Miscellanea from the Lost Quarter and beyond. 

The Heart of the City

The church was under a white tent, protecting those gathered from the midday sun. Chairs, mostly empty, surrounded the pulpit. Surrounding it was a carefully manicured forest of green, with ponds and streams intertwined throughout. The already humid air was made positively damp by the greenery and water. People walked through but didn’t linger, heading to one of the buildings that encircled the gardens. Inside was air conditioned and gleaming. Well-dressed people wandered through the corridors of this oasis, idling in shops. There were security guards everywhere, watchful and unobtrusive. By the pathway leading to the tent, at every entrance to the buildings and within as well. They gave a cursory check of bags and asked people to take off their hats. A familiar protocol.  

The city surrounding this idyll was a warren of streets choked with exhaust and traffic. The pavement absorbed the noon sun, reflecting it back, affording no relief. A profusion of buildings crowded, apparently haphazardly around it. Modern business towers with gleaming windows, campuses for private schools built at the turn of the previous century, shops with apartments above them, the buildings crowded so close together it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. Half-built complexes littered the landscape. Cranes stood beside them, seemingly forgotten. The streets were crowded with people, though not as much as the roads were snarled with cars. They lingered in the few places that offered any shade, where jeepneys and trikes picked people up, or hurried from building to building where air conditioning might be found.  

These two realms intersected underneath the mall in the parking garage with many levels and drop off points. The chaos of the streets outside was limited here, only because there so little room to maneuver. Every entrance and exit was manned by security, these individuals looking far more fearsome than those inside. They knew they were the barrier that mattered. There were many failings in the city, that no one would deny. Problems so vast it was hard to comprehend fully let alone hope to address them. Inside, all that could be forgotten, left invisible. There were no windows looking down on the streets. People drifted about, laughing, idling in restaurants and on benches. Enjoying a pause from what awaited them outside.