breaking away

the silence is deafening around my 28 year old house.

i was in prep school when i first looked at the towering stones before my 4-foot built, flabbergasted and swept away by the size of my freshly painted yellow room. the antique chairs and tables did not give away the sense of novelty in the way we felt when we first opened the bathroom door and realized there were 4 others to open in each room. my parents' room was the biggest, complete with a lavish waterbed sprawled on what seemed to be a triple queen-sized bed.

intercoms were installed in each room and one in the kitchen to be used for emergency and lunchtime calls when we were too lazy to pick our feet up and walk the distance from the living room to mine, my kuya's and mommy's room--just to keep everyone informed of the menu for dinner. my dad did most of the dirty job (if not all). he would cook for us and press our ringers 'til it shattered our eardrums. "hoy!!! kakain na!!!"

we had what seemed like a modern-day phonograph. it was a white turntable with a glass cover. the LPs neatly stacked were there only for show. oversized throw pillows were fashioned into ottomans cum daybeds during siesta. my sister and i would fall asleep on one of them after hours of playing rough tag at our backyard. our walls were white (in anay-finish), mom's furniture pieces were grand and exquisite. they were all witnesses to our triumphs and failures. from prep school to graduate school. we had the time of our lives in a house that once was a mansion to my meager vision.

i grew up thinking that i would live in this house forever...until my parents decided it was time to let it go and build a new home for our family that has grown bigger since ate len got married. the news came to me uncasually and nonsensically as the first meeting of an estranged wife and her husband after 30 long years. i was moved to invisible tears. funny how i didn't feel the least bit melancholic. i guess it was time for a cool, drastic change.

waltermart took all my childhood away and will soon leave me with brimming memories of the yesterdays we had with changelings, busy highways and atypical strangers for neighbors. one thing's for sure---money can't buy me love...

God knows how much i love this house...but i'm ready to open my heart to the one in blue isle.