Crap! It’s My Brother!
“Sabi ko na!” This morning when I went for breakfast, I took one look at the guy walking with a tray to where I was coming from at the cafeteria and I immediately recognized him as the guy I could not quite place in my head during my ride home yesterday evening. He looked my way then quickly looked away; so I walked on to the counter to order breakfast.
I went to Manila with an officemate yesterday to attend a meeting; and, typically, was something between an eggplant and a slice of raw tofu by the time we arrived in school. Hungry, I sped off to the mall for a hasty dinner.
Afterwards, I took my ride right in front of the mall as I often do weekdays. A guy got on right behind me and headed for the seat right behind the driver. He apparently knew the woman opposite him because the two briefly exchanged pleasantries.
I politely thanked him after he took my coins so I turned my attention to my phone. I already had my earphones on and so I went about the business of selecting an appropriate play-list from the hundreds of mp3s I have in my phone.
From the corner of my eye, I could see… Aba’y tingin nang tingin…
When I turned my head his way, indeed he was looking at me like he was waiting for me to greet him. Try as I would, though, I could not quite recall if I actually knew him from somewhere – despite him looking familiar. For all I knew, baka naman napapangitan la-ang sa akin.
And, of course, it was not until this morning when I finally realized why the guy looked familiar… I also realized that the girl he was talking was also one of the cafeteria personnel.
There is a name for this type of short term memory failure; and just in keeping with the theme of this story, I cannot recall what the name is because I read about it so long ago in a Reader’s Digest article.
Supposedly, the memory failure is triggered when you see a person you are so used to seeing in a familiar environment sporting a typical look – such as when that person wears the same uniform day in and day out – suddenly looking completely different in another environment.
Take yesterday’s encounter. Had the guy been wearing his white polo shirt and black pants, I probably would have recognized him immediately. Last night, he wore a plain sky-blue t-shirt above faded denim pants. To begin with, while I would see him everyday around the canteen, I actually had never even engaged in a conversation with him.
Yesterday’s encounter was by no means unique. There was this one time when there was this dark complexioned guy who greeted me as I was about to enter one of the restaurants near the front gate of the neighbouring mall.
“Sir!” he called to me. “Uy!” I replied with a smile, “Kakain ka rin?” But of course, in that instance, walâ akong kamuang-muang kung sino ang kapulong ko.
“Hindî Sir,” he explained, “susundô…”
“Ah, sigue,” I grinned at him as I bade him goodbye. I was well into my dinner when it suddenly came to me that the dark gentleman was one of the school’s security personnel. Unlike the canteen staff member I encountered yesterday evening, this security guard was somebody I had occasionally chatted with when I used to walk around school.
Of course, outside the restaurant, he was in jeans and t-shirt instead of his usual uniform while on duty.
The short term memory failure – or, as what I recall from that article I read long ago – may also be triggered by being taken completely by surprise. In other words, a person may even fail to recognize another person that he or she is very familiar with if the encounter takes place in a totally unexpected manner in a place where the person is not at all expected to be.
If you think this is baloney, wait till I tell you this anecdote. The story is so ridiculous I will forgive you if you think it is a complete fib. This is a true story, nonetheless; pex man!
We must have played either at Colegio San Agustin or Don Bosco because I remember we went to Landmark for lunch. After eating hastily at the fast food center, I walked the aisles of the mall to scout for something to buy or something to save up for.
I was looking intently at the products on sale atop one of the shelves and was so engrossed with what I was looking at that when somebody called out, “Rexie!” – that is how I am called my members of the clan and close friends – I looked around, saw this tall gentleman approaching me, and for all of three seconds had absolutely no idea who I was looking at.
My lips broke into an instant grin – but that was reflex because the person was also grinning at me – and then my brain after what seemed like an eternity overcame its sudden stall.
“Huy!” I called back finally. Oo ngâ pala… Si Roy… Kapatid ko…
Tweet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELATED STORIES:
Phobias, Et. Al.
Spook Stories
Post a Comment