Tetay hasn't had lunch yet. Her brothers have gone out for the day and she was left to starve on the overpass. They told her that they’d bring back food, but when she looked over the overpass view at 3 PM, they were sniffing rugby.
A tall stranger with curious blue eyes passed by Tetay and gave her a piece of bread and his Coke Light. It was lucky that she was nearest when the foreigner got tired of his food because the competition with the other homeless kids can be fierce this time of the day. She greedily munched up the bread before the other kids could see her and get a chance to ask for a piece.
Today is just a bad day. It’s already 5 PM and she has only collected 20 pesos. Strangers with blank faces keep passing her by as if her pleas for help do not matter. She's only 8, and already she's very well acquainted with the world's cruelty. It wasn't her fault that she was born poor and her parents more bastards than she actually is. It wasn't her fault that she couldn't afford three meals a day, or even one. It wasn't her fault that she, too, is a child, who wants to play, be happy, and not worry where to get dinner.
But she is suffering anyways.
Already it is 9 PM. The burning sensation the Coke Light did to her stomach had come and gone, and still she is hungry. Her can has collected 29.75. She can buy dinner or something with it. But just some more. Some more strangers to bother and she can eat.
Then just as she turned, she saw a white plastic bag—small and emblazoned with a happy-looking red bee. Jolly Crispy Fries, it sang. It’s almost every child’s dream to eat at Jollibee. This man, coming towards her, has Jollibee fries. Her stomach did backflips. She wants those fries.
"Akin na lang yan…" she said aloud so the stranger could hear her.
I did not budge. It's not my fault anyways that she's there. I carried on munching my fries, ignoring the suffering souls around me, children who haven’t had their dinners.
Tetay could not believe it, she grabbed the stranger's arms, pleading, pleading in the manner she knows, "akin na lang yan…"
I pulled my arm away from the dirty kid.
Immediately, when Tetay felt her hope for obtaining the fries has gone, she went jumping and crying, throwing a tantrum that no one could hear or could care about, especially the man who continued eating his fries and murmured, "It's not my fault…" Unfortunately, that man, I, is hounded by the image of Tetay jumping and crying and throwing tantrums that he needed to blog about it.
That night, after getting home, I was revisited again and again by that vision of Tetay. I never thought that Jollibee, an image of happiness for children, in my hands, had become an image of depravity in the eyes of the beggar Tetay.
Author's Note: Lifted from my old blog, dated March 16, 2008
In my defense, I was 22 and I haven't had dinner yet! Haha. I remember how this event went and I feel bad I didn't give her those fries. That was the least I could've done. It's the Christmas season, a season of giving and I thought I share this with everyone. Hopefully you all find some depth, lesson, or at the very least creativity, kahit kunti. Haha. Have a great day, everyone.
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