There are warnings aplenty about not riding a jeep down Mandaluyong State Cemetery after 11 PM. But it's not as if people can help it. People like me get off work or school late, and are unable to afford taxis and other faster, less messy routes home.
Walking isn't recommended, either. Therefore, I wonder if something can be done.
As a late shift security guard, I get off work at 10 pm or later. That means I have to take the dreaded graveyard shift of the jeepneys that go through Hulo and pass through the State Cemetery. Meaning, Sinauna jeepneys.
Only Sinauna jeepneys take that route, and that's fine because graveyard shift Sinauna jeepneys have slide windows. You just DON'T want your jeepney's windows open when you pass through the State Cem.
Why? I'm glad you asked. It's because at 11 PM around the State Cem, you start to hear things.
Weird things.
It doesn't always happen. But when it does, the thing people usually do is close the windows. It's just to feel a little safer, really. You won't see a thing.
You'll just hear it.
Usually it's whispers. You'll THINK you can make out words, but you can't. It'll sound like it's right beside your ear. Close enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
Sometimes you'll think it's from the person sitting beside you. You'll ask "Ha?" before you can catch yourself, and out of politeness, your seatmate will go "Wasn't me, I heard it too."
Sometimes it's wailing. Like someone outside is close to dying, and your jeepney is just speeding past.
The worst is when the banging starts.
It always starts with one. Loud. BANG. Like something big has attached itself to the side of your jeepney. Or the back, close to where the portal is. Or the top.
And then the banging starts to move.
It crawls up your jeepney and you start to imagine elbows, hands and knees. You start to think: someone's knocking. Someone's trying to get in. When the banging reaches the roof, you start to imagine that the banging is getting louder, and that the flimsy tin roof is going to cave.
It never does. There are never even any bumps on the hull to prove anything was up there.
When the banging starts, it's like time slows down. You feel like you're in a submarine, and there are sea creatures all around you that want to tear open your protective shell. Sometimes it's not just one creature trying to enter. Sometimes you lose count.
It was never like that before the Sinauna jeepneys started their route. In the old days, people even hung out at the State Cem: it was a fairly lively place, like a park. But in the old days, I had to get home the long way around, because of course no regular jeepney would go through the State Cem.
I wonder if stopping the Sinauna route would get things back to normal?
YOU ARE READING
Reasons to Hate the Commute
Fantasy- Ed.'s note: In 2024, during an aggressive PPP (public-private partnership) drive, the Philippine government partnered up with the massive but extremely secretive Sinauna Group of Companies to deliver a host of basic services to the Filipino people...
