IMAGINE: You were on your way to meet up with your buddy for some caffeine-induced conversations about the banal affairs of homo sapiens. You look forward to long healthy small talks concerning love, life and all in between, to careless banters that cannot be bottled up and, to senseless laughter because life turned out to be nothing but a circus. You plan to splurge yourself online (thanks to a luxury called wireless fidelity) so people know you still exist, and that your social life, unlike your sex life, is never a bore. All these are reeling in your head as you make long strides along the side walk careful not to bump into any metal poles or get hit by a drunk-driven car, when suddenly a hapless-looking lady reaches out to hold your arm and snaps you back to reality because she needs help. She tells you that she is not from around town and that she's been seeking assistance from anyone who would be willing enough to spare her a few minutes. She is looking for a rent-a-truck for 'lipat-bahay' purposes with such urgency in her voice you get lost in it; one would think how hard it must be for a forty-something-year-old to get someone to help her find what she needs, what with her being a 'probinsyana' and all. What if it was your mother? Would you not stop and hear her out just to see if there's anything you can do? What's a good Samaritan like you gotta do? Leave her with her troubles and continue on burdened with guilt that you could have done something worth a space in a paradise they refer to as heaven? NO. You have to help her; to do otherwise would be just wrong. Totally wrong, immoral almost.
The catch: She hands you a bundle of what is supposed to be her money and asks a good favor of you to hold it for her because she needs to go to the office of the rent-a-truck company to fill out some paper works. A stranger asks you to hold her money, how insane is that?
As if it's not suspicious enough, she asks you to give her your mobile phone and your wallet as collateral. I mean, she is just being safe; who knows if you run off with her savings? One cannot be too careful. It will only take a couple of minutes, she will be right back she says. She is now a few feet away and alas, you come to your senses. Like waking up from a stolen nap through a ride home. Five minutes pass and she is not back yet. Nor will she be back sooner, your gut screams. So you don't waste any second longer and you dubiously open the package. Ha! The bills that were supposed to be inside all magically transformed to carefully cut papers. It's all you can do to stare at it in disbelief when it hits you. You have been scammed. HOLY SHIT!
The moment freezes. You can hear taunting music. No, it was silence. Do you hear that? You can't hear anything. There it is. It has it's own rhythm. Dub dub. Your heart slowly breaks, your eyes cloud and rain suddenly pours. You wanted to get an umbrella but it's too late, you are soaked.
We were taught in school that honesty is the best policy, that following the rules will bring you success and doing what's right shall fill you with unparalleled bliss. A happiness that can only spring from truthfulness and yes, righteousness. Then you go out to the world only to find out that all of those were but manufactured lies; purposely laid out to paint abstract nonsense to our 'tabula rasa'. And at one point you will ask your pitiful self, "What the f*ck?" You suddenly feel like you've been duped, tricked like a little puppy that runs after the flying stick because it is supposed to give it purpose. For what is there to life without it, right? They even make you believe that everything happens for a reason. That every misfortune is meant to make a better version of your self- stronger, wiser among other -ers. Not until you meet a series of them that you understand how ludicrous that cliche is. In fact, you doubt if there are enough valid reasons to go by after you have gone through more than your lifetime can take.
It's rather sad to think that life sometimes comes to this. That it's only when we are grown ups do we realize that a simple reminder from our beloved mom or dad can save us from the troubles of this cruel world. Yes, the world IS cruel. Our task is to either deal with it or deal with it. So deal with it.
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