Everyday Life

I love shopping at S&R. Yesterday afternoon, my brother and I went to the Alabang branch to pick up some pizza for late lunch at home. We had a great time looking around and catching up while waiting for our food. We had not hung out in a while and being able to just spend a lazy afternoon checking out what’s new in the store put us both in a really good mood.

On our way out of the parking lot near the Alabang Zapote exit, we both noticed this man walking towards us with a shopping cart. He was walking pretty slowly so we kept on driving. He was looking at the car smiling. Boyong, my brother, was driving slow as well, so when he noticed that the guy was just walking straight towards us, he stopped. The man was still smiling at the car as he crossed out path. All of a sudden when his shopping cart was directly blocking the car he shouts, “Did you not see me?”

As this happened, he was still sort of smiling at the car and Boyong and I think it’s a joke so he asks me, “The hell, do we know this guy?”

The guy screams again with arms flailing, “Did you not see me?” This time his smile was gone.

My brother then opened the car door, stuck out his head, waved and said, “I’m sorry”

Out of nowhere, this crazy person walks up to my brother’s side and starts shouting. “Did you not see me? Are you so stupid? Did you even graduate grade school, high school or college?”

Normally in situations like this, my brother would blow his top. I think we both noticed that the guy was only about half his size and he could easily beat the living daylight out of him. I’m proud to say that Boyong remained calm despite the enraged moron screaming at the top of his lungs, hurling insults at my brother who happens to be a student of dentistry, about to graduate. I had to stop myself from screaming back at the guy, as I wanted so bad to ask him if he had graduated, and if he was sure he wanted to get into a contest of intelligence with us.

My brother said, “Look, I stopped and I said I’m sorry” then closed his car door. The guy starts walking away and once our path was clear we start to drive off. Then as the man walks beside our car, he punches the rear passenger window. Obviously annoyed my brother says to me “What an idiot.”

When we got to the ticket booth, I showed the guard my Festival Supermall ID and asked him to please get the man’s plate number and name. I was not about to let this moron go, and wanted to at least know who he was so that I could inform my dad of what had happened and who had harassed us. While we were talking to the guard, the man storms up to us again, screaming “Anong problema nito, bakit ayaw umalis?” (“What’s the problem, why don’t they want to leave?”)

He then turns to my brother and starts with the “Did you not see me” and “Are you so stupid” line of questioning again. Boyong tells him, “I was being polite to you, and I already apologized.”

At that point, it dawns on us both that maybe he couldn’t understand what we were saying, and so my brother says “Tatagalugin ko nalang po, nag sorry na po ako at maayos ko po kayong kinakausap. Huminto naman po ako.” (“I’ll say it in Tagalog, I appologized and spoke to you politely. I stopped the car and let you pass.”)

The guy then shouts at the guard “Paalisin mo yan!”

At this point, another guard from the store starts to approach us, I suppose people started to notice the commotion that this person was causing. I guess the man saw the other guard and he starts to walk away. Of course, he decided to punch the trunk of our car first before heading off to bis vehicle. My brother then tells the guard at the ticket booth, “Tignan nyo nga yan, problema yan ah.” (“Check that guy out, he’s a troublemaker.”)

Boyong closes his car door and screams, “Bobo” (“Dumb”) out of sheer frustration. As we drove away, the guy actually followed us with an evil glare in his eye. His wife stood next to their vehicle, holding the shopping cart he had abandoned, looking completely dumbfounded. I stared at him as we drove off.

The S&R guard looked frazzled in the middle of it all, and I’m honestly pretty disappointed that he was not able to do anything whatsoever to help us. So much for having a sense of security while we were within the grocery premises. I’m also extremely disappointed that we encountered such a low life at S&R Alabang. That place is supposed to be high-end, with a target market of educated individuals. Emphasis on EDUCATED. If this man was trying to intimidate us with his English speaking skills, well, I’d say he failed miserably. I mean seriously, “Are you so stupid, are you so stupid?” All I can do is roll my eyes if he thought he seemed like the more cultured and educated person yesterday.

Sir, whoever you are, please don’t think that just because you are older than we are, and you think you may be all that because you can afford to be an S&R member, you can treat us the way you did. You are lucky I didn’t complain to the management simply because we were already in a hurry. You are lucky I didn’t take your photo and get your name so I can report you, simply because you looked insane and I wanted to avoid any physical confrontation. You are lucky that my brother remained calm because had you tried to hurt either one of us, you would have probably gotten the beating of your life. You are lucky that you chose to hit one of our older cars coz if you tried to pull that stunt on any of my dad’s other cars, you would probably be in a huge pile of sh*t right now. You are lucky that we are educated and cultured people, and unlike you, we chose not to make a scene like that in public. And you are lucky that I had not seen your wife until after we had exited the parking lot, or I would have told you to your face that I think you are an angry person, full of angst, and having to wake up everyday next to a woman with the face of a dog probably adds to your misery. You are lucky sir, that you chose to do that to us, and we just walked away from the situation. Watch your back. Someday you may not be so lucky.