Songs Of Psalmist (What Is My Purpose)

CHAPTER 4 (Fire & Villagers)

"Eeeek!" shrieks a young girl in the village. She was held by the hand by her mother to evacuate to their safe room. The moon shines like crimson blood, shades of black and reds all over.

"Come now, my child. Make haste. It's here again," cried the mother while they rush to a sanctuary.

Down they went underground, closed the wooden door in the floor, stepped down to that small sturdy stair, and clamped up to that crammed room that gave them cramps all over.

Fear is upon them.

Ever experience a time when you were locked up on a dark cabinet, or even inside a room, alone, while all you want to do is to shout out loud to seek some help? That it's as if you want to destroy the door quickly, if only you have the strength to do so. Well, not in their case. They should never make a sound. They would even close their noses, for the fear of making a noise with their own breaths.

"Grrr..." something growled from above, a deafening sound.

They can hear its footsteps upstairs. Not a quiet step, like the ones that burglars do. But rather big steps at that, making noises of breaking all over. Like the sounds you heard when you pass a construction site, that they even make the ground shake coz of those big machineries. The wrecker beast above keeps on growling and crashing.

They can hear that everything above them is crisping and flickering. The same sound that your mother makes when she's cooking tuyo or dried fish or deep fried chicken, but there were no tender smiles, no satisfaction of appetite. And ever tried sprinkling some water to a hot oil? That's the sound! But it's as if you're doing it as many time as you like.

"All is gonna be well, my dear," says the mother to her child, hugging her by the shoulder, "Just trust in him who's up there, he will come to the rescue"...

"Fear not, my people! Take up your courage, for that will be our greatest defense!" says the chief of the village, "Remember your family, your children, and your home! Do it for them! Charge!"... That scene probably is the most likely scenario you would want to imagine in such a desperate time. But, it's sad to be the bearer of bad news, coz that's not the case here. In that sense, it's absurd.

There were no leaders, no order, no rules, no laws, in that tragic moment. Just chaos and confusions. Deceived by the rampage, each of the villagers are just fighting for their own survival. No cooperation, no hero, no sense of justice, no more. Just desires to live and lusts to survive.

Imagine that a riot has broken in your barangay or in your class and you were caught in the middle of it. Now, what would you do?

In no direction will you not hear the cries and shrieks of every young and grownups. They're in the midst of the dark times.

"What are you doing in our village? My home, my livestock, all but burned!" shouted an old villager to the trespasser, as his entire body trembles, not of old age but of fear, "What bad deed have we done to you to deserve this atrocious judgment?" he continued shouting.

The wrecker, thankfully it seems, have not seen the elder shouting, for it was busy with its deeds. Unstoppable like a train, where everyone on its path must step aside as fast as you can. Disastrous as a wrecking ball, where everything on its path breaks into shambles.

"Fire! Fire! Fire all over! Get some buckets everyone!" cried a pregnant villager. "It's no use, my dear," his husband hugged her tight by the shoulder, "Everything is lost. We didn't call that evil beast by the name Fire for nothing. For that is what it is, an untamable, cataclysmic, all-consuming fire."

"But our home, our living, our beautiful house we just started to build," cried the woman with full of desperation.

"It's... It's okay, my dear, home is here with us," the man placed his gentle hand on his wife's tummy and kissed her forehead.