Sisa Kalusa
NOTE: There are lots of Tagalog phrases and sentences in this post. Sorry for those people who can’t understand Tagalog because I haven’t provided any translations.
We were reshuffled, unfortunately again this semester. That means, I don’t know most of my new blockmates and we all need to adapt to the personalities of our new classmates. But then, I already know some of my new blockmates: one of them was my classmate last year, two were my blockmates just last semester, and another two were my friends since grade school. Yesterday, I and one of my friends since grade school that I’m talking about went back here in San Fernando from school together. Nostalgia hit us. We remembered one reason which made our high school life really memorable: Sisa.
Our classmates call her “Sisa”1 or sometimes “Sisa Kalusa.” I don’t know why or when my classmates started to do so.
It all started during our sophomore year, when Sisa suddenly became the top five of our class. It was very surprising to us because we know that she’s just an average student. From what I have heard from my classmates, she really memorize each single line in our books so when you ask her a question, her answer would always be very long, complete with all of the reasons stated on the book. And then, in our second quarterly test, she absented herself. She reported that she was having dysmenorrhea. She was admitted to the hospital. Actually, we even visited her right after our examinations. She repeated this during our third quarterly test and subsequently, she dropped out from school.
And by that time, one of my classmates who is also my third cousin predicted “Magiging baliw ang babaeng yan.” True enough, for us, she lost her sanity. She kept on telling us weird stories like “Kinukulam ako nung kapit bahay namin kaya nagkukulong ako sa cabinet.” Every time, it was always the different story. “Kinukulong ako sa cabinet ng papa ko, tapos, sinasamuri2 pa niya ako.” There was also this incident when we saw abrasions on her forearm. We asked her why she had those. Her first version was that “Kinalmot ako ng pusa.” The next time I asked her, she said, “Nagasgas ako sa yero, e.” And there was also this speculation from my friends that she tried to commit suicide.
She enrolled during the summer of 2003 and luckily for her, she was still our classmate in our third year. That time, we thought that she was already okay and “Nahigpitan na ang tornilyo niya sa utak.” She was not in the top ten students anymore, but she started to flirt with the first year male students. She had lots of boyfriends, usually, younger than her. This led her to be transfered in the lower section during our final year in high school.
But that, of course, did not help her case. She still dated boys. She also earned more enemies than friends. Her studies were not her priority anymore. And by the second half of the school year, she transfered to another school. But before she transfered to another school, she was reported missing. Her parents were really worried about her. They even went to the house of her best friend (whom I’ll name as Betty). They told Betty that “Kapag may nangyaring masama sa anak namin, ikaw ang mananagot.” Hell, I still don’t get it why Sisa’s parents told that to Betty because they were no longer classmates and communication between them had ceased. Betty’s parents advised her not to mingle with Sisa anymore because “Mabubunits ka lang niyan.” Nevertheless, Betty still helped Sisa’s parents to look for her. While they were looking for her, Betty said, “Bakit hindi ninyo po ipatinging sa psychiatrist si Sisa?” Sisa’s mother replied, “Pinapatingin namin kaso hindi siya nakikipagcooperate.” I only know a little information about this, you see, the next thing that I know was that Sisa was found in a gasoline station.
But her insanity didn’t stop there. Sisa spread a rumor in her new school about an ex-schoolmate. She said that this ex-schoolmate smells like tinapa. This reached our school, all of those fourth year students who were angry with her decided to meet her in a fast food chain here in San Fernando. There, they confronted her, they even bought tinapa and talbos ng kamote and threw it in front of her for effects. The next day, these people were called by our coordinator. Sisa wanted to blotter them because “Binugbog nila ako.” where in fact, there was no physical contact of any sort.
But the most shocking news that we received was that she got pregnant! She even asked Betty to be the godmother of her daughter. From what I have heard, she’s now living with the father of her daughter and she’s a first year college student.
I never imagined that I would have a classmate like Sisa. I still don’t know what triggered her to be like this. But one thing is for sure, we need the guidance of our parents and desirable friends to maintain our sanity. To Sisa, I want to say to you that it is not yet late to change. Of course, we can’t erase what happened in the past, but let these experiences that we had to teach us a lesson so we can move on with our lives for in experiencing, we learn more about our life and the reality.
