It's true

We lived in a mountain where it’s not totally inaccessible, but also not that convenient to live in. From an average family, average looks, average IQ… Anyways, I’m just an average girl, okay? Though, I enjoy reading more than an average 10-year old girl.

“MA! My socks please…” I said to my mom, Ellen,  who was cooking in the kitchen. My ‘ma’ was a high school teacher while my ‘pa’ was an electrician. I have two older brothers, Jiro and Rigo(identical twins), who were 2 years older than me.

I heard my mom’s footsteps through the door. “Lin, isn’t it time for you to look for your things using your eyes and not your mouth?” She said while entering the room looking for the other pair of my socks.

 I’d say I’m pretty reliable and independent. HOWEVER, that is only true when my mom’s not around. But when she’s with me, I turn into a malfunctioned human.

“Here. It was right in front of you.” She gave me the other pair of socks that I’ve been looking for. “How come people in this household are unable to find stuff?”

 When I was younger, I used to believe that my Ma was a magician. I mean, how does she manage to find things that my naked eye couldn’t even detect?

I opened my bedroom door and stood in front of my brothers’ bedroom, knocking slowly. “Are you guys ready? Don’t wait for Ma to come here.” But there was no answer. I let them be and headed straight to the kitchen.

This house was gifted by our grandparents to our parents when they got married. Most of the stuff was old but I liked it. It wasn’t big but it was enough for us to live in. It was a two-story, wooden house with three bedrooms.

I carefully walked down the newly waxed stairs. In fact, our floor looked pretty shiny most of the time since my Ma hates to see our house dirty. That’s why, when Saturday morning comes, you’ll see people in this household polishing the surfaces and wiping the dust off. No exemptions!

The smell of cocoa and hotdog welcomed me as I got closer to the kitchen. That’s why I love mornings; I love the food, cold breeze, and chirping of the birds. Well, in our case, more on, chirping of our mother.

“Rigo! Jiro! When are you going to eat breakfast? You’ll be late again. Do you know how many times I’ve...” Ma started her morning incantation for the twins. I didn’t even bother to listen for the rest of it.

 I greeted my father who was sitting on the edge of the table near the window. “Morning, Pa!” I said. He just nodded and sipped from his cup. He is the opposite of Ma. A  man of few words according to her.

Pa knotted his thick eyebrows making it look like a caterpillar as he’s reading the newspaper that’s on the table. He was about to take another sip from his cup when he heard Ma yelling.

“George, your sons are not listening to me. Tell them to hurry up.”

And as always, all it took was two words from my father.

“Hurry, kids,” he said that LITERALLY.

 We’re all afraid of our father. We never saw him angry which made it even scarier. So, it was no surprise that the twins instantly opened their door when they heard Pa calling them.

 “Morning, Lin Lin,” greeted the twins in harmony when they arrived in the kitchen. “Morning,” I answered. “I heard you have an activity today,” I said. “Did you already prepare the materials needed?” 

“Nah,” Rigo leaned in closer to my ear, afraid that Pa might hear the next words he’ll say. “Actually, we're just playing this new mobile game since yesterday.”

Jiro nudged me and pointed his fingers to their feet. “We didn’t even bother looking for matching pairs,” he said. Showing their unmatched socks.

“See? No problem. And if we forget school stuff, we just borrow from our classmates.” Rigo shrugged. 

No one would ever think that my brothers were a headache when they first met them. They possessed a face where people could gaze at them for hours and never get tired of it. On top of that, they have such angelic features like they never knew how to commit a sin.

Perhaps, that's the reason why girls at our school were so crazy about them. I’m pretty sure they knew by now that my brothers were ‘walking nightmares’ but Rigo and Jiro’s face clouded their judgment.

“Bring the trash when you go out, ‘kay?” Ma said. “Yessir,” the twins replied.

I picked up my backpack and waited for the twins outside our house. Finally, they went out with large plastics bags in their hands.

“Let me help.” I reached out for one of the plastics Jiro was holding.

“No, no. These are heavy.” He moved it away from me. “You’ll dirty yourself.”

I felt bad for not helping, but knowing them, I knew they wouldn’t let me. Rigo must have noticed what I’ve felt and cheerfully said, “You’ll have to pay, you know. Buy us some popsicles later.”

Our school was a 10 to 15-minute walk from our house. And our garbage disposal was also on our way there, that’s why most parents let their children throw their trashes for them especially on school days.

The familiar narrow path that we passed by every weekday can already be seen. We’re getting closer to our destination. My brothers who were already excited to be freed from garbage ran towards the big Balete tree, and behind that, was a cliff where our trashes were thrown out.

Looking at the Balete made me felt small, not just physically, but I felt insignificant. Its trunk obstructed the empty view behind it, roots spreading across the place, and branches extended in all directions with hanging thread-like stuff that acted as a curtain.

I felt ashamed whenever I threw our garbage here, how we made something so beautiful and ancient, a doorway to a dumping place.

I turned my attention at the garbage bags they’ve tossed, the cliff was steep that the bags continued to roll downwards until its image became smaller… and smaller… then it was gone

 I caught a glimpse below and wondered what kind of creatures might be lurking in there. And as much as I wanted the bottom to be our next field trip destination, the idea was hopeless.

The bottom was only accessible by another entrance from a distant village— on the foot of our mountain. But it was protected by the government. It is where the wildlife was being protected and freed— a place for nature and away from humans.

Also, people were too afraid to go there since trespassers who tried to break in either never returned or too afraid to ever go back to that place again.

“Brother, do you think what they said was true that snakes below are as big as a thick tree?” I asked.

“Maybe. If mermaids exist then, so are humongous snakes.” Jiro answered seriously.

Rigo laughed by what our brother has said. “Really, Jiro? Mermaids are real?” Rigo was barely holding his laughter.

“There’s enough facts that showed mermaids are real! They even have a photo.”

Rigo stopped laughing and answered, “Really? Wow. I thought you’re joking.”

This lifted Jiro’s ego. He spoke confidently, “I even read unicorns still exist.”

I just shook my head, not bothering to be included in their conversation. I’m too curious about what other unimaginable things might be below us.