Sunday, January 30, 2011

El Modelo

I am an educated woman with a decent job who can pose for beautiful photos without trying to be somebody I'm not.What is a freelance model? You say you are one but I tell you I am not. It is just a label. It doesn't make me less interesting if I don't call myself one. I think we are all models aren't we? All of us who ever appeared in a photograph. We pose sometimes just by ourselves,with family,friends,pets, nature, inanimate objects. We advocate life in every smile, every frown, every other emotion caught on camera. We advertise the strength of the human soul in every snap shot. So what is the point in calling yourself a freelance model? Just to get attention? Me? I don't need to beg for it. I get if just by being myself,just being that unique individual that God created. You are nothing but pathetic. My heart goes out to you

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Time Capsule Part 3

"But are you sure, you want to open that? It's not ours," Stephen tested. Suddenly, he felt like not wanting to cooperate in his niece's new game.
"But we found it in our garden, so that makes it ours," the little girl smartly answered. "Besides,how will we know who it belongs to if we don't open it," she added.

It turned out that picking the lock wasn't easy. Stephen realized
that he didn't just lack the tools but the skills as well to pick the lock,especially because he has never tried breaking and entering before. When he gets locked out of the house for going home very late, he would just climb up the window in his room, which he always forgets to close. That habit went on until his late father decided that he needed a key of his own lest they wanted other people to be climbing up an open window.

He had suggested a screwdriver but this wasn't possible. They didn't own one that is small enough. The tip of the smallest screwdriver in his brother in law's tookit barely fit the keyhole. Jamie asked him if he could open the lock with a hairclip. Stephen only smiled. So this is what babysitting kids with the TV does. Children just think that things are always that simple.Yes, a hairclip can be used to pick a lock but it needed time and skill and patience, all of which he doesn't have. He wanted to lecture the kid on this, instead he said," I don't know how."

"So we can't open it?" the girl asked, looking heartbroken again.

"I can't pick the lock," he said truthfully. "But maybe we can saw it into half or hammer it til it breaks so we can open the box," he suggested. He figured, it might even be easier this way since the lock looked old and rusty.

Jamie reached for the tool kit, which was beside them the whole time, and scrambled for a hammer. "You think I can break it?" she asked, holding the hammer with both hands.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fear Factor

She was afraid of snakes or a more apt description is terrified. Fear is something inherent to all humans. Some scientists have proven that it is necessary for survival. Man's fear of creatures bigger and stronger than him must have kept him from becoming extinct.

And why was she here in the first place? It all started with an invitation, one that asked her to spend a day at the zoo. She did not expect that kind of invitation from him. He was against putting animals in a cage for entertainment purposes. He was also a vegan, something he would have explained if not for her reluctance to listen. She would have turned the invitation down, if not for the words," I just wanted to spend time alone with you."

Seeing that animal wrapped around his neck made her feel uncomfortable, as if anytime that might just decide to strangle him. It was a phyton. Holding the orangutan, with the diapers, Crocs and a name that made her laugh because it was the name of somebody she knew, was all right. He was harmless, and reminded her of a child with Down's syndrome, also they were primates, man's distant relative.She never will like snakes unless they are processed leather goods already. In the bible, it was written that the serpent to deceived Eve and tempted her into eating the forbidden fruit.A snake in the grass is a sneaky person not meant to be trusted.

"Smile!" the zoo personnel holding the camera for them said. He was having his picture taken with the phyton. She was scared, unwilling to step close.

"Come on, it won't bite," he cajoled with a deceiving smile on his face.

"If you let that near me, I'll scream!" she thretened.

"It's all right to scream, ma'am" the personnel joined. She rolled her eyeballs.

After that incident, she discovered something that was to her advantage. He was scared of dogs. How could a guy like this one be cared of man's best friend? She could just laugh. He who's not afraid of the phyton is afraid of a furry little creature that resembled Nello's dog in The Dog of Flanders, a cartoon she watched as a kid. Fear is something inherent to humans but we tend to fear some things and not the others. What are you afraid of?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Time Capsule Part 2

Stephen handed the box to his niece. Jamie put Peter's coffin aside. It was a wooden box It was, of course, all covered with dirt. There wasn't anything extraordinary about it. It might have been a jewelry box once, he guessed. On the lid, there was a monogram engraved.It was locked.

"What could be in it?" Jamie wondered. She was trying to break the lock. She shook and something rattled inside.

Stephen shrugged his shoulders to indicate that he didn't know. "Let's just finish Peter's funeral, then find out," he suggested.Remembering what they were actually doing in the garden in the first place saddened Jamie's face. For a while there, she forgot about Peter. She let go of the box and picked up Peter's coffin.

They buried Peter on the hole he digged. The hole was just big enough to be the fish's final resting place. He placed the box there.Jamie helped him cover up the hole. "Can you say a few words, please" the girl requested. He wanted to laugh again. He has never presided over a funeral before, and a fish's at that.

Still he said, "To Peter, who have joined his creator. You have been a great friend and will be greatly missed."He heard little Jamie sob. He was glad there was nobody else at home. That speech could have won him a lot of attention for days.Attention that would include name calling and laughing.

"Now that, that's over let's go wash up." He held the girl by the hand and led her towards the house.

"The box," Jamie said, losing free of his grip and picked it up from where she left it a few moments ago."How are we going to open it?" she inquired. This time it was she who took his hand and led him towards the house.

"It's easy to pick, I think," he answered. It wasn't a complicated lock. A handy screw driver or a hammer may do. He saw something sparkle in the child's eye. Poor Peter, already forgotten. Maybe everyone of us likes mystery in one form or another. Puzzles, detective stories and the like. We like to be intrigued. We like our minds to be challenged.

"How long will it take?" There was excitement on her voice. So much like when she's about to open her presents during Christmas or her birthday.

"Not long," Stephen answered.

>>to be continued

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Time Capsule Part 1

"Can you dig me a hole in the garden?" That small voice was followed by a persistent shaking of his limbs.

"What?" he asked, now half awake. He didn't realize he fell asleep on the couch until his niece woke him up.

"Please Tito,"the little girl pleaded and stroked his hair with her little hands. Even he could not resist that cuteness.

"What do you need a hole for?"he asked, sat up and put the child on his lap.

"Peter went to heaven. He needs a funeral." Her voice was sad, she was holding back her tears. Maybe all kids get sad when their pets die but this one wants her uncle to dig a hole in the garden to bury a goldfish.Stephen was tempted to ask her to just flush Peter down the toilet. It would both save them some time and effort.

And what is this 'went to heaven thing' and Peter, what a funny name to give a fish. He looked at Jamie on his lap, waiting for his answer. He swallowed those words. It would only break the kid's already broken heart. Her dad gave Peter as a birthday gift and she has took care of him well, but all life has got to end. That is a reality. A friend of his once told him, that a person can grasp the meaning of death easier if he or she had pets as a kid. "Okay, let's get a trowel."

The garden isn't a real one. It's just a piece of land in front of the porch that has a lot of weeds growing in it. They just moved to this house and nobody has the time nor the heart to start gardening. Celine, his sister and Jamie's mom, never had a green thumb anyway. He couldn't expect Lander, his brother-in-law, who was always away on a business trip, to care about plants.There are still a few santan bushes but maybe once upon a time, that garden was filled with orchids or roses or other flowering things.

"Where do you want a hole?" he asked Jamie. The kid was now carrying a chocolate box. It's her childish version of a coffin. He smiled and thought that it is a long time ago when he was a kid himself.

"Anywhere, just make it deep, please," Jamie requested.

"All right. I'll dig here near the bushes so that you'll know where to visit Peter," he answered and almost broke into laughter. He wanted to laugh at himself for playing along with his niece.

He had to wet the soil before he could start digging. It was easy, they had a garden hose. Lander bought the property just a few months back and they just moved in two weeks ago but maybe nobody has lived in that house for years. He started digging and smelled the freshly turned earth. He almost forgot what it smelled like. He dug a hole that he thought would fit the box. Jamie wouldn't want Peter to be buried without his coffin,she was watching the whole time.

I'll just pretened I'm digging a treasure, he thought. After few scoops, the trowel struck something hard. He thought it was a rock. He tried to pull it out. It came out easy, with very little resistance. "What is it Tito?" Jamie asked.

"It's a box." he answered and thought:"Did a little girl used to live here a long time ago? And did she bury her dead gold fish on the same spot Jamie will bury Peter?"
>>to be continued

Barbie Bride

"Have you ever owned a Ken doll?" She laughed at the question. What did it have to do with her current predicament anyway.

"That's really your plan, then," she said then shipped her now-cold coffee. "To bring me out here and ask if I ever owned a Ken doll".

He smiled back, sipped some coffee himself. "Most parents buy little girls Barbie dolls in wedding dresses, but not a lot buy a groom to go with it."

She paused, didn't know what else to say. Yes, she remembered having a Barbie doll in a wedding dress. That pretty little doll and her doll house and her top-down car and all her pink thngs. Yes, she remembers that. At age five, she found out that people get married, and at that same age, she feared growing old alone. The fear often accompanied by nightmares of an old version of herself, sitting on a rocking chair, all alone and lifeless.

How could a person like this know of such things. She technically just met him; him and all the weird stuff about him. "Let's stop talking about dolls,shall we?"