The Death Of A President

It was barely past lunch. I see women setting by the staircase, one per step. I see boys and girls playing around...I find the children noisy to almost annoying. Can't they behave properly. Suddenly the women seem to talk in serious tones. What happened? I see some of them in tears, yes I see real sadness in them. Might I be sad as well to show that I am in their league and not with the boisterous children horsing around?What is wrong, I dared to ask?

"The President is dead! Magsaysay is dead...his plane crashed." I did not know much about a President, but the name Magsaysay, I remember well. Plane crashed...are they telling me that the speck moving in the clouds, fell to the ground?

Instantly I felt like crying too. We rarely see that "flying cross" in the clouds, maybe once a week, sometimes it takes months! Does it mean that I shall never see that flying cross again. Oh, I have every reason to cry! On the other hand I will not have stiff necks again, at least I will spend less time looking at the clouds, hoping to see the flying cross.

Amidst the sadness of the women in the stair, their "kuto" (lice) must be celebrating for the reprieve. The lice in those long hair will live to bite for another day...I see the women lost their excitement in Kuto-Picking that afternoon.

With the sad mood in the stairs, I moved to join the children playing. The oldest among the group was telling everyone; "The wristwatch exploded, so the plane crashed". I have many questions to ask him, but I have the feeling that I know more than he does.

NOW THE POSTCRIPT. History tells us that President Magsaysay died in a plane crash in Cebu in the summer of 1957. If I was born in the summer of 1954, so I was about 3 years old by then, seems like a tender age to be aware of the what were going on. I was not very sure, but many full-moons before  that sad afternoon by the stairs, I was humming the song: "Mambo, Mambo Magsaysay, Mambo, Mambo Mabuhay.