Star Apples
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
There were round and violet star apples perched on big branches of a huge Caimito tree, reason enough to stay one late afternoon in elementary school.
As if taunting, the best ones came perching at the end of the branches, and you need to slowly move inch by inch towards where they were. I knew the branches were weak and can not hold much weight. So I coaxed my friend who was smaller than I was to be the one to move towards the end of the branch. We will shake the branches together and pick up the fallen fruits on the ground.
He did as told ever so carefully, and then we both shook the tree while holding on to smaller branches for balance. As we shook, leaves swayed and fruits fell, then the branch cracked. I held on to the tree trunk while my friend plummeted to the soft earth below! I thought I saw blood, and I became as light as feather as I climbed down that tree. I feared he died, and that it was my fault, so I shouted for help. Then things started to move in slow motion as people gathered around the boy with blood oozing out of his head. They brought him to the hospital.
I was still dazed and sweating as I walked briskly towards my mom’s store in the market. She asked what’s wrong? I said I’m fine, and she let me be. But I was still shaking because I thought I killed a human being that day. Did I?
A few days after that fateful afternoon I saw a boy with a mammoth bandage on his head, and he was climbing that same Caimito tree. He beckoned that I come pick some. I shook my head and said, No thanks, not today my friend.
