Those I Missed No Longer

As soon as I stepped out of my friend's car, I had no iota how happy I was. The rain had just stopped but there were drizzles still. I didn't mind.

The night was dark, the path was muddy.

I stepped in a puddle, and still, I walked on not minding that the edges of my favorite pair of pants were clingingly wet and slimy on my ankles.

I guess I was smiling when Jecjec and Jocjoc growled, which became excited barks as I came nearer our front door.

I am Home!

An hour before, I was on a bus which I spent looking out the window, unconsciously mindful of the giant billboards along Edsa and NLEX. These, I thought, causes visual pollution. But I was too busy whiling the time to even bring that out to my companion. Then, she asked why I seemed so far away. Without a blink, I recited the advertisement on the streamer that we passed by. Then, she slept on.

A text message nudged me out of reverie. It was from one of my Kuyas. He said he'd wait on us, anyway, he was also waiting for his wife. So we hitched our way to hometown.

It was a lively ride where, in the middle of it, I also received a call from my brother. He told me that "XXX" was featuring the modus operandi that victimized me a few months back. Well the story was, I parked my sister's car along Aurora corner Gilmore and when I got back, the rear window was in smithereens, and my laptop, gone.

Anyway, the trip back home abound of what has been happening since my troop of friends decided to put up the small resto. Tomorrow, I mean, today, at 6am, we're officially in business!

Oh how I missed my friends! But I have to wait till this morning to see them and the place. They've sweated so much to put it up--from planning to finally having the "house blessing" just that afternoon. My meager contribution was naming our business, V5 Sizzlers and Stuffs. Aside from laying out an initial plan of SOS, SOSME and SOSYAL business phasing.

Putting up the resto is a risky big leap considering that our town is a sleeping town where almost everybody is dead to the world by 10pm--except us, I think, who spends until way past midnight when we're together--dvd time, mahjong, videoke, food trips...

But then, the resto is just the start of things to come. No need for "wait and see". It's not me. I hate long waits. I tend to lose patience. Maybe that's why I rather live in the present.

And presently, I'm home. A while back, I couldn't contain how moved I was when my mom's first greeting was, "Are you hungry? Dinner's waiting." Her smile was contagious. It always is. Hers is one of the smiles that infects me no matter what mood I'm in.

My dad's first words totally blew me out: "Let me take a look at my favorite daughter and see if she's changed." The next thing I knew, I was faking a model's pose. Dad was laughing, and mom, shaking her head in giggles.

And I knew then why I didn't mind the drizzles, the puddle, the muddy stains--

I am finally home, sweetly home.