Like Mother, Like Daughter

August 17, 2007

I did not have enough cash with me and so my mother lent me a thousand bucks so I could pay my long overdue Internet bill. After handing out the 2 crisp five-hundred peso bills to me, we parted ways. As she turned her back on me, I pretended to walk in the general direction of the payment center. Then I watched her - counting her steps as she lengthened the distance between us. Like a torpedo that has zoomed in on its target, she could not be stopped from her tracks - each step brought her closer to her destination: her favorite shoe store. And the target: a pair of slip-ons she's been dying to have since laying eyes on them a week ago. But today, the slip-ons are on sale. It's only when she had stepped inside the shoe store that I actually started walking in the general direction of the payment center. But so unlike my torpedo mother, I got detoured to a bookstore. I'll just check if the books I like are on sale, I muttered to myself. Nearing the shop, I saw the huge sign screaming: Up to 65% off! At that point, my pulse started to race, my steps quickened and in a split second I was transformed into a torpedo zooming in on a series of targets. Just give me 15 minutes, I told myself. There it was in the Literary section, Murakami's Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Not far from it, in the General Fiction shelf, I picked up Special Topics in Calamity Physics and a few strides from the counter, I saw Crichton's Next. I just couldn't ignore the ignorable Crichton. The damage: Php 864. Savings: Php 201! Don't you just love it when bookstores go on sale? I do.
Now, where to? Ah yes, to the payment center. Except I didn't have enough cash with me again to settle my bill. Oh, well I'm their most loyal client - didn't switch, even when offered a better deal by the competition. They will not mind if I'm behind my payment. Tomorrow I'll zoom in on the payment center. In the meantime, let me find a vacant seat in the food court and let me enjoy my books. As for my mother, she will understand. She should. She's supposed to buy someone a gift but then changed her mind. You already know why.