Amor de mi Padre

Primer
There was a thunderstorm coming into the windows of our house, and my family was hiding. I would be cuddled with my father in the armchair by the window, and lightning bolts would crash into the windows, making a fire in our house.

Segundo
I would be playing with my toys in the middle of the living room with my parents in the room. Suddenly, I would start to float up into the ceiling. It would be too fast for anyone to catch me, and I'd be too high for my parents to reach me. Suddenly, the front door would open and I'd be pulled up and float up into the sky. I'd continue to float up up up, screaming in a child's voice.

Tercer
It was my birthday party, it was time to hit my pinata. They told me that other kids would be hitting my pinata first. I cried because I wanted to go first. I ran behind the garage where my parents used to keep the trash cans. My dad found me and told me I would be the first one to hit my pinata.

Cuarto
I was sleeping quietly in my room when I heard arguing in the living room. I awoke and walked into the room. He was gathering his stuff to leave. He put me back into my bed, and I fell asleep holding his arm. I remembered waking as he pulled his arm away, I reached up but missed, and fell back into sleep.

Quinto
He used to call me "superbaby", and fly me around as if I really were a super baby.
I don't know if it was because my dad wasn't strong enough or I had grown too heavy, but there came a day when I lost my ability to fly.

Trees and such things........

There comes a point when you find that adult life doesn't stretch much farther than childhood. Playing NES as a child, you might remember games such as the Legend of Zelda that spanned for hours, days, and (terribly enough) weeks on end. Before the existence of memory cards, there were codes that would become unlocked once you successfully completed the next stage. I remember the times that either my brother or I would shout across the house in an excited frenzy when one of us would succeed in completing a level, gaining a weapon, or unlocking a new territory. Notebooks were filled with countless lines of 8 digit letter/number scribbles.

Today, I ate at the popular, yet not-all-that authentic American food chain, El Torito in the maniacal shopping district of Shinjuku, Tokyo. This was the last meal, last beer, last duration of quality time I was to spend with my good friend, Leonie, in Japan. For she has boarded her plane back to New Zealand with no immediate intentions on coming back to visit. Of course, I will surely plan a trip to that crazy sheepy country before traveling back to America, and in return, she plans on joining me on a cross-country trip across the United States. However, today's lunch was quite sad.

We shared an appetizer order of guacamole and chips, which of course had me criticizing the Japanese for their inability to authentically copy a realistic rendition of another country's cuisine.

On my journey back through an unfamiliar train route home (Shinjuku-Kozu-Odawara-Atami-Shimada), I thought about how my video game brain had unlocked the Avocado.
During my 7th summer on this earth, or what I might call my Avocado year, I shared a bunkbed with my 5 year old brother. We lived with my father, his wife and new child in a 2 bedroom house with a large avocado tree in the backyard. The warm weather of the Southern California city of Alhambra provided the perfect environment for a thriving avocado tree.

This tree was perfect for children to climb upon, due to its 3 foot, T-shaped stump that sprouted large 45 degree angle branches that led a path up onto the roof. I was significantly better at climbing trees than my brother, due to my stronger arms and unrelenting fearlessness of danger. He had quickly become prohibited to climb the tree soon after the time that my father had to pull the truck into the backyard in order to pluck him from a dangerous branch. We ate quacamole with every meal.

Summer was the pinnacle of the time we spent in that house because of the fact that we were left alone to play until my father and his wife returned home from work. We soon discovered another gang of kids, a bit older than us who lived down the next street. Isaac and Aaron were brothers, and Paul was their Chinese neighbor.

Isaac, Aaron, Paul, Ricky and I would meet with our bikes at the tree every morning at 10am. Every day would sprout a new adventure of riding our bikes down into the sewers, playing Avocado-tree freeze tag up in the branches, listening to scary tapes inside of Aaron's dad's tool shed, or playing games of truth or dare in our adult-free living room.

I recall that despite being the 3rd oldest, which in childhood means you are at the allegiance of superior's orders, I was the leader and plan-maker of each day's activities.

Upon unlocking the Avocado memories, I remembered the 5 of us eating the plums we had stolen from the witch's garden who lived across the street. She was a mean old woman who constantly complained about keeping our little kid feet off of her front lawn.

Isaac had climbed the fence, and filled the shopping bag full of the sweet, ripened fruit as we watched from the toppermost branch of the avocado tree. He ran back excitedly, carrying the accomplishment from his arm, joining us on the roof.

It was at this time, with the plum boneyard connecting us all, that I told them that we must celebrate this occasion. And it was there, above the cars, housewives and caged-in pets of the immediate suburbs, that all of us took turns kissing each other. In the age of innocence, nothing about this seemed wrong at all.

Where does it come from?

1987
Me: Get out of here.
Ricky: Mom, Ronell won't play with me.
Mom: Ronell, play with your brother.
Ricky: (satisfied smirk)
Me: Oh, alright. I learned a new game today at school. Want to play?
Ricky: What is it?
Me: It's a card game. Go get the cards.
Ricky: Okay.
Me: No, the good deck.
Ricky: Here.
Me: Okay, the game is called 52 card pick up. I don't know...are you going to understand the rules?
Ricky: Yes, yes.
Me: Are you sure?
Ricky: I want to play 52 card pick up.
Me: Okkkkk. (Throws cards in a swirl)
Ricky: (confused look)
Me: Well, pick them up.
Ricky: (confused look)
Me: That's the game, Ricky. Now pick them up or else I'll tell Mom you're cheating and that's why I don't play with you.
Ricky: (cries)

End result: I get in trouble.

1991
Me: Hey Ricky, I have a good idea.
Ricky: What?
Me: Let's put Alex in the bathtub.
Ricky: How?
Me: Well, we can pick him up on the sheet he's sleeping on, and carry him into the bathroom and put him in the tub.
Ricky: Okay.
Alex: (cries)

End result: Ricky and I get in trouble.

Ronell: Get out of here.
Ricky: Get out of here.
Rayna: Mom, Ricky and Ronell won't play with me.
Mom: You guys, play with Rayna.
Ronell: Hey Ricky, I have an idea.
Ricky: What?
Ronell: Let's play Ocean Swirl.
Rayna: I want to play Ocean Swirl.
Ronell: Okay, Ricky, pick her up and hold her upside-down.
Ricky: (does this)
Ronell: Now let's go over to the bathroom.
Ricky: Ohhhh, Ocean Swirl.....
Rayna: (upside-down) I don't want to play Ocean Swirl anymore.
Ronell: No, you'll like it.
Ricky: (holding her over the toilet)
Ronell: Now, you drop her and I'll flush, and we'll send her on an Ocean Swirl
Rayna: (cries)

End Result: Ricky and I get in trouble.

2006
Ronell: Hey, just thought I'd warn you, Mom still gets your some of your mail and you got a letter saying you owe 843$ in back taxes.
Ricky: What are you talking about?
Ronell: Well, mom opened it since it looked official.
Ricky: Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck!
Ronell: Ya, that sucks. I gotta go.

Ricky: Ya Mom, I'm gonna go pick up that letter from the tax guys.
Mom: What are you talking about?

End result: Ricky hides my car stereo from me.

2006
Me: That's a funny picture you posted on your myspace.
Cynthia: I don't have a myspace.
Me: Ya you do, I'm on your top 8.
Cynthia: No, I don't have a myspace.
Me: Are you serious? How weird.
Cynthia: Wait a second, how long have I had a myspace?
Me: I don't know. But now that I think about it, I guess you wouldn't post such embarrassing pictures of yourself.
Cynthia: Dad, I'm going on your computer.
Me: His computer is broken right now. But I'll show you later on mine.
Cynthia: Dad, did you hear what Ronell said? There's a myspace of me that I never created.
Dad: That's really strange, Cynthia.
Me: Hey....I bet Alex made your myspace. Those bulletins from you ARE a bit personal, probably only things he would know.
Cynthia: Bulletins like what?
Me: I don't know, personal stuff, like your pooping strategies.
Cynthia: WHATTT?!?!? Give me your computer, I want to look at it.
Me:Okay
Cynthia: Dad, Alex made a myspace pretending to be me and posted a bunch of embarassing things about me!
Dad: What?
Cynthia: Ya, that jerk.
Dad: You know what? I'm gonna call that little son-of-a-bitch.
Dad: (dials number)
Me: Uhhhhhh, just kidding. I made that up.
Dad: What?
Cynthia: What?
Cynthia: cries

End result: I get in trouble.

1983
Mom: Get out of here, you'll get all wet.
Me: What are you doing?
Mom: I'm cleaning Carrot's cage.
Me: Where's Carrot?
Mom: In the house, now get away from the water. I don't want you to get your clothes wet.
Me: I bet I can fit in Carrot's cage.
Mom: No, it's wet, and it's dirty.
Me: But you cleaned it!
Mom: It still has rabbit germs. Don't get inside.
Mom: (walks away)
Me: (gets inside)
Mom: (returns)
Mom: What the hell did I tell you?
Me: Look Mommy, I'm Carrot. I'm a rabbit!
Mom: You want to be a rabbit?
Me: Yes!
Mom: Okay, then you are a rabbit.
Mom: (locks cage)
Mom: (walks into house)
Me: (waits a minute or two)
Me: (Cries)

1993
Me: I think you're driving too fast.
Mom: Well, I've gotta go to the bathroom.
Me: Me too.
Mom: (parks car)
Me: (runs into house)
Me: (runs into bathroom)
Mom: Hurry up!
Me: Ahh, what a nice lovely pee.
Mom: Hurry the fuck up!
Me: Trickling down the spout like a beautiful waterfall.
Mom: (Enters bathroom)
Mom: (Pulls down pants)
Mom: (Pees on me)

1996
Me: (walks into the house)
Mom: You are punished for a month.
Me: What? Why?
Mom: I got your report card today in the mail.
Me: Ya, so?
Mom: You got 3 C's.
Me: Shut up, no I didn't.
Mom: Don't tell me to shut up, and yes you did!
Me: Let me see.
Mom: I already put it away.
Me: In what classes?
Mom: Math, History and PE
Me: That's impossible, my teachers told me my grades.
Mom: Well, that's what your report card said, so you're punished until you get those grades up.
Me: Mr. Salvador, can i talk to you for a moment?
Mr S. Sure.
Me: You told me that I got an B in this class but my report card showed a C.
Mr S. No, you got a B.
Me: Are you sure?
Mr. S: Yes, I'm sure.
Me: Mom, I talked to all my teachers, and I didn't get any C's.
Mom: I know, you got 2 A's and a B.
Me: Huh, how did you know?
Mom: I just told you that so you'd try harder.
Me: But, you said I was punished.
Mom: Well, I don't want you on the phone so much, so you're still punished. You ought to have straight A's anyway.


I'm going home this November. I can't wait!