The Sun, The Moon, and Their Stars

49 : Same

July 2005

Benjamin

I finish drinking my coffee and let the mug settle on the sink in the kitchen. Then I go back to the dining table and wait for my sister.

This is the same dining set in our old house. My parents had it transported from the province, days after we left.

To my right is the living area where we have a new L-shaped couch and the old TV. Next to it and underneath the stairs, we set up the computer.

On the second floor are our bedrooms. Mine is the first door to the right coming from the stairs, then Jessy's. Across our rooms are Althea's and our parents'. There's a bathroom there as well, between my sisters' rooms.

This house is relatively smaller than the one I grew up in, but a little above average compared to most townhouses we see around the Metro.

Mom is out early today. She's with Althea in her school. She waits for her there until after dismissal time by noon. Dad is currently taking a shower in the bathroom next to the kitchen.

It's now seven-fifteen this Friday morning. I just sent Kim a message, and my phone lights up with a reply. This is our morning routine.

Me: good morning, KP

Kim: good morning, Sunshine

She said it's a reference from this book she read last summer, and that it suits me. She can call me anything she wants, and it will give me chills just the same.  

I hear my sister's footsteps coming down the stairs. I stand up and grab my backpack. And as soon as I see her emerge in her uniforms—long-sleeved white buttoned blouse and dark blue skirt—I start going for the front door.

Our dad comes out of the bathroom, and we tell him we're going to school. He wishes us good luck and a good day.

I close the door and follow my sister. We pass by our car and walk out of the driveway to the rest of the compound. Our house is at the end of the left row from the gate of this spacious square.

The guard opens the gate for us, and we step out into the sidewalk until we reach the main road. Then we wait for a jeep that passes along the train station.

We're only a few minutes of jeepney ride to the last stop of the Metro Train Line 3 in the south. So, Jessy and I spend our mornings traveling together by train, and then we get off at the second to the last station of the northern end of the Line. It typically takes more or less twenty minutes from end to end.

We're sitting in the middle of the stretch of blue bench inside a coach. And the train starts moving as the gentle heat of the rising morning sun announces itself to this metropolis.

An older lady comes in from the station after the stop at the Central Business District and stands next to me, so I offer her my seat. And I hold on to the handle hanging from the ceiling.

We reach our stop. Jessy and I go our separate ways. She walks further to the footbridge and crosses the highway to catch a passenger van that passes along the boulevard near her school. And I line up at the jeepney station, for one that enters the NSU campus.

It's eight twenty-five when I enter the classroom on the second floor of the Social Sciences building. Frank and Chris are already here, quietly laughing about something.

*

After Philo class, it became our habit to sit on the bench of the waiting shed across the Biology building and in front of one of the girls-only campus dormitories. It's a few walks away from a food kiosk where Frank usually buys sandwiches for his breakfast, and safe enough not to be mistaken as a spot owned by frats or other student organizations.