Wednesday, April 07, 2004

The Second Day



I am roasting. It's like a spa, the whole town, enveloped now in a sudden brownout. The electricity went out at 8 in the morning, without warning. But this was nothing new. In a sense, I half-expected this: there have been talks in the papers about the power supply in the country running dangerously low, but I credited that to the necessary manufacture of panic requisite in every election season. It was the same odd thing before Fidel Ramos became President in '92. We Filipinos have grown jaded, even in our crises. Which I guess is our biggest strength, though also our one fatal weakness. Comprehend that paradox, if you will. We're like cockroaches. We will survive the Apocalypse.



Even in sleep, I knew something was wrong when the electric fan in my pad just stopped whirring cold morning air onto my naked body. I vaguely remember raising my head, and cursing NORECO. But the growing heat made me even drowsier. When I came to, it was already 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and the streets, everywhere, were humming with portable generators lined up along the downtown sidewalks, futile in the onslaught of the summer heat. True, they made possible for the lights still being on temporarily , but what we needed now was the cold comfort of air-conditioning.



There is no air-conditioning anywhere, only a wall of oven heat that overwhelms. I feel thirsty, and I feel dead and shriveled, like a raisin left out in the sun for much too long. There is no ice cream I can buy, or halo-halo to quench my thirst. All the counter girls can say is a litany of: "There is no ice," or "We can't work the machine," or "We can't open the freezer" ... Why? Why? Why? Mark tells me the lights will come back on at 5, which is one hour and an eternity away. He sits in the next PC busy with his new Friendster account: he is inviting people, even strangers, like crazy... and it is almost a joy to behold, like watching a kid become lost in a candy store--



...



And just like that, the power comes back on. It's like an orgasm. My God, my skin can actually taste the slowly rising vapors of cool air in the room. My day, so late into the afternoon, can finally begin.


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich

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