Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

June 27, 2010

My mom's family has a weekend house in Tagaytay. Built in 1997 and "lived in" in 1998, it is my parents' baby because they were the ones who scouted for the property, oversaw its renovation, picked the initial interior design. Of course, throughout the years, its "look" has already reflected the personalities of everyone in our family who considers it as a temporary sanctuary. My mom's country feel, my uncle's Middle Eastern vibe, and other trinkets from my other titos and titas. My parents religiously come to the house every weekend to do some maintenance.. dusting, gardening, etc.

The house has a split level 1st floor, a 2nd floor and a loft. It is big work maintaining a Tagaytay house, since everything is almost always moist. Molds and mildew grow quickly, paint peels earlier than expected, and iron fixtures rusts so quickly. I rarely go with my parents because the mold and pollen give me annoying sniffles.

My mom keeps the house spic and span whenever they close it up for the week. She knows the place inside out. Last week, my parents came home with a weird, eerie story. When they arrived at the house that Saturday evening, she noticed that some things weren't where they were supposed to be. Some picture frames were face down, wall hangings on the floor, some displays upturned or on the floor. She narrated this to us with my dad making "Twilight Zone" sound effects.

---

This weekend, I decided to come with them to Tagaytay. Being the wimp that I was, I asked my mom to come with me to my room. To our horror, the room looked like a crime scene!

The table held some highschool and college mementos, scented candles and
some of my frogs. Even my huge UPLB Parolan trophy was on the floor!

There was some some sort of poop on the floor so we ruled out poltergeists and assumed that it was a huge rat. We closed the door and decided to deal with it in the morning.

"Ma, rat diba -- bakit cat ang drawing?"
"Eh di ako marunong mag draw ng rat"
Ok.

Early this morning, my dad drove to town and brought home a big rat trap and some tinapa for bait. We had a fun time setting it up - warning my dad not to scream like a girl lest we lose all respect for him, hehe. It was set up in the middle of my room as he remained vigilant about any snaps or weird sounds.

By mid morning, nothing was happening. My mom and dad got impatient and started dragging things out of my room.

At the corner of my room stands Sam's pride and joy - one of the things he brought into the marriage... his drum set.

Have to live with Sam's drum set.

As my dad pulled out the bass drum, something rustled inside. And they caught sight of a tail and a reptilian face! My mom told me to stay put, Ahas!!! By that time I was sitting on a ledge far away from them, yelling at my parents not to move the bass drum because someone could be bitten. But the 2 managed to tape one side of the drum shut and dragged it out to the lawn. My dad then fetched a security guard to come inspect our "visitor".

They took out the bass' foam padding, the guard's happy voice proclaimed, "Hindi ahas!! BAYAWAK!" Bayawak is the local term for monitor lizard.




OMG. Indeed, it was this alligator-like thing, almost 2 feet long, pumped up with adrenaline. It was probably very hungry as its tummy was already collapsed. The guard casually reached in and caught it , and asked if they could keep it in the guardhouse as a pet. We obliged.

What drama! All the elements of a mystery... a plot... a series of unknown suspects (mumu, rat, snake..) a twist, as surprise ending, and a hero. What a weekend!