A girl cowed against a concrete post facing the crowd. Seemed compliant to the day’s fun activities but too anxious to fall in.
Caught my attention. I love underdogs.
As I egged her on to join the rest, she leaned against me, angled to sit on my lap, and from that time on, we were inseparable.
Asked for her name. Only got an indistinguishable “eeeh-eeehk.”
Without a name, I watched this baby nibble her candies away like it were some adult’s comfort food. Held her closer to me, and, despite me hating Baby Shark, reassuringly urged her to dance along. What she did next struck a chord with me: she knows Baby Shark so well!
Told myself, my role here is done. She doesn’t need teaching. Shame. But then, she extended her hand to an ambiguous object flying over the boys in the rear.
Carried her towards the source of her wonderment. Loved the awe in her otherwise sallow eyes.
We lost sight of the object but I gained a new insight into her identity. “Cindy! Cindy!” shouted the boys nearby, pointing jealously at the girl snuggled in my arms.
“Eeeh-eeehk” is “Cindy.”
At that, she wolfed another candy. My satisfaction from knowing her name looked like a sweet candy traveling down a malnourished girl’s throat.
So satisfied I offered my hand for a fist bump, to which she obliged. She acknowledged the gesture. Without. A. Word. Smart girl.
Another modest volunteer approached us & smilingly asked to take selfies with us. “Cindyyy,” I cheered to break our faces to an ear-to-ear smile. There she went again: candy-to-mouth. Didn’t care. Naturally camera-shy & candy-greedy.
Came lunch. Without a claim stub given to active participants, Cindy looked on at the queues & stole a glance at me. “Hungry, Cindy?”
If there’s a graceful chance power tripping is deemed favorable, it was this time. Cut the queue to bring Cindy closer to the very thing she’s good at: eating. She’s down to her last candy, after all. She did Baby Shark with as much passion as everybody else. She deserved a reward.
Fed her. Blew every scoop into cooler, chewable helpings. I swear, the amount of rice she devoured was 4x what I usually could. Promised her more chocolates I was keeping in my knapsack for dessert.
Left her for a sec.
When I came back bearing chocolates, her mom was already with her.
“Pipi siya,” Mama Bear coyly declared.
That’s enough to leave me speechless myself.
Few days ago, I busied myself spitting words of regret on social media. But Cindy was God’s way of telling me how words, when you have the power to convey them, should be spoken to appreciate life more for not everyone is given such power other than with their benign soul.
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