A Friendly Reminder

My best friend Mariz was residing at her cousins’ when we are in our high school days, at ang isang advantages nito ay malapit sa school ang bahay ng pinsan n’ya, kaya no problem kapag kailangan ng place para tambayan lalo na kapag wala ng klase or maagang nagpapadismiss ang school. Sa gabi lang naman din sila nagkikita-kitang magpinsan, dahil parehong may work ang kinakasama ni Mariz.

Minsan, sa sobrang sarap ng kwentuhan ay inaabot kami ng paglubog ng araw bago umuwi. Hindi naman problema sa akin yun, dahil malapit lang ang bahay ko sa kanila, kaya kahit abutin ako ng alas-syete sa daan ay okey lang.

Isang araw, kahit hapon na kami pinauwi ng mga teachers namin, I decided to go to Mariz’s house, as usual- para tumambay. I stayed their until 5:30 in the afternoon bago kami magdecide na maglaro ng volleyball. Dumiretso kami sa bakanteng garahe at dun naglaro ng volleyball.

Volleyball player kaming pareho, kaya alam namin na masakit sa braso ang may burloloy na nakasuot sa kamay namin, at mas lalong masakit sa ulo kapag may nakasuksok na cellphone sa bulsa namin at mahuhulog na lang, kaya we decided to take off everything na pwedeng maging hassle sa paglalaro namin. Pinatong namin ang aming gamit sa may lamesa, malapit sa gate ng garahe, then we played.

For ten minutes, we played volleyball and enjoyed it, since wala kaming kaagaw sa bola. Nilingon ni Mariz ang lamesa kung saan nakapatong ang cellphone namin, bigla itong umilaw. Tumigil kami sa paglalaro at nilapitan naming pareho ang lamesa, to our surprise may tumatawag – I thought.
Nang pinindot na ni Mariz ang cellphone para sagutin ang nasa kabilang line, nagtaka s’ya. Wala naman daw.
I suggested to scan her missed calls records, kasi ugali ni Mariz ang i-clear out ang lahat ng messages n’ya, even her phone call records, kaya madaling malalaman kung sino ang bagong tawag, bagong dialed, even new received calls.
She checked it. “Wala naman akong missed call eh.” She said.
“Eh di sa received.” I replied.
Still scanning her phone, “Wala pa rin.”
“Tingnan mo sa dialed.” I suggested.
“Pre, hindi ko naman hawak ang CP ko, paano ako tatawag?” She annoyingly replied.
I get her phone and scanned it to myself. In my surprise, there’s no number registered on the received and missed calls records. Then, I tried the dialed one, there’s a number – cell phone number.
I felt weird ng makita ko ang number na ‘yun, isa pa, paano s’ya napunta sa dialed kung hindi naman hawak ni Mariz ang cellphone n’ya for ten minutes? At sino naman ang pipindot no’n? Kahit sabihin natin na may nang-ngahas na pindutin yun ng mga tao sa labas ay imposible pa rin, dahil mataas ang gate. High enough para hindi maabot ng sino man.
Baka naman may sira ang phone nito, kunwari pa. I thought, but it still imposible, kasi alam kong maingat sa gamit ang kaibigan kong ito, lalo na sa cellphone.
I showed to my friend yung number na nakita ko, “Baka kilala mo naman ‘yan.” I said.
She gets her phone and looked carefully to the number. “Pamilyar sa akin ‘tong number na ‘to.” She suddenly uttered.
Tumaas lang ang kilay ko ng biglang s’yang pumasok sa bahay. I followed her in until we reached her room. May nilabas s’yang tickler, mga naglalaman ng cellphone numbers. Tamad magsulat ang kaibigan ko, kaya nagulat na lang ako ng nakita ko itong mga number sa kanya. Hindi naman halos napuno ang laman ng tickler, dahil mukhang mga importanteng tao ang nakalista dun, too bad, hindi ko nakita ang pangalan ko dun.
She let me scanned her records, dahil memorize ko daw ang number, at para daw s’yang kinalibutan ng malaman n’yang parang pamilyar ang number na ‘yun sa kanya.
I scanned it, it belongs to *name*.
I showed her the owner of that number. Upon looking at the cellphone number na nasa record n’ya, her eyes widens! Then a moment later, she became pale. I asked her kung ano’ng nangyari sa kanya, she answered, “Matagal na ‘tong patay ah…” she said.
I looked at her puzzled but I do have this tingling feeling at the back of my head.
“Paano mo nalaman na patay na ‘to? Bakit s’ya nagparamdam ngayon?” I asked.
“Childhood friend ko s’ya at death anniversary n’ya ngayon.” She said.
I shut my mouth upon hearing her statement and after few seconds we both ran out of the house and stay outside the gate.

I stayed with her until her cousins get back from work, and when I finally got home, I was grounded for two weeks. I was never annoyed by the punishment that my parents gave to me, I more relieved because for two weeks I won’t be at my friends house.