I just lost my manuscript of 17 chapters (my months of labor and research). This chapter, which I sent to my own e-mail, is the only piece of it that I managed to retrieve. This is a reminder of the impermanence of things in this world. So, before things will get lost again, I decided to share it. Enjoy a piece of my novel. :)
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Sebastian Lumawig Series: "Old Soul"
Chapter 1
In seat 27, the cloud of
existential ponderings caught the reflections in the glass window again.
Slowly, those thoughts were drowned away as the bus passes by along the thirty-sixth
streetlight. Another village just faded away.
An hour ago, he had
deliberately walked along Session Road after stopping the meters at Maharlika
Livelihood Complex. His bus won’t be ready until 1 a.m., that’s why he decided
to walk.
The city rarely sleeps. The
dark blanket cannot hide that buzzing energy of a constantly growing city – the
night market thrives, and the drunks populate the sidewalks. How he missed that
life.
In college, they ruled
Assumption Road as young, confused, and highly intoxicated teens…too much
energy, but nowhere to put it into. Until, they realized that they are really at
the brink of wasting away their lives. Perhaps, the sin of most of the youth
was their delusion that they are living the rock and roll life. The laid-back culture,
born from television shows and internet fads has taught them credulous young
generation to experience the high of this material world without any remorse. There
is really no doubt about it: ‘Everyone wants to be a Rock star.’
He was 16 when he had
his first taste of gin. At first, he did
it to impress some friends, but finally ended up using it to run away. Drinking is
indeed an escape to another world – free from the agony of life’s pains,
frustrations and disappointments…the tiring norm of life and the stress of
everyday. And although it is not surprising at all that most of us would rather
be intoxicated than to face the realities of life - the corrupted world, the
angry parents, the strict teachers, the broken love life, or even the
irritating neighbor - Sebastian, or
“Basty” as he was often called, escaped not away from the world, but from
himself.
*****
The middle-aged
passenger of Seat 34 had covered his face with a towel. An air-conditioned bus
in a cold city is apparently the trend. But it is a six hour trip, and after a
few more swerves down, the moist in the windows will dry up as the temperature
rises.
Little
by little, he started doing a better job in learning a balancing crash course.
Rarely can one catch a nap under such circumstance. It is a feat that he had
planned to achieve before the first bus stop. But the fates, may have had a
different plan – to bury him into useless contemplation of his yesterdays.
In November 2, 1997,
MENSA International, an organization which records geniuses, confirmed an
unusual growing number of child geniuses in the last decade. World media was
able to reveal startling discoveries of a number of child-prodigies and highly
intelligent and exceptional children; of two-year olds reading adult books, of
four-year olds speaking twelve different languages or playing the most complex
musical scores, of six-year olds offering philosophical counter-proposition
against the ideas of established thinkers, or re-structuring formulas of math
and physics, of eight-year old inventors, and of teen-agers writing excellent
novels which, supposedly, only a man of age, experience, and great wisdom can
achieve.
Because such unusual
occurrence has inspired the usual religious hysteria that the end of the world
is near…again, or that those innocent kids are allegedly sent by the devil, Dr.
Shan D. Parker, the President of the organization, obviously not amused,
embarked on a research that is intended to settle the minds of the paranoid
religious figures of the different continents. After three years of research,
the team concluded that the phenomenon is likely a result of the information
explosion of the new age. Of course, many did not believe this. Dr. Parker
himself doubted this. But the world must move on.
Towards the hyped-millennium,
it did not take long for the world to forget this happening. There is so much
cheap news; Hollywood and local gossips, political scandals, and day to day BS
for most people to take account of it, nor inquire further about it. Besides,
‘this’ will not affect their lives.
In 2007, an intriguing old
video from February 7, 1989 surfaced from Youtube, the video sharing website.
It featured a toothless baby, about seven months or less, with a couple of adults
who are presumably his parents.
In the video, it started
with the man, perhaps his father, interrogating his endearing son.
“ Basti, are you okay?”
“Mam mam mam”, the baby
replied.
“Okay, Basti. I’m going
to ask you questions and you will answer “Daa” if yes, and “Hoo” if no, ok? I
repeat “Daa” if yes, and “Hoo” if no…okay?”
“Daa!” shouted the baby
to the laughter of the couple. The woman took the teether away from the infants
grip. The baby understood that playtime is over.
“Basti…am I your
father?”
“Daa!”
“Am I Handsome?”
“Hooooo!” the baby
giggled at his own answer, and the adults laughed harder.
“ Okay Basti, this is
more challenging…” The male adult pointed at the wall clock and asked, “ Is it 7
o’clock?” The parent rolled his realizing that he asked a dumb question..
“Hoo!....Da-da-da-da-da-daaa!”
“What?” The father
looked comical than surprised. The clock shows that it is six o’clock.
“Da-da-da-da- da-daaa!”
The color of the adults’ faces were immediately drained. Six “das” may not be a coincidence.
“Basti… one plus one?”
The woman quickly experimented.
“Da-da”
“Two plus one?”
“Da---da---da..” the
baby almost sneered.
“Three plus two?”
“Da-da-da-da—daaa!” The
baby victoriously stood in his walker.
“Basti….how many is One
hundred divided by fifty?”
“Da—daa” the baby raised
his two-fingers resembling a peace sign.
The astonished adults
continued and the baby proceeded to give amazingly perfect answers. The video
went on for fifteen minutes, and it soon became an internet hit, gaining
millions of views from internet users around the world. And although a few
skeptics have challenged the authenticity of the act, the video inspired other
exceptional baby videos to be uploaded and soon, the 1997 MENSA report was
resurrected. The traditional and the new media went crazier. (The end of the world is really near!)
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The scent of the
lowlands is undeniably inviting. The red bus parked at the gas station near a
restaurant – the first bus stop is at La Union. The area was dusty, old, and
the smother of rust in the structures had only enhanced the eerie feeling of
being transported into an older time - without a calendar, it would feel like
the nineties. But, the big lighted “V” and that, zen-architecture design of the
comfort rooms can pull one back to the present world. Who puts black stones
below the sink for design and art?
But he loved that
feeling. It is simply ‘familiar’ to him. Maybe he can retire here somewhere
along a good beach and spend his last years laying in a hammock with a young
wife who will enjoy the properties he will ultimately leave after he dies. Life
is wickedly predictable and boring.
He unhurriedly pulled
out his wallet and examined its remaining bills. ‘Five hundred peso bus ticket,
a hundred for the taxi cab, a hundred for Jolibee….’, he accounted for
everything in his head and realized that he must have spent five hundred last
night at the G-string bar for a beer. He may have even told the waiter to keep
his change.
At twenty seven, he only
has about P 32,000 in his ATM account. No savings, no car, no wife, and no
direction. If his father is alive, he would have desired to go back to his
death bed at such pathetic sight. But, he treasured the moments with his father
more than he would consciously admit. One of those moments was his first bus
ride with his father in 1999 when he was 12 years old. It will
always be the greatest adventure in his life.
But, he knew in him that his father is only one of his 'fathers'. At least his dad is the only one he remembers. He knew that...even when no one believes in him.
"An
old soul...that expression, because we knew, we feel..that deep inside of us that we
have 'jumped',...traveled….From decades, even centuries. I recognize
things, and try to remember...I tell myself that 'its as if I've have seen
things before, that they are familiar..that I was here a long time
ago..', that scary sense of familiarity...because I knew!" ” He cried telling these
to his parents when he was younger, but they just smiled. “Your bad dreams will
soon go away…” they said kissing his forehead.
He
really wished that all of it will go away. He had fried his brains many times to do it. But he later discovered that all the memories lost in infancy (which only a few special people can recover) is sadly, only a tiny portion of what he acquires everyday.
Who knows? Who dares to? The world leaves questions and gives no clue.
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