The Club

Ok, Tash, here's a story that has you in it...

...you're not gonna like it though ;)

The Club was borne out of a desperation to escape the older sisters.

The "Ates", being who they were in the sibling birth order, lorded it over us whenever they were bored.

Carlos, Eric and I were always being scolded, intimidated, and pinched...We also were always ordered about to do their bidding.

Eventually, we formed "The Club" to stand against them.( It was actually called "The Club")

I'm sure you know this but I' ll remind you anyway...

There is a natural order in "utos -ing".

It goes something like this...Dad is thirsty...he asks the Ate to get him a glass of water...the Ate yells for the second born to get Dad a glass of water...the Ditse then asks the younger sibling to get the water....and so on and so forth.

The youngest eventually gets Dad the glass of water.

This principle applies to everything in sibling interaction.

Carlos being the "bunso" was always getting bugged.

I, the second born , automatically had "second child syndrome" in addition to being constantly harassed.

Eric, at the time, was also the 'bunso" but being the only boy, was exempt from all resposibilities as proclaimed by the Mom. ( Sorry Mom, you know it, Eric knows it, Everyone knows it)

...but of course, the Ates are exempt from that exemption too...especially is Mom's not looking.

(Geez, this is getting complicated)

So to make to long story short (too late?)

The three of us were always tormented by the two of them

One day however, we inadvertently got even...

We used to have a large hut-like playhouse that Tita Nini had built for Rachel. It had plywood sides and a tiled roof.

We were playing around it when we had a terrific idea...

To escape the two girls, we'd dig a huge hole underneath the hut !!! When we were done, we would have made an underground cave... which could serve as our Secret Clubhouse!!

( I know...I know...give us a break... we were only around seven at the time)

So we got some spoons and ladles to use as shovels and we went under the hut to work on our hide-out.

One day, as we were going to get on to work, we spotted Jo Ann and Tasha coming our way. We knew if they caught us, we'd be in trouble (they never needed a reason). So we bolted for cover under the hut.

Eric moved too slow and got caught.

When the Ates asked where we were, Eric, with surprising presence of mind for a six year old, said we might have gone out to Tropical Hut with Otel, our maid, who had gone out a few minutes before.

Now Papa was a bit paranoid when it came to his grandchildren. We weren't allowed to be standing outside the gate... not a step out of it. We weren't even allowed to be around the gate if the small door on the gate happened to be open

Knowing this, true to form, the Ates ran straight to Papa to tattle.

We didn't know this of course. We just thought that they went to do something else seeing that we weren't "around" to torture. So we forgot about it and started our digging project.

A few minutes later, Otel came home.

All of a sudden, Eric, who had gone off to play by himself, peered underneath the hut and said. "Papa's mad...better come."

So we went to Papa.

Apparently, he was furious that Otel had "taken" us outside. She came home to find him very angry. When She said that she had not taken us anywhere. We were called to verify.

So we did. We confessed we were digging underneath the hut. ( The cave wasn't coming along as planned anyway. We barely dug an inch into the ground)

Then He faced the Ates...

I really don't know what happened since we were allowed out. We eavesdropped a bit at the window though, and heard Papa scolding them for lying.

They came out after a bit. Papa never got really mad at us (Mama on the other hand...but that's another story.)

A little deflated, the two girls didn't mess around with us for the rest of that day.

The days after were pure torture though. But at least, even if it was just once, we "got" them.

And I know it's mean, but even now, when we reminisce about it, we laugh out loud and

the inner child in me...

...still

.... gloats (hehehe)

The Conspirators and the Accused