Don’t you just love it when, after struggling to remember something and fail to do so, that very something just pops into your head for no reason a few days later?
I had been sorely disappointed with myself writing my “Lost in Enunciation” entry, because I was sure I was missing out on a number of my best “lost in enunciation” moments.
Well, one of these favorite moments came back to me, unprompted, a few mornings back. I was driving by the Globe building on the way to work, and spotted a familiar woman crossing the road.
When I was with Globe HR, this woman was with Globe’s customer service group. I knew her from some trainings and meetings we had attended together. But she stuck out in my mind because, when I was heading out of the building to the tricycle stop one evening in late November after work, I saw her having a hysterical fit on the sidewalk. She was panting, fuming, on the verge of tears.
Well-meaning nice guy that I was—I was in HR, at the time—I approached. With genuine concern, I asked what was wrong.
She told me that she had been standing at the curb waiting for a cab, when two men sped by on a motorcycle and yanked her bag away from her—along with Php20,000 of her Christmas bonus, and the then top-of-the-line service phone that were in it.
She had held fast to her bag for a few seconds, she said, breaking into a run as the snatchers drove away; but her better judgment told her to let go when they started to accelerate. Her wrist hurt, she said.
I put a consoling arm around her as she stomped her foot and whined at her misfortune. “Buti na lang hindi ka nasaktan,” I said. Well-meaning nice HR guy.
I lent her my phone so she could call her husband and ask to be picked up. A teammate of hers arrived on the spot moments later. “Yosi. Yosi!” she demanded. When she seemed sufficiently calmed down by her cigarette and her friend, I told her to take it easy, and headed home.
A few mornings later, we bumped into each other in one of the restaurants in the building. She was with the same friend, and seemed in good spirits.
“O! Kumusta ka na?” I asked, touching her arm with genuine concern. Again, well-meaning nice HR guy.
“Eto,” she said, proudly, “I’m leaving.”
Genuine concern turned to genuine shock. “Ha? Bakit naman?”
“Bakit ano?”
“Uhm, why are you leaving?”
“Ha?”
I don’t know which of us looked more puzzled at that very moment.
Thank goodness for her cigarette-bearing friend, who figured it out for us. “Tsk!” she snapped to her snatcher victim friend. “Akala niya aalis ka. ‘Leaving’.”
The snatcher victim thought for two seconds, then her face brightened and she exclaimed: “Oh! I meant, I’m leaving! You know? Buhay pa ako. You know?”
“Aaaaaaah. Good.” I let out a genuinely relieved sigh, knowing one of our valuable human resources wasn’t leaving after all—and rushed out of the restaurant to hide my embarrassment.
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