“Just one more,” the driver assuages the scowling lady in front. She has
been nagging him to rev up the engine. Really need to be home soon.
She keeps looking at her watch strapped on her fat arm. Three people could fit
in front, but she occupied space for two. And the bag on her lap was as huge as
her. Not her fault at all. “Just one more,” repeats the driver with a tiny
laugh. “Really…” she scowls and smiles. She is easily appeased. They know each
other. Neighbors. The girl in the backseat barely heard them argue a while ago.
She doesn’t care. Deep inside her mind, she remembers what happened two nights
ago. She replays it again and again. She gulps, a tear almost formed.
“Hey, look,” the college boy notices the folder on the ground,
almost under the vehicle. Only the tip of the portfolio can be seen from their
seat. But he was staring at his shoes and he saw. She hardly pays him any
attention, immersed in her private world. He flips the folder open and sees her
yearbook picture. Oh, she doesn’t look thin at all in the picture. She
is very thin now. He reads the name on the paper aloud. “Olivia
Villojan…”
This gets her full attention. “Oh, that’s mine.” He
should’ve returned it the moment he realized it belonged to her.
“Oh, so sorry, found this below the tryc.”
“Ayee… Almost lost it again. Can I have it back?”
He hands it back.
Again?
She must be losing things all the time, he thinks
“Thank you,” she smiles.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” He smiles. It’s
nothing? You can do better than that, boy.
Seconds later, in the ensuing awkward silence between them, as if the
lost-and-found folder incident now demands a conversation between them, a
conversation she definitely is not going to initiate, a schoolgirl approaches
the tryc. “Oh, sit here,” he transfers behind the driver who starts the
engine. Got to be a gentleman. That’s it. See you, stranger. It
wasn’t supposed to end that way. He feels as if he has just watched a
romantic movie with a horror twist at the end. Two lovers destined to meet in a
lost-and-found booth…they stare into each other’s eyes…they fall in love…a
hideous chimaera successfully lures the boy into its lair by disguising as a
lost little girl in her ripped plaid uniform. The girl escapes. Fin. Bummer.
Neither of them knew they would become very good friends one day, or more
than that.
“Finally.” The woman in front mutters.
Two nights ago,
Nathan, her bestest friend in the world, disappeared. For good. He did not die.
Olivia did not agonize at the sight of him walking away from her, for he had
physically left her a long, long time ago. 11 months ago, the last time she saw
him? Two years ago, when he left the province to work in Cebu? Or had she lost
him even before that?
Two
nights ago, he simply emptied her world of him. But he did say goodbye, this
time. She wondered why he was so nice to her that night. He had called, which
was nothing short of a miracle. She was ecstatic.
She had text-messaged him something melancholic; it was a group message.
“Sing me to sleep tonight… :’(” At past ten. He was awake and read it. Nathan
called within seconds. She could hardly believe it…
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