Reading The Lips Of Fate
Do you believe in fate? That in the most random places in this world, in the most random of all times, you get to meet some random girl. And everything — and I mean EVERYTHING — aligns for the two of you. Suddenly, that day isn’t random after all.
I was on my way to work with my usual guilty pleasure playlist from Spotify. I got inside the jeep and sat on my favorite spot — the rear spot on the end. Other passengers started coming in. An old woman sat in front of me. She did struggle a little bit carrying herself in. Jonas Brothers was already playing through my earphones. I reached into my pocket to get my fare and hand it forward.
I noticed the woman facing me was rambling on her bag, panicking. It seems that she left something or maybe someone stole it. She immediately requested for the jeepney to stop. She alighted quite slowly; I even assisted her. Hey, holding her arms may not really do anything but it’s the gesture that counts.
And so all the passengers slid sideways to fill in the empty spot. And the one that took the old woman’s seat is this lady. Her headphones seemed purposefully placed to serve as a headband. She has dangling earrings made more conspicuous by her short hair that made her look like Usagi of Alice In Borderland. She was dressed well, a perfect mix of formal and chic get-up.
🎶 🎵 Nice to meet you, where you been? 🎶 🎵
In that few seconds she moved her lips, I jolted! She’s in my head! Did she see me looking at her? Is she reading my mind? No. She was not. It was Taylor Swift from my playlist. I checked if my earphones’ plug got loose…but it was intact. How did she know the song I was listening to? So I observed further while she’s staring outside.
🎶 🎵 I could show you incredible things 🎶 🎵
I started mouthing the lyrics too from the song I can hear and it was in sync to her lips — we were both bobbing our heads to this 2014 hit song. I looked around in bewilderment and no one in the jeepney seems to be mind-boggled by this. I even loosened my earphones a little bit just to check if the driver’s radio speaker was playing the same song. It isn’t.
I just stared at her, eyes widened while I kept on lip-syncing. While WE kept on lip-syncing. Word per word. Line by line. They were all accurate. How can this be? We’re both tuned in to the same song?!
Let me explain how this crazy thing baffles me. She could be listening to the radio, a saved playlist on her phone, or maybe through Spotify, Youtube, or Apple Music. I really don’t know. And the chances that two people playing the same exact song at the same time, without any Bluetooth connection, is crazy! Not only that, how can a 3-minute-52-second song start at the same freakin’ time between two different people with an audio device plugged in?!
🎶 🎵 Oh, my God, look at that face 🎶 🎵
This is the part where she noticed my shookt face staring at her. I probably looked like a robot with the mouth moving but had a blank face. She slowly turned her head in my direction but she still kept on lip-syncing along. It was an awkward 20 seconds of us staring at each other while we lip-sync to the same song. She also did what I previously had done. She raised the left side of her headphones just to check if the same music was playing in the background. She looked at my earphones just to double-check. She looked at the phone in my hand. She looked at her gadget. And she looked back at my face and she had the most confused look. She gets it!
I was hearing the biggest earworm chorus of the 21st century coming in while we continued lip-syncing. We were communicating with our eyes and face but no words were coming out. Still mouthing our inner Taylor Swift, and I started smiling and with an equally perplexed face as hers. I, TOO, DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON.
She started laughing, too.
🎶 🎵 So it’s gonna be forever 🎶 🎵
And then she did the most unexpected thing during this creepy moment: she started dancing with her head and arms profusely feeling the moment. And I. Did. Not. Back. Down. It was a crazy full chorus showdown of Blank Space between two strangers, from different places, from different walks of life, with two different mobile devices. But we were ̶s̶i̶n̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ lip-syncing our hearts out to just one same song. Other passengers started getting weirded out by the two Swifties.
🎶 🎵 But I’ve got a blank space, baby, and I’ll write your name 🎶 🎵
We just had to say that line with so much gusto, with that seductive look on our faces. We both laughed out loud! She then completely removed her headphones, and even though she could have then uttered the word, no sound came out. She still mouthed HOW. Which is funny and cute at the same time. It’s like the world stopped. I pulled out my earphones and extended my arms just to show her the Spotify playlist on my phone. I am not messing around. She showed me her phone, too and it was on her audio player interface.
And then…
— someone swiftly grabbed my phone from the outside and scrammed! A snatcher stole my phone while the jeep was at a red light.
People get confused between fate and destiny. And it’s understandable. Both words mean something is set already, predetermined. Both bring mysterious and fascinating concepts that humans’ simple minds have difficulty wrapping their heads around them. It gives us a feeling that something bigger than all of us or someone powerful is looking at our lives from afar.
But there is a difference. Fate operates like a machine. Fate follows a script or natural order for how the Universe moves. Fate is behind putting us together on that same ride that morning. And the old woman who was previously in front of me? Fate made her forget her purse that morning. Fate queued my songs in the playlist in such an order: Call Me Maybe, Baby, Party In the USA, Love Bug, and then Blank Space. Fate fixed the algorithm on her music player too. It was also fate who wrote in the script that after the Blank Space chorus, the vehicle will stop in traffic. A snatcher will see a Samsung phone perfectly displayed like an eye candy. And fate ordered the snatcher: grab it!
Fate tends to have this negative connotation. Missed flights. Accidents. Deaths. And two people meeting at that tangential point in their lives. Fate is cold and stoic.
Destiny, however, presents an element of choice. And although we have a preordained destination, we have to constantly make intentional choices to get there. Destiny is actively being shaped by you as you move. I made that playlist with that set of songs. She downloaded an entire 1989 album of Taylor Swift. I choose to take that seat in the end. She wanted to be on that same spot opposite to mine too. I chose to keep on lip-syncing. She chose to move her lips too. I chose to smile. And she decided to start a showdown. I intentionally showed you my phone, to prove that I am not kidding.
And now it was taken away from me. Fate can be cruel at times; sometimes we just don’t understand why. I was ready to jump outside to chase after the criminal. But I still have work to do. I resisted and just sat back with a deep sigh. The rest of the passengers were all tensed up including you. I was silent for a moment. A complete 180-degree turn of emotion. She just felt sorry and didn’t know what to say.
I asked if I can borrow your phone so that I can text my mom. You obliged. I gave your phone back just as I was about to alight the jeepney. I smiled at you just before I left. No words needed. I mouthed nice meeting you. You looked at my back as I walked away. You put the earphones back on and track #10 was playing. You looked at your sent messages and smiled.
Read more of Andrew’s short stories:
Andrew Beso is a Manila-based content creator who is exploring different ways of sharing art — whether it be written, spoken, and visualized. His work, aside from being in Medium, can also be seen on Youtube, Instagram, and Tiktok. All his creative expressions use varying styles, lenses, and mediums of storytelling.
