DROUGHT

I woke up because of the noises outside my window. The kids weren’t playing, but I saw my uncle, my brothers and the rest of the family sharing water with everybody. The neighbors are well-behaved, carrying their containers and pails with cover, waiting for their turn to have water. I don’t understand. I thought my uncle had already kept the water for our supply because we didn’t know when the drought would end. Even it just started. Despite the warning yesterday, my uncle still chose to share his water with everybody. I combed my hair and went outside to check them. I see smiles and happiness from the people waiting to get water. I didn’t bother to watch them. I didn’t want to disturb what they were doing. My family is like a lighthouse giving light in the darkest moment of this life, such as this. The drying without explanation is happening because the experts cannot discover why and what is the thing up there that makes the whole world dry from water.

“Maayo na aga” The woman twice my mother’s age greeted us with a smile and put her container down, and my uncle put the hose inside the tiny hole to fill it up with water. She waited for her container to be filled with water, and once it was done, she immediately covered it for the water not go up.

“Salamat”, The woman said after my uncle filled her container.

“Diyos an mabalos sa imo”, She added, which means God will pay my uncle for the sharing he did and let his grandson carry the container for her and leave.

“How about the warning?” I asked while watching him fill the container again for the older man, who was smiling at him.

“Let’s think about that later, ” he answered, while Jasper and Ice were helping him by giving him the water because the line was long, and the people kept coming to get free water.

I looked at the people and saw everybody was excited to get their share. I looked at their faces, and they were full of hope because of what my uncle was doing, and we called it “Bayanihan”, which means doing something heroic because Bayani means hero, and he is a hero for giving something without something in return. He is giving water for free even though he knows we also need water. He is such a great man.

“I thought you would close the water for us?” The old woman asked him, and he sighed and answered, “We are neighbours. I can’t see my neighborhood dying” The old woman smiled at him and thanked him.

“You are such a good boy. Rosina never failed in raising you,” The old woman said, and she knows my grandmother. Our community is small, and people here know each other.

“I will give what I can give,” He said, and the woman smiled at him again and carried her container.

“We don’t have a pail. How can we get water?” The man asked, with his wife carrying his child. The wife looks sick, the baby is so thin, and the husband looks dirty; his feet are covered with soil.

“I am just a farmer. How can I afford water?” He asked in despair.

“Don’t worry, the water I am giving is free”, My uncle said that gave hope to him.

“Here. Take one of my containers,” The man said and gave his container to the farmer.

“Thank you so much,” The farmer said with tears. He went to the back of the line to wait for his turn while everybody was excited to get their share of water.

I am proud of my uncle because he still managed to share our water supply even though his police friend already gave him a heads-up about the drought and the government’s plan to hoard water to control its use and prolong the supply. After all, this drying will continue. Still, he wants to share what he has with everybody. What a brave move!

“Where is his police friend?” The voice inside my head asked while looking around, trying to find my uncle’s friend.

“His name is Miller, honey”, The other one answered.

“Where is he?” Another question inside my head.

“I want to see him again,”

“I want to see him again,” I shook my head because I wanted to stop those voices. After all, it was not a suitable time for them to interfere.

“Move! Move! Move!” The arrogant soldier shouted, and their truck stopped in front of us. They got down from their truck, and one of the soldiers faced my uncle and told him his actions were illegal.

“What?” My uncle asked in surprise. He didn’t expect that humanity was already illegal.

Four soldiers took the big drums with covers out of their truck, immediately put the hose in the little hole, and opened the faucet. They will fill the container with water. They have thirty big drums, and my uncle opens only one tank for the neighbor. The soldiers will get all the water from the tank and dry the whole neighbourhood.

“That is unacceptable,” My uncle said with dismay when he saw the drums from the army. He closed the faucet, but one of the armies stopped and pushed him away.

“That is my water,” He said.

“It is no longer yours now,” The general said and opened the faucet again to fill the drum.

“We are not in martial law, aren’t we?” He asked, almost wanting to cry, but the general didn’t answer. He pretended that he didn’t hear my uncle.

“Stop that and leave our water alone!” One of the men from the line shouted, but they didn’t stop filling the drums with water.

“Yeah! stop that!” The other one agreed.

“That is abusing the power of authority!”

“That is very inhumane!”

“Get out of here!” And there’s a stone thrown at the general that made him mad. He fired his rifle upward and slapped the man who threw a stone at him and fired downwards at the front of the man to scare him, and stared at the man for a second and said, “Your blood is nothing compared to your water” That gives fear to everybody because that means the life doesn’t have a value now. They can shoot people wherever and whenever they want for water.

“From now on, the government will take control of your waters! you will get supply only once a week!” He said firmly, walked to my uncle, looked at him straight in his eyes, and said, “Hidding water is punishable by law.”

“Get all their waters”, He commanded, and they immediately followed.

They get from the smallest containers to the biggest pail. One of the civilians resists giving his pail-filled water. Still, the soldier kept grabbing it until he accidentally dropped the water spilt on the ground and dried quickly because of the hot ground and the cone above sucked it. The soldier slaps him hard with the pistol and makes him spit blood.

“I can’t believe it”, My mother cried in dismay. I know because we can’t believe it as well. It is hard to believe that it is happening, but yes, it is already happening. The division is about to start, and the trading of blood for water is about to happen.

“No! this is ours!” The woman said and hugged her container, but the soldier forcibly got it from her.

“Maluoy man kamo!” The other woman begged while the soldiers kept on getting their water. This means having mercy because the soldiers are showing heartless actions now. They are using their power to force people and steal water.

“Stop that!” Jasper shouted and wanted to stop the soldiers from their cruelty.

“Fuck the government!” Ice shouted, and my brothers wanted to stop them from getting the water, but my uncle stopped my brothers from interfering because he didn’t want trouble. Giving water is enough, and if the government will get it. We have nothing to do about it but obey the new law.

“I am sick, and I need water”, The old man begged, but still, they took his water with no mercy.

“Please, just leave their supply with them”, My uncle begged, but they didn’t listen.

“Do you still have water inside?” The general asked my uncle, but my uncle just shook his head. The general wasn’t convinced, so they went inside the house to search for more water.

“You don’t have a search warrant,” Jasper said, but the general looked at him in his eyes as a warning.

The kids started crying because they got scared of what was happening. I didn’t notice that they were already outside. I carried both Lucy, and my sister, Eve, immediately carried Owen from my arms. They are scared of the soldiers carrying guns and taking our waters away. Supposedly they were our protectors, but now, they were our enemy.

“What is going on, mama?” Lucy cried, and I wiped her tears and hushed her. I hug and kiss her to calm her because everything will be okay. I don’t know when but I know it will come.

“Blood, mama,” She said while pointing at the man who spits blood.

“He is fine,” I told her, making her look away.

After a few minutes of searching, they went out with nothing. Of course, they will not find our supplies because we hid them well. Even those that we will use for a week. They put all the containers and pails they took from us inside their truck with their drums that made the tank dry. I heard the truck turn on, and we watched them leave while the general silently stared at my uncle like a criminal. Maybe he is not convinced that we don’t have water. He is correct because we still have water, but we are not crazy about surrendering our supplies. We are humans, and we want to survive. We don’t trust the government and will not give our lives to them. I looked at the devastated people, shocked and angry about what the soldiers did. They took all the water and left nothing but tears from disappointed people. I tried to open the faucet, but they took all the water from it and let it dry. I took a deep breath because I didn’t know what would happen next now that we all needed water. More than once a week supply is required. We tried to share our water to save their lives, even for a while, but the government took the hope we gave them.

“How about us now?” The wife asked while looking at his husband, but his husband couldn’t answer because he didn’t know what to answer. He doesn’t want to give his wife a false answer. He doesn’t want his wife to lose faith.

“I am sorry” Is the only thing my uncle could tell them because he was shocked about what happened. He didn’t expect the military to be cruel and accuse him of doing illegal when they were the ones who did a barbaric act to civilians.

“Let’s wait for their supply. The general said they would give supply every week, and the next week is near. So let’s wait,” I told them while looking at them to give them hope, even though I didn’t know if I was the one who was talking to them or someone else, and I tried to smile to lighten the situation, but I didn’t see a smile on their faces. What I told them didn’t matter, as if they didn’t hear me. I know they feel terrified and worried about what is happening, but we can’t do anything about it. All of the water is already dry, and the government is now turning out to be our enemy. So the only thing that we can trust is ourselves to survive.

One by one, the people went to their respective homes with sadness. I can hear the silence now, and I can smell the fear filling the air—the fear of having no clue about what will happen in the future without water. I gave Lucy to Ellie and watched them get inside with the rest of the family. I looked up to see the cone thing in the sky. It is still there, and there is no sign of living, even though we are all excited for it to disappear and give our water back to us.

“We don’t have water. What else do you want?” I asked the cone as if it would answer. It sucked all the water, so why is it still there?

“Arf! Arf! Arf!” I heard Hope barking, calling me because I was the only one left outside.

“Come on, let’s get inside,” Knight said and tried to hold my hand, but I refused. I looked at the sky again and,

“I told you the judgement day is already starting, ” whispered the voice inside my head.

“Be ready, Lein”, The man in my head whispered.

“Lein, be ready”, The girl in my head said,

“Be ready, Lein”, The boy said

“Lein”

“Lein”,

“Lein”

Together, they called my name and gave me a warning, or should I say myself giving myself a warning, because I knew that they were just me, but they were living like they were alive and different from me. They have their own decisions and wants in life. Each has a character that confuses me about the real me and them, about my life and them.