by A A Lee
“You have to eat first,” Nora said. “Tell your men to eat as well. You have had a long journey, and the return will be equally tiring.”
“You don’t have to worry, High Priestess. We have prepared well for this trip.” Jinja was once again assuming the role of charming representative for his village, rather than the snake that Nora knew him to be.
“Just taste our food and then we will proceed with the payment.”
Jinja did not argue. He motioned for his men to eat and started eating quietly. Nora also began to eat, and the two of them spent several minutes focused entirely on their lunch before she decided to speak.
“So, considering that you didn’t have a good experience here, I was surprised that you came yourself to collect the payment.” Nora drank a glass of water as she finished her meal.
“My father wanted me to come here for this important matter. He couldn’t trust it to his men.”
“I see.” Nora clutched the purse and felt the gold against the smooth cloth. “Since you have finished eating, let’s go ahead and discuss the payment.”
Jinja nodded politely, and Nora’s eyes sharpened with anger. No matter how much Jinja pretended to be a good man, she knew that he was deceitful.
“I have fifteen hundred kwartas here.”
“But…”
Nora held up her hand to silence him. “And I have gold that has been passed down to me by my mother, which she received from her mother. I am extremely sad to let this go, but with this debt hanging over me, I don’t have a choice.” Nora opened the purse and took out the gold.
Jinja’s eyes widened, and he gasped.
“I believe this is worth more than two thousand kwartas. I am giving this to you out of respect for your father.”
“Of course, High Priestess. Thank you for treating my father with such respect.” Jinja’s eyes never left the gold nugget in Nora’s hand.
Nora extended her hand to Jinja, and he received the gold with both hands. He reminded Nora of a hungry dog. She took the rest of the money from the purse and handed it to him.
“I would like you to pass a message to your father.”
“Of course, High Priestess. I will be glad to pass on the message.”
“Tell your father that we will do our best to collect the remaining amount, and that I am thankful for his patience.”
“I will tell him, High Priestess. Word for word.”
There was something disconcerting about the smile Jinja gave Nora, but she tried to ignore it. Quite simply, she couldn’t wait for the young man to leave.
* * *
“Wow! I can’t believe that that poor village has gold. I have never seen gold in my whole life,” Dasig exclaimed. Due to his efforts in chasing Kenda, Jinja’s trust in him had increased and, consequently, he had assigned him as one of his bodyguards.
Jinja did not answer. He was thinking hard while climbing the Budlay path.
“I hope they will have more gold when we return,” Dasig continued.
Jinja raised his hand to silence him. Dasig had been babbling on and on excitedly since leaving the High Priestess’ house.
“Listen, everyone. When we arrive in Taa, there is to be no mention of the gold.”
“What? You mean to say that we should lie?” Dasig responded in disbelief.
“No. You keep your mouth shut.”
“But your father will be furious when he finds out—”
“He will not, unless you tell him.” Jinja cut Dasig off. He stopped moving and shot a murderous look at his bodyguard.
Dasig planted his feet securely in one of the carved footsteps and also stopped moving. He bowed his head and said, “I am sorry, but I don’t think that I can lie to the village chief. He has helped me a lot, and the gold will help him to make our village better.”
“I am sorry, too,”
“Does that mean that we can tell him about the gold?”
“No. I am sorry because…” Jinja stepped closer to Dasig and pushed him from the path. He plummeted into the river. Dasig cried out, but he was silenced by the swirling current as it carried him away.
Jinja turned to the rest of his men. “Does anyone else feel the need to tell my father?”
No one answered. The five men tried to remain composed, but it was clear that they were all afraid of their master.
“Do I have to ask you again?” Jinja said, angrily this time.
“No,” replied the men, almost as one.
“Then let’s hurry. Let’s make sure that idiot, Dasig, will not come back to open his mouth.”
Jinja and the rest of his men crossed the difficult path and climbed down to the river. Dasig had been able to break the surface of the water and was swimming toward the riverbank. He fought against the current that was pulling him toward the raging water below. The river was wide and deep, and Dasig was fast losing his strength. Jinja found a small log by the water’s edge, put it in the water, and pushed it toward Dasig. Gratitude showing on his face, he swam faster to grab it. As Jinja’s men stood on the riverbank, Jinja stepped on a big rock that was halfway immersed in the water. When Dasig finally reached him, he raised his hand toward Jinja, but instead of pulling him up, Jinja pushed Dasig’s head down.
Dasig flopped his arms to break free, but Jinja held his head firmly beneath the surface. He tried to yank free of Jinja’s grip to no avail. He was no match against Jinja because he was tired from fighting the current. In a matter of minutes, Dasig stopped struggling, but Jinja did not pull him out right away. He kept Dasig submerged in the water long enough to make sure that he was really dead.
“Carry him back to Taa. I don’t care how you do it as long as he arrives in one piece,” Jinja ordered his men. “If anyone asks, he fell from Budlay and we spent hours trying to find his body. Okay?”
The men didn’t ask any questions. They quickly gathered two bamboos and vines and created a makeshift hammock to carry Dasig’s body.
* * *
Dasig’s body was cold and stiff when they arrived in the village of Taa the following day. Three deep, slow beats from the drum that was as tall as a man sent the people out of their houses.
Three slow and deep strikes signified that someone had passed away, while three in rapid succession meant that there was an emergency or that there were enemies present. Unlike Daa, Taa’s geographic location didn’t have a good natural defense, which forced its inhabitants to come up with strategies with which to defend themselves. The people of Taa were also better trained in fighting than those from Daa through fear that their village was the easiest in the region to invade.
Women and children wailed in agony upon seeing Dasig’s corpse. Even those who did not know him well shed tears for him. People had tended to like Dasig because, even though he was a warrior, he had often been kind.
Hula came out of his house carrying a white cloth. Without a word to his son, he walked closely to the hammock and covered the body with the cloth. His shoulders dropped low. No tears came from his eyes, but the sadness was immeasurable. He, too, had liked Dasig, finding him to be among the most loyal of his men.
He motioned for the men to carry the body to his house. By far one of the largest structures in Taa, his house showed that he was the head of the village. Normally, the dead were kept in their own houses for three days of mourning, but Dasig had neither house nor family.
“What happened to him?” Hula asked as the men laid the corpse down on the floor.
“He fell from the Budlay path.” Jinja bowed his head to avoid his father’s eyes. He pretended to wipe nonexistent tears. “And even though we tried as fast as we could to find him,” he pretended to choke on his imaginary tears, “we found him, hours after, not breathing. I should have been faster. I should have saved him, but I was too scared to die.”
“Don’t blame yourself, son. What would become of me if I lost you, too?” Hula put his right hand on Jinja’s shoulder. “Let’s give him a proper burial. We’ll use some money you have
collected from Daa.”
“There might be a problem with that.” Jinja clenched his fist in exaggerated anger.
“Problem? What do you mean?”
“They only gave us fifteen hundred kwartas.”
“What? That can’t be. I would have thought they could have at least prepared half of what they owe.”
“I thought so, too, father. Dasig was just as angry as you are about it and kept on insisting for us to go back and wait for two more days for them to gather the money, but I did not listen.”
“Did you have an argument before he fell?”
“No, it wasn’t really an argument. It seemed like he was not focusing when we were taking the Budlay path because he wanted to collect more money. Now that I think about it, it makes me angry that he died because we were not able to collect the right amount.”
Hula hung his head in melancholy. “I hope that no more bodies will be claimed by this mess with the village of Daa.”
* * *
Kenda wove the straws together to make the body of the Christmas lantern. She chose red, green, and white from the sack of straws she had collected from the river.
“Wow! I hope I can be as good as you!” Daniel exclaimed. Biting his dirty fingernails, he concentrated on Kenda’s movements. Shortly after starting work at the fruit store, Kenda had been rearranging the stock one morning when the young boy who had first shown her how to collect trash and exchange it for coins came begging for food. Kenda had pleaded his case with the store owner, Lita, who had kindly allowed him to take a small quantity of fruit in exchange for his name. Since then, Daniel had been a frequent visitor to the store, if only to see Kenda.
She had been teaching the boy to make Christmas lanterns as her way of giving something back to him for the kindness that he had shown her when she was new in town. Making Christmas lanterns was far more profitable than just picking up cans and plastic, and the boy was a fast learner. She had begged Lita to let the boy stay, but the boy preferred to be on the streets with his friends.
Almost two months had passed since Lita had accepted Kenda to be a helper in her fruit store, and the lady had spent countless hours trying to teach her the language of the town. Since Lita didn’t know any of Kenda’s native language, she taught her words by pointing at things, saying their names, and asking Kenda to repeat. Kenda thought that Lita was a good teacher because, in just a matter of two months, she was now able to communicate using actions and words.
“Taw i ako it straw?” The boy tried to act cute while talking to her. Clearly, he wanted something.
It had been difficult persuading Lita to let Lucy stay with her, but after frequently promising to wash the cat and making sure that it didn’t clamber over any of the fruit displays, Kenda had managed to win her over. She suspected that part of Lita’s decision for allowing Lucy to stay was based on the fact that she knew that Kenda had no real friends besides Daniel and the cat, and she couldn’t bring to separate the young girl from her feline companion.
the cat replied accusingly.
“Sa suba.” Kenda motioned to the river. “Abo idto.” She told the kid that there were plenty there.
The boy said that he didn’t want to collect more, but Kenda refused to give him any of her straws, forcing the boy to go. Her main goal was to clean the river, and while people with money could just buy the materials to make the things they needed, homeless people like Daniel needed to pick up things to make something out of it.
People had really had no interest in trash before Kenda had started collecting it. A few weeks after she started to make Christmas lanterns and other things from trash, people started to become interested. They took pictures of her making art and other useful tools and put it on something Lita called ‘social media’, although Kenda had no idea what that was. She was becoming famous around town, and there were times when people only wanted to buy things after they had watched Kenda making it for them.
Lita did not really mind when Kenda was busy. Often, the people who came to buy Kenda’s art also bought fruit to eat while they were waiting, and, secretly, she loved nothing more than seeing the young girl smile after finishing one of her creations.
Over time, other people began to produce art out of trash. She frequently saw several homeless people picking up trash from the riverbank, intending to copy her designs. She didn’t mind people copying her ideas. She was just happy to be able to finally clean the river.
“Kenda, ilabas ta,” Lita said from the kitchen, calling Kenda to eat. Kenda put down her unfinished Christmas lantern and went inside. Lita’s store was also her house. At night, once they had brought all the external fruit displays inside, there was barely any room for them to sleep, but Kenda never complained. Anything was better than sleeping beneath the bridge.
She went straight to the kitchen in the corner of the store. A curtain gave them privacy when they wanted to eat without people seeing them. She sat down on the floor.
Lita laid a plate of rice and fish down in front of her. “Pakan a ing kuring.” She motioned toward the cat and pointed at the food. Kenda assumed that Lita was telling her to feed her cat.
Lucy had slowly become bigger since Kenda had found her. Her fur had also become fluffier because she was able to eat regularly, but the cat was still as moody as ever.
Kenda got up and transferred the food to Lucy’s plate, which was made of coconut shell.
Kenda rolled her eyes.
“Salamat.” Kenda thanked Lita and pointed at the food.
Lita just smiled and urged her to eat more.
After lunch, Kenda told Lita that she would be going out to the river to collect more straws. Upon exiting the front of the store, she saw two men arguing, and Kenda was surprised to see that one of them was the store owner to whom she had sold the gold.
“Daya imaw.” The store owner pointed at her. He looked at her apologetically and mumbled some words that were complicated for her to understand. Kenda looked at Lucy, who started to translate.
The other guy looked at him disbelievingly and started talking again in a raised voice.
The aggressive man walked toward her.
Kenda pretended not to understand him at all, even though she understood some of what he was saying.
Lita came out from the kitchen. She put her hands on her hips and asked what was going on. It was impossible for her not to hear the commotion because the store was small, and the flimsy wooden walls stood no chance of blocking out the noise.
The man appeared calmer now.
Lita sounded angry and looked like she was about to win the argument.
Rene smiled, truly happy about what he was hearing.
Agosto said goodbye when it was clear that Lita and Rene were no longer paying any attention to him. Lita offered Rene fruit to eat as Kenda left to go to the river to pick up trash.
Chapter 15
The Reunion
“And here is the last payment. I hope Hula will make good use of it.” Nora pushed the purse across the floor toward Jinja. He opened it and retrieved fifteen hundred kwartas and a gold nugget that looked like an exact twin of the one offered for the first payment.
“My father was thankful that there was no delay last month and expressed his gratitude for the gold.”
