Ok. So Promise sprouted rashes last week.
They popped up like mushrooms. First on her face then down to her torso and limbs. She had the fever and was grumpy for a while that her dad and I had to take turns watching over her. But she was none the less the cute little munchkin she always was. We were relieved when she finally started jumping again. We found her on her feet one day and reaching for her toys with a well-missed smile.
Oh, but what a week it was!
Christopher was close to blaming everyone for the virus that discovered his daughter. He forgot she wasn't super girl and that babies do get sick sometimes.
"Not on my watch" He told me with conviction (and melodrama).
And watch he did.
Until about 3 in the morning.
He allowed himself to doze off only when Promise was also sound asleep.
It was sweet.The kind of sweet I don't mind having for desert more than three times a day.
But it wasn't just about him and me.
The Nanays were also on a roll.
When Promise pushed away her milk bottle, Nanay Ring fed her everything she would eat for fear of dehydration. Cerelac. Bananas. Squash. Ice Cream. Potatoes.
They swept across Blumentritt market for all the produce they could theoretically transform into baby food. Some of them she devoured. Others she blew bubbles with. Most of the time she just looked like she was simply discovering new sensations in her palate and that's not necessarily a bad thing. She does that with a whole lot of other things that are not necessarily edible.
Manang B even went to a secret trip to Quiapo to consult a "healer" who apparently told her there is a woman in one of the islands in the Visayas who made Promise sick and that they would need to do a counter curse to remedy the matter. How about that?
But it was a from-duty day and I just got home from the hospital when they told me about it and I was too tired to argue. So I brushed it off as part of a bad dream. Needless to say, when I woke up and saw my daughter playing with Peewee again there was also a knowing smile on Manang B's face as if to say, "See? I told you it would work!" But hey, Promise was also on her 4th day of the rashes and by course of a regular viral sickness, they resolve spontaneously on their own. So there!
But with Manang B, there's no point arguing. I don't know why I even bother. What's important is that the whole trip to Quiapo was nothing less than her version of saying she loves my daughter and I can't fault her with that. And Promise is all better. She's making a mess of her toys again and Peewee is sufficiently soaked up with drool again, so, no more worries. Little Miss Measles is safe and sound.
CHAPTER 2: MALE ORDER MILKSHAKE
This would be the first time in my life, since my first 3310 Nokia in college, for me to ever lose a cellphone and not being able to get it back. Somehow, if I do misplace them, my cellphones just keep finding their ways back into my life without my ever having to try. The one I just lost even dove into the sewer filled with black muck and still managed to be plucked out of it without so much as a pixel out of place.
Haha!
I remember that day like a cartoon strip. I was fidgety for some reason. I think I was angry that I got an improper call from one of my patients and I was wondering where or how he got my number and I think I was in the middle of texting him a reply.
Texting while walking. To be clear.
Texting while walking next to a sewer that's being dug up for some reason in the middle of the rainy season, I might add.
Then swoosh!
Cellphone slips out of my hand and for 5 slow-mo seconds, it tumbles all over the side walk with me frantically groping about on my knees trying to save it, then plunk! it goes into the blackest muck-filled sewers I've ever seen. Or smelt.
I must have been screaming because one of the tricycle drivers parked in the nearby Sari-Sari Store came running to my rescue and dove straight into the muck without any hesitation.
And on all fours.
And with arms swirling about.
Frantically.
My world stopped for a moment in shock and I didn't hear him.
He was yelling at me.
"I-PHONE YON, DOC?! I-PHONE?!I-PHONE?!"
When I came to, I felt bad for having to say no. It was not an I-phone. Sorry to disappoint you Manong Driver. But thank you for getting your hands dirty for me.
When he pulled out his arm from the muck, he was holding my phone and it was still alive.
But Manong Driver didn't look very happy at all. Hahahaha!
Anyway, that was a long time ago. I finally truly lost that unit last week when I must have dropped it in the taxi cab that took me to work. I was in a hurry. I've been getting into a lot of trouble since. It's funny how we all used to get by without them. Now, I feel like a paranoid schizophrenic just because of the anxiety of being disconnected from the cellular phone. And I must have been bad at hiding the anxiety because Christopher has been leveling up with the efforts at sweetness.
He took me to the mall where we were supposed to get new phones but we kept being asked to come back again and again, and every time we tried to inquire about requirements and other stuff, people just kept shoving brochures at our faces. It was silly and frustrating. But every time it happened, he would turn things a hundred and sixty degrees before our tempers could get the better of us. The first time he took me to Fridays. The second time, he bought me a Starbucks concoction (to up the number of stickers on my sticker card so I can get a planner that I might never use... limited edition or otherwise). The third time was at Chef's Quarters.
He didn't wait for the fourth time. I woke up the other morning with a phone presented to my nose. It wasn't new. We were still getting the Plan 999 deal for the both of us, but for the meantime, he was convinced he would drive away my woes before the week was over so he got me a cheap phone to use temporarily. My heart did triple somersaults. Mister Kuripot getting me a phone. Hehe! Kilig! .
Later, he said we'll get two more Starbucks concoctions for two more stickers for that damn Christmas planner I will never use. "They're just really overpriced milkshakes for people who want to look cool but aren't really." He said. " They're coffee-based love." I replied. The only reason I started collecting was because he gave me that sticker card in the first place.
"So let's not go." I told him.
"We don't have to."
"Yes. We don't have to."
"But you still want that planner don't you?"
I nod my head."It's pretty."
Heavy sigh.
"How would you like your coffee?"
"Male ordered."
"Damn you, woman."
giggle-giggle! teehee! :)
I'm such a girl, I could puke.
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