Babbling Point

. The Summer of a Million Tutubis by Dino Igancio and Budjette Tan Her name was Celeste. We met back in the summer of `82. I was nine years old and she was eight. She was Rey’s cousin from San Francisco. She came to visit and was the flower girl in Rey’s older sister’s wedding. It was a hot, dusty summer in Marikina. We spent it playing in the streets all day and eating halo-halo at Aling Ninding’s store. She would always put more lanka in the halo-halo than Manang Lety from across the street. Every day after lunch, my Nanay Loleng would make me take a nap until the afternoon sun went away. I would twist and turn in my bed until I was allowed out to meet my friends. It was a true test of patience but it always paid off once I was allowed out. It was the summer of tutubis. The summer of the million tutubis. We must have caught over a hundred of them that day and they just kept on coming. We chased them and put them in jars, and no matter how many hole