a sticky tale

SM noticed I was getting ready to get out of the car.

"You're coming with me?" she asked. I don't usually escort her inside the store when it comes to detour-for-an-errand.

I usually stay inside the car. When I want something from the store, I'd mention it to her. Sometimes, before she alights, she'd stick her hand out to me and say, "Wallet."

We were at the Olive's parking lot outside the Mercury Drugstore. That day, she didn't anticipate my decision to walk inside the store with her. Actually, neither did I. The truth is, I wanted to get out of the car to stare at the window display of the Hobby Shop adjacent to the drugstore.

Well, you know how it is when we make bullet-speed nods, right at the very moment when your eyes are locked at something really cool, like the toy RC chopper in that Hobby Shop that seemed to call out to me.

I pointed, mentioned it to her, but she wasn't interested. Next thing I knew, I was twisting my head, making last looks at the toy in the window.

Inside the drugstore, I stood next to her quietly. I waited until she was done.

ME: Got change? I ran out of Orbit?

SM: Kaya ka pala sumama eh.

ME: Pwede? (smiles)

SM: Sure.

I heart Orbit gum only because it's sugarfree.

And besides, it took my mind off that RC chopper for a while.

* * *

The first gum I chewed came from a yellow thin box labeled Chicklet. My teenage cousin from Bacolod came for a visit. He carried me up and was telling something cute about me I guess, but I didn't pay attention. His constant chewing distracted me. The very first thing I said to him was this: What's that? Pahingi.

He smiled, put me down and, perhaps, as a sort of peace token, handed me a box of Chicklet. I took one, handed the box back and left without saying thanks. It was a bratty gesture from a kid who owned the turf. Blood related or not, he was still a new face in my planet.

Here's another sticky anecdote.

There was a birthday party for kids in the neighborhood. (I don't think I knew all of the kids in that party but there were a few familiar faces. My nanny never really let me out of the house to play with other kids unless she knew the nannies of those kids.)

At that party, one girl was surrounded by the other kids. Curious as to what was going on, I joined the swarm. This girl was asked by one of the kids to open her mouth. She was chewing a gum. But there was something else inside her mouth.

It was a fly.

As to how the fly got in there, I'll never know.

And here's another anecdote.

Once I slept on the couch with a gum in my mouth. When I woke up, the gum was on my hair. As to how that happened, again, I'll never know.

My quick-thinking nanny took out the baby oil to free my hair. Of course, she scolded me at the same time.

* * *

kids should know that...

Early chewing gums were marketed partly as paliatives, using ingredients and flavors that people accepted as folk remedies: licorice to soothe the throat; clove for toothache; spearmint to settle the stomach and relieve bad breath. (wikipedia)