US THREE
March 26, 2008
MANY YEARS LATER, I wondered how we bonded and connected through our most memorable high school year, for after all, isn’t the senior year the one when most and best memories are retained? We hardly shared common interests, our personalities didn’t exactly correspond the way chemical receptors or enzymes do, or the way nuts and bolts do.
I refer of course to my small clique in high school. Being the first person narrator exposes me, but you may not remember who my mates were. It wont be hard to identify them, but just the same for modesty’s sake I’ll assign them names, Young Wang and Young Shi, according to the Chinese practice (they’re not hip hop artists). Odd, because of our impending mid-life (crisis). But no matter.
I thought about Messrs Wang & Shi because of a very casual remark of K1-C classmate Peggy Y, who in one of her emails to the rest of the chatgroup mentioned that another batchmate was her BFF (not to be mistaken with Paris’s BFF). Naïve Noel that I was, I asked what it meant, and of course it was Best Female Friend, your closest amigo (amiga), your chummiest chum, Alan Shore to Denny Crane, or Dr Wilson to Dr House, depending on which TV series is your favorite.
So who was my BFF? Or in my case, BMF? If proximity of interests & regularity of spending quality time were the gauge, then it would have to be these two pals.
Although high school is a time for momentous events, it’s also an age when time seems to stretch on endlessly, not unlike watching wave upon wave upon wave rest on your feet on the beach. Whether it was recess, when we would descend from the top floors to the old canteen to feed ourselves “virtual” pizza (slices of baked wafers sprayed on with a teaspoon of tomato paste, “essence” of ham and a sliver of cheese),
Or spending p.m. merienda with Jack & Jill chichirya & Mountain Dew / Mello Yello having pointless discussions on who was the prettiest girl or who had the winningest smile, (or whether Mountain Dew was superior to Mello Yello or vice versa)
Or debating, while enjoying the unique rotten egg / carcass scent of the Pasig River, why it was not impossible (or possible) to be rich, handsome and famous at the same time…
these were the comrades I chose to do time with.
I was closer to Young Wang by reason of default, as we had found each other a bit earlier in junior year. We were probably classmates then, but one thing I am sure of is that by 4th year we were no longer in the same section. This privilege I shared with Young Shi, who I had never been close with previously.
But it wasn’t going to be an issue as we became an informal threesome, although we were friends with another informal group, which I’ll term the Tall Guys because they were all above 5’7”. (no short jokes please.) They were Raul S, Philip U, Edison O, Richard Y and Archie M. Of course, nothing prevented us from being friends with any other people, but Young Wang and I had an advantage (disadvantage?) of joining up as soon as dismissal bell rang, as we went home by jeepney, as did the tall guys, and walked home from the jeepney stop. Young Shi always had his sundo.
Young Wang and I hit it off quite swimmingly. Maybe because we both had no sisters, liked watching the same dumb shows (Benny Hill, a Mr. Bean precursor), read the same comics/cartoons, rode the same jeepney home and laughed at the same corny jokes, we found it easy to tolerate each other’s company.
Whenever funds for video games and comics were available, my longer horns having sprouted earlier than YW’s, I had more audacity to convince him to go for our “innocent” vices. And all these nonsense, we thought we could transfer on to Young Shi.
A preoccupation that gave us endless fun was doing “impressions” of our different teachers, and in this area YW was peerless. No nuance of mannerism, favorite affectation, or quirk of speech and gesture would escape his sensors and supersensitive microphones… Ms Garcia’s American-cum- Capampangan twang, Mr Aluning’s steely hard brogue, pati various Chinese accents from Ms Or Hau Lai, Lu Zu Ren etc kaya nya. Usually humorous, other times outright unnerving.
Funny thing was, on hindsight we had little else in common. Young Shi’s interest, first, second and last, was music. This despite the fact that athletically he was gifted, excelling in any sport he dabbled in. Young Wang’s interests were in model cars, airplanes and military vehicles, tinkering with his Volkswagen Brasilia and helping his folks run their business (ko tiam, filial son style). I had none of the above interests of the two, save maybe mimicking the falsetto songs of YS that were quite the rage then and admiring (without helping assemble) the various models YW finished, of course without touching them.
When the venue/s was available, which was quite rare, YW & YS would try their hand at bowling, ping pong & tennis, ball sports that developed eye-hand coordination. I wasn’t a big fan of these activities, but gave it the old college try. Quality time naman ang important diba?
It wasn’t a regular thing, but on the odd Thursday we weren’t occupied with extra curricular gigs & on other free days (assuming, of course, YS wasn’t booked for his romantic adventures) we would proceed to our residence in Paco where unfailingly YW would hit the piano & play the waltzes and melodies he had memorized, while YS would shoot 3 pointers from impossible distances on the halfcourt, imagining he was Larry Bird. Afterwards when the coast was clear we would try to watch R rated movies on the video player, making sure the grownups weren’t around. They will probably deny this, but we once watched the first few minutes of an X rated movie before we lost our nerve. J
Among us no one would deny that I was the physical joker, YW the wry punster & YS the heckler, probably because (1) he hated that he hadn’t been the one who cracked the joke first, or (2) couldn’t think of a comeback line fast enough. Gaganti si YS by making fun of our singing, which we couldn’t make fun of cuz he was always perfect in that aspect; gaganti naman si YW by always being one step ahead of YS in knowing which people the latter was interested in…
* * * * *
WHICH brings us to that most interesting of topics, how my mates fared in the romance department. Here is yet evidence of how different we were. There is no defining moment of how disparate our levels were, but I am confident that YS was miles ahead, having had at least one or two relationships, while YW and I could only dream of pursuing or attempting having one. It was probably because, well besides the obvious reasons (YS sang well and was a recognized athlete) by nature YS was probably best able to express his feelings and emotions to our female class/batchmates. The issue was, which of them was it? J
Earlier I mentioned that there was no defining moment, but I remember one that came close to that. Sometime during 4th year, I was in no uncertain terms spurned by a girl I was courting (or doing what I thought passed for courting.) For some reason it was particularly painful to me, as would be every heartbreak to every adolescent. YS & YW, although they were there to encourage me to give the “stiff upper lip”, could not relate to my predicament, for different reasons I think. YS, because he usually met with success with the various courtships he pursued, and even when he wouldn’t win the prize, so to speak, he would be content with a near-hit, or near-miss (One may recall at this time Ewan by the Apo). YW, because by his focus and priorities, was a year or two away from his first relationship, and probably could not see the damage one could suffer in a 16 year old’s two week romance, or imagined romance. J
That’s as close to a defining moment as any could be, one where it was clear that we were on different stages as far as the heart was concerned.
There was however another opportunity for a defining moment, around five years later.
Expecting my first child, I was not exactly issuing press releases as it was not in the most felicitous of circumstances, I was mentally financially and emotionally ill prepared for the event, winging it and adjusting to impending fatherhood on the fly.
Needless to say, I had been out of touch with The Two Amigos for some time, but who would have known it? Less than a few hours after Nigel Paulo Emmanuel was born (6 lbs 9.5 ounces), who should appear in the maternity ward but Young Shi, in his George Michael reincarnation and every bit the well-wishing batchmate… Less than an hour later appearing on cue was Young Wang, the proud expectant godfather, on his way to work. Both appreciated one of the seminal events in a man’s life: to fall in love, to write a book, and to father a child, and visited your humble batchmate in his happy hour.
* * * * *
I have not had many chances to meet either of the two the next 20 years. Young Shi is now a successful IT professional in New York, and is one of the most well-loved individuals in our chatgroup. He has had many opportunities to express his legendary kindness, to which many of our batchmates are witness. On more than one occasion, he has played the role of dashing knight in shining armor to defend the honor of our friends, to help and inspire, to entertain and lift up the spirit. He has been gifted with a second career as a musician / singer, reaping many awards and entertaining many in the process, but I have only heard of it and have not had personal knowledge.
Young Wang is an incredibly accomplished family man in Vancouver, combining his talents and energies to live a wonderful life with his equally accomplished wife, another of our favorite batchmates, Young Tang. Legal acumen, managerial aplomb, marketing flair, his expertise is legion. His mastery of his skills is such that he would be a success anywhere, any field he chooses to do it. Yet expectedly, his heart is with his loved ones and his adopted land.
I am privileged to be able to call them barkada, once upon a time.