The D Spot

“What did the Atlantic Ocean say to the Pacific Ocean?”

“What”?”

“None—it just waved!”

Laughter…ha ha ha ha

Incredible!

This is how a conversation with my daughter #3, Pauline always goes, always filled with giggles and boisterous laughter. Never a dull moment, never a quiet one, except when we both fall asleep. But these moments are far and few, maybe only once or twice a month. What I mean is—the moments when it is just her and me together. Pau and I can jump from one topic to another and back, but are still able to understand what we are talking about and do not get lost in the process. Here, we are very similar, like we cannot focus on just one thing.

Pau, as we fondly call her, is always full of surprises, one with a shiny disposition. But take note, years ago, when she was in grade school, she was totally different. She was very quiet, sort of unhappy and cranky, didn’t have friends from her grade level, maybe trying to find where she would belong.

I heard from her elder sister Chato that Pau would go to the other higher level (Chato’s level, one year older) and make friends with a few of them.

Of course, this worried me, so I secretly urged Chato, her sister and best friend, to urge Pau to make friends with others her level, even her classmates.

All these changed when Pau auditioned with the Ateneo Children’s Theater, and was accepted. This has perhaps given her the self-confidence that she lacked when she was younger. I was thinking, could her being the youngest of 3 girls (she has 3 elder brothers and 1 younger one) have something to do with it? Seeing her 2 elder sisters shine in their own way, while she was still groping her way around. Now she has many friends, within her year level, outside her level, and friends from other schools.

But there is one thing I didn’t know about Pau, that she just told me—she is in the school’s varsity team! I was so fascinated—wow! varsity team (when I thought that my kids were not into anything physical, more into theater arts, music, drama, poetry, writing).

“Pep squad, the competing team”, she said, and mom, this is my third year in pep, and my second in the varsity team”. I knew all along that she was in the pep squad, but not in the varsity team. I also thought a varsity team is only for those in sports.

“You should be proud of me”, she said. “I am! of course I was, am, and will always be”, I told her. “Now I will be more prouder” the wrong grammar proves it.

And it called for a celebration—two of us walked down to Ministop at 1:30 am, and bought what we called our “comfort food”: she her Chuckie, Choc-Nut and Taquitos, and me, my Coke and Double Stuff Oreo. Monica joined us, while watching 50 First Dates, surfing channels in between commercial breaks. I told her to look for the CD instead, she said, “Then we cannot surf channels”, made sense. You know what? Now, it’s not anymore Fifty First Dates she’s watching, it’s now Hanna Montana! and this is what I meant when I said, jumping from one topic to another.

Here’s a poem I wrote for Pau when she was a little girl.

Pauline, my dear
Come, sit beside me
Listen, do not fear
I will tell you a story.

About fairies and rainbows
Princesses and kings
How a butterfly grows
And spreads its wings.

But most of all my darling
Listen as I whisper in your ear
How much love I will bring
To you Pauline, my sweetheart dear.

Read my other poems in Poems from the Heart

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