Hopscotch or something like it.

My cousin Titin is here for the sem-break and she's staying at our room for hours no end, just playin with my Coco and exchanging stories with me. Kinda missing people too, the rest of the Tapulan Kids Inc aren't anywhere near. And so, the conversation turns to where our feet will lead us, few months or years down the road.

She's dead set in flying to Canada. Her plans all laid out like a hopscotch game: the goal is to get to HOME with one leg hop or two. And she tells me, and she asks me, the perennial question. And we know... we both know the answer.

Years ago when we were still covered with grime and a handful, we always play pretend that we live in this neighborhood outside PI. And then pretend we all come back to this same old house. same old town. With nuthin but good memories to look back upon.

Two. Three years ago, when all my laid out plans changed course drastically, I felt that lil girl holding that dream with her fellow Tapulan Kids Inc members letting go. Maybe it's fear. Or frustration. Or just dead set resignation. Maybe it's all of them combined. But I knew I was just lost in the maze and I couldn't figure out how to rearrange the house of cards again, to build it like the way we all wanted it to be. And as I moved from one day to another, with my little bear holding my hand firmly, I thought I felt the house of cards should be built here.

But after a very long thought. And after many sleepless nights. And after this really short conversation with Titin. And a quick realization, I knew the goal is still there. And I know, that long ago, under the santol tree, five kids decided to build a house a thousand hills far from this sleepy town.

One by one the kids left and flew oceans away. A few remain and a little bear and a Mayenne bear is added to the five bandits. But still, the dream lives on. And the decision still stands.

Along with my little bear, we start making sketches on the ground, building the hopscotch boxes and playing it one foot at a time.