This morning, Nick knocked on the apartment door, and I welcomed him in. Then he told me that Mack had kicked their brother Andy this morning and that Andy has returned to his uncle’s home in Aurora Hill. I didn’t ask why Mack had kicked Andy’s chest or abdomen. But I thought, with a big brother like that, who needs enemies? I’m glad that Andy can reside with his uncle, near his high school and a Catholic church. He’s returned to Baguio Gold to visit his family and friends on weekends when weather permits, and he came this weekend for the birthday celebrations with his half-sisters.

Anyway, Nick said that Andy fled for Aurora Hill this morning yet needs money for school. He had hoped to ask for money and go to Mass with me today. So I asked Nick if we should go visit Andy to deliver the money for miscellaneous school fees, and he said that he’d hoped that we would (that’s why he’d come to bat for his brother). So I gathered my bag and two umbrellas for us, keys and wallet, and we departed for our nearest Tuding Road jeepney stop.

We rode a Tuding Express to Magsaysay Street, disembarked then hailed another bus headed east to Aurora Hill. After a little while of riding, we stepped down and began hiking up a sidewalk looking for Uncle Alfredo’s house. Nick said that he hadn’t been there for six years. He didn’t know the house number, but the gate is (was) painted red, and he’s heard that Uncle rents rooms (and thus has a “Rooms for rent” sign in front. Well, we walked and walked, and I suggested that Nick ask people we passed for help in finding the house.

I tried to ask a girls coming toward us, but she ignored me on her way to a sari-sari store. Okay. He asked a young woman, and she said that we were on the wrong street. Nick knew that Andy is living in a house on Aurora Hill Road, yet we were roaming Leonila Hill Street for twenty minutes! So we got direction to Aurora Hill Road and went to it. As we walked down it, it branched-off or split, shall we say. And no street signs could be seen, so we didn’t know whether to go right or left to remain on Aurora Hill Road.

What did Yogi Berra say? “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That advice didn’t help us. We turned left, though. Nick queried asked a boy we encountered. I supposed that he asked if we were on the right road and if he knew where Mr. A. resides. I don’t know what they said in Tagalog. We continued down the sidewalk, and I suggested that Nick ask adults who were minding the tiny stores along the way for advice.

He leaned to one iron-bar storefront -the convenience store is smaller than many clothes closets- and asked the clerk if she knew where Alfredo Abellada lives. She gestured to the house behind the tiny store. The garage of Mr. A.’s house has been converted into a turo-turo diner and a miniscule candy/soda/rice store. Nick rushed through the carport/diner and knocked on the house door. Andy answered, let us in, and Nick and I met Uncle Alfredo and saw where Andy now resides.

I bought lunch for the boys and me in the diner, we had a delicious meal, talked about Andy’s nearby Doña Aurora Annex of Baguio City National High School, and I gave hime the 405 pesos he asked for plus more for mid-morning snacks.

Then the boys accompanied me by jeepney to downtown Baguio City. I wanted to drop-off two rolls of photo film for developing before returning home. At home Nick and I watched a movie before going to Mass at Fatima Hill/Turning Point. We ate dinner, then I bought five ice cream ‘drumsticks’ to take with Nick down to his home in Baguio Gold. Today is Rose’s birthday, and I hadn’t seen her yet. I wanted to surprise her and to treat her to a little ice cream. I can’t buy a birthday cake anywhere nearby…

Mack and Pat weren’t home, but the girls and Nanay were delighted to see me and more so when I pulled out ice cream and sang, “happy birthday” to Rose. “A good time was had by all,” as I wrote yesterday. By the way, the kids each told me today that they went to bed as soon as they arrived home yesterday, around 6:40. The day of play in Riverview Water park had exhausted them!