whilst waiting to find a job after secretarial school i took a few units for a business course at our local college. i knew i had to do well as it was my only chance to get to a real college course or my father would have me working at a factory that made shirts for export. i got into the 'elite' group in the campus when one day i passed by the faculty and my accounting professor blurted out to the dean that i was the best student on campus having aced all my exams in accounting during the first semester. at a dance sponsored by the student body which was mostly run by that elite group, i was dared by two of the girls to pick up a probable boyfriend. the organist of the band caught my eye and i chatted the manager up to find out his name. turned out the manager was the father of the organist and he introduced me to Bob. the band was on a foot-high platform and i was standing on the concrete floor. he had long hair, he was certainly cute up close and he had a very engaging smile. he asked if he could call me, but because we didn't have a phone i offered to be the one to call when i go and see a friend who had one. after two weeks he asked if he could take me to a movie so i agreed to meet him at the college. i wore a two-inch heeled shoes and a baby pink mini-dress. i was flabbergasted when i saw him again because i was taller than him, and i only stood at a few inches above five feet. funny thing was he was wearing platform boots which was the trend at the time. but he was a sweet boy and very well behaved. bob, however, did not feed my intellect. all he wanted to do was play and sing and talk about it. in their house, after 30 minutes of listening to him play the piano, i always found myself in his parents' study where there was an entire wall with shelves of books.
my father did not approve of bob. well, he disapproved of all my suitors. he especially distrusted those "long-haired hippies who probably use drugs, especially those in a band". whenever bob would visit, as is the tradition of courtship in our culture, my father never hid his dislike of bob so i preferred to meet bob elsewhere or go to his house. but pretty soon i tired of the routine. before the second semester was over, i was pretty much over bob and i started to hide whenever i knew he was at the college to see me. also, i loved wearing heeled shoes and with bob, i had to wear the really flat sandals and tended to slouch so it didn't look like i was taller than him. my mother once noted that most of my suitors were very tall and i had to fall for bob.
then i met benjamin.
benjamin was the complete opposite of bob. he was tall, not as pretty as bob but ben was well-dressed and well-groomed and he oozed with charm. he had almond shaped dark brown eyes that glinted when he smiled. and he was smart! but of course, i didn't notice all that before. he was part of that elite group at the school, but he was like the yeti. i heard about him, but we were never in the same room, people talked about him but i never met him personally. i would see him from a distance when i would be on the second or third floor waiting for my classes and he would be on the ground floor at the opposite side of the building. then one night after classes, i was walking to the bus stop when he and another friend danny chatted me up. turned out danny had an infatuation but was using benjamin as his "bridge". that is also part of the culture of courtship in the old country. a man likes to pay court but too shy or too unsure so he sends a middleman, the bridge. at the outset benjamin told me that his intentions were for danny. at the outset i told benjamin that i had no feelings for danny and friendship is all he could ever hope to expect from me. i had a good friend and classmate who had a big crush on danny and i introduced them to each other. we all became good fiends in the process.
after a few weeks, ben approached me while i was waiting for a class. i remember there was a full moon that night and the sky was slowly transitioning from the dark blue to black. in manila, it was possible to see the stars even on moonlit nights. it was the night he sang 'my foolish heart' to me.
sorry to leave you hanging but you can read the continuation of this story here:
http://365project.org/summerfield/365/2011-11-01
