“Balut baluuuutt! Penoy baluuutt!

At the sound of Tatay‘s first holler , it’s

time for us to go to sleep. I’II peep into my
piggy bank before I go to bed . It’s not
even half full yet . Nanay says that’s when
it’s full, I can go to school again.

“Balut baluuuutt!! Penoy baluuutt!”

When Tatay holler the second time,

Nanay comes to check on my brother and
me. Kuya tries to force himself to fall
asleep. I just pretend that I am . I want to
listen to Tatay calling out until I can barely
hear his voice from the farthest place
where he goes. To me it’s just like a lullaby.
 Of all the balut vendors, Tatay is the
one with the highest, sharpest voice. When
he hollers, it can almost shatter the glass in
the neighbor’s windows. He has so many
regular customers because they’re
entertained by the unique sound of his
voice. They all wait for him to walk by at
night just to hear him calling out. Their
evenings are incomplete when they haven’t
heard his voice.

Even before the sun rises, Tatay and

Nanay are already busy getting the
coconuts ready for sale .

I don’t know if Tatay got any sleep at

all. He’s a balut hawker by night , and a
coconut hawker by day.
 “Buko , buko , bukoooyy!” he hollers
practicing.

His voice is still high and sharp even its

hoarse. Instead of sipping coffee in the
morning , he says it’s better to have ginger
ale. It improves the voice and he says , and
make the skin smooth as well .
He needs to take good care of his voice
because it’s the one asset that earns him a
living.

Sometimes it’s bananas (saba, latundan,

lakatan) that he sells in the daytime. He’s a
balut vendor by night, and sometimes a banana
vendor by day . His voice always sounds
unique, whatever he tries to sell .People cant
help but stare when they hear his voice . He
dreamt of becoming a singer. He says it’s up
to me now to make his dream come true.
 When there aren’t any fruits to sell in the
morning , he sells vegetables instead. He’s a
balut peddler by night, and sometimes a
vegetable peddler by day. When is there
neither any fruit or vegetable, he has native
snacks and dainties all in a row. He’s a balut
vendor by night, and sometimes a vendor of
local nibbles by day.

He taught me a “Bahay – kubo” song so I

could learn the names of different
vegetables by heart. My friends get annoyed
when I sing it because they think the pitch of
my voice is high as a coconut tree. But the
older people are entertained because they
think I sound just like my father. I’m just like
a little bird that goes tiririt! they say and
that’s why they’ve taken to calling me “Tere,”
which is perfect, since my real name is
Teresa.
 Tatay tells me I should study the
musical notes. He says it’s not a simple
thing to holler and make it sound like
singing .When he goes hawking, he doesn’t
just holler, he really does sing. When he
hollers, he uses the notes Do Re Mi Fa So
La Ti Do, from the lowest note to the
highest. No wonder he sounded like he
was hollering Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti
Dowhen last he sound puto… and
kutsinta... ”Come – try – my – pu – to - ku –
tsin - ta!”
 His holler seems to have a magnet. People buy from
him immediately. Others just listen. He tells me there
are musical notes in every sound . There are low
notes, and there high ones. One just needs to find the
right note for every sound. When I went to the
market with Nanay, I listened to the shopkeepers.
Tatay was right . Left and right they sang . A man
hollered as he chopped up his pork:
“Po-ork! Pork! Come – get – some- po-ork!

Hmmm… it does sound like singing! It sounds like a

lot of low Dos.

“Buy -it-now, buy-it-now- su-ki!

Yodeled a woman selling vegetables, in notes that
went higher and higher,
Just like Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do! Some even
waved their hands in the air as they sang.”
“Come right up! Sir! Madam! Come right up and
see! Nothing stale, everything as fresh as fresh can
be!”
The fishmonger was some singer . It was like there
was an orchestra at the market. Musical notes flying
everywhere! When they yodel perfectly, their sales do
equally well. But no matter how well my father does at
selling, Nanay always tells us that we still have to be
frugal. She’s been having a difficult time making ends
meet with Tatay’s earnings. That’s why it’s only Kuya
who goes to school now. I would have been in third
grade if I had filled up my piggy bank.
 My brother announced he wanted to help out. He
sold fish balls, but they didn’t sell very well. I
accompanied him one time. His sales were slow because
Kuya didn’t sing out. So I listened carefully to the
sounds around us.

“Chug-chug, Chug-Chug! Toot toot”

An oncoming train sounded like drums and trumpets
“Taka-tak, taka-tak went the steady rattle of a
calesa* moving farther and farther away.

“Beep,beep,beep,! Went the shrill horns of the

jeeps on the road

When the wind blew hard, I saw the notes

‘do,re,mi,fa,so,la,ti,do!
I couldn’t resist this extraordinary band that was
just perfect for my singing: “come and get it!, come
and get it!, tasty fish balls! Buy them now!, have a
taste, it will make you smile!”
Kuya was amazed and kids around us stopped and
stared. I sang my song again with my extraordinary
band. The kids approached us, one after the other.
Even older customers came to buy from us they
listened to my yelling. The fish balls are sold out and
so were all our squid balls.
 “Balut baluuuutt! Penoy baluuuutt!

I peeped into my piggy bank. It was already half

full. Come morning , I saw that Nanay and Tatay no
vegetables arranged in the pushcart. Neither were
there coconuts nor any kind of fruit.

‘Ta-ho,ta-ho,taho…tahoooieyyy!”

Wow! Tatay ‘s holler is different today. What’s

he’s selling is my favorite because it’s supposed to
make you smart .Delicious taho. It’s delicious when
it’s topped with lots of syrup and sago. And it gets
ever so much more delicious with Tatay yodeling
along . He shouted soft and low , and then it’s grows
louder and louder , sharper and sharper. In spite of
all that, it still sound gentle. It tickles children
when they hear it. After they buy their taho from
Tatay , they always ask to hear him holler “ taho”
again.
 “Ta-ho, ta-ho,taho…tahoooieyyy!

They will all clap and laugh. Others taho vendors

tried to imitate Tatay ‘s holler but it made the
children scratch their heads because they sounded
out of tune. When Tatay’s earnings grew brisk, he
started giving me ten one – peso coins. I wish it were
possible to sell taho at night. Tatay has trouble selling
balut because it’s drunkards who buy from him and
don’t even pay. My piggy bank is almost full. I can go
back to school again. I’m going to be a singer. I’ll have
my own concerts and my songs will be recorded on
tape or CD. I’ll own a company that manages singers.

One morning , Nanay was crying . Tatay lay in bed,

wrapped in his blanket. He couldn’t get up for work
because he was burning with fever . It gave me a
shock to find that he had lost his voice. He gestured
towards a glass of water. He couldn’t speak so I
handed it to him. My mother explained that the sweat
had dried off his back and he got caught in the rain.
 Three days went by, but Tatay still didn’t have his
voice. Many people asked why he wasn’t selling his wares
anymore . The children wondered where he was. They
had no choice but to buy taho from someone else.
Tatay’s taho was sweeter, they said . Mornings were
dull for the older customers who waited for him to
come. They said their morning seemed incomplete if
they didn’t hear Tatay’s holler. My piggy bank hasn’t
been fed any coins in the past three days. How am I
going to fill it up now? How am I ever going back to
school? Maybe I’II never be a singer . Kuya made up his
mind to sell taho in Tatay’s
Place.

“Have some taho! Buy some taho!”

He tried every kind of holler, but it seemed like no

one heard him at all.

“Ta-ho! Ho-ta! Tahohohohoy!”

 He tried every kind of tune but it seemed as if
the children had all gone deaf. What they wanted to
hear was the tune of my father’s holler. I wish we
had recorded it so we can play it on a portable
stereo when we sell taho.

Tatay was brought to the hospital. They said his

throat had an infection, and that it was swollen .
Tatay has such a beautiful voice, why did he get a
throat infection? They said he needed to rest.
When he changed out of his clothes I saw the bones
showing in his shoulders, they weren’t there before.
The beard had also grown longer on his skinny chin.

My mother told me we needed to break open my

piggy bank to buy Tatay’s medicine. I cried when I
heard the coin jingling out of it. Nanay said I should
just get another piggy bank to look after.

“Kuya, I’m coming to sell taho with you . I’m not

going to play.”

“Don’t bother , Tere. It’s a long way to walk.”

 I wanted to help Kuya so his sales would grow.

“Let me be the one to do the hollering,” I

begged.

“Don’t bother, I can do hollering myself.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore , so I hollered

really, really loud:

“Ta-ho,ta-ho,taho…tahooooieyyy!

Tatay bolted upright from bed when he heard

me holler. He hugged me tight. He tapped me
lightly on the rumps as he pointed at Kuya, as if to
order him to take me along to sell taho.
Around the first corner, Kuya hollered:
“Taho! Taho! Come and buy taho!”
It was like there was nobody around. Nobody took any
notice of us. I listened to the surroundings. There was a
bird singing. There was a plane flying overhead and making
a very sharp Do sound. I also heard the church bell chiming
a lovely Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. How good it was to hear
the musical notes dancing in the street . It was time. I let
loose a very loud cry:
 “Ta-ho,ta-ho,taho…tahooooieyyy!”

The children quickly look around for the source

of the holler. It was as if they had seen a movie
star. At my second holler, they started coming
towards us. My brother says there’s magic in my
holler. He says my voice sounds exactly like
Tatay’s. They made me holler again and again, and
they all laughed joyfully.

I never knew that Tatay had so many regular

customers. I never knew that even the policemen,
security guards and neighborhood watchmen ate
taho in the mornings before going off to work.
They told me that taho gave a lively start to their
workday and hearing Tatay’s hollers made life
merry for them. Our favorite regular customer is
Kuya’s school principal, who promised to help me go
back to school. I thought I heard a wonderful Do
Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do when he told me I would
soon be studying again.
 When Tatay recovered from his illness, he
didn’t have to sell taho anymore because he was
made supervisor of all the vendors. He was to
teach them the right way to holler and make it
sound like singing . Tatay told us that we didn’t
need to help out at work anymore so we can
concentrate on school and I can fulfill my
dream of becoming a singer.

If you ever happen to walk by Tatay’s taho

factory, you’ll hear them singing all together
like a, “Ta-ho , ta-ho, taho, tahoooieyyy!”