@z_graeden 3 June 2021

Gurabis: Match

"*Inka man gumatang gurabis, adeng*." (Will you please buy me "gurabis", little sister) My "bayaw" asked me while handing me a 5 peso coin. I took the coin and asking myself what could "gurabis" be while I was walking to the sari-sari store, jaja... "*Apo, pabili. Apoo*," I called out with an Ilocano accent. "*Gumatang nak man ti gurabis*," A woman on her early 30's came inside the store. "*Anto man*?" She asked. Though I can't speak in Pangalatot because I am just new in town but I undertood what she said because it has slight similarity with our dialect. "*Pabili po ng gurabis*," I replied. "*Ana ajay gatangem kade, neneng*?" She repeatedly asked what I was going to buy.. "*Ana met atoyen nga dumorolot 'ya, tuleng nga agpayso.*" Her father walked in. Unknowingly, the woman has a little hearing disorder that's why she was asking repeatedly. I took the little box and the 3-peso change from the man and said to myself, so this is what gurabis is? Jaja.. A box of matchsticks lang pala. I remembered this because it was the first unfamiliar word I came across the first time I stepped in the lowlands. As I read upon a story I stumbled in a facebook page, I was again reminded of this word. And the story goes like this. ********** A boy of 5 and his best buddy was born and grew on the mountains of the Cordillerans, a place where hectares of vegetation can be seen. Their crops include potato, Baguio beans, wombok, cabbage and many more. Lets call him Nonong and his buddy Padsico. Nonong was a very active kid, he could play just like the older kids do. Having grown on the mountains with no hint of technology distractions, together with others they played tirelessly on the hills or anywhere they please. They have lots of unwavering energy that any healthy child possesses. Upon waking in the morning, Nonong grabbed his "bangking" ( not in pairs) "ismagol" and went to his neighbors, his playmates whom he chased around. They spent their time playing jolens (marble), tatsing lata or tumbang preso, text card, top, sipa and rubber band games. These were the games they had during their childhood days of so-called "eleben" (eleven). A child with that condense milk trying to be extracted from those two hill holes on his face but the child won't let go and get those condensed milk again. Just to find it irresistible for those things to stay inside and just let it flow creating two "1s", thus, they termed it eleven (11). Well, did you get it..? (Sipon yun na pinapabalikbalik lng sa loob😅). Nonong, as little as he was was always defeated when they played tumbang preso. He wore an ismagol which is too big for him that no matter how he tried to throw it hard as he might but can't hit the can. This made him always the "taya". Ismagol was what they call for slippers. And he wore his father's. One day, Nonong and Padsico was playing marbles while Nonong's uncle, a bachelor (unmarried) and chainsmoker was watching them. He kept lighting his previously smoked cigars. Maybe he had no more money left to buy new ones that's why he was smoking his unfinished sticks. He kept blowing of the smokes and sometimes let it out his nose or maybe even on his eyes😝.. Later on, this uncle went to the toilet some distance away and left the match he had been using to light his cigarettes. The two naughty boys took and started to play with it. They get a matchstick, have the black part on the rough surface on the side of the box while holding it upwards on the other end. With the other hand they snap the middle part with their finger. The stick would then light up and flipped to the air and landed afar. Whiw, they were enjoying themselves doing it over and over again until there were only two matches left. They will play with the other and leave the other one so that the uncle would have something to light his poor cigarette. Padsico held the match on the lighting side of the box while little Nonong snapped it real hard. Krssssst.... It lit. "Jajaja," they laughed Flipped into the air burning. Then it went down landing on what was unfortunately on the man's house's ceiling. It was thatched with cogon grass. Smoke ascended the air from where the match landed. A wind blew and it lit. Fire started to consume the cogon. They tried to throw their slippers but it won't reach the part where the fire was. Soon the fire got bigger and bigger devouring the entire ceiling. "Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! Nonong shouted calling his uncle who wasn't done yet with his thing. "Your house is on fire!" He added. "How in the world when I was not even cooking?!" He smelled something's really burning, perhaps. Hurriedly, he lifted his trousers up and ran out of the toilet and to his house. Nonong saw the water dipper filled with water and took it running to reach his uncle. Maybe this was what he was supposed to wash his buttom but then forgot to do so because of the incident 😅. The uncle was shouting nonstop. He was crying. His body almost twisting as if trying to double his body in attempt he can put off the fire. He picked soil, threw it at the fire then reached for the water in the drum and threw it also in the air to the ceiling. He kept shouting for his neighbors for help. Padsico and Nonong joined him call for help. Though many have come to helped, the cogon- thatched ceiling already was consumed by fire. The walls of pinewood were still on fire even when it was being dashed with water. The man's house was already gone. Burned to the ground. He was not able to salvage anything from his belongings. The only thing he was left with was his clothes behind his back. After a couple of days, the two buddies met. Nonong: Halla..😞 We burned uncle's house. Padsico: Yeah.. What really have we done.. What'll we do, tell them? Nonong: We should. We'll tell them the match accidentally landed on the ceiling causing the fire. Let's face the consequence to be whipped because we reallg did it. Padsico: Ahhhh jujuju😥.. I don't want to. I have this boil on my butt and was not yet ripe. When I will be whipped that it'll explode and I will die.. Do you want me to die? And because Nonong was only a child, remember, a 5 year-old child? He was left to believe that when Padsico's boil will explode when whipped then it would cause his death. With that, they kept it themselves as secret. Days, weeks and months that eventually turned to years since that incident and they still didn't tell it to anyone. Nobody came to know that they were the culprit in burning uncle's house. It was totally wiped out from uncle's memory lane and so does with the villagers. They said it was caused by a lightning- the house was struck with lightning and caused the fire. Padsico, died of heart attack 12 years ago. Nonong,his bestfriend, on the other hand was already 52 years old and doing good with his career. Even if I am going to tell in our place that I was once a villain some 47 years ago, they will doubt it because the only witness had already passed away. As for the old man, he was already 87 years old, a bedridden and anytime he will say babye world. Nonong's plan was to be in charge of the old man's tomb. That even when they burned his house decades ago, a little help would do. ____ *This was written in a very creative writing in Ilocano. But I wasn't able to do it in this translation.* 05-04-21 *****z_graeden*****