Angeli Benette Pidut, CPAbetter known as Zea's sister (hehe)
Among the many things my sister sent home was a scrapbook which contains some of the articles she had written during her schooldays. And I was surprised to see one, written when she was in grade school (some 12 years ago), which again was about me.
I am certainly my sister’s favorite literary subject…
I remember so well when I was young how happy we were as a family – my parents’ closeness, the loving, the cuddling, the kissing and the tenderness of their looks were so inspiring. Their concern for me was so overwhelming. My mother never entrusted me to anyone, lest I will be hurt and she never gave me reason to be insecure.
Everything was so well until one day, I heard Father and Mother conversing. Father was so excited of the idea of having another baby. I didn’t mind at all because I did not understand what having another baby meant. Mother told me time and again that soon I will have a playmate. Father had to work harder, so I was told, to buy the needs of the expected baby. He comes home late and goes to work early. I was seldom awake whenever he was at home except during Sundays because we always went to church together.
Mother barely had time for me – she didn’t play with me as often as we used to. She was always busy preparing the things the baby would be needing. ‘Why had mother changed?’ I kept asking myself, but never got the answer.
I learned to play alone. I got used to doing it because we had no neighbors. We were living in the farm.
However, life was not at all that unhappy for me. I used to play with the animals my father raised. My favorite was a New Hampshire-bred swine I named Tibs. She was so beautiful, tall and sexy. How I loved playing with her. I used to ride on her back after she was bathed. She never resented, rather, I knew she enjoyed my company. I forgot all my worries and frustrations whenever I was with her especially when she gave birth to 12 cute piglets. I was amused looking at them chasing each other.
It was one moonless night when all of a sudden Mother woke Father up. She shook Father so hard that I was also awakened. I never saw Mother that way before. She was in intense pain, her teeth gushing and her voice moaning. When I inquired about what was happening, I was told that the baby was arriving. I was puzzled. There was my mother suffering from pain but still looking very expectant of the arrival of the new baby.
Nobody was around for me to ask question to. Father was gone in haste to fetch a midwife. While he was away, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to get near Mother to comfort her but she was hysterical. It seemed ages before father arrived with a midwife. They were just in time because Mother was already screaming. This time her voice was harsh and coarse and all of a sudden, a sharp shrill voice was heard. A baby girl was born.
I am certainly my sister’s favorite literary subject…
I remember so well when I was young how happy we were as a family – my parents’ closeness, the loving, the cuddling, the kissing and the tenderness of their looks were so inspiring. Their concern for me was so overwhelming. My mother never entrusted me to anyone, lest I will be hurt and she never gave me reason to be insecure.
Everything was so well until one day, I heard Father and Mother conversing. Father was so excited of the idea of having another baby. I didn’t mind at all because I did not understand what having another baby meant. Mother told me time and again that soon I will have a playmate. Father had to work harder, so I was told, to buy the needs of the expected baby. He comes home late and goes to work early. I was seldom awake whenever he was at home except during Sundays because we always went to church together.
Mother barely had time for me – she didn’t play with me as often as we used to. She was always busy preparing the things the baby would be needing. ‘Why had mother changed?’ I kept asking myself, but never got the answer.
I learned to play alone. I got used to doing it because we had no neighbors. We were living in the farm.
However, life was not at all that unhappy for me. I used to play with the animals my father raised. My favorite was a New Hampshire-bred swine I named Tibs. She was so beautiful, tall and sexy. How I loved playing with her. I used to ride on her back after she was bathed. She never resented, rather, I knew she enjoyed my company. I forgot all my worries and frustrations whenever I was with her especially when she gave birth to 12 cute piglets. I was amused looking at them chasing each other.
It was one moonless night when all of a sudden Mother woke Father up. She shook Father so hard that I was also awakened. I never saw Mother that way before. She was in intense pain, her teeth gushing and her voice moaning. When I inquired about what was happening, I was told that the baby was arriving. I was puzzled. There was my mother suffering from pain but still looking very expectant of the arrival of the new baby.
Nobody was around for me to ask question to. Father was gone in haste to fetch a midwife. While he was away, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to get near Mother to comfort her but she was hysterical. It seemed ages before father arrived with a midwife. They were just in time because Mother was already screaming. This time her voice was harsh and coarse and all of a sudden, a sharp shrill voice was heard. A baby girl was born.
The presence of the new-born baby brought me farther away from my parents. How I hated the baby. 'It must be she or I', I told my mother one day; and even threatened her that I’d stow away if they keep her. Mother shrugged her shoulders and smiled. I knew she didn’t believe me.
I felt more alone. Why can’t things be as they were. It was so difficult to describe how I felt. There were times when I wanted to scream because I felt the walls closing in around me.
One day, when this feeling assailed me, I ran out of the door and headed out to my grandparents’ house though I did not exactly know the way.
Mother rushed after me, hugged me and kissed me. She explained that everything would be alright. She told me, ‘Mother has to keep the baby and so must the Big sister.’
My story happened ten years ago, when I was only two. Today, we are five in the family – Father, Mother, the Big Sister (that’s me), Barbie and Daboy (the latest addition and the only boy).
This article was published in ‘The Western Glow’, the official publication of Dadiangas West Central Elementary School, in the year 1996.
Why is it posted here?!? Well, it's about me. I happen to be the younger sibling.....
I felt more alone. Why can’t things be as they were. It was so difficult to describe how I felt. There were times when I wanted to scream because I felt the walls closing in around me.
One day, when this feeling assailed me, I ran out of the door and headed out to my grandparents’ house though I did not exactly know the way.
Mother rushed after me, hugged me and kissed me. She explained that everything would be alright. She told me, ‘Mother has to keep the baby and so must the Big sister.’
My story happened ten years ago, when I was only two. Today, we are five in the family – Father, Mother, the Big Sister (that’s me), Barbie and Daboy (the latest addition and the only boy).
This article was published in ‘The Western Glow’, the official publication of Dadiangas West Central Elementary School, in the year 1996.
Why is it posted here?!? Well, it's about me. I happen to be the younger sibling.....
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