Someone Stole My Diamond Pendant

I lost my diamond pendant today. I feel a little low but I am trying not to be affected.

I went to Greenhills around noon. When I told my driver “sa bahay”, I changed my mind when I looked at my watch and it was only 1 pm. I told him to drop me off at the Atlanta Centre in Annapolis instead.

I decided to have a diamond peel procedure at the Facial Care Center on the 27th floor of Atlanta building. When diamond peel became a hit more than 5 years ago, I was enticed to get a package of 10 visits and until now I haven’t even consumed it. There was even a year or two that I didn’t show up. The staff of Facial Care would occasionally text me to invite me to come and visit. Super traffic around Greenhills, I am busy, I am abroad are the common but real reasons. Last month while I was in the US, I got a text from them twice asking me to come by. Syempre they want their clients to finish the treatments fast so they could sell them another round of treatments.

So that’s the reason why I went to Facial Care Center today at 1 pm. No traffic, it was only 1 pm and I have two hours to spare and diamond peel is only 15 minutes.

The people there have very good memory. Even if I only show up one a year or once every two years, they do remember my name. They set up the room, room 2. The supervisor used a large towel for my blanket. She was trying to sell to me a procedure for the neck. She offered me a free trial. I didn’t refuse so as not to be rude and they said it would only take 15 minutes.
so I said “sige”.

She told me to remove my necklace. I tried to remove the clasp. The therapist who was already positioned sa ulunan ko helped me remove my necklace. She handed it over to Joanne and Joanne handed it over to me.
I clasped it with my left hand but I told her, pwedeng paki patong na lang kasi baka malaglag ko. She took it and I heard the sound of the chain hitting the metal tray.

The therapist began squirting sticky gel on my neck. I dozed off. Then came Joanne again, offering a free trial of something good for the face daw called Oxigeneo (sounded like that). I asked her what about the diamond peel that I went there for. She said meron na daw yung kasama. Since I was too sleepy and enjoying my afternoon nap, I said “okay” for the free trial. Next thing I knew, the therapist said “mam tapos na po”.

Joanne came back with a piece of paper with the discounted package kuno of the two procedures, for the neck and for the face. I looked at the paper and told her I won’t be able to use those because I am always out of the country and when I am in Manila I am too busy. Syempre she tried to convince me that it doesn’t expire naman. Just like the diamond peel it might take ten years for me to finish a 10 visit beauty treatment package.

While I was getting ready to leave, she reminded me of my necklace. It was no longer to be found. I didn’t know that while I was asleep, Joanne took out the metal tray with wheels where she placed my pendant and brought in another machine for the face.

According to her, she parked the metal tray with wheels in the hallway. My necklace was not there. One of the staff asked me to look inside my bag “Mam baka nasa bag mo paki tingnan na lang?” I told her it can’t be in my bag because I didn’t touch my bag. Impossible. They asked me to remove the bed cover. I told them there’s no way that my necklace would land there.

It’s simple arithmetic. Someone must have stolen my diamond pendant. Ala.

I was very calm and not angry. I knew that someone must have taken it. Literally nasilaw dahil makintab at kumikinang. It’s a simple necklace, 18 ct white gold and the pendant has small diamond stones. I bought that in Singapore a couple of years ago and it has a set of earrings which I’ve been wearing daily. I bought that talaga pang-araw-araw. Sometimes I end up wearing them even on special occasions kasi natatamad ako to wear something more formal.

One staff told me “kasi mam dapat sa bag mo inilagay”. Nainis ako, “Are you blaming me? It’s actually your responsibility. When you saw her removing the metal tray with my necklace on it you should have told her not to or you should have removed the necklace and placed it in a safer place. I came here only for the diamond peel and you kept on offering me something else. You were the one who asked me to remove my necklace. Hindi ko naman alam meron palang magnanakaw dito!”

Hayy, They asked me how much my necklace is. It’s not very expensive but of course the word expensive is relative. Pang-araw-araw ko talaga yun, pang travel para kahit nasa bus or train ako or Uber eh hindi ako nagwo-worry.
When I told them how much, they all turned pale.

Umalis na ako kasi ayaw kong hintayin na uminit pa ang ulo ko.
They promised to look for it and they will have a meeting and would try to find out who took it. Of course no one would admit it. I don’t want to give the owner a call for that because I don’t want the girls to get in trouble but I cannot just say “okay lang nawala”. It is still worth something.

I will give them a few days to find it.

Parang meron na nga akong premonition na baka mawala. When we were in Tagaytay, I placed it on a plastic tray beside the cup and saucer. Edmund saw it and said “tart, yung ano mo baka mawala”. I told him hinde, nilagay ko talaga yun dun. When we were about to check out, that was the last thing that I took, muntik ko na talagang malimutan. This morning when I was getting ready, I had second thoughts of wearing it. In fact hindi ko na talaga sya isusuot, pero I looked so plain so sinuot ko na rin. Ayun, nawala. Waahhhhhh!!!!