Vens

Fool Moon

  4th of July 2008 Friday

George, our moody but super talented keyboardist, convinced his aunt to hire our band at her wedding this Saturday. George's aunt was hesitant at first but she said yes when we showed her the lyrics of our new song; Fool Moon. I wrote the words. Hans and I co-wrote the music. We had been working on the arrangement for weeks. The chorus needed more appeal. We wanted to perfect it before recording the song in Hans' mom's spacious bathroom. We transformed it into a recording studio a couple of times and post the videos on Youtube. We got about four hundred subscribers now.

Fool Moon would be our band's entry to the annual Musikat Competition this December. We have all agreed that when we win the grand prize of the annual Musikat, we will have a road trip to Mount Pinnatubo and we would have a Christmas party with our Aeta children. I was anxious but excited to sing at the wedding reception. The bride and groom would be dancing their first dance as a married couple to our song. Hans' gorgeous, independent and very successful French-Filipino mom let us practice in her living room every Friday night.

 The band looks forward to Friday every week. We jammed without reservation on loudness and outrageousness. Hans mom is an amazing cook. She serves us healthy dinners on Friday nights. I love practicing at Hans' house because their living room is huge. It is bigger than our entire bungalow house. I personally love the long black leather couch that can accommodate eight people with wide hips. The best part of the living room was the billiard table in the middle.

Andrea, the band's coolest female guitarist had defeated me twice that night. I was arranging the billiard balls inside the wooden triangle determined to win the third game when someone pinched my right arm.

"Aww!" I said.

I turned around and saw Hans. I pinched his right rib. He squirmed with a forced wink and a twisted mouth. He lifted his shirt and checked my nail prints.

"Pinch me again," he said. Hans flexed his swimmer abs. He swims everyday in their Olympic-sized pool. Yes, Hans got an Olympic-sized swimming pool in his backyard.

"Pinch me again," he said.

I turned around and continued to arrange the billiard balls.

"I made a few changes on the melody of the bridge. Wanna hear it?" Hans said.

"I hope you didn't make the notes higher. I hate singing falsetto," I said.

"It's too loud in here. Let's go upstairs," he said. He grabbed my left wrist. The charms on my bracelet sank on my skin.

"Careful!" I told Hans.

I released my wrist from his grip and checked on my bracelet.

"Sorry. I forgot about your bracelet," Hans said. I checked the charms and was relieved to see that the two conch charms were firmly chained. There are hearts, keys and butterfly charms on my bracelet but the two conch charms are the most valuable.

My bracelet is my most-prized possession; custom-made by Mama. The bracelet is made of braided nickel chains. It was welded on my wrist without locks. I could not part from it. I should wear my wristband again to protect my bracelet. I stopped wearing them because my best friend Weng kept teasing that I looked like a tennis player. 

"Are the charms all there?" Hans asked. I nodded. Hans knows how important my bracelet is especially the conch charms. Hans stood behind me and pulled my ponytail band releasing my big waves of unruly hair.

 "Give me that," I demanded. Hans put the band in the front pocket of his jeans.

 "I hate you!" I said.