A Free Movie, an All Too Real Nightmare

It was dark and windy when I woke up yesterday morning. My aunt asked if I'd be working that day (she didn't have that worry bec she'd been on sick leave for days already). I said I hope we won't have office but I wouldn't ask since we're already late for an issue and we're rushing to finish it. Praise God, just a few minutes and our editorial assistant, Angie, texted me to tell me there was no work for that day. After a few minutes, my editor, Rissa, kindly texted me too. Even Dina, my officemate, also texted me to inform me there was no work. "Enjoy the movie," she texted. Good idea! She had leant me "The Way We Were," a 1973 romantic comedy starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. But then, reality hit home after a few hours. The lights went out and electricity was gone.

So there we were on the 14th floor of our building, waiting for the storm to come. The wind started to pick up speed and our group -- my Auntie Nida, Jovie, Julie Ann, Don (all Auntie's children), and I -- became like moviegoers of a real storm. "Look, look, the roof of our neighbor is flying!" "Where?" "Hey, four boys are walking through the rain. Astig!" Then the wind and the rain started getting mixed up and we thought we'll have a storm on our house too. Auntie opened the large windows and the side door in the condo unit because she was afraid the glasses would shatter. Water and wind came barging through the windows. At one point, Julie Ann tried to open the door of the room and she almost got sucked in. She said she thought it was a combination of Poseidon and Snakes in the Plane. Way cenimatic! Our little storm experience lasted only till a friend of Auntie's texted her. He said there's no problem of the glasses shattering so she can just close the big windows in peace. After that, we were like curious bystanders outside a laboratory window. "Oh look, the roof of ACSAT is like a Chinese dragon!" "Yeah, and we can already soak our dirty clothes outside our balcony, sprinkle it with Ariel and tomorrow, we can already rinse it." Besides watching the reality movie outside, our activities inside were decidedly a non-event -- cook food, eat, listen to the radio, read. That's just what we did. Well, of course, talk, sleep. And try to tutor Don Jorge in peace. The wind died down in the afternoon, we had an early dinner and slept very well with the windows open. Some dotted lights outside made the room not too dark to be suffocating.

We had a short exciting experience this morning when Auntie left a candle on in the comfort room because Don gets scared of going to the CR in the dark. Good thing she didn't close the door and someone (Someone up there, we believe) whispered to her to check the candle. Lo and behold, the plastic container of toothbrushes above the candle was already burning! We heard Auntie shouting and shouting. Thinking one of the fishes in the aquarium leapt out, I rushed to her. The container was on fire! The Auntie poured water on it. Whew! That would have made some headline: Owner Awake; Condo Unit Still Set on Fire.

This morning, when Auntie and I came down for work -- with the sun brightly shining and the people up and about (except for our elevator not working) -- it seemed like life in the city was back to normal. But when we came out, our neighborhood was full of fallen leaves, debris, slanting electric posts and people out of their houses cleaning. For us, it was a free movie. For others, it was an all too real nightmare. And I realized once again how truly blessed we were.