The President of the Board of Directors has kept on talking about business for half an hour already. I was beginning to get bored and worried. Time and again, I kept on glancing at my watch. Some of my colleagues might have noticed my unusual behavior this afternoon, for whenever I stealthily looked at my watch, they turn their heads questioningly to me.

    I must be there at 6:00. I kept reminding myself, as I absentmindedly sipped at the glass of gin on my hand. The excitement surging inside me was unbearable. At last, the President took his seat after some time of deliberation on finances. When I heard the term "adjourn", I raced to the door without a word, much to the astonishment of my colleagues. I seated myself in the car contentedly and fumbled for the key inside my bag. In a matter of minutes, I found myself driving along the smooth byways of E. de los Santos Ave., flanked on both sides by a series of nightspots, tall edificed, and flushed houses. I noticed an upcoming infrastructure which gave a bright promise to the onlooker. The big signboard gave the architect's name wide and clear, Quintin Estioko, Jr. I remembered how Kinjo's hands skillfully produced figures during our Electron days.

    The ads in the newspaper kept on flashing through my mind. The Q.C.S.H.S. class '77 will be holding a reunion at the Q.C.S.H. S. Alumni Center, E. de los Santos Ave., Corner West Ave., Q.C. at the end of March, 1997. Interested parties may call to Major Juanito Ramos, Jr. of the Philippine Armed Forces, 97-25-31, BIR commissioner Jose Aristides David and Ofelia Marquez of the UP Student Affair Department. A smile came to my face, as I remembered these VIPs during my times. How did they ever get there?

    Soon, I maneuvered my car into the entrance of the Q.C.S.H.S. and how it was changed. Somehow, the land looked bigger than it had seem before. But then, I realized that the Q.C.S.H.S. compound has stretched further and occupied the land that once belonged to the Study and Youth Reception Center, was transferred into a more proper place. You see, we were totally washed away --- the two-story building where we spent our last two years in high school. Instead, it has been replaced by several other modernly-equipped buildings and laboratories, which I remember, were just dreams before. The left side of the land is now a vast sports ground, abounding in sports facilities.

    I was moving deeper into the school premises and I have realized that I have reached the far end of the school compound, accentuated by a big and wide multipurpose hall. The lines of cars led me to the Alumni Center. I found a space near a Mercedes benz and I was even dumbfounded when I found out that it belonged to none other than Atty. Wilfredo Martinez, who long ago, was just contented in driving his daredevil Yamaha bike.

    I could hear the laughters from inside the center but I singled out a familiar chuckle, who I was certain belongs to Fritzi Pascual, now a ground stewardess of PAL. It became evident then through Fritzi that science indeed has its wonders.

    I stood at the portals of the flushed hall, trying to catch the familiar faces. From the far end of the hall, Master Kennedy Salcedo was fingering the keys of the piano with brilliance, filling the air with his music. Master Salcedo has just finished a course last month at the Curtis School of Music as a national scholar.

    It was Grace Abad who saw me by the door and waved frantically for me to come inside. Grace is now one of International Heart Center's heart specialists, just as she has always dreamt of, and is happily married with a guy she always nag in her teen-age days.

    It was a great thing seeing all those people again, to hear all their cranky voices; some of them have never change at all. In just an hour everyone was cracking the good old jokes and calling each other their good old names. It was a real sight to see big men and women in the field of science and politics acting this way, as in the bygone days.

    Lieutenant Colonel Marcelo Garbo was there, who was always carrying that PMA aura with him, was enjoying an animated talk with Honorable Ezra-Elmo Martinez of the NSDB. For Elmo, science has always been a priority.

    Amando John Jimenez still run around with his boyish and pokish face. Once in a while, he would create trips am,ong the executive ranks with his papomba. After all, he is now the owner of GMA 7.

    I couldn't help eavesdropping on a conversation by the next table. Makar-Josef Delacruz and Athena Gorospe are now big names in the newspaper industry. They seem to be engaged in a very serious talk in the development of R.P. Space exploration.

    As more class '77 alumni poured in, the noise inside the hall grew wilder,l much better compared to a market place. But then the party has to end. After the song "Auld Lang Syne", everybody shook hands and waved goodbye.

    Driving home, I never really knew how I felt. My thought raced back to those golden years in high school. Twenty years back with the people who formed the bunch of now laughing, now serious crowd of seemingly endless jokes and foolishess.

    Then I had the sudden yearning to relieve those days when love was free and life was beginning to change its tempo to a faster beat, now dim, now colorful music. Of this one hell of a people, I still believe they are what they are now.

    The yearning was so intense but I have realized I couldn't get it. It was long till I found out that I was already crying, for high school life is hard to find unless you know where to go searching. But still it lingers in the heart.


Ma. Lourdes Sadiua