March 16, 2006
Cheers
My dreams about him used torun on the same plot:
we are kids running and playing all day
sometimes he picks on me
but I just enjoy the moment.
Towards the end, I feel sad
because the day does not last longer
so I always carry him, hug him,
until I wake up.
Last night, it was different.
My brother showed up a grown man.
He is in Manila because he is applying for a job.
It seems a kneejerk reaction to me
when I asked him if could accompany him
to his job interview.
He nodded silently.
In the next scene,
we were both facing the boss of the company.
The boss asked him
the scientific name of whales
and he answered him pronto.
Then the boss wrote on a small piece of paper
a series of numbers in two rows
and then talked on the phone.
My brother looked at the numbers intently.
Embarrassed for him,
I told him they were just
telephone numbers that he would call
to follow up on his application.
Not heeding me, he scribbled
some numbers, commas, connected squares, and ampersunds
between the two rows.
The boss looked at what he wrote,
smiled, and shook his hands.
After that the boss looked at me
and gave me cold beer.
16 March 2006
eyed at 4:02 PM