D-7 Siganid St.

Moving day

The House, Summer 1986

It was an awesome sight. After a few years living in a dark (subterranean as my uncle put it) residence in town, this large and bright looking house surrounded by vast rice fields, right next to a a kindergarten school I just graduated from, and vegetation looks just about right for me. I remembered the crates and cartons being unloaded and the smell of the new residence. The white tiles on the floor, faucets in every corner, electric sockets in every corner, and best of all, two bathrooms with a toilet bowl equipped with a flushing mechanism, and a shower. The smell of Albatross long disintegrated still lingering in the dry and empty bathrooms. And a bathroom mirror as well. From where we used to live, igib, tabo't timba was a way of life.

The bedrooms were equally impressive. To a boy used to a single bedroom with walls made out of plywood so thin you can practically use it as a substitute for paper when you ran out of materials to draw with, a real bedroom was overwhelming. Even the maid's quarters look pristine comapred to the one we've had before. There was a Jesus Christ poster left hanging in one of the cabinets. And a faint smell of rugby, and a little dust. And those circular flourescent lights I only get to see at the medical unit---I always associate them with Dr Garay---and all the lights in the house were exactly like those. Fascinating.

I went outside to check out the terrain. Lots of grass and plants. Perfect for my grasshopper catch and torture hobby. Ant-lions under the bedroom windows as well. I went to check the nearby chico tree for the large variety of ants called 'pala' in the local dialect. Check. I caught one and fed an ant lion larva with the biggest crater. Then I noticed the dogs on the other side of the bamboo fence. A lot of them. In varying breeds as well. One mean-looking mongrel with about the same height as I did eyed me the way a lion probably eyes a gazelle. Good thing I hated dogs. I had to stay out of that one's radius if I want to survive the rest of my stay in this new neighborhood.

I went to the street in front of the house. It was not paved like the ones we have passed going here. I didn't care. I went to the direction of the huge water tank in the west, still mindful of the dogs. A small cute looking white-furred member of the pack managed to squeeze through one of the openings and accompanied me in my walk. for some reason I liked this one more than I ever loved dogs and welcomed the company. I passed by a house in my right, just behind the kindergarten building. It was empty, but there was a native monkey tied by its neck above a tamarind tree. It was screeching at me. Probably remembered me when I threw rocks at it with my classmates in Kinder 1&2. Had it been able to speak I'm sure it would make a Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant proud with the kind of pep talk it would probably give me. The house on the left was inhabited. I saw a mocha-colored VW Beetle parked in a more sophisticated looking garage. 

I reached the end of the road and stood there gaping at the wide open space I did not experience when I lived in the center of the small town. Me, Kit and Jute would have a blast with those Ninja and Tarzan moves we discussed before.

The dog wandered somewhere and I realized i still needed to unpack my comic book collection. Going back, I deduced my father had already unpacked some of his own things as well. 

I can already hear Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" this far from the house.