TO MOST, summer means putting up with annoying heat. But when it is spent meaningfully, it leaves memories worth remembering.
Palanca Award winner Cyan Abad-Jugo brings together such memories transformed into fiction in her book, Sweet Summer and Other Stories (University of the Philippines Press, 1998).
The collection starts with Sweet Summer, originally published for Ateneo de Manila’s literary journal Heights and reprinted by Anvil Publishing for Fastfood Fiction: Short Stories to Go. It also contains other previously published entries that appeared in The Diliman Review and The Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction 1998.
Sweet Summer talks about young Sara and Felix, walking together and sharing candy. In the short time they spend, Sara develops a crush on Felix and even wishes that “it had been the boy who had jumped at her and not (his) dog”. But shortly after, Felix simply takes off and forgets about her, leaving her with an unhappy memory, despite the sweet candies they shared over the summer.
The Skylab, which was published in Creative Juices: Works of the Ateneo Faculty tells the humorously innocent account of best friends Ton-Ton, daring and charming, and Marty, the traditional conformist, who believe that the world is coming to an end. The two spend a seemingly ordinary school day together and get in trouble for not listening to their teacher because they think the Skylab, the “satellite in the sky that lost its orbit…(was) falling right (that) minute”. The story twists when the two friends realize that the end of the world is actually when Ton-Ton is set to migrate to another country.
Meanwhile, Kapayapaan Lobby weaves together an unusual love story from the experiences of Andrew, who enjoys spending his day in Kapayapaan Lobby, “a square in the center of a one-story rectangular building…built for student organizations”, observing the regularity of life before him. However, when Danielle, a freshman, comes to him for either Math tutoring or crush advices. They eventually become a couple. But ironically, Andrew resents sharing his favorite place with his girlfriend as if “something had been driven away.”
Holding true to its simplistic storytelling, the book sparks interest with various trivialities highlighted. The stories also encourage readers to take a closer and serious look at things and appreciate life for what it has to offer.
Abad-Jugo’s fiction also exudes a sadness which tugs the heartstrings even while some of them end well like Nose Aches which eventually came to the end of two siblings’ misunderstanding. Moreover, the slow pace of Abad-Jugo’s plots create a real, yet a bit overly dramatized storyline.
Abad-Jugo also takes on the perspective of a child and tells the stories on an innocent and carefree mood, allowing her to regress into childhood and remember the good, old days—the “simple” things—untainted with the complexities of adulthood.
The anthology emphasizes the simple vitality of life, parallel with the warm windless summer, when romantic stillness reigns. I. M. Pozon
