Oxford Comma

Kill All Readers

Sweat trickled down on Migo's forehead down to his eyebrows as he was battling to walk the narrow street of his Barangay. It is bad enough that the sun was radiating so brightly on this hot summer day, yet he still has to trudge along with his tropically unfit corporate attire. He was so worried that his light blue long sleeved polo will have obvious armpit stains that he didn't notice at first the swarm of people gathering right in front of his path. Bright yellow police tapes were scattered along the area and in an instant, Migo knew what's going on yet he stopped walking and joined the crowd despite the fact that he's going to be late for his work. He pushed through the bodies of people and their annoyingly huge umbrellas, curious enough to see what the commotion is all about. When he couldn't move any further, he heard mumbles from the people around him.

"Disgusting pig," a man said with an obvious contempt in his voice.

"They deserve that, they truly do," a manang said graciously while she was carrying her little child. Migo's forehead wrinkled as he noticed the child's eyes- wide and unblinking.

Migo bobbed his head continuously until he finally had a glimpse of the horrendous figure lying on the painfully hot pavement. It was a man or so Migo thinks, whose body is grotesquely wrapped in duct tape. The only assurance that it was a real human body is the dried blood that had seemingly spewed out from all over it and the stench of rotting eggs that emanate on the area. What made the hair at the back of Migo's head raise is the paper shyly covering the body's face that says "I'm a filthy book reader" that is poorly finger painted in blood. Migo almost had considered this a centerpiece of an art, with an audience speaking of their proud expert interpretations.

"They're the cancer of this society,"

"I feel sorry for his family, he only brought shame,"

"Book readers, they should just all die,"

Murmurs continued to buzz on Migo's ear, all shaming the death of a stranger as if all of them were inhumanely wronged by the person lying cold on that hot summer day. The horrifying scene burned into Migo's head and continued to haunt him even at his menial work. He only snapped out of it when the phone beside his prehistoric computer rang surprisingly, breaking the eerily monotonous noise of keyboard clicks and the hum of the air conditioner.

"Hello this is Migo, how can I help?" he greeted almost mechanically, stern and cold.

"Hello, good morning Mr. Santos sorry for calling you at work. This is Teacher Beth of St. Lucy Catholic School, it's about your daughter, Meredith,"

Migo looked at the adjacent cubicles around him and checked if someone may have been looking at him. Fortunately, their bored eyes are fixed on their computer's monitor. "What happened to Meredith?" Migo asked worriedly.

"Ah your daughter is fine, but one of her classmates is not. She punched her classmate right on the face. He even lost a tooth,"

"He?" Migo said while simultaneously wondering if he had met teacher Beth before. He thought she sounds like an old lady that sells crackers in the street.

"Yes, Meredith's classmate, Nathan."

"Daddy that's not true!" Migo heard his daughter's voice in the background. He checked once again the cubicles around him, then the air conditioner from the far left of the room. It might be blazingly hot outside but it's brutally cold in his office that he's already freezing.

"Teacher Beth, let me talk to my daughter,"

"Sure,"

"Daddy, that's not true at all!" Meredith's voice blared out from the phone's speaker. "I only did that because he hates me. He kept saying that I can't do that or I can't do this because I'm a girly girl. He's really annoying me!"