You felt mother getting up from bed early in the morning. A familiar rhythm was happening outside, they tapped the roof of your house along with the puddles they made from last night. You crept your eyes open and heard the same annoying tune blasting from the television. The kind “basta’t tayo’y, magkasama...” or sometimes the upbeat “sa unang hirit unang-una ka...” but they were all the same to you. Signs you need to get up for school. But the thing you’re lying on was powerful, it’s telling you to stay. You want to agree with it, but you also have responsibilities and dreams, you can’t let yourself be seduced. The rain outside agreed with it too as if they speak the same language.
“Sana walang pasok... sana walang pasok...” You may have prayed, it’s something that everyone else in the household prayed for too. You knew mother was already doing some channel surfing. ABS-CBN, GMA, DZMM... if she’s desperate, she will turn on the radio. Father wouldn’t have to worry about giving you money. And you, you just continued sleeping. Hoping that today will be one of those “days.”
“Gising na,” was the next thing you remembered, “may pasok.” You got up from bed and shambled towards the dining table, still hoping the light rain will turn into regular, serviceable rain. Scrambled eggs, sometimes a sunny-side up, fried rice, and tuyo welcomed you with open arms. But you’re not really feeling it, not at all, as long as the rain’s symphony was still outside. One by one, a spoonful entered your mouth, mother was still in front of the TV with her radio.
Suddenly, the weather forecast came in, you grasped for something big. Words like: ulan, pagbabaha, maghapon, and lalakas came out, but the magic words didn’t.
That fire inside you turned into a smolder as you got up and headed back to your room for the wardrobe. Your school uniform already prepared and ironed by mother. However, there’s another problem, it’s the cold. It’s making your progress through the morning difficult. You know you have to, you know you have to take a bath because you’re afraid you might smell later. So you took a deep breath, brushed your teeth, took that bath, packed your stuff, and as you were about to leave, you gave that TV one last look. You saw someone on the screen just cooking so you grabbed for the remote and gave it a click. The other channel was already in the news segment, but showed nothing but the traffic and the typical crimes that happened last night. You then switched to a more news-oriented channel, but they were off-air. Mother gave up and played music on the radio. So you too gave up... you left... with the canopy of the umbrella shielding above you.
Several minutes of walking, several more minutes of riding a tricycle, and almost half an hour while being inside a jeepney later, you are now entering the school gates when someone stopped you.
“Walang pasok.”
There was a rage building up; however, it... just... stopped. While you might have traveled
for almost an hour and got yourself wet and muddy, you were thankful... you were thankful because you got the rest of the day all to yourself now. So you traveled back home, threw your uniform to the bin, and went straight to bed. You dug your hands between the pillow and the sheet and the coldness touching your skin felt like visiting an old friend. That’s when you realized that you don’t have any assignments to work on and it’s also Friday, now... you got the rest of the day and two more days... all to yourself. No problems, no relationship issues, no bills, no work, just some fun and amusement and also some laziness waiting for you.
Life was so simple back then.
Written by: Jasper Dominic Abibas
Photo credits to PhilStar
Follow my Wattpad page for other small stories: https://my.w.tt/GsUD0liBT1 or @JasperDominicAbibas
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