BLAME IT ON LA VISA LOCA – Part VI “Frisking a Former Bold Star” (First posted on Friendster, July 14, 2009, revised and re-posted on Facebook, May 1, 2014) [Having had this piece posted just fairly recently, I initially thought of not posting it anymore. However, not wanting to have a gaping gap in the La Visa Loca series, I decided to have it posted once again. Do bear with me.] In all my years of air travel, airports have always been a source of excitement, drama, and even poetic inspirations for me. Looking back, I could not help but wish that I had put into writing all that had transpired at the airports where I have been. Hence, since my initial travel to the United States, I have made it a point to write of all the airport dramas experienced there at. Here is the first one.) Scene: Centennial Airport, Manila Date: April 22, 2009 Time: Around 8:30 P.M. At last, following the required pre-departure seminar my wife and I attended the day before, we were finally at the Centennial Airport, Manila, on our first trip to the United States, after all the seemingly interminable years of waiting for our Immigrant Visas. Having gone through check-in and other airport formalities, there was but one more hurdle to go through - hand-carried luggage and body check. My wife who was ahead of me, perhaps in her excitement and haste, mistakenly queued in the men’s line. Man: Ma’am, mga pogi lang ang kinakapkapan namin. (Ma’am we only frisk handsome men.)(Realizing her mistake, my wife went directly to the women’s queue.) Me : (Taking my place in front him) Ay salamat! Napasama na ako sa helera nga mga pogi. (Oh,thanks. I’m now in the line of the handsome.) Man: Sir, sa totoo lang, me itsura ka. (Sir, really, you have the looks.) Me : (Broadly smiling) Talaga? (Really?) Man: Di biro. (I’m not kidding.) Me :(Quick on the draw) Sabagay, di mo naitatanong, dati akong bold star. (Though you didn’t ask, I’ll tell you that I was once a bold star.) Man:(Surprised) Talaga? Kung ganon sanay ka sa mga hipo-hipo. (Really? Then you are used to all the touching.) Me : Kaya yung mga hipo-hipo mo ngayon, okey lang sa akin yon. (Hence, your frisking me now is just fine by me.) Man:(Stopping his frisking and looking at me intently) Talaga bang dati kang bold star?(Are you really a former bold star?) Me : Di ka naniniwala? (You don’t believe me?) Man: Di naman sa ganoon. (I didn’t mean that.) Anong mga pelikula mo?(What were your films?) Me : Madami. Gaya ng “Uhaw na Dagat.” (Many. Like “The Thirsty Sea.”) Man: Kelan ‘yon?(When was that?) Me : Pagkatapos ng “Uhaw” ni Merle Fernandez, yung sister ni Rudy Fernandez. (After “Uhaw” of Merle Fernandez, Rudy Fernadez’s sister.) Man: Di ko yata alam ‘yon. (I think I don’t know that.) Me : Sigurado bata ka pa noon at di pa nanonood ng bold. (Surely, you were still young then and didn’t watch bold films yet.) Man: Malamang.(Probably.) Saan naman ang punta mo ngayon? (Where are you headed to now?) Me : Sa Los Angeles. (To Los Angeles.) Man: Wow! Ang galing naman! Anong trabaho mo doon? (That’s great! What’s your job there?) Me :(Looking at him without batting an eye lash) Kumakanta sa isang bar.(Singing in a bar.) With that, I left him to frisk other male passengers, while smiling like the cat that had just eaten the goldfish and inwardly chuckling at his probably taking it all in, hook, line, and sinker, and mentally reviewing all the bold films that he must have seen while trying to connect the images of the male bold stars to the now portly but still tall, dark, and (Ahem!) handsome (his word) guy he had just frisked! And the suppressed laughter sort of soothed the pre-departure tension particularly that of the nail-biting phase on our way to the airport, when we got stranded in the swirling, murky flood waters in the streets behind the University of Santo Tomas where I studied, eons ago, before going to the University of the Philippines. Indeed! Tension-frayed nerves soothed by little white lies. Finally, with the Philippine Airlines as our magic carpet, we flew to the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” not knowing what other dramas were awaiting us. And, indeed, there was one, right upon arrival!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 10:27:06 +0000
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