ILIGAN City ― “Mag sim reg para hindi ma sim dead.” These were the text messages which I'd read for several days already. At first, I ignored it. But then, it persisted. And lately, the messages did some counting the days too, like less than 50 days til April 26.

And they always included that "Sim dead" phrase. This time, it got on my nerves. As in: ha? Sim dead? Who was it who wrote in a movie on the wall of the house of his enemy, saying: "The anticipation of death is worse than death itself."

Was it Bruce Willis? No, it wasn't him. And I remembered he's got Alzheimer's now. As in forgetfulness. His family is very concerned. Even ex-wife Demi Moore was concerned too. Anyway, that "Sim dead" got into me. Like that "anticipation" written on a wall in some half-forgotten movie. And the text messages from Globe or Smart "commanded" too some visit to some https for some help, if you need one. Or a visit to their stores if needed.

So I scheduled a visit to a mall in which those stores were located. It helped too that my good friend Fely texted me that she had already done her registration. So, maybe, I was now one of the few who did not do the registering yet? And now, at risk of having that "sim dead?"

I answered that I was scheduled that day too to have that darn sim reg. And she offered too that maybe, her son Nilo would help me too. Was I glad? Because that "sim dead" phrase is really some kind of a threatening phrase. It got too in the news of Gold Star News, our favorite paper. So, off I went to that mall. With the agreement that Nilo and I would meet at the G Mall in this city. It would be on the 2nd floor, said Fely at a designated time in the afternoon of that day.

When I arrived at the mall, I felt some strangeness, even as I felt that sameness too. After all, it was 2 years since I last stepped on it, after the lockdowns.

The stores on that second floor which Fely said were the location of the Globe still looked the same. And different too. Where did that "difference" come from? Ah, I then knew. It was in the way the sales creatures did their thing for the products they were selling. "Ma'am," said one. "Come, here's a product of Dr. Willie Ong that's good for the eyes. Do you have watery eyes?"

"Ha?" I replied, eliciting some repetitions on her part. But this time I didn't reply. For then, I wasn't concerned with my eyes. My concern was for the "Sim." For some seconds, I thought she'd make some drastic actions like dragging me to that area of her store which was a few steps away. But she did not. I just asked her where that Globe store was and she replied it was on the 3rd floor.

So, I climbed up to that floor. There was no Nilo waiting for me there. Did he get impatient in the process of waiting for me? Yet I saw there were plenty of people in that store. I went inside the store where a great number of people sat. Were they lining up for the sim reg? After I had sat down, I asked one sitter. She said they were just waiting for their turn to have their cell phones repaired.

How relieved I was then when I found out that there was no lining up for that darn registration. When I lined up, I saw that there were only two of us. And we were attended to by a security guard. "You'll be next, Ma'am," he said. And it took only some seconds to have the sim of the person before me, registered. When it was my turn, it took several seconds too only. It helped that I wrote some notes, and got my ID prepared.

In short, it was really easy to have my sim registered.

It might not have been some walk in the park. But it was just some walk into some mall. Really!

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