The rooster was making its last crow as he wiggled out of the mosquito net. He checked to see whether the rolled out *banig was wet.

“Thank God!” he exclaimed, seeing his palm dry after running his hand across the mat. The scolding from his mom and the ridicule by his siblings would be more than enough to ruin his day.

“Bedwetter! Bedwetter!” They’d certainly jeer without mercy.

After a simple breakfast of rice and leftover chicken stew, he stepped down the bamboo and nipa house on stilts to check out the farm animals.

“You want to come with me to check out the rice fields today?” his cousin asked.

“Sure!” He felt a rush of current in his body since it would be another exciting adventure with his cousin.

“Okay, I’ll be on a horse and you’ll ride a cow.”

“Yippee!” He jumped up and down, waving his hands in the air.

Being 12 years old and his cousin 16, his eyes widened on seeing contrasting shadows as the morning sun warmed their backs. They walked towards the corral where a horse, a cow, and a water buffalo were swatting flies with their tails. They craned their necks as if to say “hello”.

His cousin laid a burlap sap on the cow’s back and pulled the cow close to a stump so he could mount it.

With his cousin leading, they rode towards the rice fields, crossing a shallow river and maneuvering up a steep slope along the way. His legs gripping the cow’s back and the steady pull on the rope that was attached to the cow’s nose ring kept him from sliding off.

With hardly any tree to provide sheltering shadows, they covered **hectares of rice fields in full sun. They dismounted somewhere in the middle.

“Now, I’ll show you how to trap birds,” his cousin said while gathering a flat, dried up water buffalo dung cake and a piece of stick. “You lay the cake on the ground and then prop one end up with this stick.”

He managed to secure the cake with the stick after several tries.

“You see?” his cousin said, bragging about his ingenuity. “We’ll come back later to see whether we’ve caught anything.”

“Okay,” he replied, his lips curling into a smile.

“Let’s go back home.”

His cousin lifted him up since he noticed him struggling to mount the cow in absence of a stump.

“Now, remember what I told you to do when we approach the steep slope, okay?” instructed his cousin.

“Uh huh,” he said in a measured way, his heart skipping a beat as soon as he heard “the slope”.

Trying to temper his apprehension, he scanned the horizon. The morning breeze cooled his face, his bare feet kicking the sides of the cow to keep up with his cousin.

The steep slope was getting closer, his heart beating a little bit faster now.

“Remember what you have to do, okay?” he mumbled, his cousin already vanishing from view.

As the cow stepped on the slope, he strained to grab the cow’s tail.

“Oh, no!” he groaned!

The tail swished away from his reach, his cousin’s instructions echoing in his brain, “Grab hold of the tail, so you’ll not slide down!”

Having no tail to hang onto, he tightened the grip on the cow’s back with his legs, the burlap sack providing no adequate friction. Unfortunately, his 3-foot leg span was inadequate in keeping him on the cow’s back.

Within seconds, gravity taking hold, he slid down the cow’s back towards the cow’s neck. Being a heavy weight to carry on its neck, the cow tossed him up in the air. He flipped over and landed on his forehead right behind the horse, missing its hooves.

“Ow, ow, ow!” he screamed, his cousin’s horse stopping to a halt.

“What happened?” his cousin asked as he pulled him up from the ground.

“I wasn’t quick enough in grabbing the cow’s tail!” he moaned through gritted teeth, his forehead pulsing.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk! Well, it’s a good thing that nothing serious happened to you other than a bleeding forehead.”

He couldn’t remember anymore whether his mother felt sorry for him or whether he got creamed for being careless. His siblings certainly came up with another tease.

He didn’t dare to go back to check whether they caught a bird.

________________

*banig is a handwoven mat traditionally used in Philippines for sleeping.
**hectarae = 2.47 acres