Scared…

…is probably an understatement of how I’m feeling right now. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared, and I mean really scared until now. Of course I’ve been scared before. Lots of times. But never in that gut-wrenching, heart pounding, hand shaking kind of way that I felt just a little while ago. What made it worse was the fact that it wasn’t just my life that was threatened, it was my brother’s too. Let me start from the beginning.

Me and my brothers were on our way home a little past 8 pm a while ago. We were driving two motorcycles (I really wish I had a car. It would be safer and I could get that cheapest auto insurance network). I was driving one of them with my brother Ikee in the backseat and my other brother Gp, was driving the other motorcycle with my youngest brother, Gino who’s around 9 years old.

En route, Ikee asked me if we could drop off a package for his girlfriend before heading home. Since it was on the way, I agreed. As I turned into the drive leading to the girlfriend’s place, I suddenly remembered that Gp, who was tailing us behind, didn’t have any idea where we were headed. So I stopped at the entrance to the drive and looked back at the highway, waiting for him.

Just then, I saw someone on a motorcycle suddenly veer in our direction.  He stopped right behind us. Thinking I was blocking the entrance to the drive, I moved to the side of the road to let him pass. He didn’t. Instead, he moved his left hand to his waist, brushed the side of his coat around and flashed us a holstered handgun.

At that moment, a lot of thoughts coursed through my mind- first thought: what the hell? Followed by, oh shit! Then, this guy must be freakin drunk! Underneath all these were stark pictures of patients felled by guns that I attended to in the ER, god, I didn’t want to be one of them!

I instinctively adopted an appeasing tone-

Boss, pasensya na po. May inaantay lang po kame.

He pulled out his weapon. Anong ginagawa mo na nakaparada ka sa daan? Yung kasama mo kumakaway-kaway pa o (referring to my brother).

I really did not know what he was talking about. All I knew was that he was waving a fucking gun at us!

Pasensya po ulit may inaantay lang po kame. I tried again, this time extending my hands in the most non-threatening way I could.

Eh bigla kayong huminto at yung kasama mo kaway ng kaway. The same response.  And then it hit me- this guy thought we were staring at him! Given the spate of violence that has been erupting across the city, most of them perpetuated by goons on motorbikes, this guy must think that we were following him- threatening him even.

This time I replied; Boss ala po kaming masamang balak. May inaantay lang po talaga kami. He still didn’t seem convinced but he clipped the handgun back on his waist and told us- sa susunod wag nyong gagawin lang kung hindi… he trailed off gesturing to the gun he still held. And then he was gone.

It happened so fast that I barely could understand what just happened. My only thought being- we just narrowly avoided being shot! My mouth dry, I told Ikee to quickly drop off the package while we waited for Gp to show, as I didn’t want to risk hanging around in case that guy decided we were threats after all and came back to shoot us.

Thankfully, we all made it home alive.

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