SUMMER OF CHANGE
“Pol! Pol! Come outside and let’s hang out!” cried Vicky. “Pol! Come on, the other kids are in the field now, they’re waiting for us!”
The big wooden door opened a crack and Pol’s sweating pale face appeared. His eyebags were hanging, his bangs plastered on his forehead and his ears red, with his thin mouth pouting, Pol snarled “I can’t…I can’t go out and play now. I have something more important to do today.”
Why not? It’s not hot yet!” Vicky insisted. “Are you sick?”
“No, I really can’t. Don’t be makulit. I’m going to the river with the boys.”
“Can I go too?”
“NO!” and Pol slammed the door.
What’s wrong with him?” Vicky said to herself as she moved away from Pol’s fenced bungalow house. “Fine. I’ll go and hang out with the other kids with or without Pol…”
School just closed a week ago and the kids of Sta. Monica were enjoying the summer vacation. Trips to the lagoon, swimming at the river, playing patintero in the ricefields, taguan at night, playing house at Mang Inggo’s mango tree, Pol and Vicky were inseparable not only in these days but since they were five years old when Pol moved in Sta. Monica and their family bought the house next to Vicky’s. It was Vicky who first befriended Pol by inviting him to come over her house and play with their dog Tagpi.
Pol was really looking forward to this summer because next school year, he would be a freshman student at St. Benedicts High School, and being a freshman would give him more freedom to go out with his friends to trips to the new mall outside of the town. Moreover, the EVENT that would change his boy life will happen two weeks from now. Pol felt a mixture of dread and excitement as that fated day drew near…he had heard different tales and received many advises from his cousins that had experienced this special event that would mark him as a man now.
“Do I really have to do this?” Pol asked his father after they had a long talk a week ago.
"But of course son! You’re not a sissy are you?” said Mr. Mendoza.
“I am not!” Pol said vehemently. “If the other boys would do it…I would too! But Tay, tell me why I should do it.”
“Pol, it’s a ritual among all males. If you don’t do it, you are not a man! And son, the circumcision is a healthy thing, more hygienic.”
“Why nga?” insisted Pol.
“Pol, in a week’s time, Mang Inggo will sharpen his balisong and will cut off that foreskin of yours, and stop this asking. You will be circumcised because all the Mendozas are circumcised!”
“But why should I wear a skirt after that? I would look silly in a dress, and if I wear that, wouldn’t that make me a sissy?”
Exasperated, Mr. Mendoza explained once more that the skirt should only be worn for a week until the wound has healed. “You shall be wearing a skirt so that you can move around with ease. Okay? Now go out and play, and don’t disturb me anymore with your silly questions.”
“Father said I should be circumcised next week.” Pol confided to Vicky right after his talk with his father.
“What’s circum? Circum what?” Vicky asked.
“Circumcision dummy! Tuli! You know, every boy has to do it to prove they are ready to be a man!” croaked Pol.
“But you are still a boy Pol. Even if you do whachamacallit to your uh, you are still a boy, skinny, lame and stupid. Why, would you now grow a mustache just like Mang Indo?” snickered Vicky. “ or you’ll court girls just like my Kuya Ramon?”
“Court girls! Yuuuuuuuuck! You know I don’t like girls, they’re gross!”
“POL! I am a girl!” Vicky said indignantly.
“You are? Uh, I never noticed. But you are different…”
“How different…by the way, why are you croaking?”
“You have so many questions…”
“and what’s that on your lip? Looks like you’re growing a moustache!”
“Basta! Come on, let’s go to the field, the gang must be there!”
While walking to the field, Pol noticed some blood trickling down Vicky’s legs. “Oh my God Vicky you’re wounded! There’s blood on your legs! Are you hurt?” Pol exclaimed in a rush, worried that Vicky was somehow hurt. Vicky looked down on her legs and realized that something was indeed happening to her. Confused, she ran all the way home leaving Pol staring after her.
“So Pol, that’s the reason why I cannot play with you anymore…” said Vicky.
“What? Why not?”
“Coz am a lady now… I cannot run with you guys and play patintero. I have to be prim and proper. Of course you can always visit me here…”
“That’s no fun Vicky…”
“Well, I guess in time Pol you would understand…”
“Yeah right…”
“Isn’t it true that you will be circumcised next week? You just told me that once you are circumcised, you become a man…same thing with me…”
“But that’s next week pa. Can’t we play now?”
“Sorry…in a few weeks time, we will not be playing anymore. We will do other grown-up things…”
“Come on Vicky, why are you acting like this?”
“Pol, you would understand…ok?”
“Bahala ka!”
Pol went home more confused than ever. Would I be different whether I’m circumcised or not? Will my relationship with Vicky changed just because she had her period and I would be circumcised? On the night before the operation, Pol was having some doubts. Maybe I am going to get sick tomorrow…prayed Pol the night of his operation. I don’t think I can make it alive tomorrow.
The following day, Tito, Mang Inggo’s assistant was at the river with the boys instructing them about the operation.
“You have to be immersed in the river for more than an hour,” instructed Tito.
“Why? I would get goose bumps staying that long in the river!”
“Well, you have to! You have to stay there that long to soften the foreskin, ok? Then, as soon as you are ready, get off the river, dry yourself. Chew a handful of guava leaves…then, go to Mang Inggo. Are you guys ready now?”
A murmur of yes, and some looked really afraid.
“Guys! It’s just like an ant biting you! Come on! Off to the river with you!”
After an hour, Pol and the rest of the boys decided that it was time. They would rather do it together or not at all. At the sight of the boys entering his backyard, Mang Inggo went down to the chopping board and started lathering his balisong knife.
“Quit pushing around!” shushed Mang Inggo. “Who wants to go first?”
“Come on! I don’t have all day!”
I have to get this over with. Okay, I’ll be the first one, thought Pol.
“Okay, I’ll do it first,” volunteered Nito.
Blood. If there was anything that Pol remembered before he passed out was, there was really a lot of blood. He was all prepped to be the first one when Nito volunteered. He was now so nervous. Agonizingly, he waited until he heard the whack of Mang Inggo’s knife and Nito’s scream. Sweat poured down his face and armpits. And when it was his turn, standing there in front of Mang Inggo with his crooked grin, Pol’s clammy hand shakingly held his penis. Mang Inggo harshly commanded Pol to pull out the foreskin. Mang Inggo inserted a bit of bamboo stick between, and said, “When I said spit, spit out the guava leaves, ok?”
WHAM!
Spit!
WHAM!
Blood!
Pol saw stars before he passed out.
Fortunately, it wasn’t only him who passed out. A few minutes or so, Pol and the rest of the boys limpingly jumped to the river to clean their wound.
“Aint it nice boys!” Tito said jokingly, “you have to take good care of your junior now… bathe it everyday with boiled guava leaves and dress it up! And remember! Wear a skirt until it heals ok?”
“Pol! Pol! Come out now and accompany me to the market please!”
Pol’s sweated face peered from behind the door, “I can’t”
“Why not? Yesterday, you stood me up! You would rather hang out with the boys at the river”
“I had an operation...”
“Oh sorry, I didn’t know that...”
“Of course you don’t! You were busy with your girl friends!”
“Well, we have lots of things to do...”
“Go away!”
“I won’t. What was your operation?”
“I was circumcised, remember?”
“Can I see? Can I see?”
“Vicky!”
“Come on, just a little peep. Please?”
“Moooooooooooooom! Vicky won’t go away!”
“Shush. Crybaby!”
“Oh My God!!!! Pol’s wearing a skirt!”
Pol slammed the door shut and cried.
