Arnel Francis

“ Pa, I need 800 pesos..” Sean asks you one time at the dinner table.“ What for?...” You are hoping that he was just kidding. "Our JS Prom? …” Sean adds with a tone of ambivalence…Suddenly you feel a tinge of exhilaration beneath your skin, not knowing whether it is rooted in joy or disbelief. You are faced with accepting the truth – your oldest son has grown. Your financial worries are upstaged by your excitement of imagining him dress up for the occasion. Thinking of ways of how he could get the most of these numbered-in-life events, you plan. It has to be special. A complete transformation just as you see in reality TV shows gives you the idea. You begin counting days until D-day finally comes. Absenting your self from work you run to the mall without taking your lunch and allow him to be pampered in his first-ever “salon-experience”. “I want his hair lightened, no sign of waves just do whatever you can…give my son a transformation!” you request. The next thing you nee...

“Why didn’t you wake me up early?” is a regular rouser for your nerves- much stronger than the instant black coffee you sip at 6 in the morning. That awkward grumble comes from the croak of your 14-year old son as he rushes downstairs only to pause for 15 minutes more or so before munching on his oatmeal breakfast. Before he is seated, his 11-year old brother Miguel has already docked on the four-seater round table. Always the first bird- half-pecking, half-dozing still as the two both dally blowing and stirring their choco-oatmeals to get tepid. A typical start of your weekday, you continually remind them, “Hey! Keep moving, its already 6:30…then 6:45…” Woo! Papa, you’re lying, its still 6:20”, your loquacious and lately seemingly boorish youngest would always rebut. Sean gets ready for the bathroom –he’s the first on the list and always the longest to use it, while his brother would sneak back into one of the empty rooms to sleep again. Bang! You hear Sean pound on the door...