The Color of My Fears [COMPLETE]

Chapter 1 - Dare to Race [#6]

Nilo tapped a brown bag sewed from an old sack (sako) used to pack fifty kilos of rice. I hadn't noticed it earlier. The bag seemed to have appeared out of nowhere at the moment he said something about the bird. It dangled from the right side of his carabao, the bag dotted with little holes, one end tied tightly by a length of cotton string and the other end tied around his waste.

"You don't have a pet. You don't know how to feed a dog, let alone a bird," I taunted him. "Let me see," I said.

"Let him see it," Edwin echoed what I just said. He winked at Nilo, his eyes bulging. I wondered why Edwin felt so excited. The two were really into it.

"Don't get too excited, Edwin. You might lose your breath again," I told him. He had had bouts of asthma and we boys were careful enough not to start teasing him easily.

I wondered where Nilo got the bird. He climbed down from his carabao and untied the string from his waist, pulled up the brown bag and started to loosen the opening. With one hand holding the bag, he took out a small makeshift cage. The cage was crudely constructed of small bamboo sticks tied together with small colored rubber bands (ligas), like the ones we wore around our wrists as playthings.

"I caught the bird near Tio Berto's house," Nilo said as he struggled with the bag. "It didn't attempt to fly when I grabbed it."

I caught a glimpse of black feathers inside the cage. Kkrrr... a sound emanated from it when Nilo tried to put his hands inside.

"See, it was perching on the bayabas tree when I caught it bare-handed," Nilo proudly declared, holding the cage high for me to see clearly. Edwin edged closer to the cage. He was distracted by the bird, its countenance exuding something, inviting us to perceive what it was. Edwin dropped the small plastic bag of tino-tino to the ground.

Nilo's words were lost on me. I hurriedly climbed down from my carabao, immediately got hold of the cage from Nilo and stared at the bird. Turning the cage around, I inspected its strange occupant. I confirmed my suspicion: no bigger than a maya, the bird was black, claws and beak and feathers all. It stared back right at me.

How strange the bird looked inside the cage. So strange and yet I discerned a strain of the familiar...

[End of Chapter 1]

-ooo-