I took the garbage bag containing the professor's broken mug. Pedro and Pilar both grinned at me while the interns looked relieved. I left the laboratory and went to the maintenance room near the fire exit in our floor.
"Excuse me?" I asked the person who was assigned there, "Do you have any glue with you?"
"Glue with me?" he repeated, looking nervous.
"I need something to fix a broken ceramic mug."
"Oh, I see, you need epoxy!" he went inside his room and returned, carrying two small tubes of glue. "You need to mix it, very good, okay? Then stick back together, leave for one day."
"Is there something that would set faster?" I asked him.
"You need a set? That is a set, mix one and two to make epoxy glue equals three!" the man laughed heartily.
"No, I mean... wala po bang mas mabilis pangdikit?" [is there no glue that would set faster?] I asked him in Filipino.
The man's face lit up and grinned at me.
"Abay, marunong ka palang magtagalog, eh! Ba't `di mo agad sinabi?!" [oh, you know, tagalog, why didn't you say so earlier?] he scratched his head, "muntik nang dumugo ang ilong ko sa `yo!" [I almost got a nose bleed `coz of you!]1
"Pasensya po. May mas mabilis po ba pangdikit?" [Sorry. Do you have a fast setting glue?] I asked again.
"Abay, meyron, p'wede ang super glue, kaya lang, eh, hindi matibay. Mas maganda iyang epoxy, tatagal `yan basta't gamitin lang nang wasto." [I do have super glue, but epoxy is better and lasts longer when used properly]
"Okay, thank you," I look at the name on his uniform, "Larry. Do you mind if I fix this here?"
"Walang-anuman! Sige, d'yan ka na sa mesa ko magtrabaho." [You're welcome! You can work on my table]
I spent the rest of the afternoon placing the pieces of the broken cup together. Mr. Larry helped me with the solution, showing me how to apply it and how to smoothen it down to hide the gaps where small pieces of the cup where missing.
After about two hours, the cup was whole again, and I took it back upstairs to let it dry.
"Dr. Abdel, we thought you went home already," said Pilar when she saw me.
"I can not leave without the professor. How is he?"
"Still inside his room," said Pedro. "He hasn't moved since he went in, but at least he got some sleep."
"By the way, Dr. Abdel," Pillar called my attention, "there's a memo for you from upstairs."
She went to the bulletin board by the main entrance and took a piece of paper tacked on it.
"It's about the 3-day Expo that starts on Thursday. The higher-ups said we need to send representatives." She looked up at me and smiled. "If you need an assistant, I'm free for all three days."
"You can go with Pedro, then." I watched her smile quiver at my reply. "I'll see you tomorrow."
I went inside the laboratory and made my way to the middle where Prof. Antonio's room was located. Like what Pilar said, the professor was still lying face down on the couch.
I went to the pantry and placed the mug on top of the microwave oven. Most of the cubicles here do not have locks on them, so I was able to enter his room. I knelt by his side and was about to wake him up when I heard him whimper.
"Are you awake, Prof. Antonio?" I asked.
He did not stir. When I looked closer, I noticed he was asleep. His eyes were swollen, and he was holding something in his right hand. An old photograph of a young man and a little kid.
The man looked a lot like him.
I took off my lab coat, placed it on top of him, and stepped out of the room.
"What the fuck are you still doing here?"
I was rudely awakened by someone kicking the couch on the pantry where I was taking a nap.
"Didn't I tell you to get the fuck out of this company?! Get off my sofa!"
"Since when did this couch belong to you?" I sat up straight and yawned.
"Everything here is mine. Now get out! You're fired!"
"You can't fire me. I'm not working for you."
"Then I'll tell Gadxilla to kick you out! I'm not coming the fuck back here until they deport your bitchy little ass back to where you came from!" he took his bag and walked away from me.
"Prof. Antonio, I am sorry. Please accept my sincere apology, I had no idea the mug meant so much to you."
"I don't give a rat's ass `bout your fucking apology. Get out of my way!"
"I can make it up to you."
"Make it up to me? So what the hell do you plan to do now, huh? Gonna buy me a new mug? You think you can fucking replace what you just trashed?!? You think you can just get me something good enough to take its – "
"I fixed it for you."
I gently pushed him towards the pantry.
"W-what the hell! Stop pushing me! Bastard!" he squirmed.
"I just want to show you..." I pointed at the mug on top of the microwave. "I fixed it for you. I am sorry for trying to get rid of it."
He was silent for a bit, then reached for his mug.
"Careful, the glue is still setting," I said, stopping his hand.
"Masyado ka kasing pakeelamero, eh!" [you're such a busy body!] he yelled as he pulled away from me. "Why do you have to mess with everything?! My clothes, my stuff at home, my room! You even meddle with the way I look!"
"And I am sorry, though your fashion sense still needs much improvement."
"What? You still wanna mess with me?! Huh? Huh?"
"If you would let me."
"NO! You are absolutely forbidden to touch anything I own, particularly stuff about my work and my personal life!"
"Even though I was able to secure the one billion dollar budget for our project?"
"Even if you – "
He stopped and stared at me wide eyed.
"Seriously? They gave us a billion? Wasn't the proposed budget just 600 million?"
"It was increased to one billion."
"Dollars?"
"Yes."
"US dollars?"
"It seems you were not informed."
"Well, that's because some fucking idiot threw away my favorite mug!"
"I have already asked Pedro and Pilar to make a list of all the equipment we need to procure," I said, changing the subject.
Again, he goes silent.
"Add a PET scanner, a CT scanner, and an MRI in the list."
"Is that allowed?"
"Of course. I've been requesting for them for so long, and all they gave me was an ultrasound machine," he said with a pout. "We would need a new state of the art PET scanner if we plan to observe the changes that take place when an omega womb develops inside an adolescent man's body," said the professor. "Why, if I had a room big enough to fit one back home, I would have already bought myself my own stuff."
"How about the living room?" I suggested.
"I need a sealed room. A CT scanner is Radioactive, you know."
"Okay, I'll add those equipment in the list."
"Make sure it's a 128 slice CT scanner, ha."
"Anything more you want to avail"
"What time is it?" he asked.
"It is currently 4:39 am," I replied, looking at my watch.
"I want some breakfast."
1nose bleed – some people find it hard to speak in English, they joke that thinking or concentrating too much might cause their nose to bleed.