Not many of the younger Asinganians would know that Patrick Stewart, the Enterprise Captain of Star Trek series looked very much like MONYANG. The eyes, the shape of the face and most of all the head. Both of them are as bald as a cue ball.... I will continue my memories of this Asinganian and his rice mill. .
At the back of his rice mill is a small yard where he kept two pets: an owl and a monkey..The monkey was leashed to a long chain which allowed him to go back and forth on a long and sturdy bamboo which is about roughly 6 or 7 feet long.Both ends of the bamboo were fastened to two trees. Kids those days do not know the meaning of the word privacy. In fact we haven't even heard that English word yet. So one day one of us just went through that private door and voila! it was a whole new world to us. You know how kids are fond of animals. Every afternoon, after class we would just barge in there and tease the monkey, sometimes throw him a banana. The monkey is a good catcher, like a baseball player. Or we would stare at the owl which naturally stared back. You seldom see one at daytime for these birds are nocturnal. They sleep during the day and hunt mice at night. But that fellow is in a cage, can't even fly. (At that time we do not know anything about animal cruelty). You could stare at each other for hours, waiting for the first one to blink. Strangely enough, no one rebuked us for trespassing.
Beyond this mini zoo is another playgroud..The "mountain" of TAEP coming out of the CONO.The mountain is quite high, sometimes it could be higher than the top of the CONO. This is where we spent hours playing, going up and jumping, pretending to be swordsmen or just playing tag while climbing and rolling down the dusty slopes. Pretty soon our hair would be coated with rice husk dusk, but nobody cared..It was fun!
One day, one of our female classmates heard about the zoo and the "mountain". "Wanna join us?" we invited her.." Sure!" she said..." as long as some other girls would join me.." After our afternoon class, the usual group dropped by the place, this time with 3 girls who are first timers..First they admired the monkey.."He is so cute, reminds me of one of our classmate.".said one of the girls..
Then we went to the "mountain.." Some of the boys were doing their usual stunt: they would go up the peak, then jump as far as they can down, trying to land on their feet.The landing spots are always soft of course but it takes quite a skill to land without making a spill. Then one of us told our guest MARIANA ( this is not her real name of course!).."Why dont you try?" MARIANA is beautiful, she belongs to one of the rich prominent families in Asingan.She was a "classy" kid.She never socialized with boys, especially with bums like the ones in our group.."No, no..I am scared.." she said..""There is nothing to be scared about.." You can do it!.." ..Oh, Okay"..She went up to the top.
All boys stopped what they were doing and holding their breaths, stared at her, .."Now, jump!" shouted somebody..Being her first time, she jumped just like that, landed on her feet first, then she fell on her face akwardly into the pile of TAEP..Her feet stuck up, her skirt covered her back and she immediately struggled to stand. A few of us rushed out to help her stand, asking her if she's okay. Some TAEP stuck to her lips because she landed face down. A couple of boys started laughing. "Let's go home," she told her girl friends as she brushed her dress clean. She never cried or made any fuss.
But she did not speak to any of us the next day ( and for quite a long time ) because one of the boys blabbed the next day about the colour of her underwear when she made that jump the previous afternoon!
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