the reading carnival... and grimace

"city hall, city hall!!!! isa na lang!!!"
amidst the shuffling of feet was a pair of leather shoes briskly walking to a jeep a dispatcher was attending to.
getting the signal, i quickly went in.
my parents will kill me if they knew about this.
i had no reason to do so, but i didn't tell anyone in the household that instead of heading to school, i took a route to the qc memorial
circle.
"manong, bayad ho..."
while paying the fare, i can't help but look at the permit provided to us, which would have informed my parents about the incoming activity -
and why was i going to qcmc in a regular school day.
as some of you might know, there is this so-called 'reading carnival' hosted by, what was that? scholastic corporation, or something like it.
anyway, it didn't really matter if i didn't tell anyone from the family about it - they're used to me keeping a lot of secrets.
and so the jeep went. i took a peek at the side window...
a sea of blue, green and white was clearly seen along the sidewalk.
i returned my eyes back to the inside; and i saw the same pattern of colors in one girl's dress.
"ma'am, ang daya o! nakasakay!!!"
from there on i knew. that crowd was walking - WALKING - to the same destination i was headed.
obviously not wanting to arrive there sweaty and tired, some 'highly intelligent and capable' students chose to pay fare for the comfort.
i heaved my back to the chair cushion, feeling very comfortable about it.
"manong, para ho..."
i was there alone standing by the elliptical road sidewalk, among a hundred students [the same crowd mentioned earlier0 waiting (im)patiently
to cross the road.
two minutes later, i found myself among my friends and schoolmates. from there on we geared for the world record, say.
what world record? "most number of people reading at the same time (and in the same place?)"
yeah. whatever it was. but record or no record, i believe i was reading pugad baboy by that time.
yet not everyone was reading. at the back of the venue, unseen, were a group of students playing russian poker (more commonly known as tong-its
*compliments to jason*)...
so what if there's a record? our adviser told us that a different record was set: most number of people acquiring skin cancer in a particular
day, time and place due to the heat of the sun. now that's more convincing....
"group 1, may practice tayo ng pinoy... balik tayo ng school...."
it sounded a bit more interesting than setting a world record during that time..
and so we headed for the jeepney stop.
before crossing the road, we saw only few people lining up for a ride.
when we arrived at the other end, however, the population quadrupled.. i suppose.
and it was a very long and unorganized queue.
it was about ten minutes later before we got a ride... and five minutes going to sm...
"mag-te-ten na. ma'am, kain muna tayo sa food court. magbubukas na po yan..."
she agreed.
----
an hour later, we found out the school was locked for the day. precisely why, i did not know. nor did i care.
"dun na lang tayo sa mcdo mag-usap..." said clara, the group leader.
we could only nod our agreement in response.
----
staging a practice at mcdonald's carpark is no easy task.
mobility is hindered, and conversation a bit limited...
the only productive thing we were able to do was talk about what we were going to do.
after two hours of not-so-fruitful discussion we played tong-its.
nothing's that sensible now....
----
an hour later only three of the group remained at mcdonald's: janine, jason, and i...
with nothing to do, let alone anything to talk about, jason started out:
"ano ba talaga si grimace?" pointing to a small portrait just above where we were sitting.
we looked at the picture, with great interest.
thinking about it very deeply, but not with much sense, i blurted out:
"oo nga no... para siyang - "
"ube... ube yata.." cut in janine.
and for that time we agreed about it.
moments later hazel came, and janine left.
after getting a dutch treat of 'king cone' ice cream from jason, the topic came to life again:
"jason, sayang, di mo tinanong nung bumili ka kung sino si grimace..." all of us looking at the portrait.
"oo nga eh, pag may dumaan na lang, tanong natin."
hazel went to some friends sitting about two tables away from us...
and they seemed to agree with the first speculation, reading from their lips "ube yata yan eh!"...
we thought about it again...
"eh bakit ube? wala naman yata silang ube dito ha..."
"meron, yung ice cream diba?"
"oo nga, pero wala pa ring sense... bakit hndi na lang picture n ice-cream like?? bakit parang ube pa ung hugis?"
"siguro kamote yan."
approaching all possibilities, we all ended up in hearty laughters...
then all of us decided to leave and go home.
as we stood up, we saw the 'manager' roaming around the restaurant... and we seized the chance to talk to him..
"er sir, excuse me po, may itatanong lang po kami..."
"sige. ano yun?" the guy replied.
"um, ano po ba talaga si grimace?"
"anong klaseng nilalang po ba siya?"
"kasi po mukha siyang ube dun sa picture.. so nagtaka lang po kami..."
it took him a few moments before he answered...
"ay, wala lang talaga yan, ginawa lang na kasama ni ronald mcdonald at nung iba..."
"ahh.. okey... salamat po sir.."
he wasn't quite convincing, however.
for a fact, i have the faintest inkling that the manager didn't expect the question to be raised, let alone think of a good answer in response.
but we'll look on that someday.