Had it All Along

For a while I’ve been wondering what had happened to that Buster Sword I’ve been brandishing. Lots of talk about it, but no real word after that. In more recent events, I’ve finally revived one of my bugs after a long hiatus. Or would coma be more appropriate? Rest assured both are related.

Funny thing about the old things that you have. You keep them for a reason and you don’t really realize what it is until you’ve tried them again after a long while. Like a good old friend who’s gone away for a while, yet when he returns, things are just as if he never left. No tampuhan, no catching up to do, just a matter of pressing the resume button.

Kind of like the Beetle. I’ve been delaying reviving her for quite a while. Partly because she’s got no garage, and partly because the cars I get to borrow these days are exponentially better. Yet after a rough week, even driving her in heavy crawling EDSA traffic managed to put a smile on my face, searing heat and dodgy brakes notwithstanding. The new cars still can’t emulate the thud of a thick door and the chug chug of a flat foor.

As for the Buster Sword? Well, I thought I had tucked it away neatly, sheathed it if you will, for use in real warfare. I guess it’s one of those things that you can never really sheath. It stays with you constantly, a sidearm you draw. A situation calls for it and you reach slice and return, almost instinctively. I thought a comment the book had mentioned about the techniques had been exaggerated — about it being like martial arts, able to get you out of sticky situations, or fight your way through crowds. That too, after all, ought to be instinctive.

And as I often say, hindsight is 20-20. Perhaps I haven’t put them aside after all. I might have carried them with me all the way.