You never can tell when your worst fear will come to surprise you face to face. I had a very close encounter with mine on October 4 at 11:30am.
I went to my bank in Escolta to withdraw some money off the ATM. This is the closest branch to my school which is only the Jones Bridge away. My ATM account didn’t have enough at that time so I went to another bank also in Escolta to get some more. I needed to get back to school before 12 noon as I had to meet a deadline to pay a school activity fee called Call Time.
It was an ordinary day, not rainy – in fact, bright and sunny – and I was really feeling good about myself. I just finished taking one of my final exams. I was exempted from taking exams in three subjects. And the bank teller earlier remarked that I do not look like someone who has no more money when I quipped that I was holding out to my last few bucks in their bank.
I went straight to the Sta. Cruz Church where I passed through in order to get to Avenida. I thought of having lunch first before going back to school. But since the Jollibee branch at what used to be Good Earth Emporium was in the interior area of the ground floor, I changed my mind and decided to go back to school and have my lunch there. I crossed my way from Avenida towards Fair Mart and made my way up the McArthur Bridge on the side of the Feati University.
After a few steps, I noticed that there were two guys in front of me, intentionally blocking my way up the bridge. They were looking out towards my direction. I became suspicious and consciously looked back. To my extreme horror, I saw two guys walking behind me and one was already in the process of opening a fan knife in his hand.
From that point onwards, everything went hazy and blurry, but thankfully, I managed to pull myself together. I instinctively crossed the bridge even if the center aisle on McArthur Bridge was fenced and there was no way I could cross to the other side. The two guys crossed the bridge too. I started to run, and the guys ran after me. Because I was wearing leather shoes, I slipped on the tarmac and fell right in the middle of the bridge with jeepneys and cars running towards my direction. Perhaps the drivers were similarly shocked at the ongoing chase, their nerves might have frozen too, and there was no one who came to rescue me.
The guys managed to catch up with me. The one who has wielding a knife started to stab me. At the back of my head, all I could think of was, “How painful will it be? Am I going to die being stabbed? Which part of my body will he stab? How many times will he keep on repeating?”
I wriggled away from the man’s hold and up to that point, I wasn’t so sure if I was stabbed or not. I ran away again, towards the sidewalk of the bridge, but one of the guys pushed me down. I was pinned on the ground, my head was on the gutter and the other part of my body was laid on the street. Meanwhile, there were many pedestrians milling about, but probably just as shocked as I was. No one moved even if I was screaming for help.
All this time, I was wriggling like a mudfish and was kicking my feet as hard as I could in the air, and was screaming for help. I remember mentally saying one word as I looked up skyward, “Father.” My only focus was to avoid being stabbed. I felt the hand of one of the guys went inside my pocket. That was the only time it occurred to me that these men wanted to hold me up. Maybe I was too quick to recognize the danger and they knew it when I crossed the bridge. Therefore their original intention to crush me between them (as is the normal tactic of hold-uppers) while I was still walking on the sidewalk did not work and they had no Plan B. Maybe that pissed them off a bit.
While the guy’s hand was inside my pocket, the man who had the knife also held my right leg and just kept on stabbing. My head was swirling and all I could think of was that I was only inches away from such an unglamorous death – being waylaid in the middle of a busy street amidst passers-by who did not give a hoot. In defense, my feet continued to kick in the air in no specific direction. I remember I managed to kick the knife-wielding man in his face.
The miraculous thing was this: when the one guy’s hand was inside my pocket, he immediately took it out even without getting my wallet as if he was electrocuted. It was so sudden that when he lost his grip, I managed to jerk myself free. The other thing was this: I could see the other guy with the knife repeatedly stabbing in the air – perhaps in his mind, he was stabbing me – but the knife never went inside nor touched my body. After one last scream which lasted for something like 30 seconds, the guys got off me, and I stood up. I was still holding my bag, with the recently withdrawn money (and the very important video of the documentary we were doing in school which was my final exams project in Communication Arts). My cell phone fell from my pocket. My eyeglass was thrown off. Coins from my purse also flew. And my wallet was still safely tucked inside my pocket. I was rolling on the bridge of Sta. Cruz, bruised, dirtied, crumpled, hoarse from screaming – and no one helped me!
The whole experience lasted for only about five minutes. But it was so surreal. I could not believe that the very thing I had feared most would confront me at such an unexpected moment – under a beautiful blue cloudless sky, honking street cars, a mood of effervescence that I carried with me when I left the bank, the surprisingly flowery whiff of air from the Pasig River.
I looked at my watch, which was untouched, and saw that I only had 15 minutes to make it to the deadline in school. I did not chase the men or made any effort to seek a policeman. All I could think of was to go back to school, pay my dues, and go on with the day.
I turned my back from the scene of my nightmare, walked away, thankful that I was given another lease at life.
NB.
The following morning, I woke up with muscle pains all over my body. My ribs and my neck hurt. I have a knife slash of about 1” (almost superficial!) on my left elbow. I have bruises all over my body. I feel sore but I am glad that I am still alive.
I praise God for giving me the alertness and the presence of mind in the face of danger, and for sending his angels around to shield me from the stabs. I pray that those four guys would realize the supernatural powers that confronted them and that they, too, would be led into the saving grace of the Lord.
