Bottle Caps

I used to hang out with Andy when I was a kid. He’s the eldest son of Nang Elsa who, I don’t really know how to say this gently, was born mildly retarded. In our politically correct times, he is what we now call a “special child”. Yes, he’s slow. And his younger siblings moved up in grade school, while he got stuck in second grade. Yes Che and Marc, I probably got my autistic tendencies from him.

But since he’s like a forever-kid type, he was great to hang out with. Andy, along with Nang Berta’s kids Napie, Jun-jun and Bam-bam, were my childhood chums.

I knew even then that he was different from the other kids. There was plenty of rumor going around that he could talk to dwarves and elves, you know, that he can communicate and be friends with people from a parallel universe inhabited by fairies and elementals. Some even thought Andy might have had a different father: Nang Elsa must’ve committed an extra marital affair with, well, a dwarf! Ack!

I never believed one word of it, since around 10 a.m. everyday we usually trek to the garbage dump, and I never suspected him of anything extra ordinary. Although occasionally, he seems disoriented and fixes his pensive gaze into the distance while you talk to him.

You see, during the summer break, we’d saunter along the freshly plowed pineapple fields, in the outer edge of the housing camp towards the garbage dump, in search of Pepsi caps. Pepsi had this promotional gimmick where pictures of bicycle parts were hidden inside bottle caps, and collecting all pieces wins you an instant bike. We never got to complete the entire set.

Imagine a scene in “Batang Yagit” with two street urchins busily searching and poking through garbage dumps. It’s David Copperfield and Tom Sawyer in the Bukidnon highlands. You get the picture.

One time, we decided to pass by the woods on our way back to pick some native guavas and cool ourselves beneath the bamboo trees. Noon was approaching and we chose a rather solitary mahogany tree among shrubs, banana trees and wild guavas to rest our tired muscles and sprained backs.

We happily chattered and compared our bottle cap finds. We became hungry and Andy decided to climb a short guava tree nearby. As he moved, however, I noticed some odd things. I could hear some flapping and a faintly shrill sound, buzzing in my ears. I simply assumed they came from fruit flies.

When I glanced on the ground, however, my gut suddenly raced towards my throat: the shadow certainly wasn’t Andy’s.

The black outline on the ground appeared in a slouching position, like a farmer carrying a heavy load of fire wood…and I recognized a pair of small wings flapping slightly… detected a faint smell of rotten eggs…and that odd buzzing sound that seems to come from far, far away….

We went home. I managed to convince myself that I only imagined those things…I think.