Elixir

by James O. Sy, PhD

  She consecrated her life to serve the helpless and vulnerable innocents by feeding and nurturing them, educating them, building their confidence and self-esteem, encouraging their spiritual growth, creating for them an atmosphere of care and love to help them develop a compassionate heart, making them learn about their societal and social responsibilities, and helping them realize the true purpose of their existence.

  It was this lifelong mission that she had been diligently and steadfastly trying to accomplish for the last twenty-five years. She still couldn’t believe the two miracles that just recently transpired: the unexpected arrival of Bong and Delia, especially when both committed to teach the children those subjects in general education, and the heaven-sent multipurpose and homey orphanage.

  Sister Pat now had a very efficient and dependable staff in place, supporting her in running this nurturing, love-filled shelter. She considered herself very fortunate to have someone to delegate certain chores.

  Julie is such a person, an indispensable and responsible assistant. She is the accidental result of a supposedly strictly business transaction between a young, lustful American serviceman and a local Filipina who was engaged in the most ancient profession in the world. It wasn’t even clear whether the young soldier was part of a contingent that was stationed in the now-shuttered US Naval Base Subic Bay in Olongapo City or part of a covert group that might had stayed after the base was closed down. Since her mom was always busy practicing her craft, Julie was placed under the care of her maternal grandmother living in Dela Paz, which was a good thing because her grandma was a very kind, loving, and a pious woman. This was the reason why Julie turned out to be an upright, conservative, caring, and dependable lass despite the circumstances. Everything was going so well until her grandma passed away unexpectedly when she was eighteen, and with nobody to turn to, she ended up having to wake up early each day to sell sampaguita (the national flower of the Philippines) garlands near the entrance of the nearby church. Taking pity on her, Sister Pat invited Julie to join her at the orphanage.

  Julie is blessed in a lot of ways despite how she came into being. Although she never got to know her American father, she continued to dream that one day, somehow, somewhere, she would get the chance to meet him. One would think that she might end up working the same profession as her mom or that she would definitely end up with morally decadent values, but fate intervened. Her grandma brought her up to become a virtuous, morally upright, dependable, religious, and loving person.

  Her features are a prime example of that wonderful fusion between the best qualities of Caucasian and Asian genes.

  In short, she is quite the stunner.

  CHAPTER 25

  MY BOOT CAMP

  Jake’s Uncle Reggie was nice enough to travel with him up north and dropped him off at the orphanage. They were met by Sister Pat and her very capable assistant, Julie. The usual handshakes, greetings, and pleasantries were exchanged. But the young JT couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the exquisite beauty in front of him. In fact, if his uncle didn’t gently nudge him, he might not have let go of the young woman’s delicate hands when they were shaking hands. That would have been a very embarrassing moment, for the both of them.

  Strangers in the night… the musical thought running through Jake’s head.

  The nun instructed Julie to familiarize JT with the structural and operational details of the orphanage, as well as to provide him with a daily list of chores and responsibilities to do for the next six weeks. Before the nun moved on to attend to other matters, she asked the guests if they had any questions.

  Jake had been curious about how his dad got to know the Catholic nun, so he timidly asked, “How did you and my dad get to know each other?”

  The kind nun recalled a rainy day in July of last year, when a very soaked mid-fifties man walked into the reception area. Jani (the teen responsible for cleaning and other custodian responsibilities) was trailing the man, imploring him to dry himself up with a towel, which was held patiently by Jon-Jon, another ward, before going inside the orphanage. But the impatient ex-professor ignored his plea and kept walking toward the reception area. Jani was pissed at the sight of the little puddles of water left all over the floor, essentially marking the path where the middle-aged man had traversed as he moved from the entrance to the insides of the orphanage. With a resigned sigh, Jani grabbed the mop and the presser to clean up the watery mess. Alerted by Jani’s loud pleadings, Sister Pat came out. She saw the dripping-wet gent, grabbed the towel from Jon-Jon’s hands, and helped dry the still-wet guest.

  After thanking the kindly vestal, he introduced himself as Jerry and explained the purpose of his visit. It turned out that the ex-professor heard about the existence of this orphanage, learned also about the nice and commendable ministry that it did with its young wards. He was visiting since he wanted to know what kinds of books this center of learning needed. Jerry had good working relationship with book reps and could get older-edition books at minimal cost. The nun thanked him; they exchanged business cards and Jerry was then introduced to Bong and Delia, to work out the details of the planned books transaction. A little over a year later, the bookshelves of the library of the orphanage were overflowing, crammed with gazillions of books on many diverse topics and genres.

  Reggie left JT in the care of the indefatigable nun, and the maturing young man was instructed to follow the stunning Julie to her cubicle.

  While there, the two discussed his chores and responsibilities, going over a to-do checklists, broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly lists. The efficient assistant also gave him a schedule listing the times and type of activities that the young juveniles of the orphanage engaged in on a Monday to Friday timeframe.

  JT thought, Oh, no! I just signed up to help run a boot camp for retards and rejects! Fearing that the American Asian beauty might somehow read his mind, he tried to quickly banish the rude thought.

  After Jake was given a detailed picture of the chores and scope of his responsibilities, he was led to his sleeping quarters. He was to bunk with Mark, a jovial abandoned teen. After Julie left, Jake felt tired and decided to just lie down on his small bed (well, the bed wasn’t long enough to accommodate his 5’9.5” frame).

  Julie was mortified when she dropped by an hour later and found Jake still lying on his bed, drifting to sleep. Jake jumped out of the bed quickly when he saw the shocked expression that registered on that elegant face. Julie had expected the handsome teen to have unpacked, showered (or at least washed to refresh himself), and ready to get started with his assigned chores. It was quite a letdown to her when she saw JT just lazing about.

  JT blushed, and some areas of his cheeks turned dark pink. He sheepishly remarked, “Oh, I thought I can have the afternoon off.”

  Julie tried to tell him about the place needing to be ran efficiently, and that no lazy bums were allowed, but was interrupted by an accusing question him.

  “You don’t like me, do you?” JT looked hard into her eyes and tried to get a “tell” from her body language.

  Two less lonely people… once more, a musical thought came unbidden in Jake’s mind.

  When two equally beautiful beings meet, the animal magnetism and strong attraction for each other become overwhelming.

  ………

  An analogy in sports is: When Rafa Nadal was contending against a worthy opponent in Roger Federer (this was especially true some years back, when both were in their primes); when the smallish but gutsy Filipino pugilist Pacquiao was battling Mexican warriors Morales and Marquez; or when Magic was competing for the championships against Larry.

  In all three instances, these hard-core competitors, all alpha males, relished the chance of competing against the best of the best. After engaging in hard-fought battles, each opponent has nothing but respect and admiration for their equally gifted, worthy adversary.

  ………

  So it was with these two wonders of creation. God must had been in one of His ver
y inspired moods when he created magnificent earthen vessels for these modern-day versions of the irresistible Adonis and the enchanting Venus. Two equally alluring specimens of beauty, magically drawn to each other and instantly becoming honorary members of each other’s mutual-admiration society.

  Not wanting to lie, Julie confided to him, “Your dad requested that we give you a rigid, activities-filled, and responsibilities-laden workload while you are here. He doesn’t want you goofing around or just whiling your time away.”

  At this point, Jake was floored and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He now realized the irony of ironies.

  First, he tried to literally run away from his old man by choosing not to work in his lab. But the 8,000-mile-distance failed to stop the ex-professor from extending his influence. Second, it now dawned on him that he wasn’t here to help run a boot camp. Rather, his daddy dearest had just enrolled him in a six-week Philippine-based boot camp!

  CHAPTER 26

  FUN AT THE CHICKEN FARM

  JT decided to work his butt off doing the chores assigned to him, and to fulfill his responsibilities diligently for two main reasons: One, he didn’t want the orphanage kids to say that this Amboy (the name they teasingly called him, shortened from American Boy) was a lazy, no-good bum; two, he wanted to impress Julie.

  So he was always toiling away, inspired and looking forward to lunchtimes and siesta breaks. It was at those times when this youthful Adonis and the effervescent Venus huddled together and enjoyed every moment in each other’s company. He couldn’t even remember the details of the anecdotes, jokes, or stories that they shared, since everything was so hazy and blurred when he tried to recall. All he could remember, feel, and hear were the sounds of laughter, the happiness, and the immense euphoric state he felt whenever they were together.

  The Amboy was on cloud nine, and more than ready to fall in love.

  One could just imagine that pesky and mischievous little tyke with the cherubic face and miniature wings getting ready to shoot those tiny love-tipped arrows at these two mutually-infatuated youngsters.

  When I need you…

  All work and no play was no fun, either. Sundays were when everything work-related ground to a halt. Attending Sunday-morning worship was highly encouraged. But the most fun happened in the afternoon: trips to the newly constructed mall, going to the movies, playing sports like basketball or racing or singing contests between preformed groups of youngsters of the orphanage.

  But for this Sunday afternoon, JT, Mark and a few more of the kids had plans for a different kind of fun: a friendly competition.

  Jake found a new buddy in Mark, an abandoned teen who was quite jovial and had a happy-go-lucky personality. Mark had a lot of friends, especially those workers at the neighboring chicken farm. For this particular afternoon, some of the teenagers from the orphanage would engage in a series of friendly contests against the workers of the chicken farm.

  There would definitely be some unannounced side bets, but for the most part, this organized event was done in the spirit of fun and camaraderie. The categories include synchronized racing to a finish line with an uncooked egg held between the foreheads of a duo of teammates, racing to a finish line with raw egg placed on a spoon that was held in place by biting the utensil with the teeth, nudging an egg toward a predetermined line using only one’s nose (no hands please!), throwing raw eggs for the farthest distance without breaking them, and eating the most number of boiled eggs.

  …Run…for…the…roses…

  All the contestants from both groups had been looking forward to this competition; everyone was EGG-cited!

  Anita, the cafeteria lady, was gracious in offering to prepare and get those eggs ready. Say what you want about Jake Timothy: lazy kid, time-waster, loafer, procrastinator, underachiever. These might be apt descriptions of him, but one trait you couldn’t imagine he possessed was his super-competitive nature; he hated to lose.

  Sensing that the contest might boil (figuratively, no pun intended) down to the egg-eating part as being the tie-breaker event, Jake prepared and wanted to put himself in a position to win the joust (just in case, but his sixth sense was presciently urging him to get ready for just such a possibility). What he did next was akin to what the fictional legendary Captain James T. Kirk (any relations to JT?) did when he was subjected to a simulated testing under stressful conditions. But whereas the resourceful captain reprogrammed the simulation so he couldn’t fail, this ultracompetitive youngster, to help him get a big leg up against the competition, skipped his dinner the night before so that he would be famished by the time the contest started.

  He subsisted on apples juice, candies, coconut juice, and a bit of Jell-O. He wanted his stomach and intestines to be devoid of food, so he took laxatives to purge himself out and cleanse his innards. Of course, the unfortunate consequence of this was that he had to run to the restroom as fast as he could before soiling himself. In a nutshell, he ended up with a severe case of diarrhea.

  It was a hotly contested competition between the chicken farm group and the young people from the orphanage. At the end of four rounds of battling, the score was tied at 7-7. As JT expected, the joust needed a tie-breaker. Having taken the necessary steps the night before to put him in a position to win, he easily bested these overmatched competitors. He was the runaway winner by a wide margin. He ate fifty-three eggs (move aside, Cool Hand Luke) in a ten-minute span. He was able to do that by mashing the egg yolk portions of ten boiled eggs, then added some water (each contestant was given two cups of water to aid in swallowing) to mix them into a slurry, finally drinking that semi-liquid mixture. Once he chewed down the cooked egg whites of the ten eggs, he repeated the procedure.

  Dominic, the no-good, hot-tempered chicken farm bully, was able to stay close to this “Cooler Hand Young Luke” during the first minute of the competition, but faded quickly after that. The eventual runner-up, a pot-bellied behemoth of a farm worker, ate thirty-nine hard-boiled eggs.

  To the victors went the spoils. Even though the awards were meager, the orphanage kids were celebrating like crazy. A lot of people didn’t understand why, but for the young wards who had practically nothing, of having moments of helplessness, of questioning the very nature of their existence, of going through countless moments of sadness and despair, who never had anything to celebrate for, this was their moment of triumph. It not only provided a temporary escape from the harsh reality of their miserable lives, but it was an exhilarating feeling to finally had something positive to cheer about. So they celebrated like they won a hard-fought World Series, a bone-breaking Super Bowl battle or a triple overtime Game 7 of an instant classic NBA (National Basketball Association) championship. Some of the victorious kids even did victory laps around the chicken farm; several of them hoisted JT on their shoulders, chanting, “MVP (most valuable player)! MVP! MVP!”

  One would think that the afternoon games of fun had ended with this picture-perfect conclusion.

  But rarely is the ending perfect.

  This excessive celebration drove Dominic the Bully into a tizzy, muttering and cursing in the most vile, foul words ever spoken in his native Tagalog dialect.

  CHAPTER 27

  THE BOUNCING EGG

  After an afternoon filled with laughter, friendly teasing, boisterous fun, and joyous celebrations for the victorious orphanage group, it was time to help clean up the mess. It was accomplished in a very quick and efficient manner since everybody pitched in; they organized into five groups with distinct clean-up responsibilities.

  Sister Pat sent word to remind the youngsters from the orphanage that a special motivational speaker would be coming at 6:00 p.m. that night. Most of this kids left soon afterward, needing to get washed up and rested before the night’s program at the orphanage.

  But Mark and JT decided to tarry a bit longer since Berto wanted to show them something. Berto is a great guy to have around. He loved fun, always bursting into minutes-long bouts of howls of laughter wh
en he was told or retold a joke, even if the joke wasn’t even that funny. He also shared an occasional tall tale or two. He had an interesting hobby, which was made possible because he was so willing do chores for Patrick, the farm supervisor.

  It was an “I scratch your back, now you scratch my back, too” type of arrangement. Berto periodically got some undersized eggs that got rejected by the quality control people. These rejects normally got thrown into a big, blue, plastic-lined garbage can, later to be sold as animal feed. But with Patrick’s tacit approval, Berto would regularly get some of these discards.

  So when the clowning Jake saw those rejects inside a bowl on the chicken farm boy’s desk, he couldn’t resist showing off his juggling skills. Initially, he was able to get six eggs in the air and was masterfully juggling them. But he lost his concentration when the mean-spirited Dominic appeared from nowhere. This bully was still pissed that the orphanage boys won the game, and Jake became the target of his intense wrath. He started approaching the still-juggling Jake while cursing profanely in his native tongue.

  JT, distracted by Dominic’s demeanor, lost his concentration, the consequence of which created a comedic scene. One of the undersized eggs fell and cracked on his head, so he was crowned with a broken yolk, and the slimy egg white dripped down his face.

  Dominic was so pleased at the hilarious scene that he went away laughing his head off.

  But what happened to one of the remaining eggs was quite mysterious. While the four eggs broke on different areas of the floor, the fifth one just bounced, bounced, bounced, and then rolled away. Curious, JT picked up the egg and cracked it open. To his and Mark’s shock, the contents of the bouncing egg consisted only of solidified egg white. They couldn’t figure out how the egg yolk became missing, and what caused the egg white to become denatured and turned solid.