MOLES and HAIR-DOS
One afternoon, when I and my younger sister Mimi were playing, I noticed the black marker my kuya has used in labeling the folders in his school project. Mimi was fond of dressing herself up and I also liked experimenting with her. Sometimes, I borrowed her long hair. I asked her to sit back to back with me as I took her hair and placed it over my shoulders. Then I looked at myself in front of the mirror. At some distance, you might actually mistake her hair as originally mine. I still had other attempts of trying to experience having long hair by putting on a towel or our orange TV set cover in my hair. Like what Alice Dixon said in one of her classic commercials, I can feel it!
I did not know why I always had my hair cut short. Mama said that I seemed to be aloof of combs or fancy hair clips that’s why I was always short-haired. Plus, my apple-cut hair complemented my round and chubby face (only when I reached high school that I noticed my face as somewhat square-shaped because of my jaws). Well, I did not remember disagreeing with the idea. I had this classmate who looked like the junioress of Jolina Magdangal – what with all the colorful series of hair clips, glittery headbands, 3D butterfly clips, etc., all lined up in a series in every variety everyday. I didn’t like that. I preferred black hair. Alone.
Going back to my sister’s fancy of self-presentation even if she’s in grade two then and going back to the black marker I saw, may I now tell the story about the moles. (Or maybe you already have an idea about how the mole and the marker would come about in this story.) I got the marker and asked my sister, “Mi, gusto mo lagyan kitang nunal?”(“Mi, do you want me to put you a mole?”) Maybe seeing the bright idea and eagerness that flashed through my eyes, she nodded and smiled. To my delight.
I intently put a dot on the upper portion of her lips. To my unreliable recollection, I guess that was on the left portion of her lips since I was right-handed. Tenen! (expression) There! Her new mole was perfectly made by me. From what I watched in the television, girls that have mole in that area seemed to be cunning and sometimes, they were the antagonist. Mimi, I think, liked the instantly-done part of her face. Then, another bright idea rang in me. ”Gusto mo bang tumalino?”(“Do you want to be smart?”). She repeatedly said yes. Thus, I inched my way to dotting another mole in her temple near her right eye. (I did not think that I have a grasp of symmetry, left mole and right mole balance.) Was that a kind of experiment? I did not know. I was grade five then.
Our playtime has ended and we had to retire to our beds already. The following day, Mimi had to go to class in the morning. Mine started after lunch.
Less than a decade after (literally), Mimi relayed to me the event that happened the next morning in class after she has acquired her new set of moles. I ended up bursting in laughter while she smirked at me. She eventually laughed, too. She recalled that her best friend pinpointed the upper portion of her lips and her temples asking, “Bakit may dumi ka dyan?” or “Ano’ yang dumi na ‘yan?” (“Why do you have stain in your face?”) Mimi probably blushed with embarrassment during that time. I told her that maybe she didn’t wash her face enough. Should I take the blame on me?
*to be continued*
