Session Road- Baguio City, Philippines. A chain of Bookstores, boutique shops, restaurants, and drugstores installed sideways was bordering the road. Okay, this is great. This is session road, the heart of the city, the meeting place of strangers and all alike. Cars motioned alongside me as I took a stroll, lifted my head, and then mingled with the hurrying crowds. Swallowed by strangers passing on and off my sight -I do this habit of scanning their faces, searching for some girls physically interesting. For I am endowed a susceptibility to feminine charm and beauty,- I do this stupid habit when bunch of people is around. I eyed each of them momentarily as they whipped past my sight. It’s either a biased glimpse at this, or a fascinated gaze at that. Streaks of colors passed before me. Blue, green, yellow, brown-blouses, t shirts, tattered jeans- unfortunately, nobody wakes my interest today.
It was only a garbed businessman hauling a suitcase, a huddle of students going for a stray, and on the corner- standing by a street post were local tourist –either taking pictures or browsing the shape of this little city. Some were in decent jackets and pants that either tell or disguise their career, perhaps they were instructors, a bank teller, a doctor, or bank managers. Who cares? Foreigners as well roamed the place. Koreans or Africans (from either Sudan or Somalia) perhaps came here to enjoy the perk of our lenient administration or to surge into affordable education. Yeah, sure they enjoy it, could we put in the FILIPINO TIME as well? Or the cold climate of the city that was now sweltering hot? Again, who cares? These strangers were speeding towards their personal affairs. There was chattering but trapped by its own dimension and the time was its keeper. ” Let us mind our business” is the phrase. Don’t talk to strangers is the rule. None were courageous enough to stab a conversation, and if you did, you must have done it in a little embarrassment, except of course if such was cause by necessity. These were strangers, and as I said- was plain and uninteresting.
I rolled my eyes for the second time, just like a grocery laser machines screening each item and affixing a value in it. No face value so far, no curved figure so far, but something stirred my sleeping memories. A block away before me, I saw this girl, black-haired, short build. For a second I was consumed by my thoughts in commotion, suddenly -impregnable by the humming of vehicles and the voices drifting in air. A breeze of wind lifted my hair, I wheezed and hasten my steps, I threw out my hand and seized her on the shoulder. She turned around-I look at her and stammered. She gave me a stern look and walked away.“Sorry miss”- I said in a soft tone. Of course- just another stranger.
I pulled myself together, my eyes straight ahead. I realized I already reached almost half down the road and wondered -what had happened on the other end I left behind?
This time the memories sleeping in my subconscious consumed me completely. The strangers of my past haunted me. I stood frozen on that corner, streaks of moments flashed before me, a rhythm of rhapsody bellowed. Are they lost? Where are they? My colleagues, acquaintances, friends, and companions -my mentors-the bullies, enemies, buggers, insects, idiots, and fools– what have become of them? Strangers meet, walk together but time challenges our faith to stay together and its either we have to leave someone behind or walk with him at the rest of our life.
They were once but all same strangers whose fate intertwined with mine - those who walked with me were friends, those who block my path were idiots, and those who guided me were ushers. They were pleading, crying-Do they loath me? They think I’m a traitor! My friends abandoned me, and I abandoned them, and life not me since manipulated by time was the authentic culprit. For once we walked the same road before, never pondering a minute whether that road will soon reach its end and rip us apart and we must say good bye. We thought the road was eternal but Life the verdict, warned us- “We must move on, We must keep walking”, and now they are gone. But though we were miles apart, they pained my head to warn me. I caught news about them: some of them pursued different degrees , most stopped studying, luckily -a few were graduates already, others were deluded by foolishness that they jumped into a life they didn’t deserve at all. I am made known of their parenthood- and my thought felt pity, my emotions were vague. It was a stage of life they are not ready to swoop into, a life I hesitate to be prepared for. The swagger, babes, and gangsters of the campus were out of the tracks. The conceited ones were on the wane, the humbled were rising, and the principled ones were planning. So, it all goes down to this. . Few were clambering the road, a little pacing down at ease. Some were walking the same road, others crossed the wrong one, and some turned into the wrong direction but crossed again another one. Will their road ever cross mine, or is it already miles apart? Are they gone? I sighed. The voices in my head growled louder this time but-I pulled myself to my feet, came back to my senses. I lifted my head for the second time, rolled my eyes for the third time- I eyed the strangers around me in random. Still-they were plain and uninteresting, but I could tell this time, they were alienating. It is, I realized, I was walking into my future and these strangers ahead me were nothing but a mirage whose secrets were encrypted in a superficial way. I gazed at them in discernment, this time I looked intently, trying to extract their souls-and what I’ve found was the perfect epitome of wisdom one can get from life. Past their eyes, I am able to peer into their private lives, some were drawing me in, and some were holding me back. Their life was kept a secret, and blotted on their memories but wide open to those willing to unlock and walk on it. It’s a momentarily gossip that arouses my curiosity and conjured my assessments. I scanned faces again. The businessman I saw earlier was perhaps principled, the huddle of students going for a stray were perhaps loved well however by a lenient one, others were conceited, some were kind and meek. Others were parasites, flowers in mud, diamonds among pebbles. All of them were speeding into a variety of personal affairs.
This time I asked who among them would be my friends, who among them were idiots, and who among them would be my mentors.
I scanned faces again. On my right was a commoner, wearing clothes a socialite would dare not don. Inside the shops and restaurants, a worker in uniform was busy attending to customers. On my right were knot of strangers impatiently waiting for the red traffic light turn into green. Coming across me was an old woman in dignified blouses, pacing with difficulty she gave me a simple smile, then past over my left.
Ten more building blocks and I am about to leave session road. I felt a poignant twinge in my head as soon as I swerved to the right. I don’t know where to go. I stand there on the corner for minutes when suddenly a woman bumped right into me. She was long haired, wearing a black jacket, a brown scruffy boots and she has this big brown eyes. Her face was very enchanting, her figure-very beautiful. She pressed her arms on her face, and her tears flowed so gentle. She was crying, walking in haste-not minding who she had bumped into. “I think I know her”- I whispered, stunned. She was stunning that it took me three minutes to realize what had happened. The girl in black jacket was now blocks away from me, that I decided to go after her. I smiled and murmured “thanks my dumbness of other roads to take, that way-I’m assured this was the right one”. I smiled and go upwards back into the road.
