Kring: Yes, .. (nostalgic) but we're grown-ups now and even if we wanted to go to the beach, we need to go as far as Laguna or Batangas since there are none around here.
Papa: When your mother and I just got married, our place was Luneta (Rizal Park). We stay there the whole morning until afternoon. We stay by the pond where Japanese koi are and watch other people walking around. In that place, we argue, we laugh and just plainly enjoying our time together.
Kring: Really? (and was lost in her own thoughts... remembering.... Perez) If Alice has, then perhaps mine would be....
Perez is my Wonderland.
Alice calls it her wonderland because of the magic. It is where she encountered a potion that could make her small, cakes that could make her big, a place where animals could talk, a cat that could smile, a queen that has a very big head and "jabawaki" that she later did slay.
Perez also has its own magic. Memories of my visits in Perez are like beautiful far-fetched dreams. Every time I go to Perez, it's own magic sips through the inside of me. It's beach and scenery may not be as beautiful as Boracay's or Palawan's but still it has the beauty and serenity of a place that one will discover and treasure upon staying there.
More so, all the people I meet there are very kind and welcoming. Hearing the word "people", the first thing that comes to my mind is a mother who walked with us in the plain dust road one Monday morning as we visited the homes of scholars one by one. She didn't mind the time she was spending with us and was very interested in talking to me about the hidden travel spots in Perez that she deliberately suggested I should go to. In addition, the children always have their smiles and warm embraces to let me join their own-made soccer game as well as send-off gifts made from sea-shells whenever the time going back to Manila for me is coming closer. And of course, I will not forget the youth who calls me "Ate Kring" who mutually and gradually developed comfort, friendliness and warmth as me. In comparison, they are my rabbit with a clock, the blue caterpillar, the mouse, the dog that believed and helped Alice.
And my most treasured magical memories of Perez are.. (1) sitting by the seashore watching the calm waters at late afternoon
(2) and in the midst of the darkness of the night when you could see the lights in the town of the next island;
(3) walking in the dust road at dusk and seeing as many stars glimmering softly above my head (as many as I could more than I've ever seen at any place I've been to - really overwhelming!)
(4) laying on the hammock at summer's mid-afternoon under the patches of sunlight overshadowed by leaves (this was where I saw blackness then sudden all white at the back of my mind which lead to my change of mind and view of things)
(5) leaving Perez at dawn and seeing sunrise in the middle of the sea while riding the 'bangka' (small boat).
(6) staying in a bench hammock with dear friends, talking about topics ranging from war, poverty, love and future.
and I think I'll be having many more, as time goes on.
Like Alice, I feel that every after visit of Perez, it's just a dream and upon waking-up, all I have are memories of the place. But we are both wrong. Perez and Wonderland is a real place. It just feels like a dream because of the magic that we both experience with it that we both can't believe is true.
Really, Perez is a Wonderland.
And Chas is my Mad Hatter. :)
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