Treasure Within

This happened years ago, when I was twelve. Three of my most favorite cousins, Ayen, Axian, and Ayu were allowed to spend two months with us on the island. The siblings were foreign born, and only spoke Cantonese and English.

Ayen was almost the same age as my brother, so she hung out with him and the other teenagers in town; while Axian, twelve; Ayu, seven, and I became the new three musketeers of the neighborhood. Most of our time was spent playing, exploring, swimming, and pigging out on street food. Time indoors were reserved for rainy days and swollen seas.

On one such rainy day, the five of us kids were stuck indoors watching tv. My brother and I took the commercials as an opportunity to teach our cousins Tagalog and Bicolano. Every commercial break became a mini game, with my cousins trying to guess which words meant what. Soon enough, they were teaching us street Cantonese with the same ads. We looked forward to the commercials more than the show itself. One such commercial caught little Ayu's eye, fueling her curiosity.

It was a Camay soap ad, the perfumed bar soap that had a little indented triangle in the middle. It was a simple ad that showed the bar of soap, with the little triangle in the middle opening up to show a big shiny pearl hidden inside as the source of skin vitality.

Ayu was mesmerized. Her eyes grew big at the sight of the pearl within the bar of soap. She quickly went to my brother with big, curious eyes.

"Atong is that true? Is there really a pearl inside the soap?" She asked, her eyes flitting from my brother's face, to the tv, then to us.

My brother, the evil spawn that he is, winked at us, and said in a very convincing voice, "Of course, Ayu. A big, shiny pearl. As big as a marble! But not all soaps are made equal. Only the really special ones have a pearl inside."

"Really?" Ayu said, her eyes sparkling. "How do you know if a soap has one?"

"You don't." replied Axian. "It's a treasure hunt."

"Yup!" Ayen jumped in, nodding her head excitedly. "You can only dig it with a small spoon, right, Ajing?"

"Uh huh." I replied. "A silver spoon, like the one ma uses to mix her coffee with."

At that point, the four of us were trying really hard not to laugh out loud. Ayu's eyes lit up even more when Axian added that it was the brand of soap that we used in the house, and that he saw boxes of it stocked in one of the cabinets. She even made my brother show it to her.

By dinner time, all talk of the pearl in the soap has died down, but I could tell, Ayu was still thinking about it. Ayen knew it too, so she told her sister not too think too much about it, and promised the little one that we'd be making jin deui* for snacks the next day. It seemed to appease her, so we all went to bed quietly that night.

The next morning, we all woke up with a start when we heard my mother's voice disturbing the peace that our island was known for. We were called, one by one, by our proper, full names, starting with my brother, then Ayen, then Axian, lastly me. The loving A's in the beginning of our cousin's names were omitted, so we knew we were dead.

The four of us scrambled downstairs to the living room, and found my mother, with her hands on her hips, curlers on her hair, and a scowl on her face. Ayu was sitting on the sofa, eyes drowned in tears, covered in whitish flakes, and both hands a deeper shade of red. She was holding teaspoons.

My mother finally spoke, in crisp Karay-a, her native tongue, which meant we're double dead.

"Sin-o sa kaninyo ang nag-kuon kay Ayu nga may perlas gid na nakasulod didto sa habon?*" My mother asked, her eyes focused on my brother and me. It took quite a while, but my brother manned up.

"Ma, we were just kidding." My brother answered in defense.

"Kidding, huh?" My mother growled. "Anthony James, for your information, your 'kidding' made your cousin open all the boxes of soap in the cabinet!", she said, while pointing at the empty cartons littered on the living room floor.

"Your 'kidding', Anthony James, made your cousin use the teaspoons to dig through the bars of soap looking for a marble..."

"Pearl, ma." I butted in. Ayen elbowed me pretty quick.

"What did you say?"

Axian began snickering. Ayu was quietly sobbing.

"It's a pearl, ma. Not a marble, po." I answered politely. Next thing I knew, my brother's hand landed on the back my head.

"Pearl! Marble! Whatever!" My mother screamed. "Can you imagine, I was going to the kitchen when I suddenly find Ayu, in the living room, at five in the morning, scraping soap like there's no tomorrow, looking for a marble or pearl or whatever it is! Good thing I found her! What if she wounded herself with that spoon? What if she ingested that soap?! What if something bad happened to her? Ayen, what will I say to your mother?!"

All heads were bowed now, and no eyes would dare meet my ma's. Next thing we knew, all of us got pinched in the ears, and were ordered to clean up Ayu's futile treasure hunt, and the rest of the house in general. Of course, little Ayu was exempted from the punishment and teased us loudly as we cleaned around the house.

Later that afternoon, when all heads had cooled down, and the house squeaky clean, the five of us gathered in the kitchen to make the promised jin deui. Ayen then began to tell of the story about how the God of Prosperity sometimes leaves a tael of gold inside the fried dough balls for those pure of heart. Ayu's eyes suddenly lit up, and then again asked,

"Is that true, Ayen?"

*Karay-a translation- Who told Ayu that a pearl can be found inside​ the soap?

*Jin deui- fried dough balls coated with sesame seeds, has sweet read bean paste filling.