My Father Goes To Court (Carlos Bulusan)

There was a family that lived in a small town on the Island of Luzon. Their father’s farm had been
destroyed in 1898 by one of the Philippine flood. They had a very rich neighbor with two children that
sudden came out of the house. Their rich neighbor also had a tall house that his children could look in
the window of their house and watched them played, slept or eat, when they have food to eat.

Now, this rich man’s servants were always frying and cooking something good, and the aroma of the
food was wafted down to us form the windows of the big house. They always stay in the window to
smell the spirit of the food. Then days passed, and the rich man’s children got thin and anemic while the
happy children, got robust and full of life.

One day, the rich neighbor look at them one by one. He looked at my sisters, who had grown fat from
laughing, then at my brothers, whose arms and legs were like the molave then he banged down the
window and immediately shut all the windows. From that day they never see the children once again.
The window of the neighbor’s house were always closed. But still, they can smell the aroma of the food
the servants were cooking.

One morning a policeman from the presidencia came to their house with a sealed paper. The rich man
had filled a complaint against them. His father took him to the town clerk and asked what is the
complaint all about. Then the man claimed that we are been stealing the spirit of the rich man’s wealth
and food.

The day comes that they need to appear in court. They are the first to arrive and then his father sat on a
chair in the center of the courtroom while his mother occupied the chair by the door. The children sat
on a long bench by the wall. The rich man arrived. He had grown old and feeble; his face was scarred
with deep lines. With him was his young lawyer. Spectators came in and almost filled the chairs. The
judge entered the room and sat on a high chair. They stood up in a hurry and then sat down again.

The judge asked if the father has a lawyer with him and the father replied that he do not need one. The
lawyer of the rich man start it with a question. The father agree that they inhaled the spirit of the food.
He also agree that he’s children grow strong and limb while the rich man’s children grow thin and pale.
He ask if he could see the complainant’s children. Then, the children arrived shyly in the courtroom
looking thin and pale. The father asked the judge if he could do examine the complaint, then the judge
let him. He asked questions to the complaint that agree on all if it. The father walked across the room of
the hall with the judge permission. In his hand is a hat full of coins. The sweet tinkle of the coins carried
beautifully in the courtroom. The spectators looked at it with wonder. The father asked the complainant
if he heard the spirit of the money, the complainant answered yes. The father then said that they are
paid.

The rich man tried to talk but then he fell on the floor without a sound and his lawyer rushed to his aid.
The judge pounded his gravel and said that the case dismissed. The father asked the judge if he want to
hear his family laugh. The judge agree to hear it and then they started laughing their heart out that is
started with his sister. The rest followed but the judge was the loudest of them all.