Hanging About in Dreams (4)

We wake up a little past midday and nobody tries to talk about what happened, even after checking out of the motel. I insist that he just drop me off on the next corner, and we say the usual goodbyes. Walking along the strip of commercial establishments filled with hurrying hordes of people only God knows where they are heading, and bored cigarette vendors waiting for the Sun God Ra to descent along the heavily-trafficked Roxas Boulevard, the Saturday afternoon heat becomes a little scorching. Occasional gushes of wind from the nearby Manila Bay blends with the dark, polluted smoke from the passing vehicles. Still, this makes the walk a little airy and bearable. The sun is blinding and a street vendor approaches me to sell fake Calvin Klein sunglasses for fifty bucks. I light a cigarette, and take a shade in the nearby Starbucks.

Taking refuge with my newly bought sunglasses, I take a seat in the corner. The pungent taste of coffee doesn’t take the dreaminess away, memories and daydreams still spinning inside my mind. Things just happened so unexpectedly last night, and I am still dazed by how feelings of the past can sprout from small cracks of the present, only to be swept away, then relived, in a totally different kind of way, still untenable, seemingly fleeting, and surprisingly, even lurking.