mr.Perez

Someone knocks on my door.
“Mrs. Perez”, the mail carrier ask me
My eyes roll back and forth and I tell him that the name does not ring a bell.

“Water bill, Perez”, shouts the deliveryman of water system.
Again, it does not ring a bell.

Then the phone bills, the electrical bills, and other bills, asking for Mr. Perez

I never bother to ask who Mr. Perez is. Then time has passed nevertheless, with the same scenario, Mr. Perez unknown for me, the heck for me to ask. I live in a compound of 6-unit apartment, roughly for a year already but little information I have about our neighbors. The unit on our right is the owner of the compound; a family of Jehovah’s Witness while the one on our right is a big family of Muslims and the rest of the three other units are unknown to me. But whenever I go out of the compound, I usually see two old men hanging around at the compound’s gateway. Mr. A, as I brand him, he always has a book, magazine or anything to read on. I usually see him every afternoon sitting on the porch yard. He is pretty old with a façade of sad face. Then, Mr. B, as a call him in my mind, he has a big tummy dangling back and forth whenever he walk. I usually see him cleaning his old, gray corolla car every morning, at around eight or nine. Life goes on every day. Just a simple glance and mandatory smile to acknowledge their presence whenever my eyes come in contact with theirs.

One sunny day, the owner of the units, Granny Nag, the name speaks for her; she is lean but energetic granny who loves to plant herbal shrubbery. “Is she gonna ask for the payment, it’s not due yet” I thought. Then she utters this “Si Prof patay na”. As always, my gesture turns out to be clueless. Then she immediately adds “un me ari ng corolla”. Tight cramps on my tummy, a bolt from the blue. Granny Nag then tells the story on how the Prof dies. At the end of the tête-à-tête, I discovered that Prof, Mr. B, and Mr. Perez are just one person.

Just a thought: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.