Beyond What We See

After exhausting all conversational topics with my seatmate, I checked the time on my phone. It was 8 p.m. Three hours have passed since departing from Pagudpud and at this point, it was nowhere nearing the halfway mark to Manila. Frustrated at the long hours remaining, I leaned back on my hardly reclining seat to force myself to sleep, but instead noticed the sudden change of air inside the bus. It was when I tilted my head that I realized the bus had stopped to pick up passengers again, this was the third time.
Slightly annoyed at how the stops rattled unnecessary noises from the other passengers, I opened the curtain and peered out the seat window. It was dark except for the streetlight beside the waiting shed. Standing in it were more people than the actual number of persons boarding the bus, and it did not appear to me that they were getting on this bus or the next one anytime soon. Aside from the lack of baggage these groups of people had, the look on their faces told me so, same as those from two stops ago.
I honestly do not know the exact details of them being here, but the people we had passed and picked up in the past 2 stops and this stop had one thing in common, all had a look of “helplessness”. It was a complex expression that held no tears, silent, but painful and sorrowful all the same. A feeling desperately restrained and held at bay by the need of having to separate for a better tomorrow. I saw mothers, children, fathers, and their other relatives separating from their families, exchanging words of goodbyes with smiles while handing them their things and sending them off at the bus door.Unknown to the boarding passengers that after exchanging smiles of assurance; a mixture of loneliness, sadness, and restraint invades the faces of the people he or she is leaving behind. The same thing also happens to the ones taking their respective seats in the bus. This mixture of feelings painted by the expression of their faces creates the look of “helplessness.” It reflects their powerless condition against the society that creates this inevitable parting.No normal person would take notice of an event as mundane as a bus picking up passengers heading for the city, especially from someone who just came from a relaxing beach-bumming vacation. Yet, for reasons unknown, I did. And it was from the moment I heard stifled sniffs and sobs from behind me, a few minutes after the last stop, that this moment of realization moved me to swallow this harsh truth.