Time After Time

Untitled Part 94

MICKY arrived about thirty minutes later, nagsisimula pa lang si Olivia sa kanyang vongole at salad na may kesong puti at kalamansi vinaigrette. Medyo basa pa ang buhok ng lalaki, amoy malinis at sariwa. Itim na T-shirt at jogging pants na kakulay ng sweatshirt niya.

Errr, hindi nga pala jogging pants ang tawag sa pants nito these days. Jogger pants. She still could not wrap her mind at that. Really, ano ang pagkakaiba ng pam-PE niyang JOGGING pants noon sa suot ngayon ni Micky at kailangan pang baguhin ang tawag?

Baka sa...grammar? Someone in the fashion industry suddenly argued that JOGGING PANTS means the pants are inanimate therefore they could not possibly be jogging...

"No one stared at my pants like that before." Sabi ni Micky at naupo.

"Just a Tita thing. Order ka na."

He asked for a lemon scampi pasta and beef and tomato sandwich. Like her, he didn't order a drink. Pero magkaiba sila ng rason. Siya, dahil lang hindi talaga niya nahiligan ang juices at softdrinks, maski iced tea. She didn't grow up snacking with those. Kung hindi si Ate Ellen, si Manang Udes ang naghahanda ng snacks niya noon--ginataang matamis, prito o nilagang saging na saba, monay na may palamang Reno at mantekilya, but mostly, she would just snack on fruits that were in season. Tubig lang lagi ang panulak.

Ang reason ni Micky, his heart. Wala itong choice kung hindi maging health conscious simula pa pagkabata. Heart transplant recipients like him were only expected to live up to fifteen years after the transplant. He already survived well past the expectation dahil na rin sa advances sa medisina pero kailangan nitong doblehin, triplehin ang pag-iingat sa puso at kalusugan.

"You'll never know." Sabi nito, sa unang pagkakataon, kinakitaan ni Olivia ng takot. "Mine's a borrowed heart. A borrowed heart's a borrowed life."

She reached across the table ang patted his hand, "That's Corey's heart. He's a tough one."

"What's he like? Kinukwento sa 'kin ng mga kapatid n'ya , that's he was like this and that...I want to know what he was like from you."

"He was always full of energy." She could still vividly see Corey's face, "He's always ready to laugh, always looking as if he was up to something...hindi ba nila kinuwento kung ano ang nangyari? Kung paano s'ya namatay?"

"He was stabbed at school. He bled out. I don't have the details, my parents got the feeling that his family didn't really want to go into details and they respected that."

"Hindi mo naaalala kung paano..i mean, bilang si Corey? I've been Googling kasi while waiting for you--"

"Not like that. Minsan lang, I would get a weird sensation that I was drowning, I couldn't breath. That was how he died, right? A punctured lung. Let me guess, you came across something called cellular memories." He glanced at her phone on the table.

She nodded, "It would seem that our memories aren't just stored in the brain. Naka-store rin sa cells natin at hindi lang ikaw ang transplant patient na may ganyang karanasan. One account I read said the recipient suddenly becomes an artist kahit wala s'yang artistic inclinations prior to the transplant. But it turned out, the donor was a painter. There are also rare cases where the recipient actually remembers how the donor died, or mga especial events sa buhay nung donor. Ang memories nung donor, napupunta sa recipient, nagiging part ng consciousness kasi nga, nasa cells rin daw natin ang memories."

"Ive been reading about those too. Pero pinag-aaralan pa rin hanggang ngayon, it's not yet fully accepted as a fact."

"Pero madaming real-life accounts. I couldn't believe it." She just typed, can organ recipients be possessed by donor? At naglabasan ang mga artikulo, blogs at news tungkol sa mga kasong kaparis ng kay Micky. How else can you explain it? I'd rather believe our cells store memories than believe you're being possessed, na kababalaghan ito lahat."

"Then you can't stop me from liking you a lot. It's in my cells."

"Oh, jeez, Corey was a long time ago. I've been in love with other men since." There was Gab and then Philip...Martin... Nolan....

"First love never dies."

"This can't possibly be love, Micky. If you're also Corey, haven't you.... moved on?"

"Ikaw ba?"