Flying slipper

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose (The Wonder Years). We hold on to them because something happened in that time frame that changed our lives one way or another. We hold them close in our hearts because it is what made us who we are. The memories we can’t remember are those insignificant ones that didn’t make an impact in our lives.

Our childhood always contains memories we can never forget. It could be because of the happiness it brought, sadness and sorrow it made us feel or probably something else. In my case, I can never forget the time my sister and I broke the glass of my parents’ bookshelf.

Everything happened in one afternoon when my older sister and I were left alone in the house. We started throwing shoes and slippers at each other just for fun. I would attack, she would dodge and vice versa. However, as we became too engrossed in the fight, we forgot that fragile things surround our battlefield and, of course, the inevitable happened.

She broke the glass part of the bookshelf after I avoided the slipper she threw at me. My sister was the one who threw the slipper, but both of us were to blame. I can never forget the first words that escaped through her mouth, “Bakit mo iniwasan?”  Though it seems silly, at that moment all I could do was agree with what she said.

As soon as my mom knew what we had done, she was enraged. Maybe because the bookshelf was an antique or probably because she was disappointed with the type of game her daughters chose to play. Nevertheless, we were grounded for some time and she threatened that my sister’s birthday party will be postponed until we replace the broken glass.

I can remember the both of us crying our hearts out as we insert all the money we have in a pink piggy bank.  When we asked our driver how much it would cost to replace the glass, he said, “Around 2000 pesos”. That amount was definitely out of our reach and it made us more scared. We were so desperate to earn 2000 pesos before my sister’s birthday that we worked hand in hand in search for money. We failed to replace the broken glass on time but my sister still had her birthday party.  

Thinking back, I realized that the reason why this memory never left my mind was not because it reminded me of our stupidity but because my sister and I worked together for the first time. We are infamous for always fighting each other. There wasn’t a day that we didn’t fight over some petty thing or even shout at each other. But that moment, when I honestly thought we would fight, the opposite happened.

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picture of the aforementioned bookshelf: [click this]