The Hunchback of Abella

A Duet

When I was about 8 years old, I sang Something's Happened to Daddy in church. My father was not a church-goer so the guy I sang with was my mother's friend's husband. Papa keeps coming to my mind these days. January is the month he was felled by a massive coronary. Next week on the 14th is the anniversary of his death. The only times he ever set foot in church were during weddings and funerals of family and friends. I remember him being present in church eagerly when I was a flower girl at an aunt's wedding. Finally he entered church one more time. At his own funeral. I made sure church was the very place he went to before the cemetery. I only wished he was the one I sang with.

Amy hosts

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Guns n' Roses and the Hunchback of Abella

My childhood was what can most likely be called normal. There was a balance of happy and sad memories. Today's Small Talk Six! topic is six vivid childhood memories. I present mine according to the emotions I felt with each memory. If I could make a sketch out of these memories I would but as I'm no artist, I'll borrow google images and try the words:

* Story books

Gifts were regular while I was growing up. Among the first gifts my parents gave me were thick, beautifully illustrated story books. And then I got those red boots adorned by a witch's hat. It's probably why I love books, and shoes up to this day.

* Gun salute

Uncle Rey died in action. There was a deafening gun salute when his coffin was lowered and the Philippine flag draping it was handed to Auntie Grace. I was nine. That was the first and only time I saw my father cry. Soundlessly.

* Bella, Zaida, Darwin, Bong, Ailene and the hunchback of Abella

We lived in a subdivision called Abella. I played with Bella, an only child like me. Zaida, now a lawyer, would shake her belly while I pressed my ears hard on it to listen to a gurgling sound inside, then we would giggle under her mom's towering china roses. Darwin is now a PMA cadet (Philippines' equivalent of America's Westpoint). Bong had big-time brushes with the law and was murdered by vigilantes :(. Ailene loved to jump up and down her parents' spring bed all day long. And there was this tiny hunchback whom the other kids were kind to. They would lovingly carry him around in a rattan basket, encouraging him with cheeky grins. He must have loved the ride so much for he wouldn't get out of the basket :).

* Observing basketball players in the rain with Spot

On rainy afternoons the neighborhood kids would join my cousins in my uncle's basketball court. Everyone, including our dog Spot and even our house helper Lydia played basketball in the rain, except me. I was a fragile 5-year old and my mother reckoned playing in the rain was too rough for me so it wasn't allowed. Every time the ball strayed away, Spot would grab it and bounce it back to my cheering, frolicking cousins. That's the happy spectacle I observed through the window and my tears.

* Singing on a pulpit

You know how kids were 25 years ago. Some of them, like me obviously, were easily tricked into doing something adults thought were cute. I sang Something's Happened to Daddy with my mother's friend's husband. I wasn't tall enough to reach the lectern. They made me stand on a floor wax can.

* Cross on the forehead
PT&T (Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corporation) owned a relay station in Davao del Sur which father supervised for some time. There were weekends when he would allow Mama and me to accompany him up there. I adored exploring that place despite warnings that the control room was haunted, whatever that meant to four-year old me. There was this little hut that sat on a nearby hill. It's visible from the station. One day I wandered into the hut where I found a friend named Danilo. We either picked mansanitas or played together until our mothers called us for meals. On one of my daily a'neighborings I arrived at the hut to find Danilo's father dressing a chicken. There was a small tin bowl of chicken blood on a makeshift bamboo table. Danilo's mother dipped her forefinger on the bowl and signed a cross on Danilo's forehead with the blood. Curious, I asked for a cross on my forehead too, and Danilo's mom obliged. Later I found out that the cross on Danilo's forehead was for his birthday that day.

basket photosource / story books photosource / gun salute photosource / mansanitas photosource

KarenC hosts
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