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My First Heartbreak

I went to Burgos Elementary School for 2 years.
The school was very convenient because it is only
6 blocks away from home.

My father got me a parrot and a cockatoo. I always visit the
birds during recess time. Their favorite food was
guava. My cockatoo was a big white bird and the green parrot was just as beautiful. The cuckatoo was close to
talking. He sounded like an old man saying woooo
woooo.

One day, he was gone. A relative got jealous of me and took him away.
I was so hurt and devastated. I felt like running off and taking the jeepney to where she's at but being just a little girl I I was so helpless. When I tried to look
for him in Manila, I found out he died. The relative that
took him didn't even give him food and water. On the other hand, the green parrot stayed with me for longer time but it was transferred outside of the house in a cage later on. Every supper time, when my mother would call me to dinner, the green parrot would also call me - weee weee. One day the cage was open and someone let it out.

As I write this, I'm shedding tears. Something that
happened even the past that is traumatic is never
forgotten.

Augustinian Recollect Missionary nuns scoured my neighborhood for prospective children who could go to St. Rita
College in Manila. We live in Quezon City which a suburb of Manila. My father and mother liked the idea of me
transferring from a public to a private school

I blended well with my classmate and became a teacher's pet of Sor Matilde. She got me into this oratorical
contest and I narrated "The Wreck of the Hesperus." My mother, who's a good seamstress, sewed a nice gypsy
costume.

Angelina like Sor Matilde. She was jealous of me being the favorite so, she bullied me.

It was the breaking of day. The sun was peeping out of the clouds in all its
golden splendor. I was limp and helpless. I was all wrapped up in a
blanket and rolling through the wooden planks of my house's porch. I'm
heading for the stairs. I wasn't feeling too much emotion or apprehension
for whats going to befall me.

Then, I saw huge hands caught my fall. They cast shadow over my entire
body. I didn't know who saved me and was unable to say thanks for saving
my life. I was helpless. I was just a baby.

Whether you believe me or not. This is what I recall. To this date, I still
don't know to whom those huge hands belong. I can't ask when I was an
infant and I forgot to ask as I grew up. Somehow the question still lingers
in my mind.

I wonder if that was my father. Could it be my brother? If I ask my
relatives now, do you think they know?