Meeting a Novelist

This afternoon, an old man broke the silence in our office. He sat about three meters away from me. He sounded excited as he said, "Oh, lagay mo dyan, ....Street, Philam Village, Las Pinas. Sa may Starmall." He caught my attention since that address is near our home. "Who is that?" I asked Marie, my officemate. "Dr. Abueg," she softly answered.

Dr. Abueg. . . Hmmm. that name sounds familiar. He's a Filipino writer. And I saw his name in some of our textbooks. But I couldn't remember what exactly the title of his writings are. Basta. I feel it. He's one of Philippines' greatest.

The next thing I knew, I had turned away my head from the computer screen and listened to his stories. He was talking to our manager. Then, Ms. Rose saw me looking at them. So she introduced me to Dr. Abueg. She said I might call him one day and talk about work and everything. We even shook hands! Hehehe. I didn't say any word---I just gave him my super smile. Starstruck!

Dr. Abueg continued his stories, talked about how he tries to learn about blogging and other new stuffs, so he could incorporate these things in his works. He also told us that he thinks he's too old for adventures, because the last time he insisted not to take the driver with him in a workshop, he had cough for five days! And after that, his wife also got sick--"Hindi na tuloy beautiful.Pero pag tumaba ulit yun, beautiful ulit. Siyempre hindi ko papakasalan yun kung hindi yun beautiful!" He also admitted that half of his life--he spent with work. And he hates it when his wife leads their arguments to that conclusion. He talked about many things---how his group works to inspire young talents to continue their love for writing, how he thinks that this young, arrogant writer would be like if he continues to reject the seniors' criticisms, etc.

He was able to tell all those stories in less than an hour! After Ana, the brand specialist, told him about the invitation to judge one of our magazine's poetry and short story writing competition, he stood up and said bye-bye.

I was just so overwhelmed that such a great man came by and shook hand with me. Now I plan to look for his writings in my old Filipino books, and be inspired to love Philippine literature more.