登入Pier 1211 is dentures.Not blue wood. Not slippers. Not baby bottles. Dentures. False teeth. Pink gum, white teeth, clicking.Built by Lola Ising. 92 years old. Not Lola Pining, another Lola. From Dagupan, Barangay Bonuan Gueset. Bullied for being too old. Called "matanda," "ulyanin," "aburido." Grandchildren put her in back room because she clicks dentures when she eats.She built Pier 1211 from 30 sets of dentures. Her own dentures (2 sets, broken), plus dentures from 28 other Lolas in Dagupan who died, who were told old is useless, throw dentures.She tied dentures with fishing line, like fish skin, like dresses, like baby bottles. Pier that clicks when you walk.Click-click-click.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 80, we walked on dentures. 1,284 people, one by one, clicking.Lola Ising, 92, small, bent, dentures clicking, said, "They said old can't build. Old sinks. So I built from what old uses — dentures. And it floats. Not four feet like small pier. Five feet."Yes. Pier 1211 floats f
BOOK 10: THE GIRL WHO OWNS HOMECHAPTER 9: The Pier That Is Too Small — Chapter 79Pier 1210 is baby bottles.Not blue wood. Not slippers. Baby bottles. Empty, plastic, nipples chewed, milk smell still there even after washing 100 times.Built by Lia. 7 years old. Smallest reader who came on bus. Grade 2. Bullied for being too small. "Dwarf," "baby," "bansot." Teachers put her in front row because she is too small to see board from back. Classmates carry her bag like she is baby.She built Pier 1210 from 50 baby bottles. Her own bottles from when she was 0-2, plus her baby brother's bottles, plus 48 bottles from neighbors who said "small is useless, throw it."She tied bottles with rope, like blue wood, but bottles float by themselves. Because baby bottles are made to float in milk.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 79, we sat on baby bottles. 1,284 people can't fit on baby bottles, so we sat one by one, like babies.Lia, 7, smallest, said, "They said small can't build. Small sinks. So I buil
Pier 1209 is brown slippers.Not blue wood. Not fish skin. Not paper. Not calamine. Not dress. Not uling.Brown slippers. Tsinelas. Broken.Built by Jun. 12. Dagupan. Bonuan Boquig. Bullied for no baon, no shoes, only broken brown slippers, one strap torn, sole flapping.He walked 2 km to school in those slippers. Every day. Rain, sun, flood. Slippers flapped plak-plak. Classmates laughed: plak-plak boy.He built Pier 1209 from 100 pairs of broken brown slippers. Not new. Broken. Collected from all Bonuan Boquig — every kid who had broken tsinelas gave him one pair. 100 pairs = 200 slippers, all brown, all torn, all plak-plak.He tied them with fishing line, like fish skin, like dresses, like calamine. Pier that is slippers. You walk on slippers, it goes plak-plak-plak.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 78, we walked on brown slippers.Plak-plak.Jun, 12, no baon, no shoes, barefoot now because his slippers became pier, said:"They said poor can't build. Poor sinks. So I built from what poor
Pier 1208 is black.Not dark blue. Black. Charcoal black. Uling.Built by Mara. 16. Dagupan. Bullied for being too dark. Called "negra," "uling," "sunog." She bleached skin at 13. Mama slapped her. She stopped bleaching at 15, but still wears long sleeves at noon.She built Pier 1208 from charcoal. Uling from her Lola's dirty kitchen in Bonuan Gueset, where they still cook with wood. She collected uling for 2 years, 100 sacks, black dust under nails.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 77, we sat on black pier. Black pier that floats two feet, like rainbow dress pier. Because dark is also light when you build from it.Mara didn't speak at first. Just sat, black skin, black pier, black like night that we forgot.Because in 77 chapters, we had sea, sky, stars, time, gold, blue, pink, rainbow, fish-skin, paper, calamine, but never black. Never night. We always built at 6:13 AM, morning. Never at night."My pier is night," she said. 16, dark, long sleeves rolled up for first time in 3 years. Arms d
BOOK 10: THE GIRL WHO OWNS HOMECHAPTER 6: The Rainbow Dress Pier — Chapter 76Pier 1207 is not a pier.It's a dress. A dress that is a pier.Josh Del Rosario. 19. Dagupan City. College. Bakla. Bullied since he was 5 for wearing Mama's dresses. Mama died when he was 12. He kept dresses. Three dresses. Sequins, rainbow, red, gold.He was told: "Bakla can't build. Bakla can't float. Bakla sinks."He built Pier 1207 from those three dresses.He stretched them over blue wood frame, like sail, like net. Dresses as pier floor. You walk on dress, sequins crackle, rainbow shines, smells like Mama's perfume from 2017, last bottle.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 76, we walked on a dress.Not on wood. On dress.Josh stood on his own Mama's dress, 19, bakla, sequins on feet, and said, "I was told I can't be girl and boy. So I built a pier that is girl and boy and it floats. One foot, same as acne pier, fish-skin pier, stutter pier. Does your straight pier float higher? No. Same. So girl and boy float
Pier 1206 is pink.Not blue wood. Not fish skin. Not paper. Pink. Calamine pink. The color of lotion Aya puts on her acne every night since Grade 6.Aya Santos. 15. Dagupan City. JHS. Bullied for acne. Called "pizza face," "strawberry," "crater." She wore mask even after pandemic, not for virus, for acne.She built Pier 1206 from empty calamine bottles — 200 bottles, 3 years of acne. She melted them? No. She tied them with rope, like blue wood, but pink plastic, empty, with dried pink inside. Pier that smells like calamine and teenage sweat and tears.At 6:13 AM today, Chapter 75, we sat on Pier 1206. Pink pier. Floats one foot now, not one inch, because 71 piers that smell like hurt are lighter every day.Aya didn't sit. She stood. Mask off. First time in 3 years, mask off in front of 1,284 people, on a pink pier made of her acne lotion bottles."I built my face as a pier," she said. "So you can walk on my face and it floats. Does your bullying float? My face floats now."Silence. 1,