Fall For You

FOURTH FALL

Seira.

“Nono... look.  A...  fairy. Look at her ... wings...?”

I watched Nina jump in excitement as Weirdo tried to read her sign language. I don’t know how, but I guess he read it right. Nina pointed on what she just finished drawing at the sand. Nono looked at it for a while, clapped his hands and patted Nina in the head. 

“It’s... nice. The tail is big! It’s... colorful!” Nono said awkwardly, trying real hard to convince Nina that he liked her work although even I can’t quite pinpoint the difference between the head and the wings of the fairy Nina drew. 

But fairies don’t have tails. It’s her foot, I’d like to tell Nono. It’s not colorful. It’s just white, the color of the sand.

It’s already afternoon, and they are currently drawing on the sand using a stick. We were now on the side of the shore, under the shade of the coconut trees that tower above us. I was just quietly sitting on a fallen tree trunk while keeping an eye on them, because Inang Ligaya asked me to do so. She said that she and some other women in the village, including Ulan, are going to the nearby pond to wash their clothes, curtains, and mats.

“Make sure you never let them get lost from your sight. They’ll surely start trouble before you know it.”

Inang repeated that almost five times more before she finally left, and all that I can do is just nod at her. Sure enough, the two children ran outside of their house as soon as Inang and the other women were out of sight.

“Woooow! Is that a robot?”

I mentally did a face palm as I watched weirdo looking at Nono’s drawing. They were in front of me, so I can clearly see Nono’s work. Weirdo is slightly tilting his head, perhaps trying to identify what could the object that Nono draw be.

Why is he even here?

“Ro... bot? What is a robot?” Weirdo’s face looked at Nono and they both stared at each other for a couple of seconds. Perhaps weirdo just realized that he should not speak of things like that. In just one look, anyone could say that this village isn’t aware of neither technology nor electricity.

I was waiting for any excuse weirdo would give, when he brushed up his right hand through his hair and laughed really, really...

Awkward.

“R-Robot? H-hahaha! I mean, a row-boat. You know, ride a boat? Then row?” He tried to explain while moving his hands exaggeratedly. He was drawing an invisible triangle in the air—though I’m pretty sure that if that was really a boat it will sink the moment it was put on water—and rowed as if he was just trying to mince garlic using a gigantic mortar and pestle.

Okay, fine. Maybe that’s just a little too exaggerated.

“What is a boat?” The little boy asked again. Nina also stopped from what she was drawing and watched the weirdo. The two children gawked at him, while I just sighed.

“You don’t even know what a boat is?!” Weirdo asked them, and they both shook their heads as an answer. I cleared my throat to get his attention. When he looked at me I looked at him blankly.

 “I-I mean... a boat? Of course you don’t know what a boat is! Children don’t need to know about it. H-hehe.”

“C’mon Kuya Aries, what is a boat? Is that an animal? Have you ride on it before? Is it big?” Nono asked with excitement his eyes.