< hmmm... >

   It's been raining hard the other day, and I was about to go on my way to SLU to find some Philosophy teacher my friends recommended to me.  Because the wind was strong, I decided to find shelter under the awning of a cellphone shop.  I was about to light a cigarette when I realized that my position was rather inconvenient: not only was the rain strong, but there were so many elementary school kids present.

   A little girl, dressed in the school uniform I was very familiar with (I came from the same school when I was a kid: I'm not a cross-dresser), then tugged my arm and very politely asked, "Kuya, puwedeng pahiram po ng cell phone mo?  Tatawagan ko po sana si Mommy eh."

   I always considered myself to be a very kid-unfriendly person: my own nephews run away whenever they see me, and I've made my niece cry when I walked too slow for her obligatory piggy-back ride.  But this is no time to be kid-unfriendly: it was rainy, and believe it or not, some shock of compassion defibrillated my black heart, knowing that this kid will be here all night because her Mommy wouldn't know where she is.  I don't know if it was her pigtails or her perfect teeth.  So I decided to be nice and lent my phone to the little girl.

   After she was done with her call, she smiled and said a rather sugar-coated "Thank you."  It was all the niceness I could possibly take in three minutes of waiting for the torrent to die down.

   So I asked the girl (in the nicest, kid-friendliest way I can muster), "Bakit, di ka ba sinusundo ng Mommy mo?  Kasi nung bata ako, sinusundo ako eh."

   "Ang baby niyo naman noon, kuya!" she exclaimed, in a voice that even a deaf man within earshot could hear.  Almost every single eye in the little world of the awning looked at me like I was a burnt cat, or a 22-year-old infantilist who still was fetched by my Mommy.  Suddenly, the little angel turned into the Succubus.  It was a good thing the rain died down, so I walked as quickly as I can away from the awning, walked far and away, and smoked.  Every puff counted, knowing that the world is safe from Marocharim, thanks to Cell Phone Girl.