Jeepney Drama

(excerpt from my journal entry dated December 18, 2011, a Sunday)

I didn’t get around to writing here yesterday because I was busy. I mean I should have woken up early para makapagsulat dito kaya lang it’s either tinanghali ako ng gising or masyado lang maraming preparations for our barkada’s Christmas party sa Tagaytay. But I think I should start with the events of the other day, Friday, which was also my last day of work sa _____, Ortigas.

It was not really remarkable, just one of those usual work days, except that on my way to Ortigas, something happened I did not expect. I was a drama king. Ahehe.

When I got off the bus at Baclaran, I boarded a jeepney for MRT. At the driver’s seat, may dalawa pang nakaupo sa harap bukod sa driver—the driver’s assistant and an old man.

Noong umaandar na kami, may pinara yung driver na matandang babae. Akala niya sasakay. Pero imbes na sumakay yung matandang babae, nagtanong muna siya sa driver kung papasok daw ba ng MRT yung biyahe niya. To this, the driver replied: Hindi daw kakasya yung jeep niya sa MRT kasi maliit lang daw yung MRT. Tapos iniwanan niya na yung matanda; pinaharurot niya yung jeep niya habang nagtatawanan silang tatlo sa harap.

Sa comments nila, they were making fun of the old woman. Sabi ng matandang lalaki, maliligaw daw yung matanda kasi daw aalis-alis daw ng bahay, hindi naman daw alam kung saan pupunta. Daldal nang daldal yung matanda samantalang tawa pa rin nang tawa yung driver at yung assistant niya.

Nainis na ako.

Since malapit lang naman ako sa harap ng jeep nakaupo, dinig na dinig ko sila, kaya nagsalita na rin ako. Sabi ko, “Kaya nga nagtatanong e, kasi hindi niya alam.” And that was it. I stared at them sharply, daring them to talk back to me.

The driver and his assistant immediately shut up, but the old man who was still making all those stupid comments just to be funny kept on talking. He probably didn’t hear what I said (kasi nga, he’s talking).

But quite honestly, I don’t really mind the old man talking out of his head. He’s old and a bit on the senile side (I think). But the driver and his assistant were young. And that kind of disrespect for the elderly (and a stranger at that) was something I just cannot tolerate. That’s why I told them off.

But the stupid thing I did after this was that I started crying. Not crying as in bawling or sobbing. Just silently shedding tears and wiping them as discretely as I could. I was probably so furious that it happened.

The driver’s assistant kept stealing glances at me through the jeepney’s front mirror, but I couldn’t care less what he thought. Man, it was not cool. I couldn’t wait to get to MRT already and get off that jeepney….