sisters and brothers

Last night I met Niño Camcam for the first time. He's 22. My mother's first husband, Gumersindo, the father of my three brothers, passed away a couple years ago. He was always kind of in and out. I had only really met him briefly, at my brother's wedding. I noticed his eyes and skin looked yellow. We didn't have much to do with each other, I only heard about jobs he quit or medicine he needed. In the end he had very unfortunately swallowed a fairly large amount of moriatic acid. God rest his soul.

What I gather from my sister-in-law is that they heard there was another son somewhere and found his contact through some relatives. Gumer didn't really want them to get together I think. My brother said to him, " What if I got into a fight one day, and shot a man i did not know, only to find out he was my brother?" When he passed, they contacted Niño. At the funeral, they see a young guy, looking just like my eldest brother Jun. The same bright smile, the same back, the same way of just standing. It's funny how our blood translates into one another, keeping some things and not others, an never ones you would think of. I see it in my nieces, who have my brothers hair but not his temper, or my sister in law's voice but not her body. So anyway the brothers got together, and the brothers have been putting Niño through school. He's another Camcam, young, with cool sneakers and a kickass Nokia that has keybords that pull out like wings on each side. He seems like a good kid, polite, smiley, friendly. He's studying to be a nurse, and loves the operating room. We hugged tight, the two young ones that had never met. And though he doesn't have his blood in my veins and I don't have his, our brothers do, which means we have another brother. And that i'm no longer their youngest sibling. Insta family- just like that. It's pretty beautiful. I think of him, all those years of being alone, without a dad, to sit here, now with 3 new brothers, 2 new sisters, 4 new nieces, 4 new nephews, and 3 new sister in laws, in an anonymous chinese restaurant in Fort Bonifacio.

It reminds me of meeting Elma, my half sister just befor my father died. I walk into a hotel room in Bangkok, just from the airport, to kiss my mother. Sitting down is a woman in here 50's. I think to myself, wow, she looks like dad kinda. Could've been anyone though, we have so many relatives. Then I think, wow, she kinda looks like me. Mom introduces her as my sister. She is my father's first daughter, from his first wife. Without question, I hug her tight. "A new sister!" i thought. How cool. This story however, turned out differently than the earlier brother-sister reunion, and I think is not yet finished. That story is for another day.