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I was lying in the attic for half an hour due to an upset stomach when I heard someone calling out my name from outside our bunk house. His voice obscured by the heavy rain hitting the galvanized iron roof. Wondering, I hurriedly went downstairs to see him.

It was Charlie, almost drenched and taking shelter under the soffit then, walked away signalling me to follow him. At the side of Lachica’s store, in front of the public faucet, we stopped.

From a dim portion an image appeared. It was Dani, holding an umbrella in his right hand and dashed closer to us.

‘Get another umbrella and go with us,’ Charlie said.
‘Why?‘ I asked wiping my wet face.
‘Don’t ask anymore question. Go, hurry.‘

So I went back home and cautiously I grabbed my sister’s umbrella inside her bag and bolted downstairs.

Good thing, my mother and my sisters were still at the kitchen and possibly babbling on funny topics over fried ‘bangus’ and ‘tinola’ we had for dinner.

The rain was falling heavily now, then, Dani signalled as he moved out in the rain followed by Charlie. Hesitantly, I tailed them, my feet drenched with the spattering of clay and rain water.

Just really wondering where we were going as we didn’t take the main road. Perhaps it was dark and to avoid being splattered with mud from passing trucks we took the winding rocky pathway along the bunk houses of Section 3, as if going to an important mission.

The two boys in front of me, as far I could guess, were into something, really certain where to go unmindful of the heavy downpour that drenched their pants.

We passed by Gado’s house, still the lights on at the kitchen and probably Mang Pepe was having his dinner, alone again, as he used to most of the times. ‘Would my friend ever come back?‘ I asked my self for Gado left without notice after finishing second year high school in Acoje.

The two tailor shops that we passed by were likewise open and still probably waiting for last minute customers. I still got a pair of pants repaired by Navarro’s though.

‘Charlie, we won’t be long ha?‘ I asked trying to keep pace with them.

He didn’t answer.

Going out in the rain with just a slipper on was the awful thing for to me to do.

That’s why I begged my mother heavily just before the school had opened to buy me a pair of rubber shoes, even if I had to do the fetching of water all my life.

True enough, I got a brand new Adidas which was bought from Dagupan just in time for school opening, and natually I kept my promise – cleaned and filled the bottles regularly.

Before going to school or late in the evening I made sure that I had done my duty religiously, putting the empty ‘dos-por-dos’ bottles one by one onto a plastic bucket, and carried them to the public faucet not far from us, and fill them with fresh and clean water.

I had to do this chore very early as getting up late would mean putting my bucket at the end of the queue.

Normally during weekends children around the neighborhood like Indang, Luz, Zaldy or Malin would congregate in front of the faucet while we took turn filling up those empty bottles, telling stories in between, or singing songs especially when Malin was in the mood to do it. Malin had such a wonderful voice and played the guitar very well.

Will you go to school today?‘ my teacher, Mrs. Lachica, asked peeping from the window above, just fresh from her shower.

‘Yes madam.’ I said.

After filling the bottles I carried them all back to the kitchen, arranging them neatly and closely together beside a cupboard. That’s the only instance when I had to use slippers while at home or doing house chores.

But tonight, as I scampered into the dimly lit and muddy alleys under a night of heavy rain, I didn’t mind putting on my rubber shoes, leaving my tender feet muddied.

‘Hurry, what are you thinking?‘ Charlie said signalling his right hand, while Dani just appeared focused, his vision on the path ahead.

‘Nothing. I’m moving, okay.’

We turned right and crossed the wooden bridge, the water under it roaring and flowing heavily. Though we didn’t enter the market, I could see the stall owners fixing and covering their goods with plastic covers as the downpour swept heavily through the open holes and cracks on the roof.

We climbed the staircases and passed through the commissary store where Joe’s girlfriend saw us, hesitantly waving her hand as the Chinese man, Mr Tan was beside her.

I was still amazed at the pace we were going.

Then we turned left and up the two stairs along a row of staff houses, then walking past another staff house, Dani stopped. I stopped too and so with Charlie, and looking side to side, Dani pointed on something to me.

‘There,’ he said.

Then Charlie stepped closer to the fence and slowly removed two planks while I held the umbrella. The rain even poured mightily, with strong winds, swaying the pine trees that stood beside the alley going up the chapel.

Charlie stooped and reached out his hands as if reaching for something.

‘C’mon help me out here, take one okay,‘ he said.

Hesitantly, I bended my body and reached out my right hand through the open gap.

‘Take the good ones.‘ Charlie said.

I touched the lower portion of the bough and squeezed them a bit then pulling one by one and handed them over to Dani, while his head looking side to side, his eyes squinting through the hazy image of the staff house in front of us, wiping his face as the gush of rain disturbed his vision.

‘Hurry up, someone might be inside the house.’ Dani whispered.

I grabbed one last of those then, Charlie neatly returned the two planks of the fence. We hurriedly climbed up the stairs above the chapel and out to the road below the high school building.

The rain started to dwindle when we walked separately before midnight.

The next day, the other eight boys with Charlie and Dani were waiting for me under the shed in front of the high school building, smiling and looking at me.

‘Could this be another day for me or something I wouldn’t just be expecting again?‘ my brain had asked.

I wasn’t used to be teased around but I could gel with any one and to any sort of circumstances but surprises like the one we did the other night really scared the hell out of me.

‘Oh no, not again going bananas,‘ my mind complaining, uneasy and, sheepishly smiling as I approached them into the shed, they reached their right hands to me, and we clasped and patted my shoulder and said, ‘Welcome to Fantasya!‘

My world was never the same again.

To Fantasya, Long live guys!