pointless premonition and the price of escaping the closing of a casket

it was a sudden bleak moment. all the lights around us slowly flickered dim and the rusty jeep that was cradling us at that very moment suddenly became a mattress of death.

i’ve seen this before. de ja vu?
no. i’ve seen it just minutes ago while i was trying to steal a shallow slumber.
i kept on ignoring the vision, trying to let it fly with the gush of the wind caused by the fast acceleration of the jeepney.

itigil mo dito! ngayon na! akin’na celphones niyo. ikaw, akin na ang bag mo! bilis!

my already retreating senses were instantly awakened as my focus was turned on the 12- inch icepick pointed on my chest.

akin na ang bag mo!

i even had the guts to rummage thoughts of resistance. i thought i could play hero on that moment, that i could send the two burglars down their knees with just one blow but i was alerted back to reality when a gun was pointed at my lower body.

i was about to bargain a deal with them. i planned to surrender my money and my phone in exchange of my bag but the gun’s mouth silenced mine.

i was left powerless. the other 4 ladies with me were all stunned as they watched their phones drown beneath the soot-filled pockets of the robbers.

my knees started to tremble as things slowly gain a slight flashes of light from the rapid vehicles passing by. the jeepney driver who was calm during the whole scenario sped the vehicle fast.

as i tried to catch my breath from the rapid fire of heart beats, manong driver kept on mumbling that there was a police station nearby. he dropped us off on the corner of don antonio in commonwealth and pointed us downstreet where he said a police station was located, but everything were just bluff.

with senses blinded by the incident, we took chances of actually looking for a credible police station but there was none.

all i could muse was that my bag was gone.
stupid burglars! the only thing they can sell there was my digital camera; the rest, papers, clothes were all that was valuable for me.
imagine, they’ve spared my phone and my money but not my bag!

i’ve lost the newly printed, rare 8x12 sized family picture, kodak cx7300, the first camera I bought from my savings, my 1700+ grade eyeglasses, my blue monkey shirt, and my valuable file case, containing all my essential documents.

now, the vision grows clearer as i typed further. i don’t wish to suspend the heightened tensions but my fingers were still shaky typing this.
*******
for now i want to hear yoda tell me:

hrrrm. Train yourself to let go off all the things you fear to lose

*******
for now, capturing snapshots of life will be on hiatus.