Life is a game. Winning is tough in this world full of
uncertainties. Sometimes, the luck is in your hand, sometimes it slips. You
need to take the risks for you to gain more even your life is at stake. When I was a child, I played the game that
might not give me the chance to see the sun shining.
It was summer of 2003. The barangay was celebrating
its fiesta. For children, it is an exciting moment as they can go to
“peryahan”. The place is a transient settlement of people outside the barangay
who installs playing equipment such as a wheel of lights bearing numbers. This
is opposite of what my cousin’s cousins, who came from Metro Manila, thought
about “peryahan” which is an amusement place where ferris wheel and other
dizzy- causing rides are put up. What I knew about it was it is plainly playing.
I was brave in losing ten pesos a night which I got the money from my parents.
It was normal.
I and my sister met one night during that time to
play. I went to dice game area which your one peso can be doubled or tripled if
the three dices will show the letters where you put your bet. It was my
strategy to grow my money for me to join the games that need higher amount.
When I knew that I earned ample coins, I went to
shooting the ball game. This game could make your money to multiply ten times
if you put your bet on the right numbers that are landed by the two balls being
shoot in a funnel- like can.
It was my lucky night. My ten pesos grew into 41
pesos. It was my highest winning since I learned playing in a place like that.
The smoke from the lighted cigarettes did not stop me to test my luck. I was
eager to win more. There was no plan of leaving early until an altercation
happened.
Somebody shouted, “Si Omeng. Awit- awit nay samurai
na.” (Omeng is here. He carries his samurai.) For us, Bolinao speakers, we
refer samurai as a sharp, metal sword but actually it is katana. Omeng is known
as a drunkard in our community. Other people were screaming and running like cheetah.
When I and my sister were escaping the place, my coins went out from my pocket.
I cannot afford to lose what I hardly earned. I stopped and picked up the
one-peso coins one by one. What important at the moment was my money and not my
life. My aunt shouted at me to join her leave the area.
I was reprimanded by my parents about what I did. I
learned a lesson that I still carries in my heart today: it is all right to
lose money than to lose life. Do not exchange your life with things that are
fleeting.
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