How dare him call me his princess. With the help he extended, is thank you not enough as my gratitude for it? Being his princess and him as my superman is way too much. At that time, I really felt bad and disgusted. Why wouldn't I be? I was then a child, 7 years old maybe, so naive, ofcourse I can be childish and irrational. Nostalgia of the past made me smile.
Richard was our next door neighbor. Though I am sure I was not a snob but I never befriended him before because he never stopped pestering me with jokes of being him as my hero, my superman. In a way, i remember him as a sweet and thoughtful neighbor who always had a handful of candies for me, usually chocolate kisses. Sometimes, guavas, mangoes and bananas are on our doorsteps with a handwritten note:
to Princess Mia Amor
from Superman 😊
And later, he was in the 6th grade at that time, when he dramatically announced to his classmates that he was my hero, and I was his princess because he was my boy next door whom I can't get my eyes off. He said that his announcement was his way of expressing his sweet devotion to me. They were frantically laughing while I was about to cry in humiliation.
I wanted to shout out to him and all those who surrounded him who seemed to enjoy the mockery, as loud as I can, that it was not true, that we were not even friends. But I didn't, no words came out from me and when the bell rang, I hurriedly walked, half run towards my room.
In fairness to Richard, he was kind and never bothered me of anything. Aside from calling me his princess or declaring himself as my hero, he was harmless from a distance. He never came near me or talked to me after that incident. Though I can see him looking at my direction whenever I passed by their door in school or at home. Whenever our eyes met, he would look away as if I never existed. I may not have a specific happy childhood moment with him but being his princess and him as my hero is reason enough to smile now that we were no longer children.
🤣🤣🤣 the innocence of a child is priceless. Those were the days.... when small things seemed to matter a lot in the eyes of a child.