"Kain na!" my mother called me to dinner. My older sister---who we called Ate---was already downstairs. Before heading down, I spent a few more minutes scrolling on my phone; since there is an unspoken understanding that it will always take me a minute or five when called for a meal.
"Fish again?.." I groaned. "I'm too lazy to search for all the fish bones!.."
Ate raised her utensils. "It's because you use your bare hands. It'll be easier if you use a spoon and fork!"
I raised an eyebrow, sitting down beside her. "Ha? that's even more difficult!"
Grandma---who we called Ma---was seated in front of Ate. "Be careful in taking out the fish bones! If you miss any, your throat might get pricked."
Mom sat down beside Ma, and placed a large fish on my plate. "You're gonna eat that, it'll help you grow into a tall boy."
I sighed and went to wash my hands, preparing myself emotionally for the tedious process of taking out all the tiny, transparent fish bones.
Mom giggled at me. Her eyes, though tired---joyful. "We won't be having fish for a while since your grandpa and cousin will stay with us starting tomorrow."
"Yes." Ma's face expressed seriousness, her aged grey hair and lightly wrinkled skin adding to her legitimacy. "Your other grandmother passed away, so they need someone to help them take care of themselves."
"Wait, didn't grandpa already pass away a while ago?" Ate squinted.
Ma shook her head. "These relatives are from your father's side."
The next day, the sky was clear. Quite unusual weather for this time of year. I was hanging the clothes up on the metal wire at the rooftop, when I heard a commotion downstairs.
"Bless to your grandfather." Mom then motioned to a short girl, who had straight, long, dark hair and light brown, plump skin. "And this is your cousin, Scarlet."
Grandpa extended his left hand to us. His skin was dark brown and heavily wrinkled, and his hair was short, whitened with age. "Bless. You can call me Lolo." Ate and I respectfully tapped our foreheads on his hand.
Ate sat on the couch where all her beddings and things were already moved to. Lolo and Scarlet were going to use her room for their stay. "Scarlet... that's a unique name for someone from there." She whispered to me.
"Well, she's young---and times are changing---so I guess that's true for kid's names as well? At least she wasn't named after a celebrity." I laughed.
Later that noon, we went to church. I didn't mind the hour long homily, but still I would much rather do anything else at home. We prayed, and were definitely not the devil, but we just didn't really go to church every Sunday. Ma always said "going to church is fine and good, but it's more important to just believe."
Naturally, Ate and I questioned why we were going to church all of a sudden beforehand. "Lolo and Scarlet have just lost someone, they would like to be comforted by god, and so we'll accompany them to church," Mom explained to us.
After the mass, we went to a library. It was a humble place, but gorgeous in its dark, varnished wood interior.
Ate gasped softly.
"What?" I looked to her.
Her eyes were focused on the stairway. "What is Lolo doing?" She asked.
I walked up to her, looking at the stairs. Lolo was there, still in his neat outside attire, but on all fours. His hands effortlessly crawled on the wooden steps, almost as if they had practiced just that.
He looked back at us. "What's the matter?" He asked with a voice so wholesome, that if we were blind, we would not suspect a thing unusual was happening before us.
I smiled. "Are you okay, Lolo?"
He twisted his neck away from us, looking at the window. "Your grandma, my wife, loved this staircase... She played with your cousin... They pretended to be wolves, silent ones, not to disturb the readers..."
A drop of clear liquid fell onto the stairs. It looked like it was from his face, but we couldn't tell. "Is he crying?" Ate softly asked.
I took a heavy breath. "Uhm... let's tell Mom." Mom was helping Scarlet pick a children's book when we went and told her.
Ma overheard what we said. She sat us down the back, behind the shelves of history books---a part of the library only the poorest of students visited; those who couldn't afford to search online.
"Your grandfather, Lolo, may act differently. I went with them to the psychiatrist in the public hospital. She said that, your Lolo and Scarlet, are grieving their loss. They may not care anymore about what others think of them, so they do whatever they can to ease their pain."
Ma held our hands. "It might look scary... weird, but they're trying to make sense of their lives. You two are smart, you understand, right?"
Ate and I nodded. After all, who were we to judge an old man who had his only son, my dad, leave us with not even a goodbye, and who now... had just lost his wife?
Later that afternoon, when we had already gone back home, I started to do math worksheets. Bored to death, I realized I hadn't interacted with Scarlet yet, and maybe she wanted to play.
I heard her giggling upstairs, and so went to the rooftop to check. She was there, looking at the fence, in the direction of the sunny mountains.
"The view's beautiful, right?" I smiled.
She turned to me, her face blank with no expression. "Grandma is more beautiful."
"I'm sure she was." Scarlet was probably talking about our late grandmother, since she and Lolo looked after Scarlet when her parents left to work in Manila.
She turned back to stare the fence down. "No, she is."
"Oh, yeah, sorry." I chuckled. "I'm sure she was beautiful here on earth, and still is beautiful in heaven."
Scarlet raised a hand, still facing away. "I don't believe you."
"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Grandma isn't in heaven, look." She directed her raised hand to the fence. "She's there."
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She was pointing at the fence with the mountains behind it. "Yeah, she's as beautiful as the mountains... You're kind with your words, kid." I patted her shoulder and went downstairs. I guessed some kids grieve by comparing the one they lost to the beauty of nature.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQgzT6igVkl
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