refuge

i was 6 or 7. mami woke me up at around 4 am. i got confused but woke up anyway. a few hours later, we were in mindoro, in my lola ading's house. i can't remember the details of how we got there, but we got there. mami was home, in her refuge.

lola was surprised, more of happy, to see us. she hugged us. we sat at the living room then it was there where mami started the ordeal of telling lola why we were there. i heard every word and saw every tear. it was something about papa and some bad things that papa was doing, but i couldn't grasp everything.

"alam mo na kung bakit tayo andito?" mami asked. i shrugged. i didn't fully understand.

we stayed there for the night. i could remember eating sardines for dinner - the best sardines i ever tasted, sharing a toothbrush with mami, seeing a giant spider on our kulambo, and going back home to manila the next day... because summer was ending i had to go to school.

that night, when papa got home, he carried me and brought me to the garage to tricyle-view and to mildly interrogate me.

"san kayo nagpunta ni mami kahapon?" he asked gently.

"sa mindoro," i replied.

"tsk. natututo ka nang magsinungaling ha?"

and i got more confused. why? what did i do? :))