Nora Soriño .
ILIGAN City–People are kind of paranoid these days what with the recent bombings in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, then in Gensan. And remember too what happened to seven men in Patikul, Sulu. So, when Greg, an acquiantance, told me of an experience four days ago in a school, I was very attentive. This was at S Central School here, he said. (Not the real name of the school).
He has a kid schooling there, Greg said and at past 5 pm, he was there at the premises for a Parents-Teachers Association meeting. There were also several alumni there aside from the parents, Greg said even as there were still kids. The latter, he said, were doing some rehearsals for some coming activity inside the school.
Greg said that as he was walking and getting nearer to a lone man standing, a woman shouted: “Don’t get near him! He has a gun, he has a gun!”
The shouting evidently was directed at him, Greg said. Although a little concerned, he did not stop walking and he heard the man saying lamely, “I don’t have a gun.” But the woman shouted more loudly this time, “You have a gun! I saw it, I saw it!”
A commotion then ensued as others in the area began to run for their lives. Greg didn’t run, he said, but walked fast and he saw too the man going away and getting out of the premises.
Minutes later, when he was out of the premises of S Central School, these thoughts went through his mind. Where was the watchman during that time? And what if the man really had a gun with him and began shooting at all those inside the premises?
Maybe, he was so bothered that he reported it on air. I mean Greg reported it on air days after. And that’s where I heard him.
The city, to note is strict as to security measures in the wake of such reports of bombing in said areas in Mindanao. More so because it’s fiesta time. And in the run up to Sept. 29, the fiesta date in honor of St. Michael the Archangel, there are many activities.
I told Alexa, a close friend, about this. She too has a kid in the same school but she just took the story in stride. “The watchman must be very tired at that time as he had been watching from morning,” she said. “I know the watchman. He’s a distant neighbor of mine,” Alexa added.
She could not be very concerned. Because nothing really happened.
But the “what if” persisted in my mind. What if the man really intended to do some shooting inside the school? Maybe he developed cold feet and chickened out when the woman shouted?
The story of one Nikolas Cruz and the Feb. 14 shooting inside a school in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, US, played in my mind. Seventeen people were killed in the incident, consisting mostly of students and staff of the school.
What if that man inside S Central School was a copycat? But he was a grown-up man while the culprit at Florida was a kid. But think, think pa more, something inside me commanded.
And even while thinking so, more “what ifs” entered my mind: What if the man was really a kid trapped in a middle-aged man’s body? And well, grown-up men shoot others too for that matter. I willed myself to stop but another “what if” entered my mind: What if the shouting woman was the wife or partner of that man and they had a fight earlier? What if…
At this point, I willed myself to stop the “what ifs” really forcefully. Because “what ifs” don’t get you anywhere, I realized.
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