VIEWPOINT

Chapter Five

     Rain is starting to fall. This is due to the southwest monsoon carried by a typhoon as PAGASA forecasted. Almost the whole island of Luzon is experiencing rain showers for the next days.

     I am about to prepare for another sortie to escort Sena to her school in De La Salle University, however it looks like their school has suspended its classes as early as last night. Without any connection to the outside news, I didn’t have an idea that we won’t be going today.

     I look at Sena. She looks just the same as usual. In every morning she wears a smile that I don’t seem to understand. As she turns her head away from her room’s doors, she reminds me that she won’t attend classes today due to the rain. I nod slowly as I pass through her room. As she closes the huge door of her huge room, I cross paths with Mrs. Madella, the wife of the boss.

     “Oh Thank goodness I found you Ecclesiastes. As soon as I knew that you don’t need to escort Sena today, I was wondering if you could please go to Divisoria today to buy certain things. I already listed the things, so here’s the money. You may keep the change, thank you in advance!” Mrs. Madella says to me then hands me a pouch with what I suspect is money. I nod and obey, remember rule 1.

     As members of the Personal Secret Service, though we specialize in fighting and combat skills, that doesn’t change the fact that we are still under their rules. We aren’t different from what you call “Errand People” because we may act that way if they tell us, just like what Mrs. Madella does to me right now.

     “Let’s see.” I say.

     I open the pouch and it is as heavy as a kilo of rice, or as I only imagine. There are lots of paper money and coins which contribute to its weight. I didn’t bother checking it at all. I look at the shopping list, it has only six variants, the only thing is that I must buy fifteen units of each which will really be very difficult if I do it alone with the addition to the weather today. Very unlucky indeed.

     I sigh, and then prepare all the things that I will need. I place my service pistol in the right side of my waist but just as I drop my shirt to hide the gun in sight, Aiza, one of the members of the Personal Secret Service spots me.

     “What are you doing placing your gun, give that to me. You are not on an escort mission today.” She says to me with a blank expression.

     She is right, the weapon is only for protection of the pureblood family and for missions which will really need it unlike what I will perform for today.

     I give my weapon without hesitation. Aiza takes it without a second thought, still looks at me with a poker face. This woman really is very watchful of the others. I don’t think a 26 year old woman like her loves to check on others very carefully. That is why she can’t get any partner.

     “Did you say that I was not going to have a partner for the rest of my life?” She asks me, still calm in his words, though a normal woman should be very angry right now if they were told like that, but not on Aiza, not on a PSS member.

     However, I didn’t say anything. She really does assume very much.

     “I didn’t say anything.” I say to her.

     I take a black hooded jacket in order to warm myself against the cold weather. I go out of the mansion and I immediately set off to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

     Manila is accessible via the South Luzon Expressway. The development of that road is very essential to the activities which link Manila to the rest of the southern provinces. Finding a bus bound for Manila is very easy, there are many commuters everyday bound for Manila and most of them are students and office workers. There are many students because there are many well-known colleges and universities in the Metro Manila. I look around the National Highway. In less than 10 seconds, I found a Greenstar Express Bus headed for Gil Puyat Avenue, Taft. This bus however, does not enter Manila directly because of that M*th*rf***er mayor Erap Estrada.

     Rain is heavy outside; I enter the bus just in time. The rain is getting heavier and heavier. This monsoon is a bother. It makes things difficult in many ways. I am bored and got nothing to do so I sleep.

    I wake up as the bus reaches Gil Puyat Avenue. This is the last stop of the bus, located in Pasay City. I get off the bus, but as I am about to walk away, the conductor pursues me and ask me for the fare which I almost forgot.

     I look around, I smell something stinky. This is my fourth time in Metro Manila. This place never improves; it still reeks with foul smell, stagnant water everywhere, dirt and pollution. I really hate this place in the country. In addition to its undesirable surrounding and environment, criminal activities are also some factors that people must be aware of while moving in these parts. Also, the last thing I really hate, the most things I really hate in this place is the flow of the vehicles. Traffic jams are everywhere. You wouldn’t want to be stuck in one, but in Metro Manila, you have no choice but to be patient.

     Fortunately the rain stops, and the sun shines from the east. It’s almost 8:00 AM. In order to get to Divisoria, I must take a jeepney. Though a Light Rail Transit is much preferable right now because it is much faster but I forgot what station is the closest to Divisoria so I would not take the risk.

     I know some of the Personal Secret Service members who are living in these parts. They are those who possess great intellectual skills. They were granted the right to study in order to be useful in the future. Actually, I only know four of them, the others; I know their faces but not their names.

     The first person is Roy, the mathematician. I first know him when I was training to be a member of Personal Secret Service, that was 3 years ago, last 2011. He is a student that time in Mapúa Institute of Technology as a freshman. Though he study in Manila, he went home to Calamba every day and this however seems to have a very bad effect on his study so he suggested that he should take an apartment, the family granted his wish and now he is staying somewhere very close to that school of his.

     The other two are a twin, that’s why I can recall their names easily, Jen and Rein, two talkative girls who took similar course on Far Eastern University. Now I don’t have any news about them so I should stop talking about them right now.

     The last is Jerein, a student in De La Salle University in Manila. He is the one closest to me that I could call brother. He was the first person to talk to me when I first enter the mansion as I could remember. He is very kind and considerate, but above all, he is very smart, because before attending De La Salle, he used to study in Technological Institute of the Philippines as an engineering student and scoring the highest in the board exam surpassing graduates from UP, DLSU, Mapúa, TIP and even FEATI.

     I remember that I have task to do today, so instead of telling the biography of the people I know, I should just stay quiet. Not that I have a biography to tell of my own to begin with. But there is a thing on my mind that wants me to say it. What does it feel to know the past, my own self, and my identity?