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SHE'S BAAAACK!

"What if nobody else reads this blog? Ah, does it really matter?, I ask myself. Well, does it matter if no one else hears a sigh in the dark, or a giggle in an open park, or, in a somewhat similar vein, a fart in an empty elevator? They all feel good nevertheless." --Petite

Hey Mrs. G! Welcome back to blog-land. :)

And here's something Petite started couple of years ago but never quite finished:


Chapter Four

A fat drop of oil-slicked rain fell on Michelle’s upturned face. She wiped it off impatiently, her eyes fixed on the hulking shadow of the EDSA Central MRT station. From this distance, crazy shapes seemed to be dancing on the station’s walls. Michelle walked faster.

It was 10 minutes to midnight. She wanted to catch Gani before the night’s skooging began. If not, then she’d have to wait until the next day. By then it would be too late.

She took the steps two at a time. A film of perspiration formed on her forehead by the time she got to the rail floor, but her breathing was still even. The recent exercise wasn’t much to her.

Dark figures zipped across the MRT’s tracks as she nimbly jumped over the turnstiles. The railscooters who saw her grinned. They were her friends. This was Michelle’s playground.

"Hey, Mich, where’s your scoot?," a thin kid in frayed shorts yelled out. He was holding a silver scooter, similar to those that became fashionable at the turn of the century. But instead of small wheels, this one had bearings. And it had never touched the ground. This type of scooter and others like it were only used in one place, and only at a certain time - the MRT tracks, from midnight to 4 am. This was the unbreakable rule of railscooting.

"Where’s Gani?" Michelle asked in response, as the thin kid did a double twist in front of her. That was easy stuff. Michelle could do it in her sleep. Gani was different. He was one of only three skoogers - scooter lugers - who could make the jump from the end of the south MRT rail to where the LRT rail began. He was the best.

"What’s up, Mich? What are you so excited about?" Gani asked her from his perch on the guardrail.

"They’re filming a Fotun Lao action movie here in Manila for real, Michelle couldn’t get the words out fast enough. And they’ve heard about skooging and worked it into the script. They’re looking for a real skooger to play a role, but they have to get him or her by tomorrow. Ryan and Zara already know about it, and they’ll be there. You interested?"

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