The Umbrella

From Chikkada (edited for brevity and clarity)

based on a true story

I am a city boy who grew up in a slum area with my poor and big family. As a child, I never cared for I wore, what we ate, or if I was neat or not. All I wanted was to play outside all day long that I often skipped my classes just to be with my barkada, my group of friends whom we call ourselves kalye boys or street boys.

We'd usually go by the railroad to catch spiders and put them either in match boxes or in brooms and watch them fight each other. And oftentimes, right about 7pm, when my Inay (mother) gets home from the factory and catches me playing outside, she would scold me. And my Itay (father) will tell my Inay to stop scolding me since for him it was okay for boys to have fun as long as they are playing outside and not taking drugs or alcohol.

For most of my elementary days, I followed the same routine as did my elder brothers who were also often cutting classes and going home late. I didn't care about school. I didn't care about my assignments or projects. I also didn't care about my brothers or sisters, what they did or what they were up to. I just wanted to have fun with the kalye boys and stay by the railroad until the sun sets.

But one day, everything changed. It was a Saturday morning and I was watching Bioman. Beside me was my Itay who had been sick for about a week and therefore was unable to go to the market to sell goods.

My eldest sister, a college student then, asked Inay for 20 pesos (about 50 cents then) to commute to school as she had a exam that afternoon and had go to school badly. Sometimes, in order to help Inay save money, my sister will not go to school except when there's a test or presentation in their class. Actually my sister is intelligent and she's been very good in school since elementary.

Inay told her she had no money and said maybe she can call her prof and ask to have a special test for her. But my sister refused to do so. She kept telling my Inay that it is impossible because it was a major subject and she needed to take the exam.
Then she asked Inay to give her even just the fare going to school and she will ask friends for money for her fare home.

Inay paused for a while, then said, "Okay. I will go to Aling Mary and ask if I can borrow from her." Aling Mary is the owner of the small convenience store three blocks away. Inay used to be able to buy from her on credit for stuff like canned goods, coffee, sugar, or rice. Aling Mary was nice to Inay (and us), but when Inay wasn't able to pay her long list of debts, she began humiliating Inay (and sometimes us) in front of our neighbors.

Inay left and came back after 30 minutes. Her face was pale. I knew right away Aling Mary must have confronted her with our debts. I looked back at the television as if I didn't care and watched Magmaman. I heard my Itay coughing hard and asking my youngest brother to give him a glass of water. Though my eyes were watching the show, my ears were listening to the soft whispers of Inay to my sister.

I heard Inay said, "Aling Mary didn't lend me money, but don't worry I will go to your Auntie Audie's house to borrow money."

My sister was sad and asked, "How can you go there? You don't have any money? How can you ride the jeepney and pay the driver if you don't have money?"

Inay just said, "I will go now. I'll be back before 12 noon." She then grabbed her little worn umbrella and left.

Auntie Audie is my Itay's older sister. She's a little bit wealthy, with her own apartments, vulcanizing shop, not to mention her 5/6 lending businesses. Her house is actually a little bit far from us. One Jeepney ride to get there. The distance is about from La Salle Taft to Manila Science HS, meaning it is a bit far to walk, especially under the scorching sun.

Came 12 noon and Inay has not returned. My sister was already ready to leave and kept pacing back and forth by our main door. I was eating my lunch while Itay was sleeping in the folding bed. After lunch, I went out to fetch a pail of water from the pump outside house. In my rush, I almost stumbled against Inay.

Luckily I got hold of her. Her arms were so hot. Probably because it was past 12 noon and the sun was really hot. I guided her inside the house and gave her a seat.

She was holding a 50 peso bill and asked my sister to come to her. I didn't know why I was still standing there. I was supposed to wash the dishes and yet I felt something was wrong. I could see it in Inay's face.

Inay asked my younger brother for a glass of cold water. But before he could stand up, I walked to the table and got Inay her a glass of water. After drinking, she started to speak, "Children, I went to your Auntie Audie's place and was told she was at the shop. I went to the shop and asked her if I could borrow money for your sister's fare. But she said she did not have any money as she has not been able to get her customers to pay up. So I started walking back here. But when I was near I bumped into Mareng Shella, the godmother of your youngest brother. We talked briefly and she asked me to sew the attire of her child who is graduating from kindergarten. She gave me a downpayment of 50 pesos. Thank God. There are still angels around us."

After that, just to confirm, I asked her if she had walked from our place to Auntie Audie's place. She answered YES. I looked outside. The weather was scorching hot. I looked back at Inay's umbrella. It was torn and the handle was broken - it was unusable.

My sister cried. So did my younger siblings. My sister hugged Inay and said "I will finish my study and I promise you I will help you Inay."

Inay wiped off her tears and said, "Don't cry, go on. You might be late. You take care and good luck on your test." All the while my little brothers and sisters continued hugging Inay.

I kept my tears from falling. And as I looked at Itay I saw that he was awake and I saw him looking at us with tears in his eyes. When he saw me looking at him, he looked away to hide his feelings.

That's life, I told myself. From then on I realized that our parents will do everything for their children. When their child is in need, nothing is impossible. Though that day was hot, Inay was able to walk from our house to Auntie Audie's place, then back to our house with a broken umbrella just to borrow money for my sister who needed to go to school for a test.

It's really heartbreaking.

When my older brothers learned what happened, they all got mad at Auntie Audie. How can she do that knowing that she's our father's sister? But Inay stopped us from getting too much of our emotions. She told us to be good and study harder.

I know my parents are poor, but they have a good heart. They may not be good providers but they do their best to support our big family. Auntie Audie is rich but she turned her back on my Inay, on us. But you know what? I took that as a challenge. We all did.

I studied hard. We all did. And all 12 siblings graduated from college. All are public school graduates. Some graduated with honors while others (like me) are licensed professionals.

We also helped ourselves. Whoever graduated first helped the next graduating brother or sister financially. Lucky for the youngest I guess.

Inay, who is a retired factory worker in a clothing company, now has her own tailoring business. Itay is now doing some taxi business with the help of our eldest sister who works as an accountant abroad.

Inay and Itay now have two accountants, an economist, a teacher, a management graduate, a chemist, two engineers, a biologist, an IT specialist, a seaman, and a lawyer. We all graduated from different fields but still understand one another. And once a year we all get together (some of us are working abroad) and have so much as we are actually a barkada within our own family.