The sky was crystal orange while I’m walking through the silent streets of Tondo, Manila.It is already six in the morning and I know that It’s gonna be a tough day for me.My mother ask me to buy some pandesal and cheese for breakfast.The number of people buying in the bakery keeps increasing and increasing which makes me a bit nervous.I always feel nervous when there a large number of unfamiliar faces that surrounds me.It makes me feel different, Not because I’m not sociable but because I’m really a shy type of person.I never start a conversation and I always keep silence at class.Because I’m more comfortable in thinking and analyzing them in my mind and my mother always said that If you have nothing good to say, you better keep your mouth shut.
As I walk going home, I notice a beggar sitting in the dirty side of the road.He is an old man with a beard that is long enough to cover his chest.The shirt that he wear has a picture of a man who run for congressman in our city with a quotation that said, Poverty No More! I don’t know If I will laugh or cry in what I just read.It makes me think how absurd life is.I didn’t do any of them neither because the man is staring at me looking eagerly on my plastic bag.Even if he is not talking, I can see through his shameless eyes how hungry and miserable he is.But the fact that he is a stranger and mother will get mad if she notice that the number of pandesal that I will give to her is not enough, there is something inside me that encourages me to help this old man.Perhaps a conscience? I don’t know.
The only thing that I know at that point is I am not different to him.
I remember the days when we don’t eat food all day because mother have no customer.She is a manicurist, while father is a man full of skills and talent.His job depends on what our neighbors need.If Mang Andoy’s roof is so old and he wants it to be replace, father becomes a carpenter.If Kuya Joel’s hair is too long and need to be cut, father becomes a barber.And many many more! That is my father, a man of many faces.Our suffering came when father was diagnose with lung cancer.In that time, I was too young to understand what is happening.At the age of 4, my innocence conquered me with questions that I can’t answer.Why mother always cry ceaselessly staring at the dark sky? Where is father? How long did I last eat bread and butter? Why it is always salt and water? Questions that have been answered as I grew.But the memory of the past still hunts me like a dove that always come back to its cage.
The old man is no stranger to me.I gave him my share in the pandesal and cheese and left some for mother.Never mind her anger, I will just said that I already got hungry and eat the food while walking.What a nice ally by! Or maybe I’ll just say the truth? I think mother will understand because she always respect my decision.When I said that I will not stop in studying and I will support myself in order to achieve my dreams, she never argue with me.I was eleven years old that time when I start to work as a car wash boy, the time for enjoying my youth always come to my mind when my classmates start discussing about their toys, cartoons that they watch, etc. But at that time, The only thing that matters to me is my dreams.Dreams that is merely imaginable from my actual state.
Who said that dreams have limitations?
I waved goodbye to the old man with a happy and comforted look to say that I need to go not only because mother is waiting but also I have to go to work and I have class in the afternoon.Even if he was busy chewing, he manage to smile at me. Smile that I have never seen before.I saw the blank spaces in his teeth but what attract me the most was his eyes, His eyes has changed now and it was bright as
the sun appearing gracefully to us.As if his suffering had vanish at least in this wonderful moment.Words are not enough to describe what I feel in that precious time.
The only thing that I know at that point is I am not different to him.
