Game Two

UNKNOWN to the whole world, what was at stake in the Ateneo UST Game Two was more than just the championship, more than just a 5 peat and more than just a historical achievement. For me, what was at stake was dinner.

When Ateneo won Game One, my wife who is an Ateneo alumna treated me to dinner. It was a fried chicken dinner, a simple one. But it was two pieces!

Game Two was scheduled Thursday at three thirty. We had just finished giving a seminar and we had to rush home. As it was the practice, when my wife watches Ateneo games, especially the crucial ones, she really does not watch. She goes out and tinkers in the garden, does paper work, cleans the house or whatever. She does not watch the game.

She is so caught up in the frenzy of the game. I told her why don’t we go to Manila and watch Game Two? She said, ikaw na lang kasi baka first quarter pa lang, I will faint na. That I can believe.

So while I was watching Game Two, she was going around the house like some headless creature. (Oh by the way did I mention that in Games One and Two, the lights in our prayer room were turned on, courtesy of you know who!)

When there is a timeout that is when I report to her. According to her, she gauges the game when she hears me shout and clap. Yes, yes, I shout and clap.

As it is her practice she does not watch three fourths of the game but somehow she musters enough courage to watch the last few minutes. And if you watched the last few minutes of Game Two, that was a little intense. So right on cue, my wife enters the room in the last few minutes. She looks at the score and mutters something that is so unbecoming of my dear sweet charming wife.

She picks up her pillow and places it in her mouth, not the whole pillow ha. She looks at the television and she cannot be interrupted. Not even I can unglue her.

Karim Abdul is dribbling. Suddenly he slips and is called for travelling and my wife gives out a big YES! Complete with the obligatory hisssssssssss at the end. I also think she pumped her fist.

When Juami makes the shot, she gives out a whooping scream like those Indians of the wild west. When UST makes a shot, she mumbles something (again) which cannot be printed.

Then Kiefer takes a shot and it goes in and my wife is shouting again. I tell her something and she tells me to shut up. Fortuna makes a three point shot and the lead is three and seconds go by so slowly. I am afraid because my wife might collapse. Juami misses both free throws and the dinner is held in the balance. Am I looking at leftovers here?

UST pushes the ball down court, they take a shot and the room is quiet. A miss. My wife again shouts. But it is UST ball. I know better than to say something because I know my wife will just tell me to shut up. No more timeouts for UST. The inbound is about to happen and then suddenly, turnover. Juami intercepts the ball and dribbles out the time. Ateneo wins. My wife gives her victory yell and as for me, DINNER! My wife is still trembling, yes, yes, that is how intense she is. And then, and then I hear those beautiful words, saan mo gusto dinner?

As it turned out, it was not only me she was treating to dinner. In her jubilation, joy, happiness, ecstasy, triumph, celebration and victory she decided that she would treat everyone in the house to dinner. WOW! I am speechless, flabbergasted, shocked, surprised, awed and dumbfounded. But first we text Migoy and Gabo. We told them to have dinner too, our treat. We will treat Eps too when he is not too busy.

So my wife goes out and tells all the household help that she was going to treat dinner. Everyone is happy including the Ateneo basketball team. So we take the car and go to the drive thru. We end up with two paper bags of food and drinks. We give the help their share and we all happily eat our 5 peat dinner. Ahh, one big fry.

I could get used to this and I hope that Ateneo will win its sixth straight title next year.

That way we can all have dinner again. Maybe this time we get some pizza!