Eye To Eye

Does anybody still remember Eye To Eye and Inday Badiday? God rest her soul but that show was just horrible - to me as a kid anyway. If I recall correctly it was some sort of a showbiz talkshow, but it had this huge eye symbol sitting behind the big newsdesk where sunk-eyed Ate Ludz sat - less becoming of a talkshow and more like the command post of an evil doomsday cult.

Coincidence?!

No, it had nothing to do with the fact I also watched shows like Shaider as a kid.

...

Okay, maybe. But just a bit.

Anyway, at some portion of the show there's this segment called "mata ng bayan" which is basically the lost and found for children and old people, who I could not understand back then why they would get lost. Adults aren't supposed to get lost, I thought. Getting lost is a kid thing.

And then I saw some homeless people who I thought just couldn't find their house.

Oh so that's where they get those people for Mata ng Bayan!

If a kid is reported missing, a description is given and read out by Inday Badiday. The descriptions are insane of course and is about as generic as it gets. "Si totoy po ay huling nakita sa may Metro Manila. Nakashorts na pula at may sandong puti. Sya ay sampung taong gulang." God forbid you'd be wearing the same clothes that day or you just might end up getting returned to people you don't even know.

Speaking of which.

If a kid's the one that gets found, the kid is usually taken to the studio and is placed beside Ate Ludz. She will then begin interrogating the kid.

Give me a sec.

My heart is pounding fast. Sorry, I get really scared easily when recalling horrible memories.

*inhale/exhale* Okay.

Inday Badiday will ask the kid "Hijo, kilala mo ba ako?" (as if to check if the kid still has his memory intact). The kid will try to muster up courage to answer to somebody would easily qualify as one of the weekly monsters from Shaider (hey, I was a kid back then. Back off).

But them sometimes the kid couldn't answer.

And Inday Badiday will turn from mildmannered anchor to "interrogator" mode. I think the legal term for it as I later learned was "badgering".

"Sino ako?" The kid wouldn't answer. "Sino ako!?" she asks again in a hoarse voice.

(not actual guest kid. costume not included)

Before you know it the kid is just broken, and Eye to Eye has gone into commercial. Afterwhich I can only imagine the worst for the kid. And no, for the last time, damn it. It had nothing to do with Shaider. I could've sworn one time after the kid disappeared and the commercial was through there were traces of the kid's flesh on Inday Badiday's mouth.

It was like watching Jeopardy, except the contestant is a kid and he'd get eaten if he can't answer properly.

When I was younger I didn't venture outside of our house much because I was scared of being lost.

I was scared of being lost AND being found by Inday Badiday.

When your imagination is twice as active, childhood's almost always twice as horrifying.