Adolescence and high school were the most wonderful years of his life. Somehow,
the hormone fluctuations reduced his depressive episodes. He did not have to
hike to school which was then located near the Provincial Capitol and which was
about two kilometers away from the center of town. Some of his classmates
complained about the distance and the fact that if they stayed late in school,
they had to pass by either the Public Cemetery behind the Guingona Subdivision
and the scary wild, tall, cogon grass or along the Catholic Cemetery on
Buenavista Road which was like a dark tunnel even during daytime because of a
canopy of acacia trees planted about seventy years before by the early
missionaries, lining the sides of the empty road. Very people went this way in
the late afternoons. The acacia branches seemed to tower over and across the
road, blocking the sunlight. And it was scary even before sundown because all
the students knew that dead people would come out and wait for them by the
entrance of either cemetery, specially that lady in the long flowing white
dress. Nobody had actually seen her face although it was rumored that she was
very fair and always looked sad, as if she were searching for something or
someone.
One could actually smell the decay as portions of the concrete slabs on top of
the graves and pantheons had been either broken up or pulverized by age and by
the tropical humidity. Manny had a bicycle and Bebot Javelosa would usually
hitch a ride with him. He made it a point to avoid looking towards the
direction of the cemetery and he would just pedal as fast as he could on the
left far side of the road. He would notice that little Bebot would close his
eyes every time they passed that old cemetery. So he was always glad when his
father or their driver would come and pick him up. They were then one of the
few families who had a private motor vehicle. Theirs was made from salvaged
spare parts of the McArthur or Eisenhower jeeps. Most of the people walked,
rode a bicycle, or rode the "tartanilla", a local version of a horse drawn
carriage.
Manny had a growth spurt, taller now than most of his male classmates. And
because somewhere along the line he had some Caucasian (American), genes in him
from his maternal ancestors, he was fair and ruggedly attractive. All the young
girls swooned over him. He did not pay much attention to them.
Except Chona. She was his sponsor during the annual PMT pass-in-review. It was
rumored that they were steady but neither of them would admit it. There was
talk that they were seen holding hands in the Dalisay movie theater one late
Sunday afternoon. The gossip started circulating in school Tuesday morning.
Chona was absent the rest of the week and on the following Monday, she was
wearing dark tinted glasses over what every one knew was a fading black eye.
They were never seen together again and nobody knew who was responsible. Chona
was not willing to say anything.
Manny was always top of his class. By the fourth year, he was President of the
Student Supreme Council, Editor-In-Chief of the Narra, and Commander of the
PMT. Of course he graduated class valedictorian. His academic and
extracurricular record were unblemished except for one incident, which at that
time, elicited major concern among students, teachers, and parents alike but
that same incident, in later years, became sort of "Oh, we were the most
mischievous class!" kind of episode that people talk about repeatedly and with
a certain pride and nostalgia, during their annual alumni reunions.
During his senior year, Manny and a group of male seniors and juniors were
reported to the principal's office by a lady faculty member and some female
students. They were accused of peeping up through the openings between the
slabs of wood that comprised the steps of the grandstand building that the
school used for makeshift classrooms back in the city, near the Philippine
Constabulary barracks. They would have gotten away with it were it not for one
of the younger ones who could not help squealing with delight when he saw that
one of girls was not wearing any underwear at all.
Manny had never been this scared before. Being considered the leader, he ended
up being the last one interviewed. To be alone with the principal, in her
office, with no witnesses, was Manny's worst nightmare. The door was closed and
locked and although the electric fan was whirling furiously, Manny was
perspiring profusely.
"Are these true? These accusations?"
"Yes ma'am. I mean, no ma'am." He was stammering.
Mrs. Honculada glared up at him. He was standing in front of her great big desk
while the principal was seated on her elevated caned mahogany chair.
"Well, which is it, yes or no?" she asked sourly. Mrs. Honculada had been high
priestess and executioner for as long as he could remember. Nobody but nobody,
not even the mayor would dare cross swords with her. She ruled the school with
an iron fist and in the process, made Agusan High School the most envied school
in the entire island of Mindanao. The Undersecretary of Education would
approvingly mention her name in some of his speeches all over the country when
he talked of his "Ideal Executive."
"It's both yes and ah, ah, no." ---" Ma'am." He added, stuttering.
"Explain. And don't you dare smile at me! I have dealt with worse cons than
you."
"Yes Ma'am. I mean, no Ma'am. I won't ah, ah smile." he said then did a muted
cute crooked smile.
"Okay then."
"Well, we were not intending to look up ah, ah that way" pointing to the
ceiling with his right index finger. "We were just getting together to discuss
the boy's number presentation for the junior-senior prom program. We wanted to
surprise the girls and the teachers. That's the reason we were down there, aah,
hiding."
"And ?" Her eyebrows were no longer arched. Her voice was less sharp now,
somewhat musical, revealing her "chavacano" accent. This part of his response
was corroborated by the other students, although not as eloquently.
"Then there was this pounding above us. I think the girls were jumping up and
down. They must have been practicing their Tinikling. Dust started floating
down on our heads. That's when we all started looking up." He did not reveal
the identity of the owner of the uncovered behind.
Until the end of the school year, the guys gave the girls nicknames. "There
goes blue!" or "There goes stripes!" or "There goes nothing!"
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