By: Bernie V. Lopez
(Published in its print edition on August 10-16, 2024)
Somewhere in Ermita, Manila. The long lemon-colored limo screeches to a halt. A 45-year-old tall gaunt fellow, wearing a T-shirt saying “I’m Billionaire Ben”, gets out and heads for the Burger Beast, which he owns. He randomly checks out his burger branches. The waitress does not recognize him. He orders “a burger to go, no fries, no cheese, no ketchup, no nothing.” When he gets out, seven-year-old Pepito, barefoot and with torn t-shirt saying “I’m nobody”, blocks his path. (Blog copy – StarGazer column, Daily Tribune, August 17, 2024).
PEPITO – Are you really Billionaire Ben?
BEN – (Pointing to his limo.) Yep.
PEPITO – I’m nobody. You can easily get kidnapped for ransom, you know that?
BEN – (Pointing to a burly chauffer, who opens his jacket to show a gun to Pepito with a smile.) Not really. You want a burger?
PEPITO – Sure.
Ben hands him the burger. He gobbles it less than 15 seconds as Ben watches wide-eyed. He gives a loud burp. Ben turns around to get another burger for himself.
PEPITO – Hey, regular Coke please.
BEN – Can you handle another burger?
PEPITO – Sure. Can you get another burger and Coke for my mom?
BEN – On one condition. Eat slowly this time and don’t gulp the Coke. Then sit and talk to me.
PEPITO – Those are three conditions.
They sit on a nearby bench. They eat their burgers slowly.
BEN – You look sharp to me. I am wondering. What makes you tick?
PEPITO – Survival. Obviously. How about you? What makes you tick? Greed? Billionaires are normally greedy.
BEN – I am learning to fight it. It’s not easy. You wanna work for me?
PEPITO – Depends.
BEN – Help me sell candies. I have a candy company. I pay well.
PEPITO – No thanks. That’s for rich kids. I don’t know how to sell to rich kids.
Ben gets to like Pepito for his candor, no-non-sense talk and he’s seeing him as an equal. Pepito gets to like Ben for the same reasons. They eat burgers every day and become very good friends. One time, a police man comes up to them and tells the kid to stop bothering the man. No bother at all, Ben tells the policeman.
BEN – You have any friends?
PEPITO – Just one, Fr. James. Irish. He gives me breakfast of two eggs and a hotdog when I visit.
BEN – Is that why he’s you’re friend?
PEPITO – Partly, but he taught me the meaning of the word ‘perspective’, the ability to see people and situations.
BEN – Quite a big word for a child.
PEPITO – Fr. James said that, if you take a helicopter ride, you see everything up to horizon, the entire forest. Perspective is power, like generals seeing the entire war from his field table faraway. I see you as a billionaire prone to greed, haha.
BEN – What else did you learn from Fr. James?
PEPITO – It does not matter if I am poor and you are rich. We are equals. I can be better off because life is simpler, less problems. I don’t get stressed protecting and building what I have. I also can strip people naked and see their inside. Perspective is power.
BEN – I wanna meet Fr. James.
PEPITO – (When they meet.) Fr. James wants to make the church bigger.
FR. JAMES – Relax, Pepito. You’re going too fast too soon.
BEN – It’s ok, Father. I prefer pouring money on people rather than buildings. I can get you three great teachers to teach street kids the way you have taught Pepito here.
FR. JAMES – Wow. I like you.
PEPITO – I can gather the street kids.
And so, the triumvirate, a boy, a billionaire and a priest strike a plan which excites Ben to the bone. His adrenaline goes up. He begins to focus on giving rather than grabbing. He is ‘converted’ by a boy and a priest to fight the shackles of greed.
BEN – Can you hear my confession, Father.
PEPITO – Ha. He has a lot of sins, Father.
FR. JAMES – Shut up, Pepito. Go to the garden.#
