Morning came too fast, and I was already behind. I woke up at four, stared at the dark ceiling, and asked myself whether I should just head out and stake out a spot while the city was still asleep. I didn’t. I rolled over, told myself it could wait, and thirty minutes later than planned, I was in a car circling a closed—down chunk of Makati, trying to figure out where the Easter egg hunt was even supposed to begin.
. The prizes were wild—Fortnite hotel stays, Ninja blenders, ridiculous stuff like that—and the whole area had been cordoned off. It was a real egg hunt, with real eggs hidden somewhere in the middle of the city, and everyone in the vicinity was out looking
. I was not about to let this pass me by
, so I pulled up near an entrance, grabbed my bag, and climbed out into the morning heat.
. I had a charger, a water bottle, and absolutely no idea what the eggs even looked like
. A few runners passed me, already sweating, already deep into their search
. They had speed
.
I had a ridiculous outfit and a stream running on my phone, which felt like the kind of energy that either wins or embarrasses you
. I wandered toward the nearest cluster of people, hoping somebody would point me in the right direction
. sub
I spotted a police officer standing near a barrier and decided that was as good a starting point as any
. “Excuse me,” I said, trying to catch his attention
.
. “Easter eggs,” I asked
. . “Saan po?
”
. He glanced at me, took in the bright fit,the phone in my hand,the slight desperation in my voice,and nodded down the street
. “Up here,” he said
. “Five.
”
“Maraming salamat,” I said, already moving
. I found my way deeper into the closed-off zone and started scanning
. The place was packed
. Not just a few curious people
.
Everyone was out
. People combed through bushes, checked under benches, peered into planters
. Some had brought actual tools
. I brought chat
.
That was the difference between us and me in this moment
. I spotted a couple walking slowly, heads down, eyes on the ground
. . “Have you found any eggs?
” I asked
. . “None,” they said, barely stopping
. .
“Not a single one? ”
“Nothing yet
. They kept walking, and I kept moving, and the knot in my stomach tightened
. I asked a gardener next
.
He wiped his forehead and shrugged
. “People have found some,” he said
. “I just don’t know where
. ”
“Have you seen them?
”
“No
. ” He shook his head
. . “Never seen them
.
I asked a guy standing near a tree
. Nothing
. I asked a woman checking under a bench
. Nothing
.
Every answer was the same shape
. No one had found one
. No one knew where they were
. And there were way too many people already looking
..
I kept walking, and the reality started settling in
. I was late
. I knew I shouldn’t have been late
. The runners were faster than me
.
The morning crowd had gotten there before me
. And now there were so many people, so much vegetation, so much ground to cover that the odds of just stumbling onto a prize felt thinner than a straw
. “I think the eggs are the friends we made along the way,” I said to chat, trying to keep it light
. But even I didn’t believe it
.
“It might be a scam,” I muttered
. “Like, low-key, this could be nothing
. ”
. Some part of me still wanted to push forward
.
I kept asking, kept checking, kept moving through the crowd
. Each time I passed someone new, I tried the same question
. “Have you found any eggs? ” “Wala na?
” “May nakita ka ba? ”
. No
. No
.
No
. A dog wandered past and I stopped to pet him
. “Good boy,” I said, scratching behind his ears
. “You’re so pretty
.
You’re doing better than me right now
. ”
. He wagged his tail and moved on, and I did too
. .
I couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone was searching blind
. The event had been advertised as an everyone egg hunt
. But it felt like an insider game now
. Like the eggs were hidden somewhere only the people who set it up could find
.
Or maybe somebody had already swept through and gotten the good stuff before the rest of us even showed up
. . I thought about asking the guards where they’d seen people walk toward
. I thought about trying to find a higher vantage point
.
I thought about giving up on this area and circling around to a different part of the closed-off zone
. . Maybe the other side was better
. Maybe the eggs were clustered somewhere else
.
Maybe the runners had only cleared this side
. . I started moving again
. , weaving through the crowd, asking one more person, another person, another person after that
.
. No one had seen anything
. . I stopped near a patch of bushes and looked out over the whole scene
.
People everywhere
. Heads down
. Hands brushing through leaves
. Searching
.
Searching
. Searching
. . And me, standing there in the middle of it, dressed like I was about to win something, holding a phone that was streaming this whole mess to whoever was watching, and feeling like I was losing, minute by minute
.
. I took a breath
. I adjusted my outfit
. I looked at the ground
.
I looked at the sky
. I looked at the crowd, still moving, still hunting, still empty—handed
. . I didn’t know where the eggs were
.
I didn’t know if anyone had found them
. I didn’t even know what color they were supposed to be
. . But I was here
.
I was in the city
. I was in the middle of the hunt
. And I was not going to stand still and pretend thatwasn’t worth something
. .
I started walking again
. , toward the next person, the next patch of ground, the next question I already knew the answer to
. . “Excuse me,” I said
.
. “Have you found any Easter eggs? “