Beatle falls to his knees and falls unconscious.
Billy smiles, hugging Beatle. "We did it, Beatle! Beatle? Oh no... Beatle! BEATLE!!!" Billy cries and hugs Beatle's limp body. "BEATLE!!! PLEASE!!! WAKE UP!!! NO!!!"
Billy growls and drags Beatle away. "Crap... Right! Beatle taught me how to make a bed... Maybe if I... fix the knots together... I could make some kinda... wheelless barrow or somethin'..."
Billy begins grabbing some sticks and tying them together with the vines.
Beatle opens his eyes, but, he looks younger. No... This... IS A FLASHBACK!!! Pluplupluplu...
Beatle, in this period of time, looks incredibly thin.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE IDIOT REFUSES TO EAT OUR FOOD!?!?" roared a man with a booming voice. "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM!!! HERE!!!" The man shoves a longganisa into the boy's mouth causing him to throw a tantrum and slap his head over and over again.
"DON'T YELL AT HIM!!!" roared the mother. "ONLY I GET TO YELL AT HIM!!! YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH!!! C'mere, YOU LITTLE JERK!!!"
The boy cries and angrily screams.
Later on, the boy went on to have become an honor student in pre-school and elementary. Pictures plastered around the house of his achievements, but... at high school... It doesn't exist anymore.
"Your younger son is... differently-abled," said the Doctor.
"OH!!! OH NO!!!" sobbed the woman. "Does that mean he's... um... how can I say... His intelligence is... not the same as ours?"
"No. It means he has learning problems. But that's okay. All you need is training for little Promiel. Okay?" asked the doctor.
"Wow!" smiled the father. "I am so glad that our older son is NORMAL... For the most part!"
The parents laugh while their elder son, who we now know as Beatle, would sulk in the corner. However, his Aunt, who works in the same clinic, smiles and gives him a lolipop.
"Tita? What's wrong with me?" asked the younger Beatle.
"I... can't tell them. It'll... Let's just say it'll damage their pride. And... they'll do something drastic. They mean well. They may just be a little shallow, but they love you."
"I'm in High School now. I... got multiple 79's and 78's... They yelled at me all night. Told me I didn't study hard enough. Why am I... wrong...? I studied! I did!"
"I know. I indeed saw," said the Aunt.
"Then... Why do they hate me?"
"They don't hate you. They're disappointed in you. Because they think you're naughty."
"Why did the doctor say I was the Scapegoat and they should stop?" asked Miguel, completely worried. "What does that mean?" His eyes showing how broken he is. "Am I... 'wrong?' They keep calling me a problem child... What is that?"
"You don't need to know about that. It's not important. But, I can tell you that you're not a problem, Miguel. You're a person, too. They just... can't see the true problem."
"Me?"
"No... Their pride."
"So... I'm not a problem?"
"No person is. The right of all life is freedom, autonomy, and respect. No living being deserves to be called a 'problem'. They just think you aren't good enough. You are, my little beetle."
"But, Tita... Why do they think that way? I want to think like they do. Why did God make me like this?"
"Maybe, God wanted you to be here to show the world a different way of looking things, y'know?"
"Then, tell them I'm different. You're a doctor like him, right?"
"No. They won't see you as their son. They'd see you as a label like your sibling."
"Oh no... We should make them forget about Promiel's-..."
"But... Promiel's needs to be known. Because you're smart in school."
"Promiel isn't dumb!"
"But he needs help. You need help from somewhere else. You have... me."
"Okay! I believe you, Tita!" Miguel hugs his Aunt.
Miguel, now a teenager, is laughed at by many people as thet make loud noises, causing him to cover his ears. They whistle, scream, and create coin sounds into Miguel's ears.
Miguel, now a young adult, is told by a young woman, "I can't love you. You're not... normal. You're not useful, either. You don't work hard enough and you... are probably the least resourceful person I know. Tyrone, though. He has something you don't. I'm sorry. But you hurt me. I hurt you."
Miguel simply grabs his chest in pain and heartbreak. "I... am bad..."
"Please learn self-respect and self-love."
Miguel then meets... her... a rather below-average-looking woman who acts rather strangely. She avoids eye contact, flaps her hands as Miguel does, and bobs her head and torso back and forth.
She trips and Miguel catches her. "Thanks."
Miguel smile. "You got a name? Ruru. Short for... Aurora. Aurora Fernandez."
"I'm Miguel Ibarra. My friends call me-..."
"BEATLE!!!" yelled Billy, while Beatle was peacefully asleep for the first time in years. "BEATLE!!! WAKE UP!!! HOSPITAL CITY IS NEARBY!!! IT'S A CITY FULL OF DOCTORS!!! C'MON!!! PLEASE!!! I BEG OF YOU!!! WAKE UP!!!"
Billy charged into the blizzard, seeing nothing but clear white snow and feeling the wind tossing each snowflake like a blade slicing his skin. He decided to follow the wind's source of origin, so hopefully he'd reach north.
"Ruru..." said Beatle, as the soft whispers of his breath reached Billy's ears. Only as much as a fraction of the fog left his breath compared to earlier.
"What's that? What's a 'Ruru'? I don't understand Tagalog! Beatle, please! Speak English! Do you need anything? Oh no..."
"I... love... you..." said Beatle, whispering. "Aurora."
Billy stops. He turns to Beatle, saddened by his current state. He shook his head, not dismissively to Beatle's feelings, but to his own. He kept on stomping in the cold snow. "C'mon, Beatle. You got a whole life behind ya. Don't dare die on me."
"Left... to figure out... the world alone..." Beatle mumbled. "I was never diagnosed... I was dismissed... Left to figure out the world... alone..."
Now... an adult Beatle... yells at his father...
"NO!!!" roared Miguel. "SHUT UP!!! I WON'T BE A POLITICIAN LIKE YOU, DAD!!!"
"Son! C'mon! Be neighborly!"
"I'm not your 'neighbor!' I'm not your tool for revenge against your rival families! I'M YOUR SON!!! This ISN'T FAIR to treat me like this! Everyone says I make them uncomfy BECAUSE OF YOU!!! You made me like this! You traumatized Mom and Tita by psychologically and verbally SCARRING them!!! You kept pushing!"
"Son... Fine. Okay! I admit it! I don't believe that such differences... mental issues... exists-..."
"UGH!!!" Beatle walks away.
"Fuckin'... Son... I need you to take care of us when you're older!"
"Take care of yourself. You need to learn that first. Not have Mom and Tita clean up your mess. I was born. You couldn't pay for anything so you dumped me with them so you could live your solitary life in Manila."
"You're not my son."
"I never was. I'm Tita's son. Yell at them again, I'll come for you." Miguel slams the door shut and walks to the nearest Jeepney stop...
"How'd it go?" asked Aurora.
"Y'know... More or less-..."
"-absolutely traumatic?" smiled the pair.
The pair laugh at the joke.
Aurora smiles. "Ever think cannibalism would be a thing at this point? Overpopulation, am I right?"
Miguel laughs. "Yeah... Pretty much the local's idea, if y'know what I mean? Hahahaha! Shit, was that racist?"
"Eh! We ARE locals!" smiled Aurora, as the pair laugh.
Billy roars as he pulls Beatle up the snow mountain's slope. "C'mon, Beatle! Furthermore! Keep... going...! You're the only way I can feel... NORMAL!!!!"
"Your worth..."
Billy turns to Beatle.
"not based... on others' lives."
Billy's eyes quivered. "Okay."