ICING ON A CAKE BAKED SOME YEARS BEFORE

October 21 was a particularly lousy day for the aging lion. Earlier that day, at about five thirty in the morning, he received a long distance call from the lion tamer saying she has finally arrived at our ancestral residence in Project 8 .The trip took forty four hours travel from our adopted hometown all the way to the metropolis, or a delay of almost nine hours when compared to our previous trip the month before. And there was no more need to relay the details, the power of cell phone technology already gave her the opportunity to chronicle the cumbersome details as these happened, delays that included a flat tire, the inability to catch up with the scheduled ferry from Allen, Samar to Matnog in Sorsogon, and finally, the threat of the Mega bus being impounded at Pasay, the last of which she managed to avoid by talking to the MMDA apprehending officer that she be allowed to take the taxi home while the latter and the bus driver were hotly contesting a certain traffic violation that could have further prolonged the already arduous ordeal. Luckily, the MMDA officer gladly consented by personally arranging with a cab driver that she be brought home, but only after she mentioned the name “Philmore Balmaceda” who the officer volunteered that Philmore has already retired, gladly accommodated her request and personally hailed a taxi and allowed to leave the scene meantime his companion and the bus driver were hotly debating on the supposed traffic violation.

Her trip to the big city of course was not without urgent reason. Their three-month old youngest grandson, his father’s miniature clone, was having health problems and is periodically being brought to the hospital because of intermittent fever. Not only was the ailment draining the pockets of his parents but it was also getting in the way of their daily work schedule. It was therefore time for “Darna”, err. . . . the lion tamer to lend a helping hand to sort things out. Some of the brethren in the medical profession, Doc. Billy, included may also be able to help. And the aging lion?! He had to stay behind, financial considerations and the upcoming palay harvest insured that joining her on the trip would be without valid reason!

At seven that morning, he decided to dry the five sacks of palay that was delivered to him by a tenant the day before and assured that it was harvested through upland cultivation, that is, irrigated only by rain water, he looked forward at having these milled and set aside for personal consumption as he was informed that rice produced from upland farming tastes better than those grown via irrigated process. But the effort was already becoming an ordeal, what previously was just a whiz of a job is now taking a lot of effort, and who says “only carabaos grow old?! Well, perchance, but why shouldn’t an aging lion??

By four in the afternoon, having completed putting the grains of palay in the sacks, he tiredly slumped on the garden seat at the veranda, and while at that worn-out posture, heard an elderly lady loudly knocking at the gate asking for “Nang Lorma” the lion tamer, at which the aging lion barked backed that she is presently in the metropolis. But the lady was obviously persistent, which piqued him all the more, and so he decided to approach the gate with the intention of impressing upon her that no transaction can possibly consummated as she is not around.

Imagine to his surprise and mild amusement when a charming young girl, about seven years of age and clad in Girl Scout uniform suddenly appeared at her back, clutched the aging lion’s knuckles and executed the traditional “Mano Po!” without muttering a word, and the ritual done, the elderly lady, her grandmother, explained that she is Annabelle Bernadas, the young harelip whom we have helped being operated on some two or three years before. Previously bothered by that ugly torn lips, she is now a good looking girl, definitely a young dainty beauty to behold. And she was among the fifty or so harelip patients whom the lion tamer has successfully engineered that she be operated on through Christian Service International and the Ramiro Community Hospital at Tagbilaran City.

Which made the aging lion glad “to the bone”. A good seed planted some years back has already turned into an admirable shoot!.