Seemed like just yesterday

THIS morning, as we were having breakfast together -- at least most of us, as Peps and the three bubuwits are still fast asleep -- it suddenly dawned upon me that my eldest Ezekiel has suddenly turned into a young man.

All signs that we have failed to notice all through the years are there: a moustache unmistakably developing at the corners of his upper lip; a deepening of his voice; and the unusual attention he gives to personal grooming.

The last one struck me as I entered his room looking for Budi, who is supposed to be occupying the upper bunk of their double decker: the pungent scent of Axe Vice wafted through the air. Ezekiel became the butt of our ribbings; it seemed he wants to turn his nice girl classmates naughty, we said. And Budi -- a Grade V student three years his junior -- was complaining his kuya wouldn't share the Axe Vice with him.

In the end, EK tried turning the table on me. My father, he said, has no need for his favorite new body spray; they came into the world simply on the basis of a powerful natural smell that felled his mother.