Little Fish

In the heart of a busy avenue in Quezon City normally clogged by cars and jeeps, a corner leads to an exclusive village of uniformily-built, four-story townhouses. The gates are tightly secured, and despite the pollution, this place had the tall, manicured trees you'd typically find in Tagaytay.

It's a Sunday afternoon, not too blazingly hot, and the clubhouse is where our niece J. is celebrating his 4th. We had home-cooked spaghetti, chicken, along with ice cream and pork barbeque while children frolicked in the pool. It was the stuff of our own childhood dreams, their earth-memories in the making.

The little one loves the water and smiles with pure joy. Mommy, especially in a bathing suit, shows her beautiful flesh in the sun. Today, I'm the Daddy who drives the big van, then sits by the poolside reading a back-issue of the New Yorker.

I amuse myself with how the patrons of farm-to-table resturants in New York wait an hour for a table. When the hour is up, they get a text message. They scramble, as though they're about to miss a flight, as the table is held for five minutes.

I read the feature about a face in the crowd in Occupy Wall Street. Inside my head, my thoughts do their own swimming. Corporate greed has such a powerful feorcity that it diffused and drove out the occupiers in Zuccotti Park and dispersed the movement. A line in the article goes: "You worked all your life and you're a good person and it doesn't matter. You're really prone to getting fucked." Months later, the 99% kept getting fucked while economies endure gut-punching recessions. The corporations are unscathed. Despite my awakening as part of the 99% who kept getting fucked, I am still guiltily thankful for the job I love to hate.

I've always thought about what Fathers think as they watch their kids enjoy in swimming parties. I'm glad it's not all feelings of fluff. It's not a self-congratulatory thought, and it's also note one of desolation and desperation that drives the greedy. It is always of hope that these little ones by the pool will do it right. And so we do.