Paranoia

my dad arrived early, but he forgot to pay some bills. since he was already tired, he asked me to do it for him... and i had no choice but to comply, gladly - it's been two days since i've gone outside.

while waiting for a jeep, one long-haired guy wearing a yellow sando and cargo shorts approached me and asked:

"boy, anong oras na?"

"ah, sandali lang po..." the kind-hearted yours truly replied as i took my cellphone out from my pocket (i don't wear a watch) to answer his question. "...alas-tres po."

"alas-tres? okay, salamat." he then looked up to a dark sky, and muttered under his breath, "naiwan ko kasi cellphone ko eh... baka traffic na mamaya..."

then out of nowhere, a thought hit me: he's after your cellphone.

it was a completely baseless notion, but it made me chill nonetheless. a jeepney finally came, and so i entered. to my horror, he followed suit, and even took the space by my right - on which pocket i had my phone.

i told you, he's after your phone. he asked the time to find out where you placed it. by this time i was starting to feel stupid for being such a nice-ass.

seconds after, we both paid our fare. according to that sequence, i'd be going down first, so that cooled me down a bit, and i was ready to throw the whole issue out. until the driver slowed down upon seeing a bearded guy hailing his jeepney.

it turned out that mister beard-o was an acquaintance of yellow sando guy. furthermore, it happened that the only space available was between me and his friend, thus he took a seat there. the only comfort that i had was knowing that i was sitting closest to the jeepney entrance. if ever things went whack, i could make a jump for it.

while pondering on my options, i felt fingers grasp the right side of my jeans, as if it was pulling something out. even through the cold and windy ride, icy sweat was rising from my chest.

"bayad po," grunted the beard-o. i heaved another sigh of relief within me. minutes later, i breezed out of the jeepney intact. then i realized that the bills were clutched in my hands. my heart stopped thumping for a moment as i checked my wallet for the money. after rummaging for a bit, i cracked into a wide smile, nearly laughing at myself.

what in the world was i thinking? i wondered, as i looked out from a jeepney window on my way back home. that was plain judgmental and overanalytical, harsh even. hmm...

by this time i was almost zoning out. a thin, lanky, loosely dressed guy yanked me out of it, though, pressing a pointed thing unto my ribs. i stole glances at other passengers - one guy wearing all black, another donning a bandana. both were equipped with sharp knives. the rest were obviously shocked at the turn of events.

"boy, cellphone mo lang. bilis."

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purely fictional, don't worry. that's what happens when you're stuck at home forced to breathe paint residual odors together with your usual oxygen.

anyway, to my QueSci colleagues, i found out Sir Lorenzo's new raket: writing/editing sudoku puzzlebooks. he has a 5- or 6-edition series, currently out in bookstores near you.