To start, I arrived at home in December 23 at around 1:00 am from the premiere night of the "One Night Only" movie premiere at SM Megamall. Basically time passed away as I made new post and changes in my other blog CMAQUEST: An Infotainment and Magazine Blog (http://cmaquest.blogspot.com). At around 7:00 in the morning i started feeling the stress and sleepiness creeping over me. As my eyes started to get droopy, I told myself I had to work first (I do freelance writing). At around 8:50 in the morning, my brother's cellphone rang in his room which is a just one step from my room (our rooms were just divided by a plywood and some lumber). I woke him up and told him to answer the phone. I went back to writing online.
I started to hear my brother raising his voice and telling the person on the other line about his Godmother where he bought his phone two years ago. Things started to escalate and it got my attention as my brother started to become whiny and asked why did the person from the other line kept on asking our family name. I've heard him he told the person on the other line that we lived in Dasmariñas, Cavite and what Area we are. This made me asked him. "Who's that person?", my brother answered "I don't know she kept on asking what's our family name and that this phone I bought from his Godmother was a stolen cellphone.". My brother continued to talk to the other person and he mentioned that he forgot the family name of his Godmother (which is so stupid of my brother). I told him "Your godmother's surname is Robles!", my brother answered back "Her surname is Robles". I told him give me the cellphone and this is how our conversation went:
Me: Hello! The surname of our aunt is Robles! *****(This is not a cursing word, just hid the name for privacy issues) Robles. Hope you can forgive my brother if he forgot the name of his godmother, he just woke up... he is obviously not in the that aware of things. (I reasoned out)
Lady: This is the original owner of this phone. We just traced back this phone and we would just like to confirm if whether this person is the same person whom my son talked about who stole this phone.
Me: If that is the case, we already gave my brothers godmother's name to you then why do you keep on asking about our family name?
Lady: Why, what is wrong about asking your family name?
Me: We just availed this cellphone from her two years ago, we don't have any association in the acquisition of this cellphone prior to what you're saying.
Lady: We don't care about the cellphone anymore. If you want you can keep it, we can buy our own cellphones. We are just concerned to find out who this person, your godmother really is? There is something terrible that happened to the original owner of that phone. If you are in our shoes, you would do the same... you'll find out who are the people involved in this incident.
Me: .... but....
Lady: ....
Me: Aquino!
Lady: Is that true?
Me: Yes.
Lady: then Thank you. (Then hung up on me)
My father and my brother was listening to our conversation. We all sat in the living room and talked about it.
Father: Remove that sim card or better yet turn off that cellphone so that we can't be traced back here (talking to my brother).
Brother: (My brother was all nod with a worried expression.)
Me: If indeed that phone is stolen why ccontact us now? It is almost two years!
Fathe: Did you told them our address? Don't tell them our address!
Brother: I didn't told them about our address.
Me: Yes, You did! I heard you saying that we are in Dasmariñas.
Brother: Yes I did.
Me: It is a good thing you didn't tell them what Area.
Brother: No, I did told them.
Me: (I started to get worried and paranoid)
Father: (Complaining) Why is this happening at this time? Just turn off that phone and we will just use the other broken cellphone (which he said he will surrender to the repair shop). (My father went out to sit)
Me: (After feeling the stress from not sleeping plus the mere thought of the situation) I want you to insert that sim card. Let them contact us again. we must not show that we are hiding the truth, they can't just pick us up and throw us in jail without evidence. If they like, we would help in any possible way we can.
Brother: Just nodded.
Me: Have you inserted it? Turned it on?
Brother: Yes.
Me: That's good.
Father: (Just sat there quietly and didn't disagree with what I have to say.)
I sat back in front of my computer chair and started to plurk what happened to me and here is how I told these disturbing experience in plurk here. Do you know the saying "nasa huli ang pagsisisi" (Regrets comes last - hope I got this translation right)? I just recalled, why didn't I asked for her name? How were they able to trace the number? why after two years? Why insist on having our family name. I started to think of morbid thoughts that there will be a group of this armed mercenaries who will hunt us down and shot us to death because of false belief that we have something to do with what happened to their relatives... a victim of a bloody revenge. I hate that feeling of being negative and such a pessimist. I already turned my back on such belief months ago and here it is again... haunting me.
I wasn't able to finish my work and decided to sleep. Maybe my disturbing paranoia will be over once i get enough rest. As I lied down on my bed running thoughts of goons entering our house and slowly gunning us or killing us haunted me and finally I faded to a deep sleep.
I woke up at around 8:00 pm still December 24, and to what my father, brother and mother(whom arrived from work) told me... a person went to our house earlier to talked about the phone. My brother discussed that they looked elegant and have this expensive phone on their hands. They showed the alleged stolen cellphone and the alleged owners told them that my brother's cellphone is not the cellphone which was stolen from their relatives. After that, they left and a thorn from our hearts was removed.
