I've been silent for the longest time - well, I've been leading a boring life lately. My days revolve around three things only: work, sleep, and whatever time I have left to cram some nourishment down my throat. During my days off duty I am either too tired or too lazy to even stick my head out of the window. So you could probably imagine my excitement when I finally found myself getting out of the house for entirely another reason than work, work, work.
On Tuesday, I met up with Tupe for lunch at SM Manila. As expected, it was a gabfest - I don't even remember exactly when I saw him last: probably October or November the past year. We saw a movie afterwards, then proceeded to National Bookstore for a quick browse. He was laughing his head off while reading Bob Ong's
Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas, which I happened to have. He told me he wanted to borrow it, plus the green book.
Time for home. As we walked out of the store, the lights suddenly went out. People screamed. I would have laughed at this silliness if I did not see the strong spray of water outside, aimed at a higher ground. I also noticed blinking red and blue lights.
A firetruck? Smoke touched my nostrils. Instinctively I reached for him, just as he said, "Chat, come here." (Yup, in English. I looked at him and realized he wasn't teasing me. In normal circumstances I would have whacked him in the head. But that moment, my mind was on the verge of turning blank, I didn't even have the time to be incredulous.)
The lights returned for a second, then went out again. In the darkness we tried to reach the door. I remember stumbling - we laughed despite feeling a little hysterical. People from the corridors were already streaming towards the door. The gates were closed! Our gazes locked and I realized we feared the same thing: a stampede. Just then I saw a guard backing away from the crowd. We asked him where the fire exit was, and he waved a hand towards an uncertain direction. Unsatisfied with this instruction but determined to get out of the building as quickly as possible, we climbed back up and like a flash I remembered that the fire exit was between National Bookstore and Tokyo Tokyo. Two girls picked our trail.
A mall employee was climbing down the stairs as we pushed the steel door. The four of us followed him, and his easy silence almost drove us crazy. Here we were, panicking already, and he was acting as if it's no big deal at all! "Kuya, sa'n ba talaga yung fire exit?" I asked, my voice already high-pitched. He gestured upwards, and we had no choice but to go upstairs again. We entered the door marked "Employee Entrance/Exit Only" and discovered that it led out into the street (thankfully!). I was still clutching Tupe's arm as we walked towards the main street and found that after all, it wasn't SM that's on fire but the old GSIS building across the street. Dazed, we watched the firemen in their efforts to extinguish the bonfire ahead.
We sat down in the park across Manila City Hall, while chaos still enveloped the vicinity. Eventually the authorities were able to take control of the disaster, and no trace of it can be found later.
It was past eight when we parted. I commented, "Napaka-memorable naman ng muli nating pagtatagpo!"
If it weren't for the huge damage the fire caused, I'd think it quite amusing that this should happen on one of my rare days out. I was scared, but it was almost an adventure. And yeah, I can now laugh at that moment when he unconsciously spoke to me in English. Another addition to our collection of inside jokes
