Childhood Memories

“Aw, I don’t want to be the hero! I wanna play the villain!” Mary whines.

“Mary, you’re always the villain. Don’t you ever get tired of it?” Cobalt asks.

“Not really. I’m good at being a villain.”

Mary’s right, she’s eerily good at playing the role of a villainess. She has the evil laugh, the long-winded speeches, and the overall vibes down pat. I shudder to think of what Mary would be like if she actually pursued a career in villainy in the future.

“Let her be the villain, Cobalt,” I say. “She’s not very good at playing the hero, anyway.”

“I guess you have a point,” Cobalt says, already considering this. The last time Mary played the hero role, she kept trying to form an allegiance with the villain.

This is what my afternoons have been like lately. Playing Heroes vs. Villains with Cobalt and Mary, doing homework together, playing video games, and visiting each other’s houses. Or at least mine and Cobalt’s.

Mary never offers up her house and Cobalt and I know enough not to press.

But today, we’re not in anyone’s house; we’re at the playground in the local park. We felt that for today’s game, we’d need a lot of space – more space than the typical household’s backyard can offer.

Once we’ve finally settled on who plays what role, the game begins. It goes on for hours, until the sun is close to setting, and we all collapse in a heap on the grass once we’ve played to our heart’s content. We all look up at the sky, deciding to take it easy for now before going our separate ways.

“I think I’m going to be a villain when I grow up,” Mary says suddenly.

“What? Why would you want to be a villain?” Cobalt asks.

“Coz it’s fun! Plus, most villains are really smart and have lots of money!”

“That isn’t always the case,” I say. “Only the really good villains have a lot of money. The small-time ones are usually just barely hanging in there.”

“Then I’ll just have to study really hard so that I can become a big-time villain!”

“Is there a school for being a villain?” I ask.

“I meant study stuff like science. Most of the really good villains are scientists, right? That’s why they get lots of money. For research and stuff.”

“And what are you gonna do once you become the villain? Try to take over the world?” Cobalt asks jokingly.

“Yes,” Mary says without hesitation.

It takes a second for us to realize that Mary is being completely serious.

”What about you guys?,” she asks, turning to look at us and expertly switching topics, ”Do you wanna be heroes when you grow up?”

“A hero, huh? The closest thing would probably be a police offer or a secret agent or something,” I find myself saying, deciding to ignore Mary’s earlier comment for now. She’s ten, she’ll probably get over it eventually.

“Ohhhh, being a secret agent actually sounds kind of cool. I think I’d want to do that when I grow up!” Cobalt says brightly. I think about some of the spy movies I’ve seen in the past and find myself agreeing with him. It does seem like a pretty cool job. Plus they get paid really well. At least, I think they do.

“Then maybe when we’re all adults, we’ll end up meeting each other in the middle of a battle or something!” Mary exclaims. “…Unless you’d be willing to ally up with me?”

“Hah! Not a chance!” Cobalt flashes a big grin as his competitive streak starts to kick in. “If we ever have to fight each other, then you’re going down! Isn’t that right, Altair?”

“Who says we have to fight?” I ask. “Can’t we just be friends that happen to be on different sides?”

“Oh Altair, you’re so naive,” Cobalt replies, using our vocabulary word of the day. “Things aren’t that simple.”

“Actually, Altair’s right.” Mary says, nodding her head in agreement. “I’ve seen it happen in comic books before, like with Batman and Catwoman.”

“Okay, well, yeah, but romance is involved with that so it’s not really the same thing,” Cobalt replies.

There’s a beat and I catch Mary staring at me before she quickly turns away. What was that about? The conversation doesn’t continue as we realize it’s starting to get dark. We say our good-byes and promise to meet up again tomorrow.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Today’s a big day. It’s our last day of school, our last day of elementary school before moving on to middle school, and Mary’s last day in this town.

Her parents found a better job in a different city, and while we promise to keep in touch with each other, I already know that it won’t be so easy.

My friends from the Philippines promised to keep in touch with me before I moved away, and while we were initially good about exchanging e-mails, we kind of just stopped over time. We got busy with our own lives, our own friends, and just naturally moved on.

I expect that the same will be the case for Mary and I hate the thought of that. Her parents will pick her up after school today, and that will probably be the last time I see her.

The dismissal bell rings and my stomach drops. Other kids gather around Mary’s desk, giving her farewell letters and presents. Cobalt and I decide to wait for the crowd to thin before approaching her, then we all silently walk together to the school’s entrance.

We make for an odd picture, three downcast kids amidst a sea of ecstatic cheers and laughter. Most of the kids are running around, excitedly talking about what they’ll do this summer. Even the teachers are laughing and smiling amidst all the chaos.

We finally make it to the entrance, and there’s Mary’s parents already waiting for her. It’s my first time seeing them in person, and they look much more normal than I expected.

Cobalt and I both give Mary a big hug, and again, promise to keep in touch.

“Maybe we’ll meet again someday. I’ll be a big time villain and you guys will be secret agents or something.”

This sudden comment earns a loud laugh from the both of us. Even when she’s about to leave, Mary’s still making an effort to cheer us up.

“Mary, sweetie, it’s time to go,” Mary’s mom says. She turns to wave good-bye to us one last time, and just like that, she’s gone.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

As expected, communication with Mary eventually falls off. We were good about updating each other via e-mail for the first few weeks, but over time we started to e-mail each other less and less until we eventually just stopped.

While I felt the loss of Mary for the first couple of months after she left, I was able to get over it with time. It helped that I still had Cobalt around, who remained a constant companion of mine throughout the years. We even ended up going to all of the same schools all the way to university.

We met Aquino in our last year of high school. She became friends with my parents after meeting them in church. They mentioned my childhood dream of becoming a secret agent as an off-handed comment, and while my parents seemed to think of it as a cute phase that came and went, Aquino seemed to take it more seriously.

She scouted both Cobalt and me shortly after that and the rest is history.