Daddy’s Words And Wooden Stick

"Ronnie! Lahoy!" It was their cousin calling, so they ran towards him. Their cousin just arrived from school not far away from where they live. "Where you've been?" their cousin asked. "Just there, somewhere" Lahoy answered. "Go home now, your mom is looking for you both" so they ran towards home. 

Ronnie and Lahoy Daño are brothers from a poor family living in Suba, Pasil, Cebu City, a very crowded squatter's area. 

"Where were you?" their mother asked when they arrived home, while their father sat in the corner, watching and listening. "Why you are not at school?" their mom asked. "We attended class mom, and we also played in the street, that's why it took us a long time to be home after school" Lahoy answered with confidence while Ronnie stayed quiet because he did not know how to tell a lie.

"Ronnie, come here" said their mom, but Ronnie stayed put."Where have you been" she asked. Ronnie did not answer, but instead began to cry. Lahoy whispered to him "Don't cry manoy (manoy is how an elder brother or someone older is addressed) or else we will get caught". 

Their mom walked near them, and touched their skin, "you went to the beach again". "No mom, we were just playing somewhere" Lahoy still denied it even though he was surprised how their mom knew. Licking her fingers, mom asked "then why is your skin salty?" "Maybe sweat make us salty, mom". Ronnie spoke."But why do you wear your shirt reversed?" now both boys became silent. "I will let your father handle this" their mom left them, smiling in spite of herself.

Their dad stood up from the corner, then took a piece of wooden stick. "I'm sure this will make you tell the truth". Ronnie cried out loud. Lahoy said "Stop crying, manoy". Their father said to them "I think you already know what to do, don't make me beat you with this stick" waving it in the air.

Ronnie went inside the house and took some books for him and for his younger brother. "Why are you bringing books? We are not busted yet" Lahoy whispered. Ronnie knelt with arms raised sideward holding books. Lahoy had to follow suit.

 "I told you before; never go to the beach again, why did you disobey me? You really want this wooden stick, don't you?" Their father took a chair and sat beside them and started talking seriously to them.

I did not go to school because of the war, I was seven years old back then and it was the first day of school when bombs from the Japanese planes fell on the ground. That is the reason why I learned only a few letters from the alphabet and can read only a few words.

I started helping my mom after the war; I went to sea with some older men for so many months to do fishing and I can not even refuse or tell them that I still want to play, because I did not have time to play.

I must earn to help my family as I'm the eldest. The sea was so cold I almost can not bear it. I was so young back then. Danger was always on our way as we do not know what was going to happen next in the middle of the sea. 

"Your mom and I are doing everything we can just to send you to school. We wake up very early in the morning to get good fishes to sell, to have food on the table, to give you clothes to wear. But look at you both; you are supposed to be in school at this time, not in the beach".

Ronnie is crying while listening although he has heard that story many times already. Their dad tells it to them over and over especially when they do something wrong. Lahoy is whistling softly while carrying those books, taking everything easy.

Their father asked "Are you still going to do it again?" Lahoy answered as quickly as he can just to end the ordeal "We are not going to do it again dad". Ronnie also spoke the same with a very soft and low voice.

"Okay then, stand up and make yourself clean" their father said to them. While Lahoy was already smiling, Ronnie remained silent and thinking. 

While taking a bath, Lahoy asked "what are you thinking?" Ronnie answered him "Father keeps on telling us about what happened to him when he was young, why are we not taking it seriously. He does not want us to experience his childhood difficulty, which is why he tells that story to us all the time. Lahoy also understood what their father wanted to tell them and realized how important it is".

Years passed as they watched their father working hard for them and their mother always giving them support. Ronnie and Lahoy were transformed after that fateful afternoon and never escaped to go to the beach again, went to school and studied consciously, and obeyed everything their parents told them.

"Rollie" (that's Lahoy when young), someone called.

"Yes, Mr. Senator" he answered.

"I'm going to a conference; I need back up".

Rollie nodded and said "I'm going to tell your other bodyguards, too, sir".

Lahoy is a grown up man now, married to Yenyen Paglinawan, and a father of three kids. He is a criminology graduate and works as bodyguard for a Philippine senator.

Meanwhile, at probably the same time, his elder brother Ronnie is checking up on several criminal cases at the Talisay City Police Department. He is a graduate of marine engineering, previously a member of the Philippine Constabulary, and now a policeman at Talisay. He is married to Mary Jean Bolo, with whom he has four kids, all boys. 

He still remember those days of their childhood with his younger brother Lahoy, and it often makes him laugh, recalling the experiences they had when they were still kids. His thoughts turn to their father, who raised them as a fisherman from Sta. Rosa, Olango Islands, and to their mother, who helped in selling the catch.

In retrospect, Ronnie said in reverie, "I hope that you are proud of us dad, as you and mom did everything you can, to put me and my brother where we are now". He then said silently "Thank you for your words and your wooden stick" as he closed the folders and went outside to attend a flag ceremony at the police station.

This story has been told to me for so many times by Ronnie and Lahoy, and I love to listen to it again and again, as I also grew up with the same words and the same wooden stick.