A couple of days ago, I mentioned the plumbing problems we were having including the bath tub that wouldn’t fill with water. While repairs are on-going, Speedy and I had been taking showers in either of the girls’ bathrooms. Yesterday, while dinner was on the stove (magnificent dinner — you really ought to see it), I announced that I was going to take a bath in Sam’s bathroom. I hadn’t been inside ten minutes when the light went out. Now, it had been raining most of the afternoon, the kind of rain that brings the fog, and power often goes out when the winds are strong (so, so Third World, I know). I was hoping it was just some glitch when the light went on again. Then, it went off again. On. Off. On. Off. Then, I heard giggling from the other side of the door.
“Sam, damn it, stop it!”
Oh, alright, that’s a translation. My exact words were, “Sam, punyeta, tigilan mo!”
The giggling turned to laughter. But the light didn’t go out again and I finished my bath in comfort and peace. Naughty girl, right? It wasn’t even the first trick she played on me yesterday afternoon. In fact, she did something very irritating not thirty ten minutes before the light in the bathroom trick.
So, I was cooking and Sam was taking videos. When the food was finally on the stove, she got bored with no kitchen activity left to take videos of. She opened the front door, looked outside and wondered aloud (which, of course, she meant for me to answer) if that was fog that she was seeing. I said (irritatedly because I was in a hurry to hit the shower) I didn’t know, it could be smoke from someone’s grill (dumb answer, right, since the rains would have put out the flames in any outdoor grill). Then, I went into the bedroom to get come clean clothes when the view from the sliding French doors riveted me. I laid the clothes on the bed, took my camera from the kitchen (I was taking photos while cooking), uncapped the lens, placed the cap on the bed beside my clothes and stepped out into the garden.
Have you even seen a bath tub in the garden? It was hilarious and infuriating at the same time. Hilarious because the bath tub was so out of place. Infuriating because it was a glaring reminder that I couldn’t take a bath in my own bathroom. It was also a reminder of the long repairs we’re facing because the bath tub’s motor is busted and the whirlpool function is not working anymore. A new motor will have to be bought. Meanwhile, whenever I enter our bathroom, there is this huge, dark, gaping hole that greets me. And it isn’t pretty, I tell you.
So, anyway, I was taking photos, hiding behind the gazebo so that the roof would keep me — and my camera — dry and away from the drizzle that was still falling.
Click. Click. Click.
I like to view the photos just as soon as I have taken them because I like to know if I should take some more or stop. So, there was this photo that reminded me of the film Shutter.
Of course, I shook off the stupid notion a second later. It was the fog. I took a photo of the garden enveloped in fog. So, Sam was right, after all. She was seeing fog when she opened the front door a few minutes earlier. But the fog was moving in waves because the series of photos showed fog in some and yet the rest were clear. A few more photos, I thought. And there was Sam on the door. Since she hates being photographed unless she thinks she has the right look or unless she projects the image of the ideal high school student, she’ll cover her face and the resulting photos are useless.
So, she was standing on the doorway and not seeming to mind that I was taking photos. Not that she was posing, mind you. Far from it. She was constantly moving so I kept the camera focused on the bath tub for a couple of minutes. The aperture was at f/4.0 so the background would only be very slightly blurred and Sam on the doorway would still be distinct.
Now, notice her position in the photo above and the one below. Of course, it never entered my mind to ask what she was doing playing now-you-see-her-now-you-don’t.
Satisfied with the amount of photos I had taken, I carefully tread on the slippery grass and went back into the bedroom. By this time, Sam had gone back to the kitchen. I was looking for my lens cap because it wasn’t beside my clothes and I distinctly remembered placing it there. I was getting really irritated, and panicky, because the moisture in the air mandated that I cover the lens pronto and put the camera back in the bag with all the packets of silica to keep it dry and moisture-free.
Did I put the lens cap somewhere else? Was my memory playing tricks on me?
Then, that giggling from the kitchen.
“Sam, my lens cap.”
More giggling.
I was tempted to strangle her when the giggling turned to laughter and she said, “Behind the TV.”
Ah, so that was why she was going now-you-see-her-now-you-don’t when I was taking photos. The TV is beside those French doors and she was actually alternating between hiding the lens cap and checking if I was still far enough not to catch her in the act.
See, that was why when the light in the bathroom kept going on and off, it wasn’t too hard to figure out that Sam was just trying to ease her boredom on a wet Saturday afternoon.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
BlogusVox 07.20.08 at 1:14 pm
Ay, parang my 3 year old daughter. She irritates or plays prank on her Mom when ever she’s bored.
Connie Veneracion 07.20.08 at 2:12 pm
‘Pag 3 years old, the pranks can pass of cute. ‘Pag 15 years old, naku, grrrrr
auee 07.21.08 at 9:06 pm
Arggghh parang si Kelvin! Only he’s 4 y/o… I keep telling hubby we should temper his sense of humour now before it gets him in trouble. Nakakainis.
Connie Veneracion 07.22.08 at 8:05 am
Totoo yan, Auee. When we always laugh at their pranks when they’re young, they grow up thinking they can always get away with it. On hindsight, we should have laughed less at Sam’s practical jokes when she was much younger.
toni 07.22.08 at 2:23 pm
When it’s actually happening, hahaha, pranks are irritating.
On hindsight, it’s kinda cute!