11.3 Titig
It was already late into the night, around 11 pm. A little girl - Nicole (1.3) was alone on the streets of Manila. She held in her hand a black marker (8.4) and little blue and green notebook (9.7). She stands on the side of the road, and people pass by and don’t seem to notice her as she doodles with the marker. There were little scribbles but they weren’t really understandable. Another girl suddenly peeps through her notebook and asks her: “Naka-ilan ka na?”, and she hides the notebook. The other girl tries to play with her, but she doesn’t talk. She was timid and cautious. She didn’t like talking to other people, even with children her age.
A number of police cars pass by - it was ordered to have an increase of policemen (6.3) that would patrol in the night. One of the cars stopped and backed-up to the two girls. They were asked where their parents are. Nicole did not respond, whereas the other girl shouted for them both: “Wala. Nasa Tondo!”. The policeman nodded, but was still worried for the girls with 10 years of age. He looks at nicole, and sees her red doll shoes. The policeman immediately goes down the car and asks the child where she got her shoes. She is still meek, not saying a word. He kindly asks them to come with him to the police station because they weren’t safe there.
The policeman held the hand of Nicole and she went crazy, trying to get herself away from his grip. Three teenagers passed by (5.5) and saw what was happening to the kids. The guy ran up to the police and proceeded to defend the two kids thinking that the policeman was being too rough on the girls. The girl drops her notebook, one the friends of the man pick it up. They saw the doodles were of beady, dark eyes. And a list of the names of men, their signatures, numbers and dollar signs.
