- Jomanian rules of engagement.
---
The rule above would justify why I never had any fist fights before. With my height and large body frame, nobody would dare attack me either. The rule also extends in the manner I respond to verbal attacks and sexual engagements. No wonder people would see me as the mabait guy, who seem to have all the patience, understanding and self-control of a saint.
As the neighborhood tension that evening begins to make everyone nervous at home, I kept my worries to myself. If only my family knew how I'd think of ways to strike back at the family who lives in the first house when they harm us, Everyone would surely change their good-boy impression of me. Nevertheless, I was able to project a cool attitude that it somehow relieved the collective fear felt by my housemates.
Midnight arrived. Mom was still downstairs watching TV. Suddenly the househelp barged inside the house and told my mom that the Padre de Familia of the first house kicked our dog. The maid was furious so my mom had to check what was happening in the driveway. She pretended to be talking to our next door neighbor when the Padre de Familia approached my mom.
"Magandang gabi po. Maari ba tayong mag-usap sandali Mrs. [insert the name of my mudang here]"
I was in my room upstairs playing a PC game when I heard the commotion. A funny coincidence was taking place because while my mom and the Padre de Familia was about to talk, a space battle was raging between my fleet and a bunch of ships from an aggressive alien empire on my computer. I wasn't paying attention to their affairs at first. But when I heard that the Padre de Familia was starting to raise his voice to my mother. I stopped playing and run down to check if the dialogue between them is beginning to spin out of control.
"Mga putangina nila. Niloko nila ako. Yang si [insert the name of the other guy who declared his indifference towards the right of way issue] sabi ng sabi sa akin na ok na yung problema, yun pala eh kami ang madedehado sa usapan." The Padre de Familia was obviously drunk.
"Wala pong mangyayari kung dadaanin natin sa galit ang mga bagay bagay," mom said calmly.
"Tangina yang si Atty [insert the name of the lawyer who made the land transfer possible]. Nagbayad kame ng P7,000 para sa pag-aayos ng lupa, ngayong tapos na ang lahat at hindi kami kasama, saka ibabalik ang pera sa amin."
Mom understood his grievances. We were not aware that there was an ongoing talk of the land transfer long before we got involved in the issue. The Padre de Familia felt betrayed by the other neighbors he trusted. He felt that we were ganging up on his family.
For an hour and a half, expletives rained in front of the house. The Padre de Familia poured his heart out and it was my mother who absorbed his anger. He was angry because no one told them that there was an agreement and they were not part of it. He would have accepted the decision if they were told about the demands long before the paper was finalized. I was beside my mom the whole time, trying to show compassion to the old guy as well. It cannot be denied that we're part of the mafia - the group who were trying to isolate them in the affairs of the neighborhood.
During the verbal assault of the Padre de Familia, many unfortunate things could have happened. An old person like him could suffer a heart attack during his hour-long emotional unburdening to my mother. Mom, who has cardiac problems of her own, may not be able to absorb everything the old guy said. Mamaya na lang, she might just interrupt his drama by telling us "Hindi ako makahinga, dalhin niyo ako sa ospital!!" Like what happened early this year.
There was also this possibility that the Padre de Familia's war freak son might just show up and butt-in in their talk. I swear, if I hear a negative comment from him, I wouldn't mind letting the glass bottles of Coke fly toward his direction. Suppressing one's evil side makes that dark entity more violent when the person holding it in place suddenly unleash it.
But these events never happened. Instead, when I looked at them, I saw two long-time neighbors talking to one another once again after ignoring each other's presence for years. The expletives poured that night, but it was never directed at us. For some reasons, we were there at the right moment, to undo the damages brought by the issue of the driveway. The Padre de Familia might have been drunk. His voice could be heard by the entire neighborhood. But in all his anger, he showed a degree of respect to my mother.
This prompted me to approach his daughter who was doing the laundry to further reach an understanding between us and their family.
---
We sat at the plastic monobloc chair a few yards away from our parents. She was apologizing in behalf of his father for letting things spin out of control. I told her that its alright. There's no one to blame except that we never got the chance to talk and smoothen things out. I told her that despite everything, I still have high regards to her family for being there when we're the one on the slump. I've never forgotten how the couple showed up in my dad's funeral a few years ago. We never felt that kind of sympathy from our other neighbors.
Our conversation was brief but very meaningful. Like what I've observed about our parents, it was like meeting someone you've been acquainted for a very long time, but never got the chance to talk. The Padre de Familia showed up afterwards. His dialogue with my mom was over and judging from the look of his face, he felt much better.
I left them to look after my mom, who was visibly drained after her difficult ordeal with the Padre de Familia. Nevertheless, she was not only successful in calming him, our overall relations with the family who lives in the first house improved much better. The tension inside the compound had also dissipated after their high-level talks. Days later, their part of the driveway was less cluttered unlike before. The couple were visibly warmer towards me whenever I buy a stick of yosi from their sari-sari store.
Looking back, I wouldn't have the courage and the overpowering compassion had I've been naughty last Saturday. I later figured that the test was done by Kuya not only to check my resolve was to stick to my promises, but also my ability to go beyond my human needs in exchange for something bigger than my humanity. When I think about it, the success of the dialogue between my mom and the Padre de Familia can be attributed to my role of being a second mediator after I also reached out to the Padre de Familia's elder daughter.
And I wouldn't have done it, knowing that I would be ashamed to ask favors from Him.
Two days after it all happened, I am confident that the issue would be resolved in the next few weeks. We're finally assured that no matter how many times we leave our house during the day, we could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we could always smile at any family member that we see whenever we pass by the first house.
On the side note, the elder daughter revealed something that made me sad during our conversation.
After going through all the bickering just to insist our right of passage to the driveway... Just when were ready to open a new age of cooperation between us and them, I found out that they're in the process of selling the house to their next door neighbor.
There is a possibility that we might be dealing with another family come next year.
As the neighborhood tension that evening begins to make everyone nervous at home, I kept my worries to myself. If only my family knew how I'd think of ways to strike back at the family who lives in the first house when they harm us, Everyone would surely change their good-boy impression of me. Nevertheless, I was able to project a cool attitude that it somehow relieved the collective fear felt by my housemates.
Midnight arrived. Mom was still downstairs watching TV. Suddenly the househelp barged inside the house and told my mom that the Padre de Familia of the first house kicked our dog. The maid was furious so my mom had to check what was happening in the driveway. She pretended to be talking to our next door neighbor when the Padre de Familia approached my mom.
"Magandang gabi po. Maari ba tayong mag-usap sandali Mrs. [insert the name of my mudang here]"
I was in my room upstairs playing a PC game when I heard the commotion. A funny coincidence was taking place because while my mom and the Padre de Familia was about to talk, a space battle was raging between my fleet and a bunch of ships from an aggressive alien empire on my computer. I wasn't paying attention to their affairs at first. But when I heard that the Padre de Familia was starting to raise his voice to my mother. I stopped playing and run down to check if the dialogue between them is beginning to spin out of control.
"Mga putangina nila. Niloko nila ako. Yang si [insert the name of the other guy who declared his indifference towards the right of way issue] sabi ng sabi sa akin na ok na yung problema, yun pala eh kami ang madedehado sa usapan." The Padre de Familia was obviously drunk.
"Wala pong mangyayari kung dadaanin natin sa galit ang mga bagay bagay," mom said calmly.
"Tangina yang si Atty [insert the name of the lawyer who made the land transfer possible]. Nagbayad kame ng P7,000 para sa pag-aayos ng lupa, ngayong tapos na ang lahat at hindi kami kasama, saka ibabalik ang pera sa amin."
Mom understood his grievances. We were not aware that there was an ongoing talk of the land transfer long before we got involved in the issue. The Padre de Familia felt betrayed by the other neighbors he trusted. He felt that we were ganging up on his family.
For an hour and a half, expletives rained in front of the house. The Padre de Familia poured his heart out and it was my mother who absorbed his anger. He was angry because no one told them that there was an agreement and they were not part of it. He would have accepted the decision if they were told about the demands long before the paper was finalized. I was beside my mom the whole time, trying to show compassion to the old guy as well. It cannot be denied that we're part of the mafia - the group who were trying to isolate them in the affairs of the neighborhood.
During the verbal assault of the Padre de Familia, many unfortunate things could have happened. An old person like him could suffer a heart attack during his hour-long emotional unburdening to my mother. Mom, who has cardiac problems of her own, may not be able to absorb everything the old guy said. Mamaya na lang, she might just interrupt his drama by telling us "Hindi ako makahinga, dalhin niyo ako sa ospital!!" Like what happened early this year.
There was also this possibility that the Padre de Familia's war freak son might just show up and butt-in in their talk. I swear, if I hear a negative comment from him, I wouldn't mind letting the glass bottles of Coke fly toward his direction. Suppressing one's evil side makes that dark entity more violent when the person holding it in place suddenly unleash it.
But these events never happened. Instead, when I looked at them, I saw two long-time neighbors talking to one another once again after ignoring each other's presence for years. The expletives poured that night, but it was never directed at us. For some reasons, we were there at the right moment, to undo the damages brought by the issue of the driveway. The Padre de Familia might have been drunk. His voice could be heard by the entire neighborhood. But in all his anger, he showed a degree of respect to my mother.
This prompted me to approach his daughter who was doing the laundry to further reach an understanding between us and their family.
---
We sat at the plastic monobloc chair a few yards away from our parents. She was apologizing in behalf of his father for letting things spin out of control. I told her that its alright. There's no one to blame except that we never got the chance to talk and smoothen things out. I told her that despite everything, I still have high regards to her family for being there when we're the one on the slump. I've never forgotten how the couple showed up in my dad's funeral a few years ago. We never felt that kind of sympathy from our other neighbors.
Our conversation was brief but very meaningful. Like what I've observed about our parents, it was like meeting someone you've been acquainted for a very long time, but never got the chance to talk. The Padre de Familia showed up afterwards. His dialogue with my mom was over and judging from the look of his face, he felt much better.
I left them to look after my mom, who was visibly drained after her difficult ordeal with the Padre de Familia. Nevertheless, she was not only successful in calming him, our overall relations with the family who lives in the first house improved much better. The tension inside the compound had also dissipated after their high-level talks. Days later, their part of the driveway was less cluttered unlike before. The couple were visibly warmer towards me whenever I buy a stick of yosi from their sari-sari store.
Looking back, I wouldn't have the courage and the overpowering compassion had I've been naughty last Saturday. I later figured that the test was done by Kuya not only to check my resolve was to stick to my promises, but also my ability to go beyond my human needs in exchange for something bigger than my humanity. When I think about it, the success of the dialogue between my mom and the Padre de Familia can be attributed to my role of being a second mediator after I also reached out to the Padre de Familia's elder daughter.
And I wouldn't have done it, knowing that I would be ashamed to ask favors from Him.
Two days after it all happened, I am confident that the issue would be resolved in the next few weeks. We're finally assured that no matter how many times we leave our house during the day, we could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we could always smile at any family member that we see whenever we pass by the first house.
On the side note, the elder daughter revealed something that made me sad during our conversation.
After going through all the bickering just to insist our right of passage to the driveway... Just when were ready to open a new age of cooperation between us and them, I found out that they're in the process of selling the house to their next door neighbor.
There is a possibility that we might be dealing with another family come next year.
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