Gatan arrived in Valle Trinidad in an old worn-out vegetable truck. The driver have taken pity of him when he saw him walking down the road after the Capitol ordered the lockdown of the town thus all transportation to the Valley were barred. He needed to bring in money to his brother who is now stranded in his apartment, he along carry a sack full of with cabbages and potatoes he harvested from his small garden. He thought of his brother with joy and then with a pang of fear.
After few hours, the truck with a gate pass entered the Centro Agricultur, he look around the deserted town, he put on his facemask and saw that there are few people lining up for vegetable reliefs, he carried his sack and took the path of Calle Pico. He passes through rowdy men inside their apartments playing cards. Bored mothers with rounded bellies wait to eat relief goods too delicate for them, and highschoolers young as bamboo shoots seat outside their houses with their eyes glued on their smartphones. The sudden lockdown, made people aware of their environment, canals sweating with toxic smells, pavements with red stains, the salad bowl of the valley is shrinking inside a hot oven.
The sun struck the zenith when Gatan reached the entrance of El Nataniel, a concrete tall apartment where his brother occupies the last floor. From atop he could see closely- spaced apartments, establishments and houses in the gutter slowly reducing in the soft, muddy ground of the Valle. He knocked at the door but no one answered, he tried on the knob, it’s open. He entered the dark room only to be taken aback by the rancid stench of cheap liquor floating in the air. He call out and turn on the lights, the room is a mess, he opened the windows and left the veggies in the kitchen. Inside his room, his brother intoxicated and half naked is lying with stupor foams in his mouth down to his chest. The pungent smell of an after-night party fills the air. To what brotherly love or hate, he summoned a different strength to launch an attack, but was held back with the sight of his brother’s utterly pain crossing his face.
The sky is already dark when Gatan decided to leave his brother’s apartment. He left him wallowing in shame with his strong words still stinging his ears. His brother confessed that his love for his girlfriend bore another mouth to feed. Gatan went out feeling the chill seeping to his bones.
He went to a small store along closely spaced cantinas few blocks away the town’s centro , Gatan asked for a cold beer. His thoughts drifts in miles away when he spotted a striking lady working in the store and when they first gaze upon each other she looked at him with eyes that transfixed him like a wild puma. The gardener in very long time remembers the woman from his distant illusive dream. Up in the mountain, Gathan would work tirelessly in his farm. His hands and body roasted in the implacable sun. In the evening he would return to their home and find his parents succumbing in old age, he can only rest when he see them eat their supper with full smile. Gatan lay in his bed filled with groaning and panting liken his old water buffalo toiling the ground, he would think of old love before he could sleep. His only brother whom they taught would help them has forgotten their sacrifices only for the girl he loves. Gatan gaze at the striking lady once more. She gave her the look of a summer thirst ready to be filled. The gardener shook off the love sickness in his eyes and begin to ponder what life comes after this night.
Image from: https://web.facebook.com/gardenessentials101?_rdc=1&_rdr
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