That Summer When She Cried

That Night When She Was The Better Mother

I know that the brain keeps memories that were left unspoken about. I know that the brain understands emotions denied. Between a battle of acceptance and not, he spoke about what he knew.

-Tanya

--

"So? Who's going to say something?"

Luke stood in front of his mother and Jeric with both his hands on his waist, waiting for one brave soul to speak.

"Ikaw ba talaga mommy nito o ikaw ang anak?" Jeric asked her quietly while seated on the sofa.

"Naiintindihan ka nyan. Hindi lang nagsasalita ng Tagalog," Tanya nudged him. "Uhm... Tito Jeric has something to tell you."

He didn't say anything but looked on his direction.

"Luke... I want to ask for your permission to be with your Big Lady. I mean, I love your mommy and I want to be with her. But don't worry, again I'm not taking her away from you. I'm just... Can I share her with you?"

"My Big Lady's not a toy. Why will you share her with me?"

"Not that. It's like I'll spend a fairly large amount of time with her. You'll see me more often with her and I'll spend time with you too," he explained. "And I can be like your Big..."

"Big Bird," Tanya giggled silently and felt Jeric's hands pinch her ears.

"Big Man, I guess? I can be like your second dad if you want to," he offered.

"Did my mommy say yes?"

Tanya was about to interrupt but Jeric stopped her. "Wag ka ng magkaila. Alam ko mahal mo ako at wala akong pakialam kung natatakot kang masaktan mo ako," he said and looked back at Luke. "I just want to be there for your mom the way you have been there for her all these times. I promise you that I'll do the best job in taking care of her for you."

"Are you sure you love her? Even if she's always irritated, in a bad mood, a brat, a hard headed mommy?"

"Luke! Why are you saying that?!" reklamo ni Tanya which made Jeric laugh.

"Yeah. I love her even if she prefers to be the bad girl. I love her the same way Spongebob loves Patrick the Starfish."

Luke looked at him intently for a while before asking Tanya.

"You like him too?"

"Uhm... I-If you're fine with t-that..."

"Okay. It seems you do," Luke said and paused for a long time watching him. "I'll give you a chance Tito Jeric. But this is your probationary period and I'm still the boss between the two of us."

He wanted to laugh with Luke's answer but he stopped himself and just smiled. He then offered his hand for a deal.

--

It was a happy night.

The three of them - Jeric, Luke, and her had dinner after a stressful week of school. They looked like a happy and young family, with Luke on a piggyback with Jeric while Tanya was feeding the two boys with the ice cream they bought. Luke called themselves ‘The Sneaky Family’ since they were all wearing sneakers of the same color, same style.

"Where do you want to go now?" Jeric asked him.

"I want to play and dance," he answered. “Maybe we can go to Timezone.”

“It’s late so both of you, stop making plans which are not possible,” Tanya stopped them.

"Don’t listen to your Mom. We’ll play,” he disregarded Tanya’s comment. “So you're trying to be like your Mom then, huh? Don't you want to be like me? You're not into basketball?"