ang aking pinakamamahal na pinsang si simon. imo for short. siya ang umasikaso sa akin ng husto nung nasa san francisco ako kamakailan. mahal ko tong pinsan kong ito. before my visit, the last time i saw him was 20 years ago in manila. this was before they left for the states. during the in between years, nag sign up siya sa US Navy, nakapag-asawa at nagkaroon ng dalawang anak. ako naman stayed in manila, studied engineering, married jet, worked for a long time in the philppines and moved to singapore. then like magic, i had the chance to visit them during a business trip…separate lives converging for a few memorable days in the states. laking tuwa ko nga nung nadalaw ko siya at nakausap uli.
the last time we saw each other, we were both in our late teens. the same age as his panganay paul, who will graduate from high school soon. ngayon, pareho na kaming “gaining face” (better to say than “losing hair”). there is a scienctific law called that states: “a man’s age is directly proportional to facial soap and inversely proportional to shampoo”. in short, habang tumatanda ka eh, mas tumatagal ang oras ng paghilamos ng mukha kaysa pag shampoo ng buhok. asan na ba ako? ah, my perskasin…
imo and jojo took a half day off when i arrived on a friday afternoon. sinundo namin si donna sa airport at along the way eh kwentuhan pa rin. from the airport, going home, inuman sa milpitas until 4 in the morning, kwentuhan pa rin. gising ng 9am papunta sa bahay nila sa modesto hanggang pag alis ko papunta sa airport, kwentuhan pa rin. sa sobrang tagal ng di pagkikita eh di matapos tapos ang kwento.
then, like the way i came, i swiftly left. like that, we’re back to our own separate lives. pero iba na ngayon, at least now i know that even if my perskasin’s out there somewhere in the bay area, he thinks of me the same way that i do now. i also know that someday, we’ll see each other again and catch up on each other’s lives.
