The Sunny Yellow Tricyle and the Big Black Bag

– years after the sunny yellow tricycle and the big black bag came this kiss –

It was 1986. I was eight years old then and more than just a bit on the chubby side. Okay, I was more than chubby, I was huge. At that age though, I was already trained to go to school by myself and it was 12 kilometers away from where I lived.

Every morning on a school day, I will wait at the corner of our village for a ride. Because my school was quite far, I had to ride a tricycle to the center of the city before I can ride a jeepney that would bring me there.

Commuting then was not as easy as it is now. So, you can just imagine my relief when a sunny yellow tricycle pulled up in front of me one morning with its driver kindly telling me to get on-board.

Not a lot of drivers do that, but this driver was different and he didn’t tell me to put my big black rectangular box of a bag at the back like other drivers did. Instead, he allowed me to bring it with me inside and put on my lap, which appeased my young heart, which was always scared of losing my bag and my precious school belongings inside. Bag theft was rampant then.

That very morning though, all thoughts about bag theft and even my relief at catching an easy ride flew out the window when I noticed the pretty girl already inside the tricycle. She was about my age and was sleeping on the left side of the wide passenger seat.

When I got on-board though, she woke up and gave me a stare of disdain for disrupting the sleep she was trying to get before she gets to school.

However, I did not notice her frown. I was oblivious to her discomfort as she scooted over to the farthest side of the seat to accommodate me and my big black bag. I did not mind her annoyance. All I could think about was how fair she looked and how soft her cheeks seemed to be. I also noticed that she had these wonderfully clear dark eyes that one could use as mirrors.

So, this happened every school day morning. I would squeeze myself into the seat and stare at the sleeping girl happily, even if I somehow knew that she did not welcome my presence.

Every day, I looked forward to seeing the sunny yellow tricycle because I knew it would mean I would have another chance of seeing that sleeping girl with her rosy cheeks and fair skin. Although it was years later that I became sure that she was my first crush, I considered those moments when I was in the seat of that tricycle with her as the happiness that always started my school days.

Ten years later, that girl became my first girlfriend and five years later, my wife. I could not explain the mystery that led me to see the pretty girl inside the sunny yellow tricycle, whom I crushed with my big black bag, again.

There is one thing I do know though. That girl with the clear dark eyes, fair skin and rosy cheeks was fated to become my destiny. She is now with me in this journey called life where we are bound together by love.

*Note: Although I wrote this story, this is the account of my husband of how our love story started.*