The alarm rang. “6:30 am, March 27, 2019” announced the clock and I woke up. I opened my eyes to the view of the billboard across the street. “Live at the Araneta coliseum! Teresa Ardales’ 101 Melodies With special guest American Idol season 18’s winner, Marlowe Pamintuan”. This billboard reminds me of the times when those two use to sing a duet in the classroom when we were 4th year high school students. Cedar was our section then. It seems like it was yesterday, when we gave our last gifts to our adviser, Mr. Cyr Allan Laurel, after the graduation ceremony. I wonder how he’s doing right now? After I took a bath, I got dressed. I wore a chick blue cocktail dress made by renowned fashion designer KC. Wait! Hold on just a minute! I just remembered that KC stands for Katrina Cruz. I had a classmate back then named Katrina Cruz. Way back when I was in high school at SMS. Hmmm, could it be? Maybe. For breakfast, I got a cup of Brazilian coffee and French toast sprinkled with cinnamon and crushed almonds to achieve a more creamy taste. As a chef, I must be very particular of what I serve at my table. I got the daily newspaper; the front pager was Alexandria Bernabe, a Filipina filmmaker who won an Oscar for best film story for a foreign film and best film maker. She was a classmate of mine for 2 years in, well, where else? SMS, of course. I turned my television on for the morning news. “A new system of assembly is formulated to assure that dairy products, when released, are free from contamination and be safer to the public. The new system was formulated by Allyza Frida Esmanil, an industrial engineer. Nice one sir Melvin! Ha-ha...” Says morning talk show host Nico Arraullo and added the morning joke. Same old Nico, a joker by heart. “And in the other news, vocalist Kim De Villa’s new hit single ‘High school’ stands at no. 1 in Billboards top 20. Nice one classmate!” After breakfast and personal hygiene, I went to Viveré to talk to its senior manager and former classmate, Janica Mendoza to make an arrangement for tomorrow night for the ‘Big Event’. Before I left, Jha gave me a ticket to a concert at CCP Complex of Joan Perez together with the Philippine Opera Company and the Philippine Harmonic Orchestra. She said it was given by Joan herself and there was this other thing she gave me. It’s wrapped in a red and white stripe wrapper and it’s kind of rectangular in shape. I wonder what it could be. She said it’s from Merille Medina, our aspiring writer when we were in high school. I left the hotel and went on to do the rest of my errands. In the car, I opened that thing Jha gave me. It was a book entitled ‘Cedar: an autobiography of a class’. No wonder, it was written by Merrile and she dedicated it to our class and to our adviser. With it was a letter. “To Ate Karla” it said in the envelope. I opened the letter and it said:
Dear Ate Karla,
How are you doing? It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen each other. I hope to see you on the ‘Big Event’ tomorrow night. Anyway, I hope you like the gift. It’s my new book. As you can see, you won’t be seeing those in bookstores until next month. I just thought of giving you guys an advanced copy as gifts. And by ‘guys’ I mean all of the Cedar. I manage to track down our former classmates. Franklin Edijer and Russel Mapas are now pilots. Rjae works at
Yours truly,
Merrille Jelline
P.S.:
Did you know that KC stands for Katrina Cruz, who is also our former classmate and is now a renowned fashion designer? Ha-ha. No wonder. J
I knew it. I arrived at Greenfield Corp. in Mandaluyong to meet up with engineer Kathrine Elias. When I arrived, she was talking to dashing young woman who’s tall and elegant. She looked familiar to me. When I approached both of them, it occurred to me that it was Zyra Mirandilla and she is now a CPA. Wow! Amazing! We had a little chat before we headed to lunch. Of course, it’s been quite a while since we saw each other. We went to this very classy restaurant at Ayala ave. called Le Boheme. Translation: the bohemian. It was founded 2 years ago by a flight stewardess who, most likely, wanted a business of her own. It was a kind of classy French restaurant with a mix of Filipino cuisine. We got a table and talked a little before we start our lunch. Then I saw a familiar face at the table beside ours. I asked Zy if she is familiar with the guy and she said she recognizes him to be Adrian Valiente. We invited him to our table and we found out that he is now a software designer for Microsoft company and is formerly a designer of Macintosh. After we finished our lunch, the waiter said that the owner wants to speak to us and will come to our table momentarily. We wondered why the owner of the restaurant would wants to speak to us. Then we saw a young woman walked out of the office. She was a slender and tall young woman, has perfect figure, fair complexion and a beautiful face. When she neared our table, we stood up to show respect and introduced ourselves. She smiled and said “Don’t you remember me, guys? I’m Kim. Kimberly Perez. Remember? Sadista no. 1?” It was Kim! Wow a restaurant owner. How do you like that? After lunch I went home to rest and relax a little bit, because tomorrow is the ‘Big Event’. After dinner I had a telephone call from Abegail Antonio who is now a successful business woman and had a business on vehicle merchandising. It has been 4 years since we last saw each other. I can’t believe she still had my telephone number after all these years. Good thing I never changed numbers. She asked me if everything’s ready for the ‘Big Event’. “We still haven’t contacted Mr. Cyr yet.” I said. “I’ll do it. I have his number and we’ll be speaking to him in no time.” Abi hung up and I went to my room to get some sleep.
The next day, is the day of the ‘Big Event’ everyone is busy preparing and I met some old friends along the way. That night, everyone was there. There’s Melody Dizon who’s now a medical technician , Therese Peralta , the dermatologist, both working at St. Luke’s Hospital, Louie Ortega and Joshua Manalastas who are now marine engineers, both at navigation, Veenzon Cagandahan who is now a seaman, Kristian Veluz, now a businessman on real estate, Ryan Magbanua, the mechanical engineer, Elger-Em Baccara who is now a conductor and founder of the Pyongyang Philharmonic Orchestra, Jasvinder Gora, now a famous world-class waitress in England, Zoilo Santiago, a receptionist and front desk manager of Burg Dubai, Christian Luy, president of the worlds leading toy company, Mattel, Mary Grace Tresenio now a high school teacher at, where else, Southernside Montessori School, Kevin Bombasi is also a marine engineer but he prefers to be called a Naval Technician at Titanic III, hope it doesn’t sink this time, Kevin Contaoi now a computer programmer in Globe Telecom, and the rest of the gang.
Like I said, everyone was there except, “Oh no! Where’s Sir Cyr?” cried Nico. “This is horrible!” Elger added. “We can’t throw a reunion without our adviser, right?” Joshua elucidated. Everybody started to panic, but then someone cried “Cedar, ano ba yan? Ang ingay niyo, ha!” We all knew who it was. It was that same voice we had been hearing for 10 months in high school, that same voice we love so much, that same voice that has been an inspiration to us all these years. It was our beloved adviser, Sir Cyr!
*beep beep beep*
It was the alarm clock. But, how? Could it be just a dream? Maybe, but I wish it’d come true. That would be so fun.
Karla Bernadette O. Del Rosario
Cedar 2008-2009
nice one. ngayon ko lang sya nabasa. haha.
ReplyDelete@Garnet Thanks ^^
ReplyDelete