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.