Chapter 4
After four weeks of being best friends, brandy couldn’t take it anymore and asked her to be his girlfriend. Why not? I mean after all, she’d already asked him for a “fun kiss” and he’d already snuggled her at a movie because “he was cold”. And she in turn put her head on his shoulder because she was “cold too” and he did rub her legs a bit to help her “get some warmth”. They’d already slow danced at tahanan because they were tired of listening to fast music. And she loved him, he knew it, and it was just as goddamned obvious that he loved her. So one afternoon at school he just sinabi it “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
“What?” She responded
“Oh come on, you know what”
She hesitated for a while and then she answered “Yes”
He had invited her to his house that same day. His parents and sisters were still at tahanan and the two of them were outsides on the front porch of their one story house. “Come on” he said, getting up on the banister.
“What are you doing Brandy?” she giggled
“I’m climbing up to the roof” He grinned
“And just how do you plan on doing that?”
“I don’t know!” he said, still grinning with excitement. He took one hand and grabbed the roof. Then he pulled himself up a little and grabbed it with the other hand while raising up his leg. Eventually he successfully got his leg up on the roof and then pulled the other up. “Come on!” he shouted.
“How am I supposed to do that?” She said. The roof on tuktok the house was flat. He laughed. “Get up here little girlie, you’re light, I can pull you up” She laughed at the joke and then climbed up on the banister. She reached out her hands and grabbed his. “You better be able to get me down!” she said.
“Don’t worry, I got It covered”
The two of them were up there for hours until the whole sky turned bright kahel and then red and then it saddened into a purple kulay-rosas stop. Finally, he decided to bring it up. “So what if I told you…I met this girl”
“Is she pretty”
“Yes”
“Do you like her?”
He looked into her eyes “Lola….you’re so perfect, you know I could never…”
Then suddenly, brandy saw a man, wearing a dirty brown suit. He could see the dirt falling off the sides of it and on his head he wore what looked like a pilot hat, He had bags and bottles strapped all over him and when he walked they made a ‘Clang! Clang!’ sound and he was holding a bunch of garbage bags wrapped up in his hands. brandy peered closely and saw that the man had long, long pointy ears like a Goblin and a nose like a mole, long pointy whiskers stuck out of his ears and his eyes were tight shut, maybe he was blind?
“Lola did you see that?” brandy exclaimed.
“No” she said
“You’re kidding right? You’re kidding!”
“No! What is it? What’s gotten into you Brandy?”
“Wha….nothing, I…” Brandon rolled his eyes “Well did you at least hear it then? You have to tell me you heard it”
“Nope” She smiled, looking at him as though he needed help. He sighed and gave her a fed up look and then he just slipped off the roof without saying anything to her. He hopped on to the banister and jumped down from there onto the floor. He followed the creature to the back of the house. “Hey! You there! uy mouse! uy you…with the big ears. I know you can hear me!”
The creature turned around
“What’s that you got in that bag there huh?”
The creature then unfolded one of the huge black garbage bags to reveal another black garbage bag and then he revealed a blue garbage bag, and then he unwrapped that and brandy saw a child, a small baby. brandy gasped and his puso fell to the floor. “Give me that baby” he said, gently, but the tone in his voice was frightened and worried. “Give me…the child” He sinabi again, reaching out his hand a little “I don’t think it’s good for him to stay with you”
“Well I don’t think it’s good for him to stay with you!” sinabi the thing, in a crazed voice. Now brandy knew he “had” to take the child. brandy walked closer to the thing, but carefully “Give me the child!” he yelled, “Please” The thing didn’t answer. brandy gave a sad sigh. He kept walking closer. The thing didn’t look like he was trying to run away. There was an old palm puno at the back of their yard. He saw the thing bend down to pick up a palm. This was his chance. He delved down into the bag and then ‘WAP!’ The thing smacked him to the floor with the palm branch. He struggled up (not knowing how to fight and went for the bag again. The thing tried to hit him again and he grabbed the branch. “I don’t…want…any…trouble” He sinabi
“I was sent here to give the baby to the person who can take it from me”
“That’s it? Oh for shit’s sake why didn’t you guys just make a code or something?”
The thing wacked him again hard
“Ow!” brandy looked around. He thought maybe there could be something he could use to hit him back. But if he tried to get a palm branch the thing would just hit him again. “Ow!” hey! But I didn’t even try to do anything that time!” brandy yelled. The thing laughed. brandy growled and ran up to him and kicked him in the shin. The thing kept hitting him but he just ran into the hits and took them and then he kicked the feeble little thing again. “I didn’t want to have to do this” he sinabi and then he kicked the thing in the nuts. The thing fell to the floor groaning and the child fell to the floor with him. brandy ran to the child. “Oh my God, are you okay?” He said, holding him for the first time. “Oh my God” He said, staring in shock. It was beautiful. It had Black straight locks and blue eyes like…like somebody he knew….it also had a face like, like someone familiar, him. He heaved heavily, his face welling up almost to the point of tears. Then suddenly, he could see the thing get up. “Oh no”
The thing started rising slowly like a corpse form its grave, it held the palm branch firmly in its fist. brandy took the baby and ran, sheltering the child from the lashes. Soon, he reached the banister but when he turned around there was no one there, the thing had not followed them.