Delayed Goosebumps

Five years ago, I was up for a shooting assignment down south, specifically Tawi-Tawi. As we were to take photos of sunrise in the middle of the sea on our second day, we had to sleep overnight in the island of Panglima Sugala. Electricity there, like in all other islands nearby, was only available between 6 o'clock in the evening until 12 midnight. And so we called off our first day early by sleeping around 9PM to be able to catch up the 4AM call time. Like I always do, I woke up ahead of my alarm clock but stayed on the bed as I could not see a single thing in the dark, not even my colleague Aileen who was sound asleep on the other bed. Hearing the roosters early on, I did not reach out for my cellphone to check on the time. I presumed the alarm should go off anytime soon. Until I felt a tap on my left arm. It must have been Aileen who probably happened to move while still asleep. I even said, "O?" (Yes?) to her but somehow she did not reply. So I just stayed there lying for quite sometime until my phone alarm finally went off. The alarm sounded so loud it totally made me forget about what happened earlier and so we hurried up to get all our stuff and head off to the waiting speed boat. We were just on time for everything and had beautiful shots of sunrise.

Six months after, I went back for another assignment. I was on the same island, the same pension house, the same room, the same companion. When the lights went on at 6 o'clock in the evening, somehow I remembered what happened the last time I was there. So I finally told Aileen about it and asked her if she remembered tapping me. She said "No, you were the one who woke me up, remember? And how can I touch you then when our beds were quite apart, long enough not to reach the one lying on the other bed!"

Oops! My goosebumps rather came late.