"Betel Nuts & Other Stories" by Simeon G. Silverio, Jr. Entertaining and easy-to-read short stories about growing up in the Philippines. Excerpts from the book One day, however, the duckling went inside an opening under the house. Borobot waited for it to come out but it did not. He kept waiting even when it got dark, but there was no sign of the duckling. When his father came home that evening, he told him about his missing duckling. His dad took a flashlight and pointed it toward the opening. He inserted a long stick inside and tried to stir it. They could hear some squealing but no quacking. Finally, his dad told him the bad news: "The rats have eaten your duckling." Borobot cried and cried for a very long time. - from Chapter 2 - Childhood Tales If there is a person that can aptly be called "the son of a bitch", which in Pilipino, is synonymous to the phrase, "the son of a whore" ("anak ng puta"), it would be Tikboy. Tikboy was one of Eric's playmates on Platerias Street where Eric lived with his family on the second floor of his father's printing business in Manila in 1957. Tikboy's mother, Purita, worked as a prostitute in a brothel across the street from Eric's house. - from Chapter 6 - Just Like Any Mother From where he sat, he could tell Juanita had just bathed. Her hair was still damp and the fragrant scent of her cheap bath soap wafted through the air. She hardly noticed him as she was minding her own business. While he pretended to be concentrating on his reading, he would occasionally take a sneak peak at her, feasting his eyes on all of her seductive beauty. For a hot-blooded fourteen-year-old, she was not just an object of curiosity. - from Chapter 9 - Fragrant Scent of Bath Soap And All By the time they reached Platerias Street, everything was quiet. There was hardly a soul in sight; it was ten minutes past midnight. Narding frantically ran inside the brothel in search of Clarita, but he was told the Chinese took her just ten minutes before. He ran outside towards P. Paterno Street. Finding no speeding taxi, he ran back towards Carriedo Street, turned right towards Rizal Avenue, hoping the taxi holding Clarita had broken down. Finally, a loud, agonizing cry was heard all over in that quiet neighborhood of Quiapo. - from Chapter 11 - True Love Everyone was looking up at the top of an electric post, where sparks of light shone bright against the dark of the night. When the firemen trained the spotlight to the top of the post, they saw a body of a man lying on a wood across the post. It was Fred, the drunkard pimp. Without anybody noticing, he woke from deep slumber and this time, successfully climbed the top of the post. He was electrocuted while celebrating his feat. - from Chapter 15 - A Day In The Life Of The People Of Platerias Street
About the Author: Simeon G. Silverio, Jr. was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, and educated at the Juan Sumulong Elementary School and Arellano High School, in Manila. He obtained his AB degree in Journalism at the University of the Philippines and took graduate courses for a Master in Communications and a Master in Business Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was a managing editor of Sunburst Publications, publisher of international magazines. He also edited Business Ventures in the Philippines & Asia. He was reluctant to leave his thriving career in the Philippines when he had an opportunity to migrate to the United States in 1982. However, the assassination of Marcos critic Benigno Aquino a few months later, which resulted in the collapse of the Philippine economy, gave him the obvious choice. He knew he would be competing against U.S. educated American journalists with English as mother tongue in mainstream newspapers. Even if he were hired, he would just be given minor assignments that would not give him much professional fulfillment. Aware that his advantage was his knowledge of the Asian and Filipino community, he published the Asian Journal, the first Filipino weekly newspaper in San Diego County. It had been a successful business and fulfilled him professionally. Like others, he first wrote and commented about the conditions in the Philippines. Writers had done it before; sadly, their suggestions often fell on deaf ears. He realized such articles would only be relevant for a few days and would soon be overtaken by events and forgotten. He remembered his parents telling them stories of their childhood during dinners. He lamented the fact his Filipino American daughters, born and raised in America, did not have any idea of their Filipino parents' backgrounds. From then on, he started writing about his memories while growing up in the Philippines so his daughters and grandchildren will eventually know and appreciate them. He hopes his readers will also pass on such information, as contained in his writings, to their progeny so the next generation of Filipino Americans, at least in San Diego, will not be totally in the dark about their Filipino heritage. This is one of the reasons why he continues to write, and why his writings are published into books - so they can be preserved for posterity. In 1999, he co-founded the Los Angeles Asian Journal and later moved on to focus on his business interests in San Diego, California, where he lives.