THE WALLET / ANG KALUPI by: Benjamin M. Pascual

The Wallet / Ang Kalupi

It was a hot Sunday morning when Aling Marta went out the marketplace to buy some supplies for her son's graduation party. Amidst the bustling of the people, and the noise of buyers and sellers, and chatter of passers-by, Aling Marta was bumped the scruffy-looking young boy, clothed in a greasy shirt and tattered pants and his face was riddled by sweat and grime. Easily irritated, Aling Marta hollered at him; the child only apologized and simply ran off. Marta only let the boy go with a scoff. Upon paying for her supplies, she reached down her sundress pocket for her wallet only to find out that it is gone. She was thunderstruck by this, and suddenly, like a beam of light, she realized the scruffy boy might have taken it. She scurried along the crowds looking for that boy. She then found him sitting on a corner near the outpost of the local police service. She then took the boy by the neck and brought him to the nearby outpost. She explained the situation to the officers. She kept insisting the kid to give back her lost wallet but the he kept on denying it. Calmly the officer took a journal and jotted down the details and the profile of the boy and Marta. Aling Marta was irritated by the process of interrogation, so she took matter into her own hands. She gripped the boy's arm tightly, almost clotting his blood from the intensity. She hollered and yelled while the kid fought out of her clasp. From the fear and confusion the kid ran off the outpost. The officers and Aling Marta chased after him. The kid reached the freeway and in an instant, he was run over by a car. He was thrown off the pavement propelled by the impact. The officers took control and brought him to a hospital. Still raging amidst the incident, Aling Marta still insisted the boy to give back her wallet With every ounce of energy he had left, he kept on explaining that he is innocent. And in that moment, the boy's head tilted with his eyes closing. The nurse took his pulse but here was none. There was a long silence in the room. Aling Marta returned home by noon, carrying her purchases, exhausted from what had happened. She was met by her husband, somewhat giving her a confused look. By that remark, Aling Marta's heart fell down the ground like an anvil. She nearly collapsed, and the voice of the young boy whom she accused kept on echoing in her mind. She only thought. Why? why? 

The moral lesson is we should always know the truth behind every circumstances. Just like in the story in which the woman did not know what really happened between her and the boy.