BEYOND 666: May 2017

As soon as I lowered down my shoulder bag; I noticed something different. The space between the seats is wider. “Maybe, I thought - the airline is finally willing to sacrifice few rows of seats for comfort.” As soon as I sat down and groped for the seat belts; I heard a sweet voice almost a whisper close right to my face. “Please put your bag to the overhead compartment. You are seated at the emergency exit.” I turned my head and saw the emergency exit sign. I burst out laughing – “OMG, I have been doing this for the last 37 years.” April 7, 2017

During my last vacation in November 2016; the clinic’s driver handed me an envelope at the Abha airport.

“What’s this,” I asked.

“Certificate of Employment,” he replied.

I said, “I didn’t ask for this.” (In the last 10 years that I worked in this private clinic, I never asked for a certificate of employment. It is something you ask for at the time you resign because you need it when you apply for a new job.)

“Saeed (manager/owner of the clinic) thought that you might need it,” the driver answered.

I slipped the envelope to the side pocket of my shoulder bag.

Weeks later: “Give me your certificate of Employment,” said the local manager of Metro Bank. It was the first and most important document the bank manager asked from me. My wife and I were at the bank applying for a car loan. A little more than a week later; my wife and I commuted to “Toyota Manila Bay” and drove home an Avanza G 1.5. “Thank you God for the car,” I said silently as I drove home. Although I didn’t have a car in the last 10 years before that day; it was in fact my car number 5 since 1980.

My coming home in April, 2017 is not my scheduled leave so I had to pay my own ticket. I promised Nishreen that if she ends the year with honors; I will fulfill her wish of going out of town for a break but there was a problem – they were a victim of DFA’s incompetence. The earliest they can apply for a passport is May 26.

Everything happens for a reason so I let Nishreen go on a shopping spree.

“Why are you buying me anything I want?” she asked.

“Because you deserve it,” I replied with a smile.

“If I am at RGMS (Montessori/her elementary school) and not at SCC (Senator Cayetano Memorial Science and Technology High School), how much will my tuition fees be?)

Intelligent girl, I thought. “Something like 70k?”

“You mean I can go on shopping?”

“Yea, scholar ka ng bayan e…” I teased her.

If God gave me a car last time I was home; this time He gave me miraculous gifts not to mention ease and daily comforts of living.

I thought because of time constraints that I couldn’t travel home to Marawi to see my brothers. Few days after I arrived; I saw a post on FB. My younger brother and his wife were on a flight to Manila. Wow I thought with glee. I called them on the day they were supposed to arrive. They didn’t know I was home in Manila. The call was a surprise.

They directly traveled from the airport to PGH and had my sister-in-law confined. Her kidney tumor had recurred a year after surgery. My wife and I visited them in the hospital. Days later; she was declared completely free without surgery confirmed by a PET scan. That was one gift of life but then who knows, that could be God’s way of bringing them to Manila. There was this adage I suspected to be from western writers meant to ridicule Islam: “If Mohammad cannot come to the mountain, let the mountain come to Mohammad” and people took it as a ridiculous joke.

In the same day; I had my own kidney ultrasound. I have been taking meds to dissolve a kidney stone for a year. My stone also disappeared.

My eldest daughter had been waiting for a year…waiting for her name to be drawn from a visa lottery for hospital employment in USA. Her employer/agency had spent and done everything necessary so the waiting finally came to an end. She received the E-Mail she had been anxiously waiting for.

My son’s promotion also came at a time I could be a part of the cheer.

Miracles happen in our everyday lives but only the keenly sensitive notices. This incident is just one among many. Norayda and her longtime high school pals often hang out at a Starbuck joint in Paranaque. Her name having been drawn from the lot calls for a celebration. She asked me and her mom if we can drive her to the place. We can take our coffee while she joins her pals. The joint has only 6 parking spaces. It was full but as soon as I stopped to decide what to do, the driver of the car whose front I stopped signaled me to drive backward. He was driving out. Inside the joint, it was full. There were tables outside but it was hot. Two guys taking dinner at the table close to where we were standing stood up and walked out. Weird; their meal was not even half finished and Starbuck is no cheap.

BACK TO SAUDI ARABIA

The queue at the Saudia Airline check-in counter was long as usual. Extreme to my right was the Business Class check-in counter and it was empty. The Lady behind the counter was waving her hand at me but I pretended not to see. I was okay in my queue but she waved to the lady employee who tapped my shoulder and told me to go. I have this new suit case with 4 wheels that you simply nudge/push so I went. Again my seating was at the emergency exit but not at the side column, it’s in the middle isle. The lady at the counter asked me if I want to change my seat. She’ll find a way but I said, no. I like it there…I can stretch my legs.

At the Riyadh airport after passing through immigration; they check the passport as you walk out the door. The Saudi guy checking the passports just put his hand over my shoulder and nudged me gently forward without looking at my passport.

C’mon guys, am I going to die? Strange things do happen to a person who is about to die. Are you seeing my spiritual light? I thought amusingly.

I reported for work a day after I returned. To reestablish my routine; I needed groceries so after my first shift (12:00 PM – 4:00 PM), I walked the 2.5 km to the town’s biggest grocery store.

Along the way; a beautiful flower sprouted from an unlikely place at the corner bend. I pulled out my CP and took a shot and continued walking. I never crossed that road before without looking to my left to make sure no car is turning right but in that moment, I didn’t. My focus was distracted by the flower.

In order not to hit me, the driver steered his car to the opposite lane. I was in the middle of the right lane. Fortunately, the opposite lane was empty of cars. Both lane divided by an Island were empty of cars the entire stretch of more than 2 km. The driver just continued driving in the opposite lane…