When I First Met Him

April 14, 2013

7: 14 am

Christine Romulo

Alright. I am ready to go. I have the sheet music books on my hand, my courage on the other, and my smile on my face. Before I step in the car, I see my maid handing me a letter. Quite odd. What is this? I look at the address at the back. Oh, it's from the Office of the Ombudsman. Right then and there, I remember what I did a week ago.

After the family breakfast, and scolding, of course, I went up to my room. I made sure to lock the door so that no one may see or hear what I'm about to do. I take the flash drive from my bag and open all the files I had copied from Macedo. It's at least 500 pages of incriminating evidence against him. I printed it all in one go. It turns out that I had to photocopy everything, four times. Right, of course. Photocopy away! I put all of those papers in a box. Before sealing the box, I wrote a cover letter for all of these.

"To the Office of the Ombudsman,

It has come to my attention that the Honorable Governor Julian Samuel Macedo is not complying to his duties that, as governor of this region, is entitled to obey and fulfill. In this box are the evidences of his ill-gotten wealth and money laundering activities.

No public official should be able to acquire that amount of wealth with only a few small businesses that his family owns. I advise that an investigation against Governor Macedo be initiated, lest all of these activities were to continue.

These evidences are acquired by yours truly from his files that he keeps in his home. I do, however, request to be anonymous on the matter of your investigation. I trust that justice will be served for his corrupt ways.

Respectfully,

Christine Romulo"

I put this cover letter on top of the others. I had the box taped up and sealed with the seal of a Romulo, just to get the Ombudsman's immediate attention.

With that, I snuck my way out of the mansion and drove on my own car. I drove myself to the office of the ombudsman. Long lines, of course! Bureaucracy at its finest. I filled up all the forms needed. This box is fucking heavy, of course. Best hurry up! When I turned the box over to the clerk, even she is shocked to see how much I have. She takes a few documents just to see if it was photocopied. She's no fool. She won't check every single document if it has a photocopy. All she could do is just give me smile out of exasperation.

After a few layers of bureaucracy, I have officially filed a complaint.

Right now, I hold the ombudsman's letter. I can feel my hands trembling as if justice did not win. Whatever happens, I did the right thing, even if I had to be in bed with the enemy.

Alright, here it goes.

I break the seal of the envelope and reveal the full contents of it.

"Ms. Christine Romulo

Your complaint has been answered duly by the ombudsman. It has come to his attention that this rather overwhelming evidence against the Honorable Governor Julian Samuel Macedo proves that he has not been compliant of his duties as governor.

Therefore, it is decided that his removal from office will be issued immediately as soon as the decision has been formally issued.

Further investigations will be done for a possible trial against his crimes of graft, corruption, and plunder."

I won? So, it is done. Macedo is done for.

*

Mister Silang is good to let me try a ministry of the first mass. The first mass is usually the time where the least amount of congregation attend. The most is the noon and the last. Actually, playing the piano for this church is rather pleasing. Keeping up with the sheet music, however, is not.

I still have Mister Silang by my side to guide me on the page turnings and the cues. I am not a firm practicing Catholic, but I suppose I need to know if I am going to do this for a very long time, or at least, until the rumors die down.

And so, I finished the first part, the introductory rites. I don't know if I am doing it right at all. Thankfully, it is now time for the first reading of the bible. I can only manage a sigh for what I am doing. My skills are a bit rusty now. I have not performed in years. It was just a childhood hobby years ago, but now, here I am.

I look at Mister Silang. He seems to be rather encouraging despite my somewhat tolerable performance. He just lets out a brief smile and taps me on the shoulder to console me. "You're doing great, Christine. This is a tough job, but you are doing great on your first day."

I let out another sigh. "Thank you, but it was terrible. Just be honest."

I look around the congregation, and there I see Margaret. Her face displays interest in the readings, but her eyes say, "I need sleep." Poor Margaret. Everything is now taking a toll on her health. She may save lives, but I don't know how long she can keep up the charade that doing all this work, besides the hospital, is alright.

And then, next to her, I see that man again with the mahogany hair and specs on his face. Actually, he seems to be quite the Catholic. He is taking notes of whatever is being said. And then, he looks straight at me. No, there is no smugness in his face. Just utter… reproach. That's when I understood. Oh, shit!

I hear the song being played on the piano, but it is not me playing it. It's Carlos. Dear, god! What is wrong with me? Why am I not keeping focus with what I am doing? Margaret is not even saying anything. She is too tired to even react. I look at Carlos who is playing the piece. He is far too focused to say anything about what I did. After the piece, he turns to me with a no-nonsense face.

"Perhaps, not that great," he says with slight reprimand. He lets out a brief sigh before continuing. "These things happen. We get so lost in thought that we forget our parts. Try to minimize it next time, Christine. I will not always guide you in every mass this church will have."

All I could do is hang my head in shame. Maybe, father is right. You can't always be right all the time (even if he was just being misogynistic at that time).

The mass went on with me bearing a barely tolerable performance in my playing. All I could do is feel sorry for the congregation that wishes to hear the music of the angels. They are hearing the devil play, not the angels. At times I look at that smug smile of Morris. He doesn't have to rub it in that I am not doing a good job. Perhaps, my interpretations of pieces are wrong, and that he is right that I can be technical, but not passionate.

At the end of the mass, Carlos just gives a tolerating goodbye. We will see each other next Saturday, of course, but I can feel that he is not pleased with what I am doing. I went out of the church alone. Normally, our chauffeur would pick us up from the church, but I'd rather much commute my way home. I can't handle the shame to face Margaret right now. As I carry several sheet music on my hands, I feel my arms giving up carrying all this weight.

All of a sudden, a wind sweeps by. A few of my papers flown in the air. I tried my best to gather all of them. One is in the air, one is in the ground, one is in the bush, they're everywhere.

"Beep! Beep!"

And, suddenly, it came crashing right on to me. I did not realize what happened at first. I blacked out for a moment, but I stood my ground the moment it was done. And, then, I realized. A motorcycle crashed unto me. In my blurry vision, I see a man helping my stand up saying words that I cannot understand. After a few minutes, everything becomes clearer to me.

"Miss, I am deeply sorry," he says as I come to sense of what is going on. "Are you alright? Should I call for an ambulance? How's your head? Oh, my… I did not mean to."

I cannot even deal with this now. I just picked up the sheet music around me. I hear the congregation clamor as to what had happened. I can't even say who to blame. Is it this asshole's fault for not watching where he's going? Is it mine because I was too out of touch with reality that I did not realize he was coming? And then, I see him helping me. I take the sheet music away from him and started walking away.

He started following me and catching up to me. "Miss, I'm sorry. I did not mean to."

I pretended not to hear him. My day just keeps getting better and better by the minute. First, my failure at the church. Now, it is him. He can't understand that I want some time alone. "Miss, it would do me a great pleasure if you would just answer me!"

I just kept walking along faster. Just go hop on your motorcycle and drive away. However, instead of driving away, he just keeps catching up to me that he ran so I could see him face to face. He even dared blocked my way. "Look, miss. I know I did wrong, that is why I wanted to make up to you," he says while panting.

I was about to walk away, but suddenly he stopped me. "Please, just hear me out," he says again. "I'm sorry for crashing unto you and making you fall. I did not really mean to."

He had to say that in the most annoying way possible, with a smile on the side. Of course, he's not being genuine about that apology. He just wants to relieve his conscience. I just give him an amused smile as I roll my eyes. "Is that it? Will you finally stop muttering 'I'm sorry' and leave me at peace?"

"Yeah, I think I will," he says in response.

That's when he finally drew the last straw and had me walking away. Before I walked away, he pulls me by the arm. I look at him as if I would swallow him whole for what he is doing. If he had just said one 'sorry', I wouldn't be so annoyed. He's clearly overplaying it. "I just want to make up to you. I know I can't magically heal your scratches or straighten your sheet music, but I want to make it up to you in some other way."

In my annoyance, I take his hand off my arm. It's getting kinda annoying and it's pressing too much on me. "Oh, really? How?"

"A date," he says genuinely. "Just a normal date where I can treat you for a nice meal. Is it ok?"

I am ready to say my 'no,' but then, I looked around. I see the concerned faces of the congregation. They clearly see what's going on. I know a date can't make up for what he has done, but I saw a face in the crowd. There's the rather dismayed face of my sister, and right beside her, there's Morris. There's Morris who is so honorable and stoic that he can't be bothered by seduction.

I promised to myself that I'll win, and I will. I look at this man once again in the eye with a triumphant smile. "Yes, I think I'll take you up on that offer."

I see the relief on his face. "Great, how shall I meet you?"

"How about trying an introduction first? So, what's your name?"

"Mateo, and you?"

"Christine," I say with a rather faked smile.

I pulled out my hand for a handshake, and Mateo gladly took it. I look once more at Morris with a smug look on my face. I can see him shaking his head at all of these. He's no fool. He knows what I'm doing. Still, I'd rather let him know that I can play any game that I will always win. I turn to face Mateo once more who seems rather glad of what's going on.

"So, shall I take you home?"