Komodo...sense-I

Title

Komodo...sense-I

Language

English

Year

1947

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

·•'~m~~'l:,~.· ..... ~ :--.~ .. :\. ~ ~- .-\., ~- <i. / ' :'·- •• <: I · dm still, .able to · write fhiti,'~ 'U)rites , . .: ~ . :Mr .• Faigao '.'fi.om' 'cebu, :"bec.cai.Se 'I ~,., ·j ·· .. :·~ ·. - -a teacher." . '· ' z .,, • .• :· .... .' ... v·· .•.;. . : ,, · , ::.··~tl(()t}i)N!@·.:·. t:~ si3t\isE-l ... : ··, ~ ·(Short Story) By C. f AI GAO I .collected ~y thoughts and surveyed . my surroundings. There .. were ab~ut twenty people, virtual prisoners, in the · kitchen. ·There was a young, flat-nosed, I ' Nippong_ o-speaklng Chinaman :who act~d as interpreter. · - There was Akoy,"' ' ~ neighbor of ours; a tall gangling Ichabod Crane of a man, who was now . . attending. to the cooking. And there · ~" w~re three· women, one of whom, I re' ' ,·called, was a ·young girl· who ~sed . to · ·come to our ,house to buy pinokpok from · ·, my- brother 1 · ·~: I helped in the- slicing· of the gabi ':. leaves-I did not like the taB, tat;. toed J ap to see me doing nothing. · Between slice:>, I thought and imagined hard. In the afternoon they would march us to. the town-we would be s'taggering, beneath , heavy burdens - many days in a dark cell perhaps_:_ . bard labor under the heat of tl-.e sun---:·· and the~ oblivion. · Then I thought of . my frail wire who had esca9eJ to the .other side· of the brook. }Iavinr; 5e'en the look of lust in the eyes of the soldiers, she had run away, leaving our sev-enteen-day old baby on the floor of our house. · I began thinking of means of escape. The Chinaman promi:sed to help, but I waited until after dinner. A hungry • Jap, like any other hungry man, would not be in a mood to listen. · The next minutes sped nervously away -the movements of the frightened women-the young girl with the look of annihilation al}d doom on her face. Where was . my wife? And was my child still on the> floor? Three more jabbering Japs came up -and I saw more lo_ ot: the few clothes I had left from so much running, our . silver and china, and a small basket · ' . 'that c_ ontained the baby's di.ape(s. . .~ "You must eat," I told tlie . qther captives. ".We' may not· eat again ', in many 'day:s. W-e may never eat · at all anymore." Inside the house; the J aps devo.ured hunks of boiled chicken swi.:ID.:'; • • • ~ $.-. ) ~ n'ling in gabi broth. · · · ; :: After the ~eal,v I pleaded With th{ tail, half-naked -savage of . a J ap. .•rf.-.: must go," I said, "I have children." ' I dangled a pass before his eyes, the on;~ I had got from the town the day be_ . fore . and the one r had brought witii me all the way from Cebu. ·I was ~ot ;_ · soldier, I said. Watasi wa sense-i de7: shita Cebu ni. Lucky I had picked up· a few word:> and he understood s.omehow. • Now I knew I should have rmi. away like my brother instead of trusting on those slips of paper. The J aps were . adamant. . You go town. No go town ... howses burn ... tomorrow no go. . . patay. "Oke, oke," I said. "I go." An hour before that, on the yard of my house, I ·had seen death gh·aming from the tip of a Batangas balisong. "You sor.dier Manira?" For reason:> written only in heaven, the balisong did not des.. cend . .. "I go, san?" "O}':e, oke." You can have all the mountains of Romblon all to yourself,' I thought. And you can have the whole darn CoProsperity Sphere all to yourself; bnt I am a free man again. That night we escaped farther into the mountains-in the total night, in the half-rain. FOR MODERK OPTICAL NEEDS-SEE KEEPSAKE OPT!CAL-80 Escolta 11 "",~ 12 --·. . PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR ''. - ,· 1. • • ... . ,. ~ ' . ~ .. ,..:...... . ,. . . . . . '\: •'i'r .• This. 'account should end right heN, ~ and would spread terror even ~ th~\:. ik but' 1 : -al!l -J:~Ot writing a ;hort story. ~ :', SUr~Ol,tnding._ islands: , /,. ., ::;_· ~ ~- ani{putting down a personal record 01 · _ Wh~t had s<iftened Pika towards· me? ·_}' friglit a}!d fear and an idea:t Then I remembered. An hour be- - . Three days later, way farther up ' . in the mountains of Lagting, Romblon, .::. I had .tiine to collect my thoughts again and put my feelings in order. fore I was set free, he had come u'p the houie with ~he other soldiers, jabbering in Nippongo. -I was able to pick up two. words : kodomo • . . sense-i. . . kodomo . . sense-i, .. ! child. . . teacher. And the stern look had vani:>hed from his eyes~ _ and he was smiling. The tall, oevil-looking J a{p was a }. member of · the murder gang of Toya.- rna. What had melted ltis heart to set ·- ine free? .-. · .. · 1Jn a few more days .his name was to -_ s'pread throughout Romblon I-sland like > a syllable of terror. In a few more days There are little things in life that can break even the hardest man. D,id Pika way down in Japan have a child ·o~ his own? Did he remember the slow, quiet teache·r of his childbood days in .a little Japanese prefecture·? he · was to 'Spill blood on the uplands. In a few more days the live body of the young girl was to be thrown into the flames of her- own burning house. ,In a few more days the tall Jap would be called Pika-his body was tattoedIn these days of comparative peace, sometimes I can hug the idea 'that I am still able to write this because I am a teacher. .. ' TWO PROBLEMS FRANCISCO A. ESQUIVEL Batangas High School Thls is not to belittle the choice of the delegates to the Representative Assembly, but rather in the performance of such heavy duties we are faced with ·a problem! How far can our present Board of Directors carry through our objectives? We must only remember that the members of Congress are wise politicians .and the influence of p,olitics often times spoil . big plans and honest objectives. The task ahead _ is h~avy and numerou.:; and unless those entrusted with these duties and responsibilities are wiser politicians too, and unless we teachers have a strong backing in Congress, our dreams and objectives will be far from realization. A Congressman from the ranks of schoolmen is the need of the hour. Another obstruction we have to consider in the p1ogre.:;s of the as" sociation is the possible lack of support of the community. The organizers of the association have anticipated b!lforehand to be able to create a better understandi'ng and good will between teachers and the community. The Association is not secure unless we have the full sup., port of the people, and its success depends very much on the success of P.arent-Teacher Associations.

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