My Castle

We used to live in a compound in Buencamino.

There was an "up and down" house. The bottom part was ours, while the top apartment was my Tita Nini's...my Grandparents lived in a bigger house right beside ours.

The compound had a cement wall which separated my grandparents' house from ours. There was a gate in the wall though, which provided access between the houses.

We usually went through the gate to play since Mama and Papa's house had numerous fish ponds, a large garden and wide open spaces allowing us to run around.

One of my favorite places to play was a stone castle. It was a rock, brick, cement thing, with a cave like opening and steel bars in the ceiling.

I used to crawl in it and pretend I was a knight...

...hey, don't bug me... so gender stereotypes had not kicked in for me yet...just deal.

Occasionally I would be joined by Aling Sepa's daughter, Nancy.

But usually, I'd play there alone looking through the metal bars dreaming of Camelot.

A couple of years later, we moved to Times...right before my fifth birthday.

We didn't return to Buencamino for years and years.

I however never forgot that I used to have a castle for my very own.

One day, when I was fourteen years old, Tita Nini stated she was going back there to check up on the tenants who were now renting the Buencamino houses. I asked to come along for the ride.

When we got there, I ran straight through to my grandparent's old backyard to check out my castle.

I paused, stunned...and started to laugh.

My castle of rock with the metal barred ceiling was actually an outdoor grill.


:0


My kingdom for a Steak