Journey of Eros

It started few weeks ago - the desire to buy a laptop. I’m finding it hard and time-consuming to rent a computer in an Internet cafe. Those highschool kids, whose study habits include DOTA and Friendster, never fail to shoo fellow renters away, myself included, with their ear-blasting speakers. And it never fails to make me wonder the gratification they’re getting from keeping their sounds high while playing and occasionally browsing some porn sites. So it’s goodbye for now to my favorite Internet cafe - Anglo, located under the LRT Pedro Gil station (a friend spelled it Pedro Hill once) But I may still be coming back every once in a while especially now that I don’t have an Internet connection yet.

Another reason of the pervent wish to have my own computer is it’s pronounced necessity in my MA. A friend thinks while I think it’s a priority, he doesn’t think so. Paperworks and reports are the main reasons I wanted to buy one. My adviser cautioned me to take 6 units since I have work. He’s afraid I couldn’t pass all subjects. But since my graduate scholarship requires at least 9 units for me to avail of the priviledges like monthly stipend and book allowance, I had to add another 3.

I began my quest on eBay.ph. A rat looking for some trash. Some deals were too good to be true, hence more chances of fraud. I never bothered to haggle to offers with poor listing descriptions and those sellers that didn’t do meet-ups. It was not until last week when my specifications were exactly met by a certain listing with a feedback score of 1. When you’re a regular buyer on eBay, you regard the feedback score valuable since it provides you an idea of the seller’s reputation. She was willing to have the item checked first before purchasing it and the price was still negotiable. The best and the cheapest deal I’ve ever found on the site for almost a month-long search! I excitedly picked my phone and let her know I was interested even though I didn’t have enough money to buy it.

Friends whom I sought help from were as pauper as me. I had no choice left but to approach a relative whom I haven’t seen for quite some time. The shock on her face was so subtle I almost didn’t notice it when she saw me at her doorstep, soaking wet from the Sunday rain and poor as a rat. She gladly lent the amount I was asking for, after a few minutes of pondering. "I’m working as a regular employee, I’m getting my allowance in two month’s time, I can give back the money if you desperately need it." The rat was happy. It was easy.

Meeting the seller was not. Doubts and fears kept me awake half the night. I even considered backing out from the transaction when I consulted a friend. He thought the price was too cheap and buying a second-hand laptop was not a good idea.

Bahala na si Batman. I was late in the meeting place. She was already there with her son. I pushed my wallet harder inside my pocket while taking furtive glances at the black bag sitting confidently on the chair beside her. I was greeted with a cheerful smile.

She said she was selling the item because she’s planning to buy a new one, now that her husband got promoted. She had no idea how the feedback works and that she just started selling on the site. She gained my trust when she said she and her husband had a terrible fight the other night and she woke up so early to fix the laptop paraphernalia. In return, I squealed a secret which makes me worry now in case she relates it to her friends and the entire country knows about it. A worried rat.
 
I didn’t feel any sense of regret or apprehensions when I handed her the payment. I thanked her a million times before they left to meet her husband waiting outside the Shangrila Mall. When I got home, I was thrilled to check the documents left in the laptop. Unfortunately, everything has been erased. There was no way for me to see how her husband looks like. She kept talking about him the whole time we met so that the image and the desire to see him was strong.

His name is Jeff and he works in a bank. A rat with a laptop can never work in a bank.