Textmates

 

     So there’s this post about old Nokia cell phones (5110, 3210, 3310, et cetera) and people are sharing their experiences regarding the random textmates they made with these phones. I made a few, couldn’t help it as it was the rage those days, people texting random numbers to apply as textmate. So I became textmate with this lady who worked in a bank. We’d text each other every now and then, mostly jokes and quotes, but there was never a plan to meet, even though her work place wasn’t really far from our house, just two brief jeepney rides. Most of the time, I’d just walk to that area.

     We’d been textmates for almost a month when I received a text from her at around five PM. Can I go to her work place? she asked. She’d be working overtime and she’d be alone in the office and she’s scared because there’d been reports that residents near the area would forcibly enter their building, looking for stuff to steal—so could I come?

     I refused at first. I found the request a bit weird. For sure, there’d be guards securing the building, and maybe, other employees at different floors. But no, she’d really just be alone inside the building, and the guard would just be at the entrance, while she was in the fourth floor. Please, please, please, she beseeched, so I decided to go. She knew I didn't live far so she probably thought it really wouldn’t be a bother on me.  At that time, we hadn’t met and we had talked on the phone only a few times.

     I arrived at the building before seven, and the guard allowed me to enter without asking for ID or anything, and sure enough, the building looked abandoned at that time except the office where she was holed up. She was delighted to see me, like she saw this knight in shining armour ready to pluck her out of danger. She was quite comely, looked nice in her uniform, a few inches shorter than me, morena, and slim.

     So I sat on one of the chairs inside the office and alternately watched her work and tinkered with my phone. She showed me the windows in the office where unsavory people, if they were determined, could go through. So she really thought I could protect her. Lol.  Probably from thieves aged 12 below. 

     She would glance at me from her desk every now and then and smile. The door was closed, though not locked. The guard, like she told me, would most likely just stay at the entrance and she seemed relaxed that it would be just us in that office for the next couple of hours.

    We got out of the building half an hour past nine.

    We continued texting after that, the usual jokes and quotes, and then, I don’t know what happened, we stopped. And I wasn't able to visit her work place again. And I got tired of people randomly asking me to be their textmate. Nokia phones faded, and were swept aside by Android phones.

    But I always remember her whenever I see a branch of that bank.