haunt me in the morning

Past 2 o'clock in the morning today, shouts and breaking glasses woke me up. Some young teenagers are at rage on the streets! Not again! My temper just boils each time this happens. It never hit the mind of these kids that they are a disturbance to the sleeping community. Where are the police officers? Where are the barangay officials? Who should respond on scenarios like these? Who should we call? Anyway...I'm not going to rant here. I will tell you something that happened back in December 2005 (i guess).




3AM, Papa suddenly woke me up. I could notice in his voice that he is worried. First thing that came to my mind was some burglar is in our compound. Papa told me to stay quiet as he turned off all the lights in the house. I heard some noise, it came from our front street. Papa made a small opening in the window and asked me if I could notice the man outside. It was dark so I could only see the color of his shirt - bright orange. He looks drunk by his actions.

Suddenly, Papa said we'll go outside to take a closer look. He wanted me to recognize the man. With tiptoed steps and hunched backs, we quickly made our way to our gate. It was like one of those scenes in TV but that time it was for real and I'm actually on that situation. My heart was pumping out of phase, I am nervous that he'd notice us. We hid behind the plants as I sneaked my head out. I saw the man's face. I know him. And I clearly witnessed that he was killing a person...yes...I witnessed a crime.

I confirmed to Papa that I knew the man. It's peculiar that no one had the courage to come out of their houses, for sure our neighbors were also awake because of the noise. The man is known as a gangster and troublemaker in our town. At that time I was shaking. Papa told me to call our Brgy. Captain. After a couple of rings, he picked up and I handed him the information.

But not long enough after I made the call, the man walked away. He left the corpse. Papa grabbed me to take a look. God! I am not a scared-cat when it comes to dead bodies but I was scared that the dead man's face will haunt my memory for the rest of my life. But there I was, I stood in front of the dead man. His head was beaten out of some hard wood that it caused his skull to crack out. In awhile, our Brgy. Captain came and I accompanied him to fetch a photographer to take pictures for evidence. I got myself so involved...and this is not good.

Papa and I were both worried that the criminal might get back on us for reporting him to the police. Take note, the criminal's father is a police. After a long talk, the police left my name out of the report to keep me safe and more witnesses came out later. I was so nervous when I went to school that day. I was so observant of my surrounding and remain alarmed at all times. Good thing was the criminal was caught and locked up in jail that same day. *breaths*

Now, that man is out of jail. I sometimes cross roads with him. He never knew what I did about 5 years ago. But it won't change what I saw and what I will remember.




I hope that experience won't happen again. This morning, it was just a bunch of drunk youths. But I had a hard time of going back to sleep...eye bags again! huhuhu