My Cousin Freddie

My cousin Freddie had to give up many things in life, since his parents were not affluent. He was a policeman until he retired, and is now a bodyguard for a politician. He must be close to 70 now.

When I was 12, Freddie was well into his mid-teens. He was a quiet boy, and unassuming, though under normal circumstances he should have been very spoiled, since he was the youngest of two male siblings and a female sibling. We often spent the long school break in our ancestral house in San Fernando, Pampanga. He was, like his brothers, interested in boxing and self-defense, which I was not into at the time. Once, though, he surprised me with his creativity, something I have never forgotten all my life, since I am sitting in front of the computer and writing about it now.

It was a boring summer vacation. Either nothing appealing was showing in the downtown movie theaters or we were not allowed to go out of the house. To keep ourselves occupied, Freddie took an old shoe box, cut out a rectangle in its middle, and created a scroll attached to two pegs above and below the rectangular hole. He then cut out figures from a comic book and pasted them onto the scroll. With the aid of a flashlight he managed to turn the shoe box into a theater, cranked the scroll, and told an interesting story that matched the comic book figures on the scroll.

I am certain that Freddie has forgotten this episode from our boyhood, but I have not, and I never will. It was partly responsible for my decision to write my first play when I was in fourth year high school.

Quite interesting how my cousin the policeman and bodyguard unconsciously made a playwright of me.