too much cartoons
An avid four-year-old fan of cartoon heroes, Voltes five and Ultraman, I was an innocent little boy who supposed the existence of my superheroes. I believed in monsters and ghosts so I made myself believe that God created superheroes that someday would rescue people in troublesome hours. I believed that every package my Auntie Remy sent was a “blessing” because it always contained my most valued treasures - my superhero action figures and Betamax tapes of cartoon series, and when I say my toys, we consider it our toys – Jojo, Lexter, Ate Jackie and me. Voltes five in the morning; noontime variety show; then Ultraman in the afternoon, this was our weekday schedule. Saturdays and Sundays were TV-rest days, we always asked papa why TV stations didn’t air cartoon shows on these days of the week, but our toys make us not notice it sometimes. It was June, our harvest month, when a visit by a monster happened. Weekends were transformed to farm-visit days. Papa wanted us to share some work just by picking vegetables and fruits. I hopped on the motorcycle’s back seat, Jojo and Lexter climbed at the top holding tight our action figures we’d play later if we get bored, and Mama with my little sister Bheng, Ate Jackie and Yaya Dorie sat inside the sidecar. Squash, tomatoes, eggplants, many shrubs and herbs, almost every vegetable in the song Bahay Kubo, you can find in our farm. Trees were almost bowing because its fruits made them do so. It was even more fun when we saw little goats playing beside the pond, where carabaos bathe with the tilapias and bangus. We rode on the cows’ back and tried to outrace each other, unluckily Uncle Iking, Ate Jackie’s dad, was watching us. We were taught how to fish using a long stick with a long nylon string and how and where to find the fattest and juiciest worms for our bait. The long busy day made us forget our toys, we left them inside the hut and remembered just I was about to sleep. “Pa! We have to go back! I left my toys!” how I wanted to tell this but my eyes were too tired to move. Another day at the farm, I hopped off the motorcycle after we arrived and ran fast inside the hut to find out that our toys were in the cabinet. “You left those yesterday so I kept it inside the cabinet.” Mang Buboy, our farm caretaker explained. They were not ruined like what I thought. We had a little party that day, a simple thanksgiving for the good harvest and for good years of harvesting to come. Our caretaker, Mang Buboy gave us toys he made from bamboo and coconut and he also let us taste his special kakanin. They were cooked inside bamboo trunks and you have to split the bamboo and eat it. We had plenty of food like pinakbet, kare kare and pork chops. It was about an hour after we ate when Mang Buboy noticed that the sky was getting dark. We thought it was just rain or a storm coming. Jojo, Lexter, Ate Jackie and I, were at the pond with the kids, so we walked back to our hut and carried the kids with us. We played our toys with the baby goats. We made the skinniest one as the villain and we made a story where it wanted to eat his brother, a fat goat. “I’m going to eat you up!” Jojo played carried the thin goat and dragged it to the others. “Help Voltes Five! Our brother wants to eat us!” Ate Jackie carried a goat as if it was a puppet. “Here I come to save the day!” I used Mighty Mouse’s line or some sort of a rescue song when he comes to fight the villain. Some flash of lightning and booms of thunder, the northeast sky was completely black! We were astonished by the noise it gave and even more when we felt that the ground was shaking. I put my toys in my pocket and grabbed two kids. Mama gathered us under the table to avoid being hit by falling branches of the mango tree. That moment, I never knew what was going on, all I thought was that it’s either the real Voltes V or Ultraman brawling with a monster.