The Three Siblings

THE THREE SIBLINGS

 

I saw them again yesterday walking barefooted at the soft sand of the shore where I used to play when I was young then. The girl, who is the youngest of the three started walking until she reached near the water where empty seashells are found, washed up in the beach. She started picking up molluscan seashells, gathering them in her pocket while throwing back to the water those she seems not appealing to her.

Meanwhile, the two boys gathered some dried coconut palm leaves and laid them over the sand. They sat together; the younger one started strumming his guitar which he used to bring whenever he went to the seashore. It is the younger boy who is fond of music, although all of them can sing fairly and can play guitar. Soft as a whisper, the boy started humming a tune that he only could sing. Perhaps he inherited from his father the talent of a song composer. He doesn't care about what's happening around him so as long as he has his guitar with him and can freely express his thoughts in a song, that what makes his day. He didn't even notice that his elder brother left him and went under the coconut trees.

While the two were busy at the beach, the eldest’s eyes were keen in looking for some edible fern scattered under the coconut trees, but he didn't miss to check his younger siblings by gazing at them once in a while. He is not good in identifying whether a fern is edible or not, but he has to do it for some heavy reason. Thanks to technology! Whenever he has some doubt about his pick on these flowerless spores, he quickly resorts to it. Smartphone has been a necessity to him since they were left without their parents due to the lockdown imposed by the government thru the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) in connection with the Covid19 Pandemic. In the absence of parents, the eldest is the one who bears the weight of all the responsibilities the parents can render to their children.

Just as he got hand full of Paco, he felt a drop of rain upon his shoulder as he heard his young brother shouting, calling their sister to hurry up not to be caught by the rain. The two ran hurriedly heading home as their house is just about a few blocks away from the shore. The eldest continue to look for more vegetable after watching his siblings ran hurriedly. He managed to smile while shaking his head slowly until he noticed that he was talking to himself again. He has to add some more ferns for that will be their viand for their supper. Unknown to his siblings, he loves walking under the rain for this is the time he can let the burden burst out in a form of tears. He doesn't want to be seen as weak. He has to beat the challenge...to fight for life.

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