RAMBLINGS OF THE MIND
“Yes, you still have your Cebuano intact,” Filemon smiled. “Kamangon, from the Cebuano root word, ‘kamang’ which means to crawl, because one has to literally crawl on the ground for a few feet to get inside. But it’s all worth it. Then from there we will go to the Twin Falls of Pinamungajan. It’s just a short walk from the caves. But the track will be much more challenging.”
“Is it safe? Are we going to be alright?”
“Remember, it will be alright in the end. If it is not alright, it is not the end,” and they both laughed.
The trip was definitely worth every step of it, Ed thought. He marvelled at the ceiling of the cave and imagined the people who hid there during the war. The Twin falls were magnificent. Even his geodetic mind stopped thinking about gravitational field, or geodynamical phenomena such as crustal motion, tides, and polar motion. He was instead brought back to his childhood years, when he was here in this very town.
On their way back to town, they stopped by another waterfalls which was as beautiful as it was stunning. They called it Liki Falls. Filemon did not offer any translation, but he had this naughty smile when Ed asked him what it meant. Ed saw the people swimming and was tempted to join them and enjoy the crystal clear waters down below.
The sound of the water flowing, the rustle of the leaves, the smell of the forest, everything captivated Ed, and for a while he was lost in a place where he doesn’t want to be found. That was when he missed a step. He didn’t see the slippery rock!
“Aaaaarrrrrgh!” then a big splash. Ed fell from the track beside the falls and rolled all the way down the water.
Filemon rushed down and pulled Ed from the water. Some guys who were swimming came to help. They put Ed on a grassy flat ground.
“I think I broke my right leg, aaargh.”
“Please let me through, my uncle is a doctor,” a man shouted as he pushed everybody out. He carefully held the leg down, removed the shoe and pulled the pants up to the knee. And immediately they see the blood trickling from just below the right knee.
After a few strokes up and down the leg, the man declared, “No broken bones, just a few bruises. But your ankle is very sore, it will swell, but you will be alright.”
“You better let him rest for a while at your house. You can continue when the swelling is over,” he instructed Filemon like a doctor advising a nurse in the emergency room.
It turned out that Filemon lived nearby so he invited Ed to his small house. Like most of the houses in the villages of Pinamungajan, the house was more about function than form, without the unnecessary walls and divisions. It was overlooking a huge rice field.
The lunch was simple but very sumptuous. Ed had never eaten so much in his life. Filemon’s house was very neat and organized. There were no clutters, though it appeared that he lived alone. After eating, Filemon brought Ed to a chair and rested his right leg up on a small wooden box.
Right in front of Ed was an old cabinet with an old mirror in the middle. Ed saw some pictures, trophies, medals, and in the middle (covering most of the mirror) was the image of Mary, the Mother of Perpetual Help. But Ed’s attention was caught by a small picture inserted in the lower left corner of the frame.
