My cellphone rings at 7 in the morning. I deliberate between snuggling into the sheets or answering it, afraid that it was my annoying chatmate once again. After fishing my phone from underneath my pillow, I see that it is an unknown cellphone number.
“Hello?”
“Hi. This is Aileen. Boss Ed says you’re coming with us? We’re waiting for you at Wendy’s.”
“What? But I just woke up!”
“Yeah, we’ll wait for you.”
An hour or so later, Chu and I meet Aileen, Diane and JC at Wendy’s Buendia near the bus stop. We get on a bus bound for Lipa, Batangas. Bound for Boss Ed’s home.
Two hours later, Boss Ed picks us up near the Big Ben mall in Lipa and brings us to his home in Barangay Calamias. Less than an hour later we are watching ASAP Mania while eating pork viands, fruit salad, ube haleya and leche flan on plastic-wrapped plates. It is ingenious, these plates. By wrapping them in plastic, the plates themselves are not soiled and need not be washed to be used again.
An hour later Boss Ed takes us hiking through some back woods to a gurgling brook. The massive bamboo plants make eerie noises. The entire scene is a refreshing change from the typical buildings in Makati. I suddenly miss Pasonanca, Zamboanga. We take pictures along the way.
We go back to the house. Diane, Aileen and I shoot some hoops in the basketball court. This is only the third time I’ve ever shot hoops in my life. For the first time, the ball goes in instead of barely grazing the ring’s rim.
Then Boss brings us to his siblings’s house nearby. We eat once again. They also brew some kapeng barako for us. I am not a coffee drinker. I hate coffee. But hey, just one cup can’t be that terrible.
We go back to his house afterwards. While Diane and Aileen shoot a few more hoops, I hike back to the woods and climb a mango tree. Climbing brings me back to my childhood memories. I sit on a branch and whistle to make the wind come. I wonder if it’s true that the wind comes when you whistle? Or is it just coincidence? And what’s with the mounds of soil? Are they truly what they call nuno sa punso? One can never be sure. So I say “Tabi, apo,” while walking by.
Then Boss Ed drives us to the bus stop, but not before a quick stop in the Lipa Cathedral for some bonding time with God. He points out some interesting houses along the way, including Boy Abunda’s and Segunda Katigbak’s.
There are so many people in the bus stop, but after being turned down by two buses, we manage to hop aboard one bound for Makati. I sleep away most of the trip. Two hours later, I am back home.
I snuggle beneath the sheets, exhausted. Tomorrow is a new day.