We're back from Clark, Pampanga where we did absolutely... nothing! Haha! While Veck was out on the pediatric conferences, Dana vegetated in front of Nick Jr., and would release excess energy by jumping up and down the beds or running up and down the halls screaming so her voice would echo. I whiled the hours away reading "A Bottle of Storm Cloud Stories" by Eliza Victoria laying in a hot bath. When I got bored I sang "Sana Maulit Muli" out loud. I wanted to go to Zoocobia but we couldn't fit it in our schedule. So we opted to stay in the hotel premises instead.
Hotel Stotsenberg I imagine resembled a nun cloister or a boarding school in London. The building is a square, with a wide square courtyard, with a fountain in the center of the courtyard. Our room was 305C, which meant Hall C, third floor.
The place was empty except for the pediatric delegates. There were very few other guests. Walking up and down the halls trying to locate the swimming pool and the gym with Dana trotting by my side, I plotted a novel in my mind I can set in here. I have been writing fiction for the longest time. It's a joy that matches the exhiliration of being onstage. But I usually just hide my fiction in drawers, or lose them. I have an ambition: be published. But to be published, I first have to write a novel, and a good one. That I plan to do a few pages each day after shift. What are long bus rides home for?
The Manila International Book Fair 2012 is open at the SMX Convention Center near SM MOA only until Sunday, September 16. I haven't gone but I must! Who's going? When? Once a week Dana asks to be brought to Pandayan, the only bookstore in Malolos. A trip to the bookstores excites her. I want to see her eyes pop out when I bring her to MIBF! Halls and halls of books of all kinds!
Back at the Hotel Stotsenberg. The water costs P44 per 500mL bottle, so in the evening after dinner Veck and I decided we'll just go to the nearest 7Eleven and buy water from there. The "nearest" 7Eleven turned out to be a full 30 minutes walk away, and I carried Dana in my arms who loved to be up in her Daddy's arms. We passed by vacant lots, abandoned buildings, rows and rows of trees. Naturally I saw some elementals that let's just say the normal eye wouldn't see.
Veck kept asking, "What is it? What is it? What are you looking at?" Of course I didn't want to scare my wife so I steered the conversation into what the convention was about. Veck then told me about the advances in the study of Autism and ADHD in the Philippines. Now that's a topic that isn't scary at all! Apparently, it wasn't a good idea to walk out at this time of night. There were no other pedestrians beside us. I whispered a prayer under my breath.
Sometimes Dana would wave at the shadows and Veck would laugh. "She loves playing pretend games," Veck said. If only Dana was pretending. I saw what Dana was waving at.
When 7Eleven was near sight, there were three tambays quarreling over a cellphone, and some scantily clad girls at the corner. I knew they were up to no good, so I squeezed Veck's hand as a signal for us to cross to the other side of the street. A car stopped in front of tambays. One of them, the one who "won" the cellphone by wrenching it out of the others, approached the car window. Then one of the girls came over, opened the door, and got in the passenger seat. Neat.
It must've been the unfriendliest 7Eleven ever. When we got there the other customers eyed us curiously. We bought a tall bottle of Wilkins and debated whether Dana deserved chocolates that late at night. On the walk back home, Dana promptly fell asleep on my shoulder. (She would remain asleep for the rest of the night.) My eye fell on a tree a few yards in front of us. Beside the tree there was a child with a frozen look of horror on her face. Then the apparition disappeared.
I pretended I didn't see anything. I told Veck maybe we should just wait for a jeep to pass by that we can ride back to the hotel. We waited but no jeeps passed by. Then a car passed by. Its windows were down. The driver looked at us. Then it stopped right in front of the tree. The child appeared again and then was gone.
Veck said, "I don't feel comfortable approaching that car." Better listen to a woman's intution. Not only that, in my head I heard the child's scream: "Stop!"
The car remained parked and flashed on its hazard. Veck and I crossed to the other side of the street and started walking again. After a few moments the car started again and sped past us.
Then it hit me. Prostitutes at the corner. Few people out in the dark. Did the driver think we were selling our daughter? Yikes! Which leads me to thinking. All these "elementals"... they can't hurt you anyway. There's no need to fear them. Sometimes it's fellow humans we need to be wary of. Is it any coincidence that the apparition chose the form of a child when it warned us?
Finally, when you have God's protection, you've nothing to fear. We arrived at the hotel without incident. I put Dana to bed. Veck put diapers on her. We saw some episodes of Dog Whisperer and drifted off to sleep.
