so damned fast, it was so damned easy.