It's 3:04 in the morning
I went downstairs to check the rolled up sleeping bag where the guard in our dormitory hides his pack of cigarettes.
(He does this every night)
As usual he was sleeping
I remember I used to steal dad's cigarette whenever I was depressed and whenever the pack was almost full so he wouldn't notice.
At least somehow I was helping him right? :)
After getting one, I sat on the empty room on the back of our dormitory, leaned against the wall, and had my first smoke in over a week.
It was deafening. The silence inside the room and within me.
"Aaron!"
The sanubavich was already awake.
"Nanguha ka na naman ng yosi no? Halika nga dito may letter ata para sa'yo, binigay lang sakin kanina ng admin."
He handed me the postcard sent by my ex-girlfriend during her earlier months in France.
"Tagal na nito a?"
He didn't answer my question rather he kept on rebuking me about his missing cigar.
I sat idly in his table while swinging my legs and started to read the card.
"Umaga na, wala ka bang pasok?"
I didn't answer him immediately, I was busy trying to translate the French-filled letter by Aga.
"1 pa"
He turned on his ancient radio. You'll never see a radio that old in your life, believe me.
Coincidentally, Almost Over You by Sheena Easton was played while I was reading the 2nd to the last paragraph of the card
(Oh God)
Kuya Rin started snoring again when I got to the the last line of her letter
Je'taime
I smiled.
