Mayday

For English speakers only. Sorry, Spanish fellows!

Dedicated to my relatives and friends who were born in May.

First of all, I must tell all of you that my father was discharged from the hospital. He went back home just in time for some of the events which are held this month...

1st May 2021. May Day. My little brother Nacho's 2nd birthday. Because my father returned from the hospital, it was the perfect day for me to meet him face to face. My big sister Teresa met him right after he and my stepmother Zenia had arrived here.

The entire family was gathered at last. Clockwise from left: Nacho, Teresa, my father, me and Zenia.

The following day was Mother's Day here, but in Cuba, it was 9th May. Teresa and I returned to their house to celebrate it.

Zenia's children called her to wish her a happy Mother's Day. In the meantime, Teresa and I had to feed Nacho, and I must say that it is not easy to feed a kid. Do not ask me why.

20th May 2021. My sister's 29th birthday, but we did not do anything special together anyway. Let us move on, shall we?

22nd May 2021. Finally! My special day arrived! And I have got something truly unique for this event...

You see, according to Chinese astrology and depending on the year when we were born, we are different animals. For example, I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and the following picture has something to do with this.

"Zookie the Dragon", a British webcomic, became an essential part of my life at first sight. Comic strips which are also webcomics do not count, so this one must have been the first one that I have ever got to know. It was one of the best ways to get over the current pandemic at the beginning of the horror.

The creator of this webcomic, Keri Johnson (whose Associated Animal is the Dragon too, and she loves dragons, mind you!), is a kind, patient, professional cartoonist, and it shows. Thanks to her warm personality and place of origin (thank you so much, England; this is one of the reasons why you are my favourite country), most of her artwork involves "a small, fire-breathing dragon with a clumsy nature and a fondness for doughnuts (or anything sweet for that matter!)" and his friends, all of them dragons (the main ones, that is), living in a fictional distant land of England, "creating chaos, consuming cookies and generally having a lot of fun!" My fondness for cartoons and video games led me to this breathtaking wonder by pure chance. I had no choice but to leave a mark here.

I commissioned her to draw my persona's (Thomas "Tommy" Catson, in case you have yet to read the previous entries which mention him) best friend Jeffrey Preston, an anthropomorphic dog (I told you that he is a dog-robot hybrid), meeting the titular character as another dragon, in order to commemorate the webcomic's 5th anniversary and my 21st birthday. The results were impressive; with the aid of the references that were available for her, she paid attention to every single detail, understood my concerns and made some suggestions that were not really necessary for me to follow.

Thus, Jeffrey's transformation turned out pretty well and, overall, the commission could not look more adorable. We had so much fun working on this, and I was happy to receive further progress faster than I expected; it was finished about one week after I had proceeded to get it started. I could not be more thankful for this masterpiece.

Keri wants the fans of her artwork to "believe in dragons", so she can rest assured (as she says to me) I, one of her biggest fans (if not the greatest one), do thanks to her. If you want to read the webcomic, visit the link watermarked on the drawing. And, most importantly, follow the Dragon.

As for me... I shall treasure this forever and ever...

Hi, Keri. This is my 21-year-old self with a dark chocolate sponge cake that my mother made for me. Please cover Zookie's eyes when you get to look at this.

The little fellow is a hedgehog who wanted to join the party as well. I called him Henry.

He also wanted to join your birthday party. I hope you did not mind.

Yesterday, my father wanted me and Teresa to have lunch in his house once again and visit our paternal grandparents.

My childish self still allows me to play with toys. Nacho inherited, among other toys, his big brother's bus to learn the alphabet (which still works after so many years!)

What does not make sense here?

Answer: The bus was going backwards and I am too old to play with toys (not really; this is averted because I have a little brother).

Nacho is lucky to have grandparents who still have toys for their grandchildren to play with.

Finally, to get this month over... Keri, meet Poncho, the chihuahua who lives in my house. He turned 9 years old on the same day as Nacho.

And this has been this year's May. Let us hope next year's will be even better, should the virus which caused the pandemic be eradicated once and for all by then.

That is all!