i, prankster

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."
--Hal Borland

one badminton weekend | july 2006
metro manila

after a badminton session, our group trooped to metrowalk to have dinner together. we went inside one of the restos, chose our table and got settled. my friend A, who was seated beside me, put his car keys on the table and seemed to have forgotten about them as soon as we all got engaged in small group talks.

the prank
the prankster in me decided to play. i took A's keys, showed them off to my gal pals at our end of the table and shoved them inside my jacket's pocket. it was a prank i pulled off rather effortlessly.

it took awhile before A realized that the keys he put on the table were gone. the group scrambled to look for his keys under, around, and all over the table. of course, they were with me.

i must have played the part of the innocent rather nicely. A didn't suspect that i had them. this, despite the fact that i was the one seated nearest to him. instead, he accused J, the gal seated directly in front of him. he demanded that she return them to him immediately. at this point, J had no idea in whose possession the keys were. she did not have them and, therefore, could not produce them.

we soon had to change tables. A and i still sat beside each other and, J, feeling that she had to somewhat protect herself, sat next to me. i was the buffer.

i let on to J that i had the keys with me. at this point, four of us in our group of seven knew where the keys were. as for A, he was convinced that J had them although no one among us pointed the finger at her. he was just convinced that she was the culprit.

having been accused of something she did not do, J protested and asked why she was his suspect. why did he not accuse his very seatmate? she got offended that he pointed the finger at her. of all people, why her and why not i, right?

val, a prankster? never!
A took me off the hook by saying, "wala sa kanya. kilala ko 'yan. di n'ya magagawa."

oo nga naman. we've been good friends since we learned of each other's existence in 2003. we've had great times over paperless word and numerical puzzles during our group's busrides, and we've had good talks over trivial and non-trivial things in life. we're allies. why would he suspect me, right?

so you could just imagine how he turned red when i finally fished off the bunch of keys from my jacket's pocket and gave the keys to him.

he was really pissed off. i half expected he'd stomp on my foot, attempt to strangle me, or walkout. none of those. he's one of those guys i know whose ego level is sky high. i almost admired how he managed his anger that time. when he returned to his normal color and regained some tolerable level of coolness, he just kept silent and concentrated on his food. he's usually talkative.

after that, A and i never talked again. i have tried to make amends but, in all the times that i did, i only got ignored.

in fairness to him, he's just being true to his words. during the time he was looking for his keys, sinabi niya kasi, "kung sino man ang kumuha ng keys ko, hindi ko na kakausapin pa ulit."

siyempre, super ang ego n'ya, expected na paninindigan n'ya 'yon. hanggang kailan, hindi ko alam.

sabi naman sa 'kin ng big brother ng group namin, "wag mo nang isipin ang nangyari. it was just a prank. hindi n'ya lang matanggap."

oo nga naman it was just a prank but, still, it's one of those instances that i could really say i was at fault. ang laki pala ng tiwala n'ya sa akin. tsk. feeling ko tuloy i was the one who severed the friendship.

valuable lesson re-learned: if you already know that his ego level is sky high, do not offend the guy. maybe i should add this, too... there seems to be a trend: ayaw talaga ng mga math geeks na naiisahan sila. masyadong mataas ang kabayaran.

of course, i could be guilty of hasty generalization here.

...and no! i won't pull that kind of prank again. should you "lose" your keys (or any of your things) while in my company, don't accuse me. ;-)