Solving Metamorphosis Chapter 2: The Writer and The Shadow Boxer

(Off the record part 1 of 2)

Hope and fear.  I Hope that the inspector never finds out what I have been doing inside his spotlessly clean comfort room.  I fear what will happen to me if he does, when he does.

I Fear and I hope.  Fear that the interview will never be published. Hope that I won't care if it doesn't.

Like a cheating lover, I made this C.R. my phone booth, risking the skull under my thick and curly hair just so I could write. Because I must.

I write. I am married to the word and everybody else, including Inspector Javier T. is my mistress, my momentary muse, or my unwilling victim. Of course, my reader, you are an exception.

That is why (contrary to his command) those two Kape Barako breaks of the interview will never be off the record. For someone like me, nothing is.

And if I die (I fear)  because I spoke. I will die in fashion (I hope) because I spoke. Remember that Words live longer than the ones who spoke them.

This is what happened:

After the first part of the interview, we transferred to the Inspector's rooftop sampayan to sample  his special Kape. Which is simply freshly grounded Arabica-dark brewed in a tin pot over a charcoal heated clay oven. Served with Muscovado sugar and fresh milk.

After  three consecutive sips, I felt it.  The veins in my head throbbed, and my body gained enough heat that I took off the my knitted jacket despite the windy night.

We were at the center of the rooftop, seated on rattan chairs which his katulong brought out together with a matching table. I was cringing in my seat, shifting my positions every now and then. Was I palpitating?

I lied. The part where I became talkative after drinking coffee is off the the record. I just talked about stars and what I know read about the moon. boring stuff.
And yet, inspector Javier T. ,despite his vanity, can listen. He is only the second person who made me as talkative as I was.  My job is to write about talkative people, and your part, my reader is to read what I write.

I kept on talking but then he interrupted and said,
"in The Way of the General written by Zhuge Liang, the fifth way in getting to know people is to get them drunk, he did not say that it has to be on alcohol."

"mr --,  the way you sipped your coffee, to the way you immediately removed your jacket following the first pangs of heat, up to the fact that you cannot stop talking. You remind me of this someone who lacked self-control and was a victim of his own body"

Embarrassed, I immediately apologized.

"none required"

"You are right inspector" I admitted "I do find it hard to control myself, my emotions, my addictions-

"addictions?"

speedily I said "to coffee, to sleep"

"what else?"

Now I know  I should take the topic off me before this becomes an investigation and he finds out my real addiction.

"That is all Inspector, I also do tend to play a lot of video games- the fighting ones or the shooting games haha"

"video games...that is a start, although it is already too late for you "
(I had nothing to respond to this)

He got up, all 5 feet ten of him, and took from a nearby umbrella rack a Kamagong Arnis stick. The Inspector's mastery of the martial art is no mystery to the public but to actually see and feel it.. it's just.. surreal.

"but you could learn something"

"I need to remind you that this is off the record, you will sign a waiver later on and should you fail to honor it, you are above the law"

"I understand Inspector" (And still I cannot stop writing on my head what is happening, I also knew that at this point I have made my escape, It was easy to make him talk about himself, this was after all an interview, although an off topic, off the record part of it.)

"you need to find your number one enemy, the one who will give you the urgency to take control of yourself because if you can't then somebody can easily take over"

"so Juan--"

"never! everyone thinks that I consider Del Valle Juan my number one enemy, but you are all mistaken. And I will never give him that honor"

With the Arnis on his right hand he said:

"if you're looking for your nemesis, you need only to look in the mirror"

" the self"

He placed his right arm(the one holding the Arnis) on his left chess and made the Pugay, a bow before any fight.

With this he took a stance which(after research) I later found out to be  the Ku-kutso Dachi or the Back Stance. (70% of the weight on the back leg.)

"But when you are fighting your own phantom, make sure that he is FASTER than you are"

The inspector leaped and slashed twice attacking the left temple of an imaginary opponent. This is the first of 12 strikes of the Arnis Sinawali, the first strike to the temple. But the inspector struck twice in blinding speed and at the same imagined target. This I later known as the Dublado, the first strike meant to be blocked but strong enough to deflect the opponent's guard(be it an empty hand or another Arnis) creating a split second opening for the next strike.

On the same spot.

He was two paces from the table chasing an opponent as he struck the 2nd of the 12, attacking the right temple with the Dublado technique.  His uncanny speed coupled with the merging of the night sky with his black leather jacket made it almost impossible to follow his movements. Thankfully, the sound of wind being cut assured me of my observations.   Still, I struggled to believe there was a phantom and that this phantom evaded both of Javier T's attacks.

"Make sure that he is STRONGER than you are."

Now it was the Javier T's time to back up, blocking one imaginary slash seemingly aimed for his floating ribs, he stumbled a bit and I swear this time I heard something hit his Arnis. It was the sound of wood against wood. He blocked with the fourth of the ten blocks of Arnis. Simultaneously he changed into Nekoashi-Dachi or the Cat Stance (90 % weight on the back leg) while performing the fifth block meant to stop a thrust to his solar plexus.

Maybe he failed to block because the inspector was forced to take three steps back as he held one arm on his stomach while the other still held guard with the Arnis.

Was that blood on the concrete floor? Without a word he resumed to his Back Stance.

"in everything, he should be BETTER than you are, only by defeating someone like him can you hope to become stronger, to take control of your own demons"

I never knew shadowboxing to be this complicated.

What followed next bordered on the thin line between what you can believe and what you can't. The inspector moved rhythmically, one foot always following the other, attacking but always blocking, hitting hard while maintaining guard, dancing even on his rigid stance, swinging but never hitting the barot clotheslines or me for that matter. And the phantom?

You don't have to believe me.  But just imagine that you do. Because now, I saw "him" or "it".

The phantom, a blurred mirror image of the inspector. A tall man wearing a black leather jacket, over his blue police uniform and combat boots.  Always on the verge of disappearing like a blinking light bulb. His own weapon sounding as it hit the inspector's. The rumors were true.

Then a pause, a stalemate.

Inspector Javier T. started to sway his stick (technique meant to disrupt an opponent's reading) and lunged with the fifth strike, a clear thrust to the throat. The phantom managed to block the thrust but the force of the block was all that Javier T. needed to deliver his deathblow. His coup d grace. His most prized technique. The skull splitter. A downward slash to the center of an opponent's head.  Left hand on wrist to add force.

The reports were inconsistent only in words: death by severe trauma to the brain, death by internal hemorrhage, death by severe concussion, death, death, death, but those who lived were far more consistent. Life-time comatose.

All of them found guilty... of not surrendering to the Sword of God.

The phantom vanished into oblivion. The victor stood upright, his black leather jacket glistened in the night sky.

And Inspector Javier T. made his oath...or his confession..his addiction..his obsession

looking up at the night sky, 

"these stars will witness, Juan Del Valle Juan will die!"