The Sebastian Lumawig Series: "Old Soul" (Chapter 1)

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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