I woke up at 8am to screams of panic from the neighborhood, and ma 5’11 bro hovering over ma bed…
BRO: “May sunog! Daliiii…!!! Malapit sa’yo!” [“There’s a fire! Quick! It’s near your room!”]
ME [somewut amused]: “Sunog? Eh kapitbahay lang natin bumbero!” [“Fire? But we have tha firemen for our neighbors!”]
At which point I tried to close ma eyes again. Ma big bro is known fo’ trippin’ on me. most probably tha fire he wuz talkin’ about wuz miles away from us. But when maver told me to hurry, that’s when I started gathering things.
The First Thangs I Gathered In Tha Fire:
1] money & tha thesis that wuz due today.
2] tha Jergens lotion, milk bath , and deodorant in front of me. [in ma confusion, I grabb’d tha 1st thangs that came to view..]
3] ma school bag, ma favorite tops, ma diary & tha books I’ve bought which I haven’t read all went in a big yellow SM Supermarket plastic bag I found lyin’ around.
4] 4 pairs of jeans, a set of school uniform, 6 undies, and ma tape recorder which I found amidst ma undies were placed in ma Coca-cola bag along wit a dictionary & a thesaurus.
5] things I’ve borrow’d from ma friends: ruth’s Gone With The Wind and pam’s Picture Perfect vcds.
Maver stared at me as I emerged from tha house carryin’ a plastic bag wit wut I thought wuz relief to see her only daughter alive and not consumed by flames. Wrong. “Ano ba yan! Bat ganyan ang hitsura mo? Nakakahiya sa kapitbahay! At bat dyan mo nilagay ang mga gamit mo? Ala ka bang bag?! [“Could you have dress’d any worse than that?”} she ask’d, starin’ at ma disheveled hair & tha 2 big holes of tha old P.E. shirt I slept in which exposed ma shoulders. [“..And why’d u put your things in a plastic bag? Don’t you have any bags?!”]
A minute later I found her cryin’ over an altogether diff’rent reason...
MA: “Pano na ang pangkabuhayan natin? Dito lang tayo nabubuhay!” [“Wut will we live on?”] she cried, referring to our house, which is also home to 40 ladies and is our main source of income.
Tha house next to us wuz already cover’d in a thick fog. To make things light, I ask’d bro to take out his Cyber-shot-U to capture tha moment. Only, he can’t locate it. Meanwhile, Aling Melba & Aling Lorna,our good-hearted neighbors were already volunteerin’ to help us wit our things. Ma brover had already started disconnecting computer wires & wuz about to carry it off when mum told him to juz leave it alone & that we'll juz git another one.
An hour later, it wuz all over. An AM radio announcer announced that “tha fire in Sta. Mesa is mapping out and under control.”
Whew. Told em not to worry. I could’ve been burn’d alive too. Well, serves you right fo’ leavin' me… Wait, scratch that! I sound narcissistic! Of course I wuden have burn’d! I knew bettr than to sleep through a fire. And anyway, I have no plans on dyin’ today!
Sad thing ‘bout our neighbors’ house... their whole upstairs burn’d. Not tha house next to us, but tha 2nd house from us. Good thang no one wuz hurt although tha young lad sleepin’ in tha upstairs room got trapp’d beneath tha bars for a moment. The slipup? Faulty electrical wiring, of course.