Rewind

Chapter Ten: The First Wave

Midway through crawling to the guest room, I stopped and peered over the couch in the subtlest way possible to check on what Mommy was doing, and to my relief, I saw that she was asleep. She wasn't able to rest much for the past few days since she oversaw the whole process of getting the unit redone and drove to and fro in the middle of the night from the condo to the house to transfer our personal belongings.

I noticed that the laptop was on screen saver mode and was flashing old photographs of Mommy and I from our family vacation in New York when I was seven. The shots were taken by Daddy, the "official photographer" for the trip, which resulted to him not having a lot of photos--unless Mommy offered to stand in for him and then take a photo of him and me together.

--

"Mommy, Daddy, look!" I exclaimed, pointing my finger at a street performer wearing a pair of sunglasses and covered in gold paint. His movements were quick and sudden that one might think he was jolting away from an explosion.

Amused and interested as I was, I tugged on my dad's shirt and screamed, "Doesn't he dance like a robot? That's amazing!"

Daddy eyed the man intently from head to toe, removing his sunglasses in the process, and I let go of his shirt as he moved closer to him.

He turned to face Mommy and I, and then said with all confidence, "I'm pretty sure I'm a better dancer than that guy. Way better."

Mommy just rolled her eyes.

"Naman, Babes, o! Ayaw mo na namang maniwala? Remember, I've proven to the public many times that I'm a great actor, an even GREATER singer, and, of course, I've got the best moves in town. Kaya mo nga ako pinakasalan dahil complete package na ako, diba?"

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow upon hearing his reply. "Ganyan na ba kataas 'yang self-esteem mo at hangang-hanga ka sa sarili mo, Mr. Muhlach? Let me give you a reality check: you are NOT and never will be great in singing as much as you are in acting and dancing, that's for sure."

"Porke't magaling kang kumanta, ganyan ka na," he sneered at hearing her remark.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it? Masyado ka yatang affected sa sinabi ko."

"Ako? Affected?" he sniffed, pointing a finger at himself, "I just want to prove to little Brie over here that she got her incredibly good looks and talents from her dad." He then moved towards me and gave me a pat on the head.

"Sa'yo lang talaga?"

"She's got your eyes, that's an exception. The rest of her features, sa akin--"

"Daddy," I chimed in, "before you and Mommy begin arguing over kung sino ang mas kamukha ko, why don't you challenge the gold man over there to a dance-off? Then we'll see who's the better dancer between the both of you."

He shrugged his shoulders. "If that's what you want." He turned to the street performer and smirked.

"Obviously, she inherited her spunk from me," Mommy murmured, letting out a hearty chuckle.

The gold-coated man stepped down from what looked like a box with smugness and arrogance and began to bust out a couple of moves. He started off by jerking his arms, then extended them sideways, making them look like an ocean wave. He even pushed his body to the ground, and the crowd gathering around us was impressed at the man's flexibility. After he had finished showing off, he nodded at my dad to start dancing.

Daddy stood still for a moment. Everyone, including Mommy and I, held their breaths, wondering what on earth he'd do.

All of a sudden, he leaped and began to do an Egyptian dance. This wasn't what we all were expecting. Mommy rolled her eyes at him again and placed her palm on her forehead while the rest of the crowd chuckled and brought out their cameras.