Spooky stories and other tales

(Second of two parts)

Since we’re only a few days away from Halloween and All Saints’ Day, I thought of coming up with a list of the things that scare me – both concerning the underworld and the real world. I’ve already published part of the list last Tuesday. Below are the other things that scare me:

The possibility of seeing the ghosts of recently-departed people. My worst enemy is my imagination. Whenever I come from a wake, I sometimes get goose bumps when I get home – thinking about the person whose remains I just paid respects to while lying in state in the funeral parlor. Maybe this also happens to you.

Fortunately, in the last two wakes I attended, this didn’t happen anymore.

After I paid my final respects to Inday Badiday at the Capilla de la Virgen in Santuario de San Antonio, for instance, I slept peacefully that evening after whispering a prayer for her. Maybe because I knew in my heart, she was quite fond of me (Dolly Ann Carvajal affirmed this in a text message she sent me after her Mom was laid to rest.) No, the late Inday and I weren’t really very close. But we had great respect for each other. I miss her now and I continue to say a prayer for her to this day.

A few weeks ago, I also went to the wake of journalist Julie Fe Navarro at the Arlington Funeral Homes. Julie Fe and I never had the chance to work together, except for this one time when I was made the co-host of the now defunct talk show Sine-Silip. But we were genuinely fond of each other and every time there was a tabloid issue about me, I appreciated the fact that she would always call me up to get my side of the story. As much as possible, I wouldn’t want to go to wakes. But I had to go see Julie Fe one last time to thank her for making my life here on earth a little less nasty for me.

Of what’s going to happen next. I have to admit that I’m a hopeless worry-wart and am forever worried of the bad things that may happen to me. The one nice thing about this is that it has made me prayerful and little by little, I am learning to leave everything in the hands of the Lord.

Getting impoverished. My sister thinks I’m too attached to material things (gosh, look who’s talking?). Maybe she’s right. But I’m really just being practical and everything I buy now is an investment for the future.

While I know that I can’t bring these material things with me to the grave, I guess – for as long as you don’t go overboard – there’s really nothing wrong about making the remaining days of your life here on earth a little more pleasant and comfortable.

The future of the local movie industry. Ever since, three factors had been killing the film business: onerous taxes, censorship and competition from Hollywood. In the mid-’60s, industry leaders were already worrying about the industry dying. But somehow, local pictures would manage to bounce back. I don’t know if it would still manage to recover now because of its new nemesis: piracy, which may just totally eliminate the local film business.

The 2004 presidential elections. Only God knows what’s going to happen in May of next years – and I’m really scared to find out.

The future of this country. I’d like to think that we have a better breed of Filipinos today. Compared to the ’70s, when most churches were empty, I see a lot more God-fearing Pinoys today. Unfortunately, there are so many of us and the ones that stick out are those who don’t use our overpasses and pedestrian lanes when crossing, those who spit in public, those who smoke without any regard for others and those who throw lanzones peels from jeepneys.

But I guess if the discipline would come from the top, it would seep into the system of each and everyone of us. And yes, take out all those clowns in politics and maybe we’ll be all right.

More than those ghosts and ghouls, we should be more scared of corrupt politicians.