Strange Encounter with a Stranger

In my hopes of having some ample time to rest on board a ferry back to my homebase, I got myself a good bunk at the tourist accommodation. The bunk assignment was found in the middle of the deck where it is parallel to the center alley.

The ferry boat was about to depart. I re-arranged my bags immediately after I placed the beddings on my bunk. My body seemed to dictate that I should lie down already but then the ferry had not left Cagayan de Oro just yet and that more passengers are still walking down through the center alley.

I told myself to sit upright and bide the time for the the ferry to start cruising. The long wait enabled me to observe people walk past me. Stevedores, ship crews, kids, oldies and all sorts of passengers.

In one particular moment, I saw an old familiar face coming down the alley. I was trying a bit hard to connect the masculine visage to a point in my memory in which, if i could somehow connect the face to the name I was trying to fish out of my mental pool, I could have tapped him in the back or call out his name so loud so that he could stop in his way and turn his head back to where I was sitting.

The guy was bald, fair-skinned and rather short. Before I could even say out his name, he was already standing in front of me and he reached out his arm for a handshake and said, “I think I saw you before.”

I shook his hand but at the back of my mind, I thought that this guy had really forgotten my name. I’m certain that we were officemates at the oleochemical plant in Camarines Norte. We used to work in Bicol in the early 2000. How come Gernie, yes that’s his name, forgot my name.

I let go of his hand and smiled. Hoping that he’d remembered the good old simple days of working in Bicol. Somehow, I sensed that the thought did not even register in his recollection. I looked at him and still the puzzled look lingered like dehydrated booger on his blank face. Gernie’s face had nothing on but a smile.

Then he said that he’d look for his bunk first and then he’d come back to have a brief chitchat with me. As I waited for him to return, I continued to think if he was really the Gernie I knew in Bicol.

Then it occured to me like a strike of lightning that the guy could possibly be someone else. I had the terrible feeling that I made a big mistake of presuming that the guy was the Gernie that I happened to work with. And the longer I waited, sitting on the bunk,  the greater my fear grew and drastically, it led me to a terrible state of embarassment.

The feeling was really terrible. The guy is not Gernie at all. Some random and spontaneous thoughts popped up. I wanted to hide, I wanted to be invisible. I hated myself for having such awkward moments. It was not what I wanted. I was stressed out. I was hoping that he would never approach my bunk or that he’d forget to return and engage in a conversation with me. I did not know him at all. He was a total stranger. 

The stranger indeed went back to my bunk. And without my consent, he immediately sat beside me and introduced himself. He said his name was Cesar. The first words I uttered were “I’m sorry, but I was completely mistaken. I thought you were my ex officemate. You looked totally like him.”

“You looked familiar too. I thought I’ve seen you before,” the words Cesar repeated which I thought was the lamest pick-up line to have ever been created. I wanted to run to the other side of the alley when Cesar said it to me. It sounded so uncomfortable too.

Such discomfort lingered on. Cesar began to talk about his life, his past, his plans for the future. If you’d ask me for the details of what he had said to me, certainly I could not narrate all the things he talked about. When he was talking to me, I forced my self to be engaged in an internal debate on why he’s pouring his autobiography on my face.

What made me too uneasy was his invasion of my personal space, which was stripped from me when he sat very next to my skin. I could not focus on what he was talking about because I was freaked out by his naughty hands and his flirtation.

I could sense that he was really into me. I needed to run to a fire exit or do some escape mechanisms to get far from him as possible.  All throughout the conversation that lasted more than an hour, he would comment on my hair, on my calves, on how hairy I was and how fat I was. He asked for my shoe size, my waistline, my age and my zodiac sign. I mean these things are not usually asked by real straight men. These questions were totally uncalled for. The guy was raining insults down on me.

Such a stanger. Such a strange encounter. At that time, i wished that he’d leave me alone and let me have my rest. The guy chirped without end. The discomfort I experienced had become a stressor and I hate every single moment of it. I wished that he’d go away and never come back.

I reached out for my cellphone and looked at the time. It was way past 10.30pm. I did not even noticed that the ferry boat had left Cagayan de Oro. I was really tired. I really wanted some rest. I no longer understood what Cesar was talking about. My system wants to shut down.  I wanted to kick his ass off my bunk.

I told him that I needed to go to sleep. He felt that I was brushing him off. I didn’t care. He insisted that I should get his mobile number. I took his number and told him that I would contact. He stood up and left. I fixed my bunk and got myself ready to sleep. He said “See you tomorrow” but I said nothing at all.

When he left, I took out my mobile phone one last time and erased his contact number. I fell off to sleep and got my good night rest.

I think he looked for me hours before the ferry boat reached Cebu. I was hoping that the boat would reach the port soon so that I could not bump into him in any chance at all. But he tapped me on the back. I said hello and made an excuse to get my things.

I knew that he was waiting at the starboard. I chose to go down at the portside. When the ramp was already lowered and the passengers were allowed to disembark, I made quick steps to the exit and walk away from the ferry.

My brother picked me up at the pier. As he drove away, I shrugged off the strange encounter with Cesar. And I made a mental note to myself to never ever talk to strangers again.