Chapter 3

After brunch, Betoy went to his room and locked the door before anyone else could go in. Tina wasn't even on the first staircase and she had a door shut on her face. She scoffed and returned to the table. She fell to the floor before she could even take another step. She held on the furniture around her to lift herself up.

'I can't live like this.' She thought. Still clinging to the furniture, she raised her foot, and took one step, and then her other foot, and she repeated the process until she reached the kitchen again. She walked back and front from the kitchen to the end of the living room, she was determined to learn how to walk properly. She felt like a fish trying to walk on land.

Kanor could only watch his daughter. He couldn't say anything to her. How do you teach someone how to walk? He didn't teach himself how to walk, he never taught anyone how to walk. He didn't have a license to teach someone how to walk.

"My steps have held fast to thy paths, My feet have not slipped. Psalms chapter seventeen verse five." He thought.

When he saw what day it was today earlier, that's when he had the goal. That's when he wanted to have family bonding. He had the plan devised on his head, his plan for his family to get along. He just needed to go through it step by step.

If the devilish smile Kanor had worn throughout the rest of the morning didn't mean anything, Kanor was clearly up to something. Betoy couldn't stop thinking of it and couldn't help not understanding what he was watching on his laptop screen. It's a pain that he had to read subtitles in order to fully comprehend what they're saying.

There was a knock coming from the door, but Betoy ignored it. A louder knock went after and the sounds of a swiggling doorknob. The door clicked and was kicked open by Kanor, who was carrying deadpan Tina as if she were a sleeping bag while holding a key on his vacant hand.

"We're going on a trip!" Kanor shouted enthusiastically

.

"Is this what you had in mind?" Betoy asked, looking more excited than curious or confused. Ever since he was a child, the Rayuno family used to set up often a date for swimming at this very place.

"I got the whole place reserved exclusive only for us, enjoy kids!" Kanor got out of the car with a sense of accomplishment over something. He opened the trunk and brought out everything he packed for the trip. He prepared everything by himself in order to keep the icebreaker as a surprise, Kanor could see the excitement on Betoy's face. It was good to see him in a good mood again.

Betoy got out as well and immediately went to the gate to take a peek of nostalgia, and it hit him. The same old rectangular swimming pool at the center, the showers on its right, that huge canopy tent on its left, and inside the tent were the same dozen stools and that long picnic table, and the whole place was surrounded by patches of fake grass reaching until the cemented walls that barricaded them from the outside world. The setting didn't change one bit.

"It's been a while." He muttered. He went inside and went to the showers with his swimming clothes he was carrying.

"Tina!" Kanor called out from the outside of the car, "The air is refreshing, why won't you join us?"

"Coming!" Tina nervously uttered. She gulped as she touched her feet to the cemented ground, before the rest of her body touched the ground as well sounding a thud. Her face flat on the floor, as she lifted it, she sees Kanor kneeling over her, lending her a hand. As she rose from the ground, she instantly lost her balance.

"May I hold your hand?" She asked softly, "I'm still getting a hang of it and I can't do it on my own."

"It took me a year for me to learn how to walk and your brother took him two years!" He laughed for a while, "As they say, 'Learning takes time.'" He gave a friendly gleam. She eased up.

With Tina holding his vacant hand, Kanor carried the barbecue grill he brought out earlier towards the tent. He stopped, and his brows raised in sudden realization, "I think I forgot to unpack the wheelchair and the walking stick from our last trip." Kanor faced to Tina once again, "It would be easier for you to walk with either of those things."

"No thank you." Tina answered. How convenient that there was a wheelchair and a walking cane lying inside the trunk.

Placing the grill, Kanor struck his hands together while observing the familiar place around him.

"I hope you're okay with wearing your brother's old swimsuit, you reincarnated unannounced and we didn't have time to buy you any clothes!"

Tina was a little uncomfortable only by thinking of wearing her brother's swimsuit as if she knew the difference of wearing one for girls and wearing one for boys. She didn't have the right to complain though, having her inside the family would also mean more financial troubles, more financial troubles mean more problems for the family, more problems mean--

"'Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.' that's one of Confucius' famous quotes." Kanor turned towards her again, knelt to her eye-level and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You're overthinking, I can see it on your face. We're here to have fun, nothing else." He patted her shoulders before standing. Tina couldn't help but laugh.

There was something about Kanor's quotes she found funny, maybe because she found quotes too cheesy for her taste.

She gave a nod to Kanor before going to the showers with her brother's old tights. Something

The girl was still struggling to find her balance. She managed to get to the showers without tripping for more than ten times.

Kanor's spine tingled to his own fatherly act. "Kanor, you're getting better and better every truckin' day." With a grin on his face, he placed the grill inside the tent, right beside the long picnic table. He also brought in a cooler, a fat television, a briefcase full of clothing, a beach ball, a sleeping bag, a tent for the children to sleep in, Betoy's laptop, Betoy's favorite stuffed-toy, Betoy's favorite big-headed action figure, Betoy's favorite love pillo--

Crouching down near the pool to look at the reflection on the clear water, Tina's reflection formed beside him. His smile faded as he glanced at the girl beside her before reverting to the water. Seeing her wearing his old tights disturbed him pretty much; he never liked the idea of sharing particularly to someone he didn't like and the only people he didn't like were those who have the chance to call him onii-chan but decide not to.

The girl cleared her throat, and proposed a handshake to her brother, "We're cool now yah?" She asked plainly.

No way. Every second she existed more questions came in, and the questions never stopped coming and they won't stop coming. It bothered him when she stepped inside the car, sat down put her seatbelt on without being told. It also bothered him how she reached out to change the radio station. She wasn't supposed to know anything, she reincarnated from a fish for crying out loud, but when she stepped inside the car, it's like she already knew what being in a car feels like. He wanted to tell his dad and ask him some questions regarding Tina, but Kanor was always vague with answers, it would only make him more irritated than before. Kanor would probably answer with a vague quote and leave it at that.

Wondering what was inside Betoy's mind, Tina was still offering him a handshake.

Betoy reached out for her hand, accepted the handshake and pulled her into the water.

"Why did you do that Betoy?" Kanor was getting a little pissed, pinching the bridge of his nose walking around the culprit. Under the picnic table, Tina was curled into a ball rocking back and forth shivering while staring at the void with dead eyes.

Sitting on the swimming pool ledge, Betoy stroke the fake grass behind him and then rested his head on his vacant hand, "I thought she could swim." He replied genuinely.

Kanor's forehead met with his palm, and then he sighed deeply. He had promised himself not to explode ever again, he turned away and took deep breaths to calm himself down. He reverted to the boy with an idea in mind.

"Teach her how to swim while I manage the grill." He ordered bluntly.

Betoy scratched the back of his head, "How am I supposed to teach a fish how to swim?" He asked sarcastically, showing no interest on spending time with his little sister whatsoever.

Kanor grunted while stuffing the grill with coal. "'Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.' Albert Einstein said, and you never wanted to be called weak right? Now go." He said with a plastic smile.

Betoy smirked and shrugged the most exaggerated shrug he could shrug. "Albert Einstein also said that 'Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.' I'm judging a fish by its ability to swim on water, is it okay for that fish to live its whole reincarnated life believing that it's stupid?"

The father turned around and muttered something other his breath, he growled and scratched his head. He took another set of deep breaths before reverting again to his son.

"Please be nice to your sister." Kanor said in the most gentlest way as possible. He went to his son and crouched beside him, "Remember when you, your mother and I got lost inside a forest? We were picked up by a tribe and we lived amongst them for months! When we got back to our house it took as a while to readjust to the suburban lifestyle!"

The father and son glanced at the little girl, who was still curled into a ball below the table.

"She's a fish out of water, figuratively and literally." Kanor's spine-tingled again from his fatherly act, making him grin out of nowhere.

Betoy brushed his hair and looked at the sky for a moment. Something told him that he's not giving her a chance and he was being the awful person she addressed. He felt guilty with a G-U-I-L not a G-I-L-L. Instead of asking most improbable questions that would never be logically answered, what he should be asking is, why does he find her irritating? Why does he act this way in front of her? Why does his patience lack whenever he talks to her? Just like all the other questions that kept storming his mind, he had no answers for them either. All he knew was that the disturbing feeling whenever he looked at her was still present, and he didn't know why it's present either.

"Fine." He groaned before crawling towards his little sister. Kanor grinned, stood up and went back to the grill.

Betoy sat beside his sister, hugging his knees to his chest, "Hey sis, you okay?" He asked, tapping her shoulder. Tina glanced at him and turned away. "You bastard, I could've died." She scowled, "Nobody wants to die the second time."

"Nobody wants to die in general." Betoy added bluntly.

"Then why did you pull me into the water?!" Tina then scurried away towards the other end of the table.

"Are you still bothered by it?" Betoy yelled in a mocking tone. Tina turned her back at him. He thought that starting another fight would get her to talk to him, but this time she was obviously getting sick of it. The older brother crawled towards his sister again.

"You're a fish, I thought you could swim, so I pulled you in, it was a harmless prank!" Betoy gave her a shoulder hug. Tina tried removing his arm, but it kept on coming back. She rotated to look at the thing that almost killed her, the swimming pool. She stood up, headed to it, fell over and landed near the ledge. She sat upright and touched the water with her feet, her brother tailed and plopped beside her.

"I could teach you how to swim if you want me to." The older brother offered.

Facing away from her brother, Tina growled in irritation, "Why are you being so nice to me now? You TECHNICALLY said you wanted to end my life only a while ago!"

Betoy couldn't help but raise his voice, "Mood swings are normal!" He cleared his throat to lower his tone, "You're not fully human yet to understand what emotions are!"

Still growling, Tina turned to her big brother and scowled, "I know what emotions feel like… I almost died, remember? When you pulled me into the water, remember? Remember?!"

"Then why not take swimming lessons from this dependable big brother of yours!" His arms spread wide in acceptance as he forms a proud smirk on his face.

"How can I swim if I can't even walk properly?" She said with a half-hearted smile, a smile stating her own disappointment to herself. Her big brother tapped her head gently.

Betoy's weird body language startled the girl, goes to show that the boy watched too much anime involving big brother and little sister relationships.

"You can't walk, you can't swim. For a fish you sure do talk a lot and all I can hear from you is

'I can't', 'I can't', 'I can't'. If you're able to talk in full sentences then why won't you say 'I can', 'I can', 'I can'?" Betoy said with each emphasis making his voice louder than before. Tina pursed her lips as she trumpeted air out of her mouth, making a raspberry sound, then proceeds to laugh after.

"Did you get that last part from ama?" She gave a playful nudge as she peeked to Kanor over her shoulder.

Kanor could hear the shared laughter of his children and his spine tingled again. He glanced to see them playfully pushing each other. Tina almost fell to the water and Betoy immediately helped her up, the two siblings laughed once more.

"It's good to see them in good terms." Kanor said to himself, He took a picture of them then he continued to grill the fish he packed earlier. It's paying off, the icebreaker, it's working, everything is going as planned! He thought. Right when he saw the date on his watch at the kitchen table, he knew everything would turn out like this, and the icebreaker is not even halfway. He planned this icebreaker more than he planned his life goals when he was a kid!