The Aftereffect

The irritating beam of light from the windows forced my eyes to open. I tried to cover my face with my pillow but it was really difficult to go back to sleep. The late morning heat was terrible and I was sweating like a pig. I tossed and turned in bed hoping to somehow have at least another hour of sleep. I was getting more and more frustrated. I gave up. Still, I didn’t want to get up because my body felt really heavy.

After an hour of idleness in bed, I finally gained enough will to get up. I wobbled a bit. For a second, I thought my head wasn’t there. Lazily, I grabbed my towel and went straight to the bathroom. The water was refreshing and I wished I could stay there for the whole day. But, no matter how tired my body felt today, I reminded myself to come to work on time. I smirked. I was sure Tara would be late today. This means “booze”.

I took the first jeepney going to Taft. Wrong. The music was irritatingly loud. Too loud, I thought. The worse thing was I had to endure the terrible banging of the speakers for 35 minutes. While in the jeepney, I found myself getting annoyed with a lot of little things -- I got irritated with the girl’s hair touching my shoulders, all the jeepney drivers blowing their horns impatiently, the beads of sweat on my forehead, the noisy but gibberish jingles of some candidate, etc.

I made it to the office on time. I walked straight to the ref and grabbed my ice-cold water. I gulped everything down and then refilled the empty tumbler. I felt bloated with water, but I was still feeling thirsty. I went to my station and told myself, “So, this is hangover!” Then I remembered what happened last night and recalled how Tara and I got home. Somebody has got to pay… I took out my marker and post-it notes, then wrote a few reminders…