Juan Suarez ABCA 3 LITFILI - Finals: Short story Filipino youth can relate to #4 titled “Toys”
“Don’t you miss the good old days, eh Ted? Carefree, no gosh-darned worries, we didn’t give a rabbit’s bottom about money, food was served and cleaned up—not by us, ha ha, and women were girls. The world was full o’ wonderful stuff; candy, cakes, and, uh, an’ all them pointless little toys you could think of.” The bearded man in the trucker hat chugged down another bottle of beer and motioned at a passing waitress to give him another.
“Who doesn’t, Bob.” replied Ted. “…Who doesn’t? But I’m going to have to disagree with you on your statement regarding toys, my friend. Our childhood toys weren’t pointless. They helped us appreciate the world around us and widened our imagination. I mean, with just a bunch of tiny little bricks we could build sprawling castles, the furniture in our living rooms and kitchens would transform into wide crevices and deathtraps that we’d navigate our physics-defying toy cars through.” Ted motioned as if he was holding a toy car in his hand and making it fly through the air. “Toys change with the times, Bob. Today’s kids lose themselves with computers or tiny bright touch screens, there’re even some in-development VR’s and holo-realities I’ve been reading about. Sad thing it’s all fed to the younger generation’s minds. They don’t really let their imaginations fly when creating the input or output. It is, in a way, limiting them. But there’s no stopping technology. It’s human to want to create and develop things.”
“It’s human too, to sell and make billions off of those things! Hahaha!” shouted Bob.
Ted smirked. “I’ll have to agree with you on that.” He looked at his antique automatic wristwatch. “Well Bob, I have to go, it’s almost showtime. You sure you don’t want to come along to the Playtablet 6 unveil party? I could convince the board to give me one extra Playtablet that you could give to your kids.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ve got a delivery early in the morning an’ can’t afford no delays.”
Ted finished his glass of water, stood up, then patted Bob on the shoulder. “Alright then Bob, it was nice seeing you again. Look, I’m trying to gather the old group for a little trip to the Bahamas next month, my treat. I’m bringing Natalia, Stan’s taking Kim, no word from Eddy yet. You should bring Jhenelyn. She’ll enjoy it.”
Bob finished another beer bottle. “I’ll discuss it with the woman.”
“Okay. See you around my friend.” Ted turned around and walked towards the bar’s exit. He stopped a waitress on the way and handed her a large roll of money. “This is for the bill of table six. And give my bearded friend over there another round, or maybe a bucket, and whatever else you think will make him happy. He needs it.” Ted gave the waitress a wink then walked out the door.
Explanation:
Point of View: Third Person
Themes: Knowledge is power, Value of friendship, Learn form one's mistakes, Humility, Awareness of other people
Symbolisms: Ted – People who know of the bad effects of their work but need to stay secure financially so do nothing about it, Bob - Knowing one's place/ lack of motivation to elevate oneself, Beer - Temporary escaping problems, Waitress - Media's oversexualization of women
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