Friday afternoon, I’ve nowhere exactly to go. But just when I’ve decided to catch another movie, I got a call from Anette inviting me for a gimmick. I went to see her, Marvin, and their pals at their usual hangout, Ayala Billiards. It turned out that it was their torch night (usually termed as turn over night) and Anette wanted us to watch them being passed with torches by the graduating students in the Philippine Normal University open field.

They were dressed up in Filipinianas (reminiscent of my sister’s grad ball, where I, Jules and Ryan were escorts) with red cloths draped from their elbows down, while the 4th years, in blue.

I, together with Marvin and Henry (Sugar’s beau) watched the whole thing impatiently under a mango tree at a corner of their university’s ample field. The ceremony lasted for almost three hours and most of which were wasted on their relatively sluggish procession. They looked like angels in the night while they raised their lit-torches as the ceremonies ended with their cheering which almost made them look like the Katipuneras shouting their battle cries.

Later, the planned gimmick was thwarted as we settled for the nearer but more practical Ayala Billiards, again. There we waited for many hours before any of the VIP rooms were vacated. And briefly after Mench arrived (in slippers, oh boy) past midnight, one of them finally opened. We had beer, as usual, as we got on with the videoke. Henry’s friends also joined us, who later attested to be a bunch of desperate singers just like us.

Marvin stayed in my house for the night after we fetched Mench and Anette to their respective places. And in the morning, it proved to be a tough act for my sister to wake us up. She said we were sleeping in the same position not exposing our faces and since we were almost of the same color, and as he was wearing my shorts, she had a hard time telling who was me.