My Son's Best Friend

As I type this, I'm crying. My son lost his best friend early this morning when Joey passed away. Or maybe, even as early as yesterday afternoon when he was declared brain-dead. Joey and four other friends, including the father of one of those friends , drove up to Baguio Thursday afternoon to take advantage of the long weekend. My son would have joined them and in fact, a few weeks back, I bought him a toiletry bag which he said was like Joey's. But I think it was Tuesday last week when my son said he couldn't go up to Baguio with his friends because he had a Math long test at 4:30 p.m., while his friends had scheduled their departure for Baguio at 3 p.m. Originally, they had set it for 12 midnight leading to Friday.

I knew my son felt bad that he couldn't go with his friends. In fact he had begged off from joining the singing group he loves on their trip to Palawan because he wanted to play basketball in Baguio, which his friends were planning to do.

Yesterday, as we left the house to go to mass, I realized I had forgotten my cell phone but I thought it wouldn't be important to have it as my husband and son were with me anyway. we went to the church were my son's high school group was going to sing but there was no parking space left so we drove to Ateneo. We sat in the Monobloc chairs and by some coincidence, the one to my son's left was the most recent Ateneo MVP player, Nonoy Baclao. During the singing of the Our Father, he extended his hand to my son who later whispered, "Ang laki ng kamay niya, kaya pala ang galing mag block." Without my knowing it, but as was his wont, my son texted his best friend Joey about Baclao and Joey answered that text message. My son sent him another text message but this time, Joey didn't reply.

When we reached Shangrila, my husband and son chose some shirts and as my son lined up at the cashier's, he got a text message. It went sometime like, "Please pray. Please pray hard for us, we just had a car accident." My son motioned to his dad to take over while he walked off outside the store to call up the person who texted him. It was another friend who gave my son a few scant details regarding the accident and the bad news that Joey was unconscious.

I felt so stupid about not bringing my phone because my son wanted the number of Joey's parents. I was of no help. Luckily he saw the land line of Joey, called up his house but managed to talk to Joey's sister only as Joey's parents were out. We decided to go home without having lunch but after buying a trowel for my son's Environmental Science class. As we went to the parking lot, we saw the parents of another of their classmates, who ironically were the parents of my son's grade school best friend. We told them the bad news.

Back home we frantically made calls, sent text messages. At one point, the one who texted my son to pray said Joey was gone. We all screamed and cried. Then we settled down. Then we'd think of Joey and cry again. Whenever my son got calls from friends, he'd break down in tears. To distract myself, I went to the grocery but did not succeed in distracting myself. I listlessly picked up items in the list and at one point noticed a man who wasn't buying anything look at me. I told the maid to move me and later overheard the other maid say the man seemed to have been eyeing my bag and cellphone. I had to have it along as I was still receiving and making calls and text messages while in the grocery. I called up my husband to come over lest the man and his cohorts (3 others) accost us outside the grocery. I asked the lady who sold us the ham if she had noticed the man, she said yes. She just smiled and had no plans to help us.

As we plodded along again back home, my son got a message that Joey was still alive, he was merely brain dead. I got in touch with his mom who confirmed it and said he wasn't responding to medication. We started praying for a miracle, but it was not to be.

Goodbye Joey. We have a lot of memories about you which we will remember forever. Thank you for your being a good friend to my son, for being his responsible kuya, for reminding him of his assignments, etc.

(PS I shall not reread nor edit this post as doing so might unleash several more tears. Joey will understand, right Joey? I can almost hear him say or read his text saying, "Yes, tita.")