7-11

7-11, a place where I usually go..
Ever since my mom taught me how to go to 7-11 (during my elementary days), I cant seem to resist going there again and again.. Eat, drink Slurpee, everything..

It was a very ordinary day for me, I am inside a 7-11 branch sitting, with my strawberry-flavored slurped half-emptied.. Suddenly childhood memories flashed into my mind, I looked at the ceiling as if I’m trying to grasp memories from the air, I was unlucky because my brain cant seem to recollect all those old memories. Then I looked down the table with a frown. “wait”, for a moment I felt my brain working once again. I just noticed that the table installed in this branch was a new one, even the chairs are new, i leaned backward to take a good look at the Slurpee machine, its also new.. Then those flashes of memories became very bright and clear, there was only one thing that 7-11 haven’t replaced yet, their door-chimes.. those door-chimes vibrates whenever a person goes in or out of the store.. After regaining my smile, I sat properly and began writing down all the reminiscence i can collect.. Words failed me, my writing cant catch up with the speed of my mind, those train of thoughts and memories are running real fast.

Without any reason at all, my writing was interrupted. The chimes sounded, the door swung open, a kid accompanied by his mother entered the store, the little child spoke to her mother, he asked her mother to by him Slurpee, the mother replied with a smile and went to the counter to buy a Slurpee. Then he gave the empty plastic cup to the kid, and the kid shouted with a loud “yehey!”.. After that scream, I felt goosebumps, this event is very familiar, then a sudden brain-flash stunned me.. “was that me and my mother 16 years ago? their conversations, the clothes they’re wearing and the situation, it did happen before”.. My shaking eyes were on them until they got out of the store. I was very struck. I was about to think what I saw, but before my brain can produce any question, the chimes sounded once again. 5 kids just enetered. With their uniforms as basis, I can tell that the kids are elementary students who just got out of school. They were running around the store looking for snacks, then one of them shouted “Joshua! dito my chippy na spicy!“.. Not again! This time I stood up already to have a better look at the kid who was called by the name of Joshua, just like mine. To my surprise, I saw a 10-year old with eyeglasses, I saw my self again, this time, i felt like fainting with fear. I felt dizzy, everything ’s blurring. what i can see, just like a fast-forwarded video, blurred but fast.. Many “me’s” entered and left the store. I saw my high-school self together with his, rather my, classmates. I saw my early-college self together with my band, planning gigs, writting songs and discussing about some artists. The last one I saw was my present-me.. He walked directly into me, then he somehow managed to enter my body.. I fainted.

After what was about an hour or two, I woke up, I shook my head hardly, as if I’m trying to remove something inside my head. I asked the guard “matagal po ba akong nakatulog?“, he said I slept for over a half-hour and didnt woke me up because he was scared to make me angry if ever he does that. I was so embarassed. I quickly grabbed my things went home. WhileI was going home, during the jeepney ride, I tried to recall the last thing I am doing before I accidentaly slept. I remembered that I was trying to write all my old memories i can recollect. I reach for my notebook and I saw some unfinished lines, if only Im not on a public jeepney, I would have laughed out loud.. By the time I reached home, I started thinking deep.. “those new things on 7-11, those old ones also, the 5-year-old me, the 10-year old me, the pre-teen me, the college me and the present me.. what does it mean?” Then I realized..

Im getting old..