Tales from the Inn in the Middle of Nowhere

CHAPTER 6: The Boy, the Guardian, and the Hound

Robbie picked up the rake and began to gather leaves that accumulated within the week. He would only come to the inn during weekends; a promise that he must keep. His stomach growled. He had not eaten yet. He half lamented his decision to turn down Kat's offer of breakfast. But upon seeing the new visitor, shyness took hold of him. Still, he hoped that like before, someone from the family would serve him an early snack. He moved vigorously, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. He could not shake off the fear that would always shadow him. Memories rushed unbidden. He regretted that day and wished he had not left the house... had not been impulsive ...had not thought ill of others...had not come here.

The first time he came here was when his father took him to help in installing electrical wirings for the new house being built. He heard that the owner of the house was a former soldier who found the mortgaged land online and bought it. Soldier or not, Robbie thought Mateo was not so bright. The workers would often talk about how gullible he was for entrusting the men with everything. Mateo brought all the materials that he and his wife purchased early. He was so trusting that the men were only too happy to take charge whenever he's not around. One by one, the valuable supplies disappeared. All the while, Mateo thought everything was kept inside a huge box for safe keeping. The workers assumed a straight face whenever Mateo was around because he was a good client. He always paid the workers on time or even ahead of time- like in the case of Robbie's father who already advanced his wage for the yet-to-be-constructed second floor. His father had never been able to begin his work on the second floor because he died months before its construction.

Robbie met Ma'am Ella one weekend of March while he was helping his father. Mateo told his wife that he would be one of her students. Robbie's father corrected Mateo at once, saying that his son would be graduating by the end of that school year. Blissfully unaware, Robbie's father was fooled by no less than his own wife into thinking that their son was going to graduate that year. In connivance with his mother, they would frequently borrow money from Mateo using Robbie's father as an alibi. However, all the money Robbie's family borrowed from Mateo would be buried in memory like his father who died unexpectedly.

Ella would meet Robbie once again during her first year of teaching in the local high school. It was her turn to be surprised upon learning that the boy would be one of her students in the eighth grade. All the while, she believed that the boy had already graduated that previous summer. Two weeks after the opening of classes, Robbie's mother, Aling Mara, came to ask Ella not to tell her husband that Robbie was not in the tenth grade. The teacher agreed not to be the first to inform the father but insisted that Mara should be the one to tell the truth to her husband. And the sooner, the better. Robbie's mother promised hollowly. But it did not last a month before Robbie returned to his old ways of cutting classes and acting like a jackass. He had a partner in crime, Alvin John. They would skip class early in the mornings by waiting for the students to get in their rooms after the flag ceremony before jumping over the fence and slipping to the lake where they'd stay to smoke cigarettes to their hearts' content.

Robbie thought school was boring. And he disliked his English class the most. He hated his former English teacher. She used to punish him for anything he did in class by pinching the skin on his stomach, twisting it, and then pulling the skin up mercilessly. He rejoiced when parents petitioned her removal from the school. But then Robbie's celebration was short lived. The new teacher came in. And like the rest of the teachers, the new one would often reprimand him for either being late, skipping class, or being absent. But she never laid a hand on him or any of the students. Still, he began to feel animosity towards her. He disliked the way she spoke English in that uppity tone of hers. He hated her confident lilt whenever she spoke of her alma mater as if its the greatest school in the world. But most of all, he detested her whole family for having more while his family could barely make ends meet. He's convinced that city folks like her always thought they're better than the locals like him.