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Chapter 164: A Fish is Caught...

Author: Phenomenal Pen
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56
On Monday, November 4, Kate rides the jeepney at 6:45 AM to try and make it to the semiweekly flag-raising ceremony. She left home with her hair wet from the shower. In the local vernacular, she’s said to be “chased by the comb”. In the Philippines, almost everybody takes a shower in the morning. Few own a hairdryer and everybody looks to the speeding, smoke-belching and breezy jeepneys – the ubiquitous public transport – to be their personal giant electric fan.

Kate gets off across from campus and takes the pedestrian overpass. On the other side, she joins the growing mass of hurrying and already late students. They go through the sole knife arch and the security check wands, which are ineluctable in public places. Just as she’s been dreading, the national anthem starts playing while she’s scurrying down the covered walk. She, just like the other late students, has to freeze in her tracks and put her right palm on her left chest.

First period’s P.E. so Kate goes straight to the
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