i was cleaning out some papers and stuff and came upon the diary i kept during the 1st year of Alyssa, 2004 and 2005 entries. A folded paper was inserted on the date March 22, 2005. This blog is an exact copy of that folded paper. Written by me.)
March 23, 2005 2am
Bedroom, Lahug. Everyone's asleep now. Even the neighbors, all them teen-agers who usually get drunk at this hour and sing loudly and irritatingly. Ive just been downstairs, checking everything from the locks to the faucets to simply everything. Everyone's tired. Joel's tired. Alyssa's sleeping in her crib. We oughtta get her a decent bed now coz she's more than a year old. Im tired. But Im afraid to sleep. its 2.09am, March 23. Yesterday was a terrible day. Terrible terrible terrible. It all started at around 6am. I knew it was 6am coz Joel just left to bike and meet up with the guys at Caltex banilad, quite a distance from our house here in Lahug but he can go thru the camp. the MPs are his friends. Im used to our place being noisy. Noisy neighbors, noisy cars, taxis, dogs, horns, jeepny, all sort of stuff. Im even used to that old lady who lives on the side of our house (there's a small alley) shouting every morning to her friends and whatevers and whoevers. You know, the type of person who just shouts everything. But what i wasnt used to that morning was her shouting FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!!! I was down with a bit of a fever but it didnt take me a second to snap out of my slumber. At that same time, our helper, Aileen, who Id describe as a bit of a slow poke and too soft-spoken, was frantically knocking on our bedroom door screaming at the top of her lungs SUNOG SUNOG SA TUPAD! (FIRE FIRE AT OUR SIDE!) Split second I jumped out of bed, looked out the window to access the fire, grabbed the still sleeping Alyssa, got her baby bag, got my bag, put on my Birkies, opened the door, dragged Aileen down the stairs, out the house, out the gate. while calling Joel on the cellphone.I looked up to see the smoke, dragged Aileen to the safety of the military camp a distance away and told Aileen, no matter what happens she stays in sight (my sight) but at the camp. I just yelled at Joel over the phone, COME BACK WE'RE ON FIRE!!!...then called the people on my speed dial, these people had been arranged already, from the nearest to the farthest. by this time I have backed the car out of the garage already .Poypoy doctor and long time friend, next came Oscar, who lives near Honda. And there are also numbers of people who I knew are always ready and mobile, and sure enough, Dave came with his car. I have by then called his wife, Mayet, who I knew was on her way back to her house by then, after taking the kids to school, sure enough she was in our area and was now on standby with her own car a few meters away. by this time, Poypoy has already loaded up our bicycles, Joel's remote control airplanes (the hi-valued ones) and them expensive gizmos, in his pick up truck. A friend has also taken care of Alyssa and Aileen and I could see the 3 of them from afar. They were ok. But my mind was still running fast, I knew our house was made of old wood, I knew there was a petrol gasul vendor 2 houses away (why they were even allowed to sell, i dont know, damn City Hall!!!) and once our house is hit, its gonna go in seconds coz we have 3 more houses attached. JOEL. He got back in 5 minutes, or even less. From Banilad! during the 6am traffic. That was a miracle. He said he was near tears while hammering on the pedals of his bike coz he could see the smoke in the sky coming from our area. The sight was bad enough, and knowing that it was us next was making his head spin. But he had to hold it together coz he had cars and cars and cars in front of him to manuever around. He said the camp was closing its gate when he got there but he pleaded with the MP to let him thru coz it was his family in trouble. I dont exactly know how he made it back to the house in 5 minutes. Angels, there were angels. They were carrying him. he was flying somehow. Dave and Oscar were loading stuff in our car when I looked at the camp again and saw joel, I ran to him while he was getting off his bike. Automatically we knew how things should work. It was like we've always been nsynch. But we have played out this scenario in our heads every night before going to sleep and we knew exactly what to do. in less than 5 minutes after the alarm I have done what we've practiced in our heads for the past 11 years of being married. He ran to the house to help out Poypoy, Oscar and Dave while i loaded up his road bike on Poy's pick up. We figured if things go to totally horrifying, we could always sell our 3 bikes and would still get by long enough. I go back to the house coz Poypoy was asking me what else? what else we need to save? We already had the important stuff out. Everyone moved like clock work. Poypoy ran from the kitchen coz the fire has already crossed the small alley and have climbed our walls and is now at our kitchen window. it was like everyone was just a blur moving around me. Joel has gotten all his valuable stuff already. Stuff that would we could sell just in case. somehow I needed to check our room one more time, the fire was on the electrical wires outside our windows already, the smoke was getting thicker and the room hotter, Joel was already shouting for me to get back down. This was when my tears came out. it was actually happening. How could something so terrifying happen to us? where do we sleep tonight? Maybe at Oscar's house. he has a big house and I know he and Cristy wouldnt have it any other way. (hehe, a little laugh escapes my mouth). I have packed everything of alyssa's, cloths, nappies, bottles, milk, simply everything. I packed mine and Joel's cloths with the bed sheets. Our luggage full of important documents was safe. by this time, Joel already has Alyssa and Aileen with him. 10minutes has passed. we did it all in 10minutes. We had to get out of the house coz the smell was awful and it was hot and there was lots of smoke. The lady of the house next to ours kept asking, are we next? are we next? i couldnt even look at her. i was in a state of disbelief. Joel was just saying, There's nothing more to do now Ati, let it go now. Relax. And so we just stood by our friends' car and watched the firemen try to contain the fire. Im not sure how long it took them to put it all out. But our house was saved. but there was soot on our walls already. But we were spared. Thank God. thank you Lord. Thank you. The news said the whole thing went on for 20minutes. I have noticed Joel was in his running shoes. He had the presence of mind to take his cycling shoes off and change into running shoes. All the running would have ruined his cycling shoes, would have slowed him unnecessarily or would even have made him slip. Smart guy. And the cycling shoes wouldnt be worth anything if ruined. And I have noticed Joel has carried Alyssa on his shoulders by now. I saw Alyssa's beautiful smile and face. She was laughing. Aileen was pale and quiet. She was still gripping the baby bag. That baby bag had contained enough supply of diapers, milk, change of cloths for 4 nights, alyssa's rainwear, blanket, soap, socks, a pair of shoes, cellphone,charger and even money and vitamins and medicines. i always see to it that alyssa's diaper bag is ready for any emergency. I go thru it every night. You just can never tell what could happen the next hour. My messenger bag...passports, jewelries,money, wallet, extra inhaler, extra advil, Serz, Drixine, lipbalm and lotion. Girl scout stuff. The sun was hot on my face already. ABS CBN car arrived and the reporter was interviewing people. He was nearing me and I realized I was in my daster, but what the heck, i had my trusty birkies on. My hair was a mess and my face unwashed. but we were spared. 30minutes later we were given the go signal to go inside our house. jThe guys have put all our stuff back to their places. Everything was systematic, they didnt have difficulty. I always have big plastic bags or duffel bags in strategic corners of the house. I have swiss knives in every one of those bags. My running shoes and birkies are always by our door just in case we needed to run in the middle of the night. When the guys left, Joel, Aileen, Alyssa and I were just sitting in the living room. And that was when I cried. It was terrible. Nobody has to go thru that ever. Horrible. I texted my father-in-law and my parents. I THANK GOD FOR GUIDING US. FOR OUR FRIENDS. FOR TAKING CARE OF JOEL ON HIS BIKE. TAKING CARE OF ALYSSA AND AILEEN. FOR OUR STRENGTH AND PRESENCE OF MIND. FOR SPARING US. END.
(Until now, I always wake up at 5.30 every morning. I dont wanna be surprised of anything happening at 6am. As if terrible things could only happen at 6am. by 6.30am, I go back to sleep when I can. I still check on our big emergency bags. We now have two babies. Which means each baby has her own emergency diaper bag. its a lot of work at night, but we can never be too careful. After the day's work, i still transfer my stuff to my trusty messenger bag. A messenger bag is easier coz you can sling across your body and I can carry one kid without being bothered with the bag. My running shoes is still prepared. Our headboard is emergency ready. We still practice escape strategies in our heads each night. We pray that we wouldnt have to play it out for real anymore ever.)
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