Seatmate

March 1990. I was the last passenger one day to board the plane bound for Manila and was seated beside a charming young lady at the rearmost seat of the cabin. I immediately fastened my seatbelt as the plane readied for take off. Then I noticed something: my seatmate was agitated and was sweating furiously despite the drop in temperature inside the cabin.

“Is there anything wrong?” I asked her.

“I don’t know how to do it,” she said pointing to her still unfastened seatbelt.

The plane was already taking off. I took and adjusted her seatbelt and locked it. She was totally relieved. She smiled rather sadly and thanked me.

“Is this your first plane ride?” I started a conversation.

“Yes,” she said almost in a whisper.

“Are you scared?”

“Yes…”

“No, you should not. Airplanes are still the safest mass transit vehicles in the whole world,” I assured her. “And in case of an accident,” I tried to make some joke to calm her nerves, “it is so quick and fast that, before we know it, we will already be in heaven.”

“I’m not afraid so much of the plane ride but what I will do when I arrive in Manila,” she explained.

“Why, is this also you first time in Manila? How old are you incidentally?”

Lourie was 15, a third year high school. It would be her first time in Manila, in fact, also her first time to travel away from home. From Manila she would proceed to Olongapo City to the family of her elder sister. Her sister was married to an American sailor, had two kids, and the family was very soon to leave for the U.S. Her sister wanted to leave all their home appliances and furniture to her parents in Bugo, Cagayan de Oro. These would be shipped home in a container van. But there were some small but precious items that she wanted her younger sister to carry personally home to Cagayan de Oro.

“Is there someone to meet you at the airport and send you off to Olongapo?” I inquired.

She opened her purse and showed me a name and a telephone number. It was a name of an owner of an appliance store in Avenida who also owned the movie house (the decrepit wooden movie house near Ororama in Cogon, Cagayan de Oro, demolished some 15 years ago) where his father worked as a movie projector operator. The instruction of his father was to call the number and wait at the airport for somebody to accompany her to the terminal for Olongapo bound buses, also located in Avenida.

“Have you ever met your father’s boss or any member of his family?”

“No.”

I perceived a problem. What if the store was closed and no one would answer the phone? What if everybody was busy and nobody would meet her at the airport?

Once I had gathered my checked-in luggage I towed the girl to a telephone booth. She was, however, hesitant to touch the phone.

“What’s the problem?”

“Actually, Sir, I have not yet used a telephone in my whole life. I don’t know how to do it,” she said obviously embarrassed.

To save time as it was almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon I rang the contact number myself. A guy answered that his father was not around and he could not leave the store because he was alone.

When I told her of the phone conversation she panicked and tears started to roll down her cheeks.

“Calm down,” I told her as I opened my wallet and gave her my business card. “There is only thing you should do: Trust me. We’ll get a taxi and I will accompany you to the bus terminal. But first let’s drop at our MSU office here in Manila where I could leave this box (BOR Naawan agenda matters) and my luggage.”

We could have gone directly to my hotel for the purpose. But the mention of a hotel might intimidate her. She had had enough of uncertainty and fear.

We dropped at the Antonino Building and took the lift to the MSU Liaison Office on the 11th floor. I did not ask her but I supposed that was also her first elevator ride. She was startled and held tightly at my arm when we started to move up. There were some MSU officials in the office and they thought that my young pretty companion was my daughter. The office was about to close. Dr. Manong Sarangani, then the Chancellor of MSU GenSan, volunteered to bring my luggage to our hotel (Jadevine) upon learning of my errand.

The girl and I took another taxi for the Olongapo bound terminal. While inside the taxi she showed me the location sketch of her sister’s apartment in Olongapo City. Accordingly, her sister had been telegrammed a day before of her estimated arrival and would be waiting for her that evening at the Olongapo bus terminal. Notwithstanding the information, I was still worried about her; I gave her my hotel’s phone number for whatever use it may serve her.

Once seated in the Philippine Rabbit bus, she just looked at me and said nothing. Then she gently held my hands and cupped her face with them for some moments. She closed her eyes and sobbed silently as she let go of me.

Early the following morning the elder sister called informing and thanking me for the safe travel of her kid sister.