Standing in silence, the girl quivers. Eyes wide and fingers twitching, her head whips around in every direction as she anxiously scans her surroundings in an attempt to calm her nerves. All she could see was an ocean of people. People of all ages, with tanned skin, sporting tank tops and shorts, trying to cool themselves down under the sun’s burning rays. With no airflow, everyone tries to avoid awkward skin contact for fear of sticking together as sweat beads off like drops of glue. The girl moves slowly towards the crowd, side-stepping along into narrow “one-way” halls, dodging the touch of skin as loud chatters of bargaining and shallow compliments ensue. The girl shuffles into an even narrower aisle lined with stores on both sides. The store owners, fixing their eyes on any and every shopper, shouted compliments in high-pitched tunes. “Wow ate, ang ganda mo naman”, “Hi ate! Siguradong ang ganda mo sa damit na ito.”* To impress them even more, they would speak a line or two in English to portray some sort of high-end status. They sold a variety of items; printed shirts, flower-printed shorts, flower-printed dresses, and flower-printed rompers.

Passing through a bra shop that had the only source of breeze from a battery-powered fan, the girl finally finds herself a safe place. Hugging the rugged right wall the girl finds her way into an unusually clear area of the mall where the washrooms reside. A polar opposite from the uproar of the shops, the washrooms are a desolate place with no living organism in sight. The smell of dust and bleach hovers in the air with the occasional foul smell of rusted metal, but overall it didn’t seem like a popular place for people to do their business. As she steps inside, all that can be heard is the slight murmurs of the action outside, as well as the occasional droplets of water hitting the porcelain sink. Someone must have forgotten to turn the handle all the way back. Washing her face, the girl tries to reach for a paper towel, but there was none to be felt. Opening each creaky stall door, the girl realizes that this place doesn’t have toilet paper, let alone the dispensers for them, the real tragedy of the day. The girl exits the washroom and sits against the cold icy wall, (at least there was one thing that kept her cool) contemplating her next move.

*Wow ate! Ang ganda mo naman: Wow, sister! You look so lovely today
*Hi ate! Siguradong ang ganda mo sa damit na ito: Hi sister, I bet you’d look very beautiful in this dress