Tectonic Shift
The year is 2002
and it has been 55 years since the announcement of the merger of the
continents. The Islands and land masses of the world are moving at rapid paces
but are unnoticeable.
“Lolo,
what’s that about?” said Rene, staring blankly at the television screen.
“One year until initial contact between the
Philippines and Japan” it read at the bottom.
“Oh Rene, they’re just talking about the big island
merger that’s supposed to be happening sometime soon.” Rene had heard about it
before but never fully understood what was going on. This had been his first
time visiting his parent’s home in the Philippines. Back in California, there
was news of how the world’s land masses were rapidly moving closer to each
other; however, back home, there weren’t many islands close to the west coast
so it wasn’t a big deal.
“Yeah, scientists still haven’t figured it out yet but
it’s a sort of reverse Pangea penomenon. One would think that apter pipty-pibe years
they would pigure something out.” Rene’s grandfather had always gone angry at
the thought of having to one day share land with the Japanese.
“Rene, you are only pourteen years young, but you are
still a bery smart boy. When our islands finally merge with theirs” he said pointing his finger
outside the house in the direction Rene could only figure out was north, “be sure
to neber trust any of them.”
It was a dark wet Sunday in Luzon, a town in the
northern most island of the Philippines. Luzon was quite small and most folks
were familiar with each other. Here, at Lolo’s quaint brick house, they had to
take a long dirt road to get to the center of town. Rene knew they would have
to stay in today because it would be too dangerous to go out. And so, he
decided to spend the day in his grandfather’s room and learn what he could from
the aging old man. Rene was quite the curious boy, always wanting to learn
more. Back in California, he liked spending time in the library after school,
browsing through books until he was picked up by his parents.
“Lolo, what do you have against the Japanese?” Rene
asked the grumpy Filipino.
Lolo turned his head slowly towards Rene and said, “Did
you know that the Japanese used to loot our homes and work us to death?” Rene
was perplexed and took a second to take in what he just heard.
“That’s awful!” he exclaimed, wondering to himself how
anyone could be so cruel.
“It’s true, and they also treated our women horribly,
abusing them until no end.” Rene just stood there, eyes wide and mouth even
wider. “Rene, I want you to know the truth about the Japanese and to neber make
the mistake of trusting them.” In full agreement, Rene nodded.
-----
The next week, Rene and his Lolo made their way to the
town. After the long dirt road, they had finally arrived in town. Lolo had to
run some errands and brought Rene along with his for some company.
“Alright, Rene. Let’s go to the store to get some pood
for dinner. Then, we’ll head back.” Lolo started walking but Rene stayed in
place. He looked back at Rene. “What’s wrong?”
“Lolo, would it be alright if I walked around instead
and met you back here in an hour?”
Lolo was hesitant at first but finally complied. “Okay,
but don’t be late.”
With a smile on his face and quick “Mhm”, Rene turned
and walked away from Lolo. He knew exactly where he wanted to go, towards the
library they had passed on their way into town. He had a pretty good idea where
it was but wasn’t entirely sure. After a few minutes of wandering around, Rene
stopped a woman, probably around 40 years old, and asked her, “Excuse me, but
could you tell me where the library is?” The woman was confused and clearly
hadn’t understood him.
“Hindi ako nagsasalita ng ingles.” She fired back.
Equally confused, Rene thought hard and dug deep into
his Filipino vocabulary to think of the word for library. He said the first
word he thought of. “ak-aklatan?” he managed with his hands up and shoulders
shrugged.
Fortunately, the woman responded and pointed to her
right down the street. Rene smiled and made his way. After a few minutes down
the street he found a building with a sign “Luzon Aklatan.”
The library dwarfed in comparison to the one he was
used to back home but was happy to get the experience. It was almost the size
of his medium-sized house back in America but structured like an adobe home,
squared rooms and flat roofs. As he entered, he was greeted by the librarian
with a smile on his face. The librarian was a young man, only a few years ahead
of Rene. He was about the same height, although Rene was quite tall for his
age, and race for that matter.
“Kamusta ka” he said cheerfully.
Rene recognized it as “hello” or some kind of generic
greeting, though he wasn’t sure. As to not make it awkward, Rene said, “Sorry,
I don’t speak Filipino.”
“Oh that’s okay, I speak English too!”
Relieved, Rene walked to him and greeted his new
friend. “Hi, I’m Rene.”
“I’m Jeffrey. Say, what’s a young American boy like
you walking around Luzon?”
“I’m visiting my Lolo for my vacation. My parents
wanted me to ‘get closer’ to my heritage.”
“Oh that’s nice. What do you think so far?” Rene
noticed Jeffrey still had an accent but managed to pronounce an “f” instead of
a “p.”
“Well, the only experience I’ve had has been with my
70 year old Lolo and I’ve only gotten a taste of the Philippines culture. So I
can’t say for sure.”
“That’s fair.” There was a slight pause. Rene didn’t
know what to say, he had so many questions like, “How’s your English so good?”
and “What are doing working as a librarian?” Then, Jeffrey interrupted his
thoughts. “So, what do you think of recent news of the merger between Japan and
the Philippines coming closer?” Jeffrey said, still smiling.
Rene knew how he thought about it. He remembered what
his Lolo had about how terribly the Japanese treated the Filipinos. How could
his new friend say something with such horrible connotations and still smile?
Rene was flustered and angry. “It’s so terrible. I hope we get some revenge on
what they did to us!”
Taken aback, Jeffrey said, “What do
you mean?”
“I’m talking about the looting, and
the abuse and the enslavement of our people! Aren’t you scared their going to
do it again?”
Calmly, Jeffrey said, “wait wait
wait. Are you talking about the Japanese occupation?”
Unsure but still angry, Rene said,
“I… I think so…”
“Dude, that happened over 50 years ago. The Japanese
have changed and there’s no way that that’s going to happen again. Lemme guess,
that’s what your Lolo said didn’t he.”
Rene, angry and confused but for
different reasons, immediately left the library and stormed back to the place
where he was supposed to meet his grandfather.
