Lucky

18 years ago...

       I wasn’t sure if I was ready or not for our summer vacation because my laziness again visited me, but somehow I forced myself to be part of it. Our family, which consists of my mother, my brothers, my uncle, my aunt and my cousins, were having fun while on the road. My father, who was with busy with work couldn’t come but sent his greetings to my grandparents, who were living in the province of Albay.

My uncle, who was driving, announced that we we’re just half an hour away from our destination. All of us were excited especially my eldest brother, who was visiting for the third time. Of course I didn’t want to be left behind and I also wanted to enjoy my first visit to our grandparents.

When we arrived, they all dispersed around the place and I was left alone, observing the area from distance to distance. It was quite rural enough and exceeded my expectations. There were neither malls nor high buildings but simple houses My mother called me and when I looked at her, I saw my grandparents’ house. It was a simple nipa hut which was also a sari – sari store and a bakery.

At first, I wasn’t too comfortable of the surroundings because I was used to hearing vehicles from the outside back in Manila unlike here in Albay which was totally quiet. The first night for me was quite a memorable one. I couldn’t sleep. Why? Because I was afraid that an “aswang” or “multo” might appear out of nowhere.

Well you can’t blame me because I was six years old that time.

My mother told me that I should sleep early so that I’ll grow stronger and taller someday. I asked my mother some questions regarding her words.

“Ma. Is that the reason why Daddy is so strong and tall?”

My mother nodded.

“If I always sleep then I can become strong like superman?”

“Probably if you also drink some milk” she answered.

I believed her so I drank lots of milk back then but had a hard time sleeping at night.

The next day, we went to the beach, ate some seafood and watched the sunset.  It was my first time eating sea food, they were surprisingly delicious especially the one they called “halamang dagat”.

Night came and unfortunately it was time to sleep but I was starting to get used to the superstitions in fact I slept so early. For me it was an achievement.   

Then morning came, we had the same routine for the day; eating, playing and sleeping.

My uncle gave me a sling shot which I used to accidentally hit one of my playmates near the eye. Because of that, my mother scolded me. Not only that, she scolded me because of a wound I got on my left knee for running around the street.

You really can’t help yourself when you are a child. You always want to play around even though you have no idea that it could cause trouble.

One night, my cousins brought me to a place called “cinema-house”. It was a house that showed different films for children every night for free. The place was small and crowded and we always had a hard time looking for empty seats.

I like to watch films because I get to bond with my dad. I was right to join our vacation; it was really fun until my mother told me that we had only three days left before we leave. That night I tried to sleeping so that I can wake up   early next day.

When morning came, my brothers and cousins took me for a ride on a bicycle but unfortunately I was too short to use the bike, I couldn’t reach the pedals so I was placed on the carriage. At noon we went back to have some lunch, which was purely sea food.