Spectacles

At past one in the morning, I find myself walking in the hallway going to the bathroom. A report has to be rushed before the shift is over and drinking too much tea induced me to spill the fluids in my bladder. A few steps before the toilet, subordinates wait for the elevator. Four ladies need a lift going down. They saw me coming so they have to stop me dead in my tracks.

"Sir punta kami Ministop." Their leader said.

"Sama ka na." Urged another.

I was in no mood to go down. Not even for a smoke. But learning that my agents will have to walk three blocks across dangerous streets to buy lunch obliged me to join them.

Inside the elevator the ladies speak of their concerns as I pretend not to listen. One is seeking advice about her doomed office romance, while the oldest complain about the dry-up in workload. She says it upsets her family budget. The girl whose long unkempt hair became a target among other agents (the guys from the morning shift once dubbed her as 'yung babaeng galit sa suklay') speak of her plans to find a new workstation. Her snail-paced desktop affects her daily output.

The elevator reaches the ground floor. Its doors part at the middle showing us the exit. Warm wind flows around inviting us to tread the barely lit inner driveway. Only the security officers' quarters remain bathed in light with the guard on duty watching an action movie on cable. The huge steel door swings open and the road outside lays empty.

Everything is under the hour's shadow and the lack of nearby sources of light allows me to peek into the heavens to find sparkling gems pinned against the charcoal horizon.

"Awww ang daming stars, kinikilig ako..." A subordinate overhearing my reaction chuckles behind.

Forgetting to take off my glasses - which I only wear on the floor - it was the first time in years I was able to pause and take pleasure gazing at distant objects dangling across the night sky.