At the beach

It was a sultry afternoon in our sitio.The older people in the neighborhood are having their siesta,but they tend to go outside their houses to find a cool place to continue their traditional short rest of a day.Some neighbors were just idling and talking rumorous things habitually gathered under a big mango tree.Some were indolent because of the high temperature.

At that time,there's an occasion held in our house.A bethrothal of cousin Aiza.The house was filled with visitors who felt the oven-effect inside.Outside were my cousin Totong,friend Onyok and me,sitting on a bedlike bench talking and jesting-because staying inside the house is like you're inside an oven.The humidity and the sluggish wind are unfelt.

So the three of us plan to go to the beach to cool ourselves to the breeze of the sea.We took bikes and rolled to the bakery first to buy our snacks.Then we move directly to our destination.

When we reached the beach-Tiwasan shore,it's different from our residential place.The air was cool,refreshing and windy.There are groups of people loitering enjoyably,airing themselves and chatting.

Cousin Totong finds an area to stay.He leans under the coconut tree.He calls me to rest with him,but I was timid and just stand three meters away from the tree-afraid of the coconuts might fall on me.Onyok was at a distance peeing.Totong tells that he was in this beach yesterday resting in the same coconut tree.

While Totong narrating,I can't help looking up to the coconut repeatedly some lapse of seconds.I felt a premonition of impending danger because of the vulnerability of its drupes that were twisted when blown by winds.My attention is divided into my cousin and the tree.I look up again and the drupes fell down and my body abruptly hop backward seeming someone is pulling me away from danger.Totong froze when the drupes suddenly dropped in a violent noise in his front two feet away.He was lucky not hit by the fall.Onyok from afar,still not finish peeing is shocked when he heard the impact and quickly look on us to see what's going on.Astonishment marks on our faces at that time.

Then we moved to a safe area,again under a coconut tree.But we make sure that it's not capable of what's happened a while ago.It grows slantly and has no fruit.We loitered there eat our snacks and talk about the incident.

Totong asked me how do I know that it fell down and quickly escape the falling drupes.I answered him that I feel something imminent and my body just automatically dodge when I know that it's about to hit me.Onyok is laughing ridiculously talking about what he saw on Totong's face and mine that were astounded and bodies froze like an ending of a drama's episode.

After hours of talking and feel already cooled by the wind in the sea, we decided to go home bringing with us the stigma of the incident in our minds.We still recurring the thing we had in the beach when we got home.

Until now,what I had experienced in the beach is still here with me,not even forgot the date November 22,2009.And the escape,whoever pulled me out from danger or was it just my inner instinct?or whatever it was?I thanked God very much for giving me such alertness.