The Selso Combo

After siege, I went back to work. A little later dad came over in his bike saying he’ll be heading home. Our home is the next block from where my work is resided. It is literally a stone throw away.
I was famished from missing my dinner which is unexplainably five-thirty in the afternoon. I told my crew that now is a good time to eat.
I always finished first.
After I was done eating I went behind the counter and started copying the sales for the day. And check stuffs since we are undermanned, due to the fact that I fired one of my waitresses yesterday.
She was really obnoxious.
Back to the topic.
I was there sitting behind the counter when the door came swinging open.
Lo and behold, the face I wasn’t expecting for a long a while.
Mister Anonymous Man. (Thus, I shall be referring to him henceforth as MAM.)
After seeing me, he swaggered over. Swaggered with a hint of waddling. I can’t described how he walks.
“Wow!” I exclaimed, “I can remember faces!”.
Then he leaned over the counter, put his face forward, smiled and freaking winked at me.
“Oh my, you have the gall to wink at me.” I said with exaggerated surprise. “Dense.”
Then he said his famous lines. “Could I have some beer?”
I was thinking, is this the prelude for him hitting on me again.
“If that is all, no problem. Just sit down.”
Then I called Barag. (The name really describes him perfectly. When he was a kid, he jumped off a bridge. He thought he was one of the Power Rangers. Yeah, I always told him he was the Pink Ranger.)
I ordered Barag to serve the man.
I have no desire to even entertain him.
To hell with the sales.
So, he was given his beer, but MAM has no desire to sit yet.
“I heard that I have some apologizing to do.” He said.
“You do?”, I asked with a wide eye stare. As you can tell I have no intention of helping him easing into an apology.
“They said I have insulted you. I remember everything that happened. But I didn’t do anything insulting.” He explained.
“You would think so, right?”, I asked sarcastically.
“Was I rude to you?”, he asked. Perplexity showing in his face.
“Oh no, you weren’t!” I answered my voice dripping with sarcasm.
Sarcasm must have hit at this point. “What did I do?”, he asked again.
“Oh it’s just that you were very annoying. Then you grabbed my hand. Oh and there’s this small thing about you asking me if I would like to share your table for a price. But that wasn’t insulting, right?”, I said in a rapid fire way but in a calm tone.
“Okay, maybe I don’t remember everything. Pero di yun rason para sabihing titirahin ako!”, he exclaimed. Then he added, “I have a sheriff for a brother if you must know!”
“Titirahin?”, I asked with one eyebrows raised.
“Oo. Titirahin daw ako sa ginawa ko nila Sir Danny (The Bank Manger), Boss Leo (The Kingpin)at ni Engineer (Dad).”, he said hysterically.
I didn’t say anything.
“Tatay mo si Enginner, dabah?”, he asked.
“Yes, but the last time you were here, even after you knew who my dad was, you still didn’t changed your tune.” I said.
“I was trying to make friends.” He explained.
“If you want to make friends, you didn’t have to grabbed their hands. You don’t need to be insulting. And firstly, if you want to know someone, you should do the courtesy of giving your name. Which you evaded the last time you graced us with your visit. All you did was name dropping. And I don’t go crying to my dad, if you must know.” I said.
I don’t have to. My youngest sister does it for me.
“I’m sorry. Okay?” he asked.
I looked at him and said “Okay.”
“No. Really I’m sorry.”, he persisted.
“I said OK.”
And went back to my work.
“Lets shake on that.” He said, extending his hand over the counter.
Looking at his hand I leaned back, “Let’s not. Just take your apology and leave it be.”, I said.
Still insisting that I take his hand, “Why not shake hands?” he asked.
“What good will it do?” I asked. “And I don’t care being touched by men.” I explained without rancor.
“Oh I see. It’s because you are rich and I’m poor compared to you.”, he said heatedly.
My eyes turned into slits. I feel a mad coming on.
“You are being rude. You think this has something to do with financial standing? Did I slapped you in the face for being poor?! Well that’s all you did at me from the start.”, I ranted.
My crew, who always see me as a happy-go-lucky and never serious even at work, drew the man away from me when they saw my expression.
Sure, I had pounded a man before with my fist.
But I was drunk back then.
And he had it coming.
“Alam ko naman na langit ka at ang lupa ay..”, he started again.
“Shut up.”, I could feel my face heating up. I was really mad. I really want to hurt him. I was ready for getting physical.
Then cook forced him to sit again at his table, where he did nothing but stare at me. Which he did for a long while.
Annoyed I glared at him.
Then he winked at me again.
“What’s your problem?”, I asked in a biting tone.
Taking this as a cue that we are on speaking terms again he came over and asked if he could order another beer.
Not answering him, I called Barag.
“Looking at you I can definitely say you’re rich and you do traveling, right? Being Chinese you must have visited Korea, your homeland…”, He carried on.
What a dunce.
“Do we have to do this?”, I asked him. I was past my endurance.
“Do what?”, he asked.
“Talk. You have nothing better to say. And I don’t have anything to say to you. This conversation is moot. So go away.”, I said.
My cook dragged MAM and settled him down at his table. Barag stood in front of me, so me and MAM can’t see each other.
We stayed like that for a couple of minutes. The man was telling Cook his sob story of him being hunted for punishment from last time.
Then when he was finished he went over to me again. I scooted my chair out from his radius. Seeing my blatant gesture, he ask how much was his bill.
I just sat there and glared.
Cook said he owes us fourty-six for the beer.
Not taking his eyes off me he said to Cook, “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to her.”
Cook choked back a laugh.
Wanting it to be done and over with, I answered his question.
Then he made a great show of opening his belt bag and pulled out a wad of money .
Seeing the lone dollar, I had a vision.
He put the dollar at the table. “Here’s a dollar. Keep the change.”, he said gallantly.
Predictable.
“Fifty-two sixty.” I said. Converting the amount to pesos.
“Yeah, you could keep the change.” he said again.
“Look, obviously you’re richer than I am. So why don’t you just pay me in pesos easy?”, I said.
“But I don’t have enough change.”, he whined.
Jimmy at this point, who was standing where I was sitting, must have reach his limit.
“Sir, just pay up.”, he snapped.
“Why the hurry?”, MAM asked.
“You’ve been here for a while and you won’t pay nicely. You need to give us a dollar when you have a lot of money in our currency.”, he explained.
Which at this point I stood from my chair.
Looking at me and Jimmy, MAM said to Jimmy, “You’re just jealous!”.
“Of course he is.” I interrupted. “The guy loves me.”
Wasn’t sure if I was being sarcastic or stating a fact. The man looked at Jimmy and snorted. “It’s just because your tall. That’s why you can act that way.”, he said to Jimmy.
“Of course.” I said looking down at him. “With my height, do you really think I would prefer someone smaller?”
“There’s cook. He’s smaller than you. Wanna take him on?”, Jimmy said pointing to Kuya Bong.
Thinking about it, he asked “How much do I owe you?”

Later when I got home, I called Dad to fetch me by the gate where Barag will be dropping me off.
Later when he asked me why the need to fetch me, I told him about the same man last who harassed me last Christmas.
“Why didn’t you call me then?”
“From the last time you reacted, er no.”
“Why didn’t you call Danger?”
“And what good will Kuya Danger do?”, I asked.
“Beat him of course.”, Dad answered like I was stupid.
“Er, right. The man said something like that to effect. About you, Tito Danny and Tito Leo gonna gang up on him.”
“Who is he anyway?”
“ I don’t know. He think he’s a hotshot because he has a brother who’s a sheriff in this town.”
“He said that? Ha! I’ll have that sheriff beat him, himself. I’ll find him tomorrow and I’ll handle it. Don’t worry about it.”
Don’t worry about it…
I suddenly had a flashback. I can still picture it perfectly. When I was a kid, I watched my dad beating the hell out of some man. My mom was holding me and there was a large crowd of people watching.
The man was begging my dad to stop. But my dad just keep on going.
It all begun when I innocently asked my mom, “Mom, do you know that man?”
After looking at the man. “No why?”, she asked.
“I though he’s an uncle. That’s why he keeps putting his arms around me when I was swimming down by the river.”, I explained.
After hearing that. Mom stalked off.
Even at that age, you have an instinctive feeling when you are violated and when something isn’t right. And the man who was keep on hugging me to his body didn’t feel right.
Later she dragged me to the riverbank and ordered me to watch the man being beaten up.
But even though he deserved it, I couldn’t help but feel that it was my fault.
That’s why I don’t like crying off to my dad.

The next morning, I was eating breakfast at work when my dad came in.
“Found him. It’s true that his brother is a sheriff. I think he isn’t right in the head.”, Dad said.
“I know.”, I said.
“The sheriff, his brother, learned what happened and beat him up. I was there at their place a while ago. His brother said that he should consider himself lucky that I didn’t shot him on the spot. What’s for breakfast?”, Dad asked.
“Cook is still cooking my egg Club-Sandwich.”, I answered polishing off my soup. “Want one?”.
“Maybe later.” After spotting Jimmy. “Jimmy! Next time you see the man come in here, bring Danger and beat him up. His brother said it’s okay.”
“Sure.” Jimmy said.
And I sat there picturing MAM getting pounded. Checking my conscience, I figured I won’t be loosing sleep about this.