Summary

The story revolves around two characters – the maid and the cobbler. On one evening, a
girl is caught in the rain and stumbles upon Barranco, a small shop, for shelter. The
cobbler that lives in that shop is surprised for her sudden appearance, but then lets her
stay in because the rain outside is still pouring heavily. The girl has explained how she
arrives to his shop that rainy night. She has been running away from her señorita’s
house. The cobbler becomes terrified after hearing that the señorita’s younger brother
has harassed the girl that night. Because of that, he promises to marry her, but they
have to wait until he saves enough money for the wedding. They are happily living
together. However, not a word about the marriage has been said since that day. One
morning, while the cobbler is away for his work, the señorita has arrived to their house.
The girl is so happy as she talks about her new life with the cobbler and their plan to
marry later on.

The señorita gives her money as her last salary and as a gift for her marriage, and also
a calling card. However, the girl asks her a favor to give the money to the cobbler
instead, without saying that she have seen her first. She hopefully thinks that the
cobbler will use the money for their wedding. She wants him to think that the money for
their wedding will come from him. However, days have passed as she waits in agony for
the cobbler to tell the good news, but only to learn that he has actually refused to accept
the money. Instead, she gets a new violet scarf from him for a surprise. After realizing that
the cobbler will not pursue the marriage, the girl have decided to return to her señorita.
Interpretation The story represents the life of two young lovers. It’s love at first sight.
The fire of their love is so passionate. Their only desire is to be with each other forever.
Just like in the story, they decided to live together despite the fact that they aren’t married
yet. Their neighborhood is so horrified because in their time and even today, many
people hold a strong belief on the sacredness of marriage. It is like “us against the
world” mental attitude. They don’t care if it’s wrong as long as they do it in the name of
love. However, “love at first sight” usually doesn’t last. More often than not, this kind of
love is so shallow and can be compared to what we call infatuation. Just like when the
sun rises, it sheds light to everything we do. It brightens up our day. We feel like it’s a
new beginning. Overall, we feel motivated like nothing’s going to bring us down. It says
like that for a period of time. However, when the sunset comes, we start to anticipate
darkness. Even if the day has been beautiful, we cannot deny the fact that there’s an
end for everything. What happens throughout the day will greatly impact the decision
we have to make for tomorrow. Like what the story have shown, the girl decides to move
forward with her life without the cobbler after realizing that he is not truly willing to marry
her. When that phase of our life comes, all we can do is to appreciate everything we
have gone through – beautiful or not. It’s just another day after all.