6.22.2010

This man's life

Wrote this hurriedly while I was in the bus this morning. I learned of the news as I was about to leave the house to go to work. I can't make sense of what am feeling and so I had to write.

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A neighbor whom am not close with was shot pointblank at the nape last week while walking drunk outside their house (which is two houses away from ours). Rumors said he died instantly, others said he's 50/50. Some say he deserves it for killing innocent people too, I say give him a chance.

 I often see him weekends drinking with the other tambays in our neighborhood. He's a little bit boisterous, maangas if you may, but not in an offensive way, at least to me.

I once overheard him coyly reveal that he's a hitman. Another inuman he was taking pride on how good a factory worker he Is where he dared challenge the approach of the foreman & that he's one of the best (jeans ironer, dunno what it's called) in the factory.

 He's   been in jail before for some crime which i remember he's guilty of. There's also a time when he and another neighbor harrassed a chicken delivery boy, asking for free chicken. The boy asked them to wait until he's done with the delivery, but the two won't, and  stabbed the boy. I heard the boy died. The neighbor who killed him ran away, while the innocent neighbor got jailed.

He's 25, has a wife and three very young kids. He is now dead. I wish I can say that these are all fiction and just a by-product of my usual far fetched imagination, but I can't. It's as cold blooded as true. And what's fact is my heart hurting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe its because the death is close to you (kapitbahay).. the proximity of it reminds you of your mortality or that of your close relatives..if someone could be murdered in broad daylight within your vicinity, it will definitely have some effect on you.. or you could be thinking that he could be rehabilitated and now, that chance was gone.. snipped by a bullet... life is really short, parang box of chocolates, you'll never know what you'll get ....twistedhalo

firewomyn said...

@twistedhalo - thanks for sharing your ideas. it's indeed unnerving to find out that someone you know as living is suddenly gone. part of me is very sad because in the frequent times that i've seen him, i never bothered as smile to him. we just stare at each other for a millisecond and then go about our ways. i feel that i wasted an opportunity to yes, help rehabilitate him somehow. and even if i want to give abuloy, i can't =( am penniless. and it pains me a whole lot that am not even able pinch in. hayy.