September 27, 2008

It had been a long and restless day. And everyone else seems to be as tired as I am that more or less 75% of the calls I got were from unsatisfied, irrate customers cursing from the other line and terribly demanding for some sort of credit to make up for the "inconvenience." Thank goodness my f****in' shift is over.

I need a career change, I sadly told myself as I boarded the bus. This call center thing is definitely not for me. And like the many other bus rides, I spent every minute contemplating on the past five months of my life. Five months of "Thank you for calling-How may I help you," an unfair and maniac supervisor, smelly headsets and ounces of coffee that had been triggering my acidity.  

It's 2:30am when I reached home (if that's what you can call it) which is actually a small room with two double-deck beds and four small cabinets which is more of a roughly made wooden locker. Me and three other female call center agents share the room. Just the room and nothing more, each one is a stranger to the other having no time to talk. Besides, someone leaves and a new one arrives every three to six months. I smiled at the thought that we seem to be like walking ghost coming in and out of this room. The room where only the beds and the wooden lockers have texture and us are just low signals of energy wrapped in brown skins.

I absent mindedly placed my bag inside one of the lockers and snuggled in one of the wooden beds. I guess the lack of permanence had made me accustomed to not using the words "my" when referring to anything in this room. So it had always been "the bed," "the locker," and "the roommate." I looked at the time, it's 2:45am. The roommates won't be home til 6:00am, that is if they haven't thought of staying up a few hours more and grabbing a few bottles of beer.

And it was around this time the dream came...

I found myself in a big old elementary school that have huge buildings with unpainted walls. The place seems too familiar and different at the same time. Like the feeling that I've been there before and yet I know I have never seen a primary school with a baseball field, a locker room for the players, and a gymnasium with a big clock chiming to announce that it's 6:00am. It was too early for anyone to be here, I told myself. But I found myself having the urge to wander and find out more about this place. It creeps me out to think that a huge establishment as this during cold mornings gives the impression that it is abandoned. 

I took the stairs going to the classrooms at the second floor of the building. Each room looked the same with the tables and chairs perfectly set in rows and columns. I walked straight to the hallway and noticed something black hanging on the wall. It was a bag with a small white toy robot stuck in one of it's pocket. I tried to touch it but I hesitated. That was when I noticed a small door similar to that of air vent openings. I pulled the bag and let it fall just beside where I was standing. Then suddenly, I could hear voices around me like there was some commotion going on that I cannot understand and at the same time, I couldn't find myself to believe for I was still standing there alone. Then it stopped. It was all too fast that before I could even react to my confusions, the small door opened. But there was nothing in there but silence and darkness. Then I felt warm air came out from it and swirled pass my legs. 

I woke up.

September 28, 2008

9:00pm

I was browsing the internet when some news caught my eye.

JAPAN-- Skeletal remains found at Kadena Elementary School in Okinawa are those of a seven year old boy, authorities determined today.

The school's electrician found the bones inside a concealed hole along the school's hallway and immediately notified the police last Tuesday. A black schoolbag suspected to belong to the deceased boy was also found along with the remains.

Investigations and examinations are scheduled to determine the boy's identity and cause of death.