Unannounced

How many times has it been said that the night is the belly of the beast which is the city?

Tonight, I am thankful for crazy friends who fetched me when all the people in our village have sent themselves to sleep. It is not often that we get true callings of adventure, so when I do, I try to answer.

We had kitkat sundae at Jollibee and because it is almost midnight, the crew have started to clean up and close the second floor though the restaurant is open 24 hours. They still have to cut cost and limit the area of responsibility – it’s the dead of the night. When we were denied a table upstairs, we decided to visit an unlikely destination.

Located near the ferry boat dock and the Virgen de la Regla church, the city plaza is a target hang-out place for people weary from travel (from Pier 3) and from sin (I’m just guessing on this second one). There is also a place for adolescent boys practicing fraternities or skateboarding, lovers with nowhere else to go, old school photographers and street urchins. Tonight, it was quiet. Many of the torchlights were left unlit. Below the statue of Rizal, between two posts, a net was installed and there were gay men playing badminton doubles. Not far, below the entrance mushrooms, several teenage boys were sitting on the back of the benches. In the darker corners, one can make out the darker forms of lovers cuddling and whispering. We took our seats – Kach, Clark and I – at the benches not far from all of them.

The city is different. Even the plaza is different. I’m pretty sure all of those people found the three of us different. Giggling in our point of the triangle that was the plaza community that night, eating our mix-ins. We were the loiterers, climbing the slides and monkey bars, taking levitation and air battle photos, laughing and shouting each other’s names. We didn’t fit in when all of the others kept to their games, talking in ways other than words – in swings of badminton rackets and whatever language romance uses.

But if not fitting in is my day to day, what makes tonight an adventure? Well, I gots company.