Page 57 - WashingtonSyCip_Bio_Excerpt_2nd_Edition

Passenger on a Ship

back, the clerk gave Wash his change—more change than was needed, as it turned
out, and Wash began to wonder. He asked for the invoice. Wash realized that maybe
because he was clearly Asian, the clerk didn’t think he knew any better. Wash found
that instead of golf balls, the clerk had put in “tees,” which cost much less, thus
the incorrect amount of change. It became clear to Wash that the clerk intended to
pocket the difference, but in his carelessness gave more to Wash than was necessary.
“He didn’t know I was an auditor!”

And neither did the Philippines, not just yet. When the captain’s gig nudged the edge
of the pier and Wash SyCip set foot on home soil for the first time in five years, his
future career wasn’t the first thing on his mind. He just wanted to get home as quickly
as possible—whatever the family’s Sta. Mesa home may have become in the orgy of
destruction that brought a cataclysmic end to the war in Manila.

Fortunately, Wash had an angel in the person of his old New York pal Ed Brunstead,
now a naval officer in Manila. “He knew my address here. When his ship arrived, he
went to Sta. Mesa and met my father. I had told my family I was coming back on the
ship, so that was how he knew I was coming. As Lieutenant Commander, he was his
ship’s second-in-command. He got the captain’s gig and he went to my ship and told
the commander, ‘Look, my good friend here...’ He took me off the ship. I was the
only one who got off.”

At the pier, they boarded Brunstead’s jeep, and they sped off to Sta. Mesa. Wash could
hardly tell where they were going—the whole cityscape looked strange. “Ed drove me
to my father’s house. At that time, when you passed the Ermita area, you normally
knew where to turn right or left, not because of the street names, but just using
landmarks. But there was so much destruction you couldn’t recognize it.”

A family reunion

When they arrived at the SyCip compound, Wash saw how much had changed, and
learned the full story of what had happened to the SyCips during the war. “My father
was very thin. There was no fancy welcome. We hardly had anything. People were
living on canned goods from the military. I think it was about noontime when I got
home. My father, my brother, stepmother, and my sister Elizabeth was there. Paz was
already married then. A month later, David also came home.”

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