THE RICE CAKE

By Paul Romano B. Royo

High school years were quite memorable for me. The friendship we built with my
batchmates, the experience being in the hot seat of the classroom, stressful days of
assessing and extracting our minds done by our elite teachers, the challenging
atmosphere of the school, the failures I met and the achievements I reaped from this
institution were not that totally packaged but what makes it perfect was the day where
the most interesting memory of mine happened. And now that I am an eighteen-year-
old lad, I can still remember the whole scenario of how things began and turned to a
funny, embarrassing and stupid one. This story has occurred when I was a thirteen-
year-old boy of our town and a freshmen student of Tinigban National High School.

It was an early and rainy Saturday morning when my mother awakens me from a tight
sleep. At first, I was shocked why she wakes me. I thought she did it because the
raindrops coming from the hole of our roof might drench me or maybe she forgot that it
was Saturday and she doesn`t want me to be late in class. But my guesses were all
wrong. And only to find that she only requested me to buy a half kilo of sticky rice
because she decided to make our favorite rice cake as our dessert after eating our
breakfast. She was a good cook. And for her, that day was the perfect time to make
that one. Unable to open my eyes widely because of little sleep, I got the money from
her and then drowsily followed her order. But it was still raining hard. So I waited for
the rain to stop, and not long after, it suddenly ended. So I quickly ran to the store to
buy that good and while on the way, I became so badly irritated because the ground
was so sticky and slippery. But I ignored it. I continued my walk all the way to the store
until I reached it with inches of mud in my slippers. When I paid the seller for the half
kilo of sticky rice, I immediately went back home smiling because I became excited
about the rice cake we will savor after our breakfast. But unfortunately, the chance was
very cruel to me. My feet landed on the smooth surface of the ground, lost my balance,
and I was totally slipped and fell to the ground, while the sticky rice was dropped and it
scattered all over the mud. I was so dirty then and I almost cry during that time
because of fear. I tried to pick the grains which were not affected, but I got
embarrassed when my teacher saw me picking the dirty grains as well as those people
who witnessed my bad fall. I became the center of attraction then as I saw lots of faces
staring and laughing at me. Unable to bear the shame, I ran as fast as I could to my
grandmother`s house with a smile in my face as if there`s no incident happened. Upon
seeing me, she exclaimed, “Why are you so dirty huh?!” And I confidently replied, “We
bathed in the rain and we played in the mud together with my friends, Grandma!” And
then she asked, “Really? Does your mother allow you to do such a thing? Didn`t she
told you not to do that again because of what happened to you last week?! You are a
bald-headed child! Come, I will let you change your clothes!” Then after that, I
borrowed an umbrella from her and told her that I will be going home now. And then
she allowed me to do so.
Upon arriving at our house, the table was already set. Then my mother called for us to
take our breakfast. At the table, my mother doesn`t fail to mention the sticky rice she
requested me to buy. She asked me, “By the way, where did you put the sticky rice?”
Feeling nervous and shivered, I invented a lie. “There is no sticky rice available at the
store, Mama.” But she asked again, “So, where’s the money?” “I left it to Grandma. I
went to their house a while ago to borrow an umbrella and I told her that once you go
with her, she will give you the money.” I lied. And then she nodded.

Few hours passed and from the outside, I can hear the shout of my mother while
calling my name. She angrily told me, “You are so liar! I went to your grandmother’s
house only to get the money but she told me that you didn’t leave anything from her!
She also told me that she saw you with dirty clothes! Why, huh?! And one more thing, I
noticed that there is a scattered grain in the mud a few distances from our home. Is
that the one I told you to buy?!” she yelled. But to my mother’s surprise, I burst out
with a loud laugh upon hearing all the funny statements she uttered. Instead of
scolding me again and again, she also laughed at me because somebody told her about
my bad fall. “Next time, don’t do that again, huh? Try to personalize me because I am
your mother, not a monster, isn’t it?” she pleased. “Thank you, Mama. You are truly the
best! I finally exclaimed. And then, she shook my head away. When we remember the
idea of making a rice cake, it gives us reason to laugh.

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