THREE

1. A TOOTHACHE

Nursing a toothache is like nursing a broken heart.

It leaves you awake all night.

It affirms that all sweet things come to an end.

It gets severely painful just by thinking about it.

It becomes the center of your being, till you and the pain become one.

It affects all your five senses as the pain radiates to your brain.

It leaves silent screaming inside.

And no amount of happy thought will distract you from the throbbing.

In fact just like all broken hearts, this type of continuos pain requires divine intervention.

Years ago, a brother who was in gradeschool that time, woke up at around dawn, to one genuinely painful tooth.

Mom gave him some pain relievers.

But my brother’s toothache may had been so unbearable for he just kept on crying.

And he kept saying curse words in Visayan.

” YAAAAWWWWWWAAAAAH, ni nga ngipon! “

( ngipon = tooth )

( while if directly taken from Visayan and translated to English, ” YAWA ” means devil. )

So my mom told to my brother,

” Ngano mag sige ka pamalikas diha, sige ka ug panawag ug panuway?

Aron ma ulian ka, pag sangpit sa Ginoo! “

( ” Why do you keep on cussing, saying curse words and calling the devil?
For you to get healed, you better call God’s Name!” )

And just like one who thought that God owed him a pain remedy, big time,

he leaned towards the window, spread his hands awaiting for a miracle and shouted,

“LOOOOOOOOOOOORD, LOOOOOOOOOOORD, LOOOOOOOOORD! “

for all the neighbors to hear and put Nora Aunor in ” Himala ” to shame.

This of course, what else, elicited laughter from all of us, at a wee hour in the morning.

Despite our childish snickers, my brother continued to ask for divine assistance.

But we must know that when we ask God, sincerely, He really listens, no matter what the circumstances may be.

So listen, He did.

My brother, who stayed truthful was able to fall asleep.

While the rest of us unbelievers had to stop laughing.

As usual my mom made the basket! Three points.

And as for me,

I have my brother, whom I am going to hide by the name of Marco Sandino E. Banaag, now a software engineer there at Accenture, to thank for.

It taught me a valuable lesson that God listens to our pleas of help, even how trivial others may think our pain is.

Now that we are all grown ups already, an aching tooth especially at night is usually healed by just one big,

” LOOOOOOOOOOOORD! “

2. GHOST STORIES

Do not dare listen to ghost stories if you live in an old dormitory, a big house, an old house or if you are a proud owner of a very imaginative mind like mine.

In my time, telling ghost stories would be a weekend activity among dormers.

It really is not scary listening to ghost stories with your dorm mates.

The distressing emotion happens only after, just when you are alone in your room and your mind starts playing tricks with you.

The robe hanging by your room mate’s cabinet , would seem as though it is moving.

And for some reason, the air would turn cold and you start smelling burnt candles and flowers.

So as much as I could avoid it, I tried not to listen to ghost stories.

But somehow they reach your ears even if you do not want to.

A ” ghost story ” once circulated that a batchmate apparently died over the semestral break.

One classmate said that she sensed that something was not right when she last saw the batchmate.

And they started talking about auras, sixth sense and the after life.

We were all saddened by the person’s early demise.

It was a sad day to begin classes.

In fact on my way to class that day, trudging the long and quiet AS walk, I realized how unpredictable life really was.

I thought it was just like the the narrow pathway I was walking on – long, not wide and with some curves.

As you go along the way, you do not know who you meet and you also do not know how briefly they will stay along your path.

( Will they be in a hurry for being late for class or will they stop for a chat and spend sometime with you? )

Somehow like in life, you may walk with your eyes looking straight ahead or looking down, just I was doing that time when a pair of sneakers appeared in my range of sight.

As they seemed to block my way, I looked up to find out whom they belonged to.

” Uy Anj, kumusta? ” the owner said.

I was about answer and return the greeting but nothing came out.

My heart skipped a beat.

My hands turned clammy.

And neither of the two was love nor drug related.

I found myself alone,

along a long, lonely and quiet pathway, face to face with

the supposedly ” Dearly Departed Guy. “

I was programmed NEVER to run out of words.( whether in Bisaya, Filipino or English.)

I was born with sound effects, I guess. If you placed me on mute mode, I would find a way to make noise.

But on that rare instance, I was speechless; something got stuck in my throat.

Wouldn’t you be, if you were in my place?

And incidentally, isn’t there a Filipino movie entitled ” The Road ” coming up..? (Rhian Ramos could get pointers from me.)

” Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuy, Anj ! ” said this Dearly Alive Person who brought me back to reality.

I realized that his death must have been one NASTY rumor so I courageously exchanged words with him:

” Patay ka na raw? “

” Hindi naman. Sino daw pumatay sa akin? “

” Tsismis… Sige, late na ako sa class.”

” Sige, ako din may BUHAY pa akong asikasuhin.”

“Aren’t you dead already? “

” Not quite. So, who killed me?”

” Rumors. See you, I’m late for class already.”

” Me too, I have a LIFE to attend to.”

3. BROWNOUT

In our place in barangay Consolacion in Cagayan de Oro City when electricty comes back after a few hours of brown out, the residents actually clap hands like one does after an impressive performance.

” Let there be Light and there was Light .” ( clapping on the background, please.)

Moreover, we would hear ourselves actually shout,

” Naa nay suga! ” ( ” There is light already! ” );

as if the clapping wouldn’t be enough to inform everyone.

Brownouts not only drive me crazy but they bring my stress level at a higher notch.

However, sometimes or this one time, a brownout delivered a ludicrous encore.

Therefore, just as it was in the 1990s T.V series, aptly called,

” Are You Afraid of The Dark?…”

” …submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story: “

” Stripped of Electricity .”

Few years back, the nannies of my son and our nephew, given the opportunity, would convene after supper and talk about ghosts and things that allegedly haunt them in the house.

One supposedly had a hard time sleeping at night because she could hear someone calling out her name. But one time she got up, no one was around.

And the other felt and sensed that somebody ( invisible ) was watching her everytime she did the dishes.

Once again ghost stories were the culprit.

I have long told them to stop talking stories of these sort among themselves for I was pretty sure they would just end up scaring each other.

Then , one electric power-LESS evening, the nanny of my son went to our bedroom and said,

” Ate, pahiram ng flashlight kc yung isang yaya nasa banyo walang ilaw.”

Since the flashlight was outside our room and she could not go rummaging for it in the dark , I took my flashlight and went out with her to find it.

And when she did, I directed the beam of my flashlight to the bathroom door while she walked towards it, to hand over the flashlight to the nanny who was supposedly taking a bath.

Between knocking, calling out the other nanny’s name, and twisting the knob open, she realized no one was inside.

She exclaimed,

” Ay Ate, tapos na pala siya, ang bilis naman. Kaya lang bakit nandito mga tuwalya at damit niya, nakakalat sa sahig ng banyo?”

Of which I did found strange, so I went near and checked for myself.

I directed the light towards the bathroom floor and saw for myself the scattered clothes, towel and under garments.

The scene in front of me brought the movie ” Psycho ” to my mind.

Not to mention the setting, mood and atmosphere, BROWNOUT and all.

Just as my imagination was about to get really wild.

The lights came back!

” Haay Salamat. “

The nanny and I both whispered.

As opposed to our very ownselves a few seconds later, when together we caught a glimpse of a movement at the third floor landing which was just above us.

Together we cried out, ” WWWWWWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! “

” Ika nga , matakot ka na sa buhay……”

Lo and behold,

standing on top of the stairs was the ” missing nanny “,

suds, droplets and

stark NAKED!

The situation was too hilarious for me to get angry at EVE.

But I also did not have the heart to laugh out loud because the ” bare nanny ” looked really shaken up.

I just heard myself saying,

” Yaya, masyado mo namang dinibdib yung sinabi kong wala pang girlfriend si Oblation. “

And then I just turned away.

Anyhow, that incident would have been enough for the both of them to completely stop talking about the supernatural.

While I, on the other hand, realized that it truly was a blessing I have stopped listening to ghost stories years ago.

It is because, brownouts while in the shower, could cost me more than suds and scratch.

You see, given how great my imagination was, that could have been me in my birthday suit at the third floor landing.

And that would be so über-super natural!