I am clueless to what he's up to tonight, as if I know the reason behind every time this happens. He screams at the top of his lungs almost each early hour, omitting enough decibels for people to hear his megalomania four blocks from their house. People believe that he's on illegal drugs, which they perceive as the root cause of the fuss since then. His often red eyes, his leanness and his odd behavior suggest so.
He continues to shout. His voice is yet audible, louder and stronger than the sound of the rain.
There are a lot of things going inside my mind right now - how Tita Gina, his wife, reacts on the outrage; why Tito Kano, the perpetrator, chose this life; and how Regino, their son, my friend since childhood, deals with the situation being the one most affected. All these things sprout out of concern for their family, since I know that they were once a happy family.
The three live two blocks away from our house. They have their permanent residency there at least since I was a child. I know that Tita Gina isn't from this place and that the man was favored to have the family settle here. Tito Kano is a friend of my father, as Regino is a friend of mine. Regino and I used to play on the streets together with Aysi, his classmate, also a neighbor. Regino now studies Chemical Engineering at UP Visayas.
My father once told me, as I was not bold enough to ask Regino on this matter, that Tito Kano's outrage started after a visit in Kalibo, Aklan, where he stayed for a few weeks, and came back. He says that his friend or relative may have dealt him a kind of illegal drug. Soon after, the horror of the Hibaler family - an uncontrolled paternal behavior of a drugged family man - started there.
A gate just clinked. It's 2:35 now, but still raining as hard.
