the cereal killers

Meet my three lovely cousins, Aliyah, Jaja and Tintin. They may seem to be three normal little girls in this photograph, but when their folks are not around, they transform into beasts that devour our cupboards. They become CEREAL KILLERS.

It all started with Jaja. When she was younger, she used to spend afternoons in our house in Pasig, and since our aunt is not the type of a doting house person, she instead feeds my cousin a bowl of instant oatmeal. Jaja instantly liked the oatmeal, and almost every afternoon she comes to our place just to have a daily bowl of it. Because of this her mom and dad began to allot a portion of their grocery budget to satisfy her urges for cereals.

Then came Tintin, and Aliyah. Tintin's already four, while Aliyah's two. During this time their mom went to Dubai to work as a customs' executive, and because of this they began to receive packages from the Middle East. Inside the balikbayan boxes are tons of canned goods, and of course, boxes of Koko Pops, Koko Krunch, Kellogg's Cornflakes and the like. For an average family, this supply of cereals would last for around a month if consumed on a daily, every breakfast basis. But these girls are different. One Sunday morning a week after the balikbayan box was delivered, their dad woke the whole neighborhood with screams saying that their cereals are missing from the cupboard! They were like, stolen.

He confronted the maid and asked her about the missing breakfast cereals. But the maid only gave him a stark, poker faced stare and her eyes pointed him to Jaja's room. There he saw the girls, catatonic watching a weekend cartoon show, each with a bowl in their hands.

'Kuya, yan na po yung huling box ng Koko Pops.' the maid said. 'Ginagawa nilang chichirya e.'

My uncle then sent his wife an email saying that their girls have become killers. Cereal Killers.