Balikbayan Part Seven: Big Slide
“Big Slide” was originally part of the Balikbayan series, a collection of short stories from my childhood, which eventually inspired the full-length play of the same title. Self-published in 2017 after a trip to the Philippines, I refrained from editing this piece because I wanted to keep the thoughts and feelings I had as a 23-year old to remain as they were— without judgement and censure from the person I am today. I wanted to share these stories again, because as I was re-reading them, they felt like prologues to the inevitable journey I find myself in now.
Pamangkin [pa-mang-kin]
noun
Niece
"Baba, can we go?" my nieces yell high above me.
I look up from the deep end of the pool and squint at their shadowed figures, the sun blindingly bright behind them, before raising both of my arms in the air and giving them two thumbs up. I could see Andi, the youngest of the three, sit at the edge of the slide before pushing off. I trace her movements with my eyes, gliding towards the left before swerving to the right and making a loop, before I see her figure coming straight towards me, a sluice of water cascading behind her. She catapults off the edge of the slide before she hangs in the air, suspended for a few seconds and reaching towards my open arms.
I was sitting around the kiddie pool eagerly looking over at the big pool, where my brother and sister were splashing around with my older cousins. When I was younger, trips to Pal Mas, the nearby resort, would often get lonely. While my brother and cousins would play with me for a while, they'd inevitably leave me to swim around in the "big kid's pool," where I was much too short to even stand let alone swim. I would hang around my younger cousins, Earl and Alexis, who spent family gatherings chasing each other around, and Nicole, who kept mostly to herself except when our other cousin Nikki would be be visiting from Manila. Because of how our ages worked out, I always felt that I fell right in between my younger cousins and my older cousins, jumping between the two groups easily.
This time around, my younger cousins were playing amongst themselves, so I stood up and walked over to the bigger pool. I walked to the edge, dipped my toes in the water, and walked down the stairs. I stopped at the lowest step and sat down. Before I could even call everyone over to me, they quickly got off the pool one by one and ran past me towards the top of the slide in a line. I watched them each zig zag down and crash into the water before huffing back to the smaller pool. Feeling like I was much too old to still be hanging around the kiddie pool, I scowled at the other kids. A small group of younger kids were playing across from me, bobbing their heads underwater before popping back up and spraying each other with water from their mouths. Dumb babies, I thought before I decided to forego running to the bathroom and peeing right then and there. I laughed when they decided to change the game they were playing and instead had a competition on who would be able to hold their breath under water the longest. I was interrupted before I could tell my younger cousins what I had done.
"Do you guys want to get on the slide?" Tito Erwin asked, looming over us at the edge of the pool.
"But it's too deep over there, dad," my cousin Earl answered him.
"I know. I'll be over there to catch you guys," he said, pointing towards the deep end of the bigger pool where the slide shot you out.
Alexis, Earl, Nicole, and I looked at each other for a few seconds, daring one another to make the first move. We sized each other up before trying to trip each other up while rushing out of the pool. We climbed the tall stairs towards the top of the slide with my Tito Erwin's laughter behind us, a large smile on his round face. When we got to the top, we were greeted by our older cousins with confusion.
"You guys can't be up here," my brother insisted.
"Tito's down there to catch us," I countered smugly.
When the big kids had finished their turn, we signaled Tito Erwin to get ready to catch us. I stepped up first and laid on the slide face down. I skated down swerving from left to right and found myself in mid air, feeling like Superman for a few seconds, flying completely horizontal with my arms and leg stretched out. The next thing I knew, I was underwater with the bottom of the pool feeling like it was hundreds of miles below me. In front of me, were two pairs of legs, covered in dark hair. I panicked and tried to kick myself upwards before a pair of large arms plucked me to the surface.
"Are you okay?" my Tito asked.
I nodded quickly, wiping the water from the face with my free hand. He carried me to the edge, helping me up the pool and wading back to his position, ready to catch my cousins. He spent all afternoon doing that, making sure we got to have as much fun as our older cousins without drowning ourselves. After that, it became a tradition that he'd do that for the younger kids until we all eventually learned how to swim.
My niece is suspended in the air for a few seconds before crashing in the water. I imagine she sees a pair of legs in front of her (hopefully not as hairy) as I grab her tiny body and hold her in my arms. She splutters as I carry her to the edge. Without a second glance, she pulls herself up off the pool and run towards the stairs, climbing up to the top of the slide all the while laughing. I quickly retake my position and holler back to my other nieces, Angela and Julia.
"Next!”
