The Rain of Hope
A Short Story
By Doris Ogdoc, MA - Literature
“ Hey, get out of here!”, the ice water seller in Colon Street yelled and shooed the young boy with a long, dirty shirt, messy hair, and with a smell that implied he had not taken a bath for weeks...or months. Lino could not help himself. He had been lustfully eyeing the one peso ice water for hours under the intense, scorching heat of the sun. Trying to gulp the last ounce of saliva from his dry mouth, Lino stepped out and bowed his head- He felt the intense thirst. So intense that he had thought he would die.
He chose to be there in Sto. Niño de Basilica church where hundreds or even thousands of devout would come to pray to the church. He might convince them to be charitable enough to give him just one peso. Just one peso, he thought, and he could fill himself with that cold, satisfying, plastic-packed water of Manang Karmen.
He went to a family first. He summoned the father who was wearing a blue polo shirt and signature slacks. Opening his palms and presenting it to the father, he said, “ Sir, just to buy ice water, Sir. I’m so thirsty”. The man did not even look at him, and said “ Dong, I don’t have coins” “Sir, please sir...” And the man left with his family. He took his daughter to a store nearby that was selling a fancy pencil, with long, pink feathers attached to it. “ Do you like this? “, the father asked. “Yes”, his daughter replied. “ How much? “. “ Only 30 pesos”.”Okay, let me have one”. Lino felt betrayed. The man did not care if he died, but he cared giving his daughter a pencil worthy of display. Lino bowed his head again, and walked.
Thankfully, he had his “tsinelas” ( slippers ) to wear as he was wandering the vicinity of Colon Street. Or else, He might have burned the soles of his feet. It has not rained for about three months now in Cebu City. They said there was Global Warming. But, a lot thought the city has been cursed by God. It was unusual that no rain would occur for a three month time now. It has been on the news. Cebu City has been cursed by God. Lino wondered if, he, too was part of God’s curse.
One religious person often visited them, the street children. There have been lots of preachers roaming around Cebu. Some of them could be seen with big microphones in front of The Gaisano mall. Their constituents would ask for money or offering to the people. Yet, Trisha, that was her name, would give them bread once in awhile, tell them stories about Jesus. Lino was not actually interested of hearing them. He was too tired to care about other people and their stories. He goes to Trisha for her bread.
They haven’t seen her for weeks now. “This city is really cursed”, Lino muttered. Could God abandon him? “ Pray Lino, and you will get your answers”, Trisha had said.
Pray? What for? A lot of people pray in church. I hate them. They cannot even give me one peso!Anyway, out of desperation, he closed his eyes, and said, “ God, give me one peso, so I could buy that ice water over there ( pointing to Manang Karmen’s store ).”
He opened his eyes and saw a white man—a foreigner with a Filipina who had long, black hair with him. He looked at him and begged. The man smiled, took his wallet, and gave him a five-peso coin! He jumped for joy inside. “Thank God!” ...But his joy only lasted for a short time.
Marko saw him while the white man was giving him the money. Marko was much older and bigger. He took Lino’s hand and tried to ask him the coin. “No!”, Lino screamed. He dragged him to a place near Magellan’s Cross. Marko pushed Lino hard that he was knocked down immediately. His frame was so thin that a slight push could bring him down so easily. He firmly clutched the five peso coin inside his small, fragile hand. The tight of his fist’s hold could break a glass. “ Give me the money, or you will die!”, Marko threatened him. He was not easy to give up. For the second time, he screamed, “ No!”.
Marko started kicking him on the butt, on the legs ,on the body. He could not move. His whole body ached. Marko then punched him on the face and tried to take hold of the five-peso coin from his palm. He punched him so hard on the face that it almost left Lino unconscious. Marko took the five-peso coin.
Lino sobbed.
His cry was not loud. He was thirsty, tired, hurt, bruised, and was under the heat of the sun that burned his body, and fried his bones. He really felt that it was better for him to die than suffer like that. He tried to lick his dry and wounded lips, and tasted blood. He could not close his eyes. Marko punched it so hard that he felt it was swelling immediately. He sobbed. God must have forgotten him.
The clouds started to cover the sun as “Potot” approached Lino. No one really called him by his real name. And No one knew his real name. Everybody called him Potot because he was so tiny...And ugly. And the dirtiest among them all. He had no shirt on nor a pair of Tsinelas. He was so tiny, dirty, shirtless, and the one who always felt cheery, showing shamelessly his toothless smile.
Last week, Potot’s mother died. They said she died in her sleep. Potot would say “ Jesus took her with Him in heaven “.
“There is no hunger there”, Trisha would describe heaven. Lino felt envious of Potot’s mother.
“Go away, Potot!”, Lino scowled at him. He hated his presence especially that he was in a state like that. Potot searched for the place if anyone was looking around. He placed something in Lino’s hand. He felt it. He knew what it was without even looking at it. That has been the thing people would usually give him except that day. “Why are you giving me this?!” Actually, he felt shameful...
Potot could not be giving me his only one peso coin!“Before Nanay died, she said “Give and you shall receive more”.
Gi-atay, Lino thought. Why such faith? He did not understand that. But, he was convinced that Potot really believed that.
He stood up, walked to Manang Karmen’s store with the one peso Potot had given him in his hand.
Then the clouds darkened, the atmosphere slowly took away the heat that has enveloped the city. The blaze shifted to dying embers. Droplets of heavy rain fell.
Lino drank the ice water hungrily. He allowed the rain to caress his head then to his arms and into the soles of his feet. The coolness of every single drop soothes the pain of the sun that has smouldered his body unto his soul. It drenched him and satisfied his thirst for that rain of hope that he thought had left them. He looked up. His eyes glowed, and a smile was drawn on his entire countenance.
***End Of Short Story***
Correspondence in Ogdoc’s Short Story, “The Rain of Hope”
A Genre Crossing from Poem to Short Story
The Rain of Hope is a story about a street kid named Lino, who first believes that God has abandoned him, yet later found some hope in the end. In a time of drought in Cebu City, his only goal on a certain day was to drink a cold, ice water. He only hoped to have a one peso coin in order to buy the water and satisfy his extreme thirst. However, in a really bad twist of fate, certain people did not give him money on that day. And when a foreigner gave him a five-peso coin, another street kid who was bigger and stronger than him, Marko, robbed him of his money.
The drought is symbolic of a curse among the people. The people, even those “religious” people who went to church in Sto. Niño Basilica could not even spare a peso coin for a kid who only desired to drink. The people had been focused on themselves to the point of buying unnecessary or the not basic stuff in life, such as a “fancy pencil only worthy of display”. Their greed was the reason why God had placed a curse in Cebu City, even though it was a city that was filled with seemingly religious people.
When “Potot”, an unlikely character to contain hope appeared, the “clouds covered the sun”. He had all the reasons to lose hope- his mother had just died, he was the least to possess anything than other street kids ( one who was shirtless and did not have slippers ), yet his strong faith in God made him filled with joy and hope. Most of all, he was the person who gave the “one-peso” coin, the one he ONLY had, to Lino. The act of selflessness opened the end of the curse that God has given through a drought.
Lino prayed for a peso coin and got it. The rain fell in the end, which is symbolic of renewed hope. It is symbolic that Lino’s belief of God’s abandonment of him is wrong. And that God actually thinks of him and hasn’t forgotten him.
***
In relation to the poem, The Search, which talks about a longing to have what the author desires in her heart, The Rain of Hope, is also a story of a boy who only does a lot of things just to get what he needs for that day. Both of them, however, put emphasis on divine intervention. The author of the poem and the main character of the story believe that it is in not in their power to get these things that they desire. For example, in the poem, the author’s lack of ability pushes her to pray for God to inspire her and give her that talent she knows she has but needs to improve on. In the short story as well, the situation of Lino, him being so poor and the people around being greedy, in addition to the drought, do not give any chance for him to satisfy his extreme thirst. The author and character believe that they cannot produce the resolution to their predicament because of the circumstances, so they look unto a Higher power for help and answers.
