Chapter Seven [ Childhood playmates' attraction

Chapter seven [ Childhood playmates' attraction]

 Ericka is maturing into a young, gorgeous lady, but she remains playful, youthful, and quirky around her own family and relatives. Nobody sees her as smart, extremely intellectual, and endowed with both brains and beauty. When she is at the farm, her parents' friends like to pair her with their son so that their friendship can last till they die, as one of the fathers said.

 "We should have married our son and daughter, Compadre, so that our farm resources grow stronger and expand with our younger generation as successors."

As he attempts to persuade Ericka's father to consent to the marriage, Ericka's emotions burst like explosions softly inside her heart, attempting to estimate her abilities to find methods to escape the oddities of those around her.

“Your youngest daughter Ericka and my second eldest son, Noli seems compatible to get married. They appear to be hardworking, helpful, and very quiete." Her father's companion focuses his drooping eyes, influenced by alcohol, squinting on Ericka standing in front with one foot crossed to her legs, unable the old man to speculate her long legged because of her tiredness while washing the kitchen utensils in front of the sink. She purposefully made herself look dreadful and ugly in order to turn him off and disappoint him to match her with his son Noli,who is so shy when he faces Ericka. Her father's padre continues,

"I see that my son always wants to be around her. I am concerned that your daughter will find a new suitor who will dislike my son. We'd better start planning their wedding while it's still early. It would be preferable to begin developing fresh younger family members through them!"

His eyes stretch wide open focus on Ericka who is done  fixing the soiled kitchen utensils and while walking with a limping legs dragging her foot towards the exit door to quickly disappeared and bashing to secretly listens to their conversation with a twister upper lip and snobbish eyes because she completely dislike what they are implying about her privacy and personal goals in life that weekend as her father smiles to his Compadre who is already drunk of the coconut fermented sap, they often drink during relaxation time.

"Uhm, I’m not really convinced that your son Noli likes me because he is so shy and boring to talk with. I never heard what kind of male voice he has because of his lack of initiative to please me. How could I be happy to such a person if he never spoke to me or demonstrated romanticism of love and courtship?"

Ericka ponders while leaning against the walls after sneaking out of them. Her dumb-heavy head lurks behind the walls like a turtle refusing to reappear after the sudden hard impact of such unpleasant conversation that made her have the quick desire to succumb at once so that these people stop bullying her indirectly with their selfish ambitions to expand their resources.

No way, Compadre, Ericka is too young to enter such a relationship," her mother said. “She is unable to perform home duties. Look! Her school uniform has yellowed and her white socks have turned black due to insufficient washing. She couldn't make good rice, and our meals were always bland.

She still enjoys jumping rope, climbing guava trees, and racing her male cousins to the mountain top, then sliding down using pieces of wood till they all get wet in the creek. "

"Your son might turn off and feel disgusted of her childish attitudes if we pursue such betrothed agreement at their younger age," mother continues, as they all laugh.” When they meet, they never greet or talk to each other. What can we expect from them other than constant fighting like a dog and a cat?"

The other farm workers who joined the leisure chuckle as Ericka rushes up the guava tree to gather up the luscious fruits to create Guava jelly for bread sandwiches after being glad for her beloved mothers' rejection of the compadres' marriage proposal.

"Thank you so much, Mother Dear. You are such a wonderful, amazing, and incomparable mother in the entire universe." Ericka whispers as she is giggling and grinning while both hands raise upward declaring in victory over the war she secretly fights for her private goals in life.

"What made you celebrate, my cousin Ericka, and you seem mischievously enthralled? “

Her male cousin and playmate notices him as he approaches the fruit trees near her to pick up some ripe fruits.

“It's none of your concern! I’m just imagining what kinds of stories I'll write for my English literature home assignment."

Ericka snobbishly responds, her brown eyes spinning to express she is not embracing his negative remarks to joy and gratitude for her moms' wonderful cooperation in her efforts against her father's ambitious companions.

As her male cousin continues to react to her facial expressions and the significance of what she says,

"I never thought we'd have school this semester because we're supposed to be on summer vacation, aren't we?"

"Why do you seem disgusted with my questions?" he continued. “Is there anything wrong with it?"

As he attempts to purify his thoughts since he already believes Ericka has gone insane as she grinned mischievously against nothing but collecting fruits from that small guava tree. As Ericka becomes irritated and swiftly jumps down, her underwear emerges rapidly when her short skirts flew away.

All of them were disgusted when her underwear suddenly appeared as she hurriedly moved down the tree because she was still very skinny, pale, and filthy in her house clothes. When she notices them watching carefully at her movement, she grins at them, and the more she exaggerates her juvenile conduct to turn them off.

But, after a while, Ericka realizes her big mistake of acting mischievously against the situations, saying, "should behave with good manners and right conduct because that is proper behavior which most people should demonstrate. In that way, I can prove that no one can humiliate or persecute my good behavior” She continues to ponder,

“I should teach myself to tolerate situations in which males will be infatuated with me because I am a girl and they are male. God created male and female people, not third sex people. God obviously despises such perverse behavior, yet society allows it regardless of characters."

Ericka muses as she eats ripe guava fruits under the massive tree in the late afternoon while waiting for her guava jelly to thicken.

Suddenly, one of her former classmates appears from the highway, beaming, and she has nowhere to hide. "Hey, we already see you sitting out there! Never pretend that you want to go anywhere. We only wanted to visit you because it's vacation month." They chuckle as heart pounding for fear of rejection.

"I am not hiding from anyone. Actually, I just want to check the jelly if it has thickened already upstairs. Come on now, you are welcome to my old house. I am alone now because they all went to the nearby farm to visit my relatives," she responds.

"Actually, we are happy to visit you at the same time to invite you to a dancing night on Sunday at the plaza where all youth are there and no one else," Ericka continues as her peers accept her arguments.

"You started to entertain suitors, Ericka, as part of adolescence," one of her classmates says, as the other, who is acting hesitant, quickly interrupts. “It is unnatural to refuse to accept this typical behavioral adolescent development. We must all, by nature, grow with both males and females and enjoy life while we are still young."

Ericka has no choice but to listen and accept what they say, "okay, you won! But you won't get my parents' approval unless you can convince them that your motive is pure and that you have no other malicious intent. I might go to the convent already if my parents continue to be strict and deprive my freedom, which I believe is normal for loving parents. This is not yet the right time to get involved in such recreation because we are still studying."

'But it's our vacation anyway. We may relax when we have no classes. Work without play can make us a dull person. You remember that!” Ericka insisted as her classmates responded angrily.

As Ericka persuaded, her mother arrived and overheard what they were discussing, making Ericka feel a little guilty because she loves her mother and doesn't want to disappoint her, saying, "Mother, you should know well that this classmates of mine is having a party on Sunday and desires my presence with them. What can you advise to them?"

Ericka asked her mother for her honest view and waited for her reaction. "Well, then, you can attend the party as long as you are accompanied by your father as usual!"

Her mother grins and looks at her two friends, who appear to agree with her mother. "Wow, that is a fantastic idea. I will surely love it because father will see me dancing and he can also join us."

"Yes, I can come later if it doesn't rain on Sunday," Mother said as the two students left them with a cheerful heart after eating their afternoon snack. And it's already getting dark around her surroundings.

That Sunday night, Ericka is dressed beautifully. She appears mature with her floweret designed dress. However, she is in trouble that day because she has no  nice shoes to wear to the party.

"I am now disgusted because this is my first time attending the dancing party with zeal. But why did I fail to provide myself with nice shoes?"

As she quickly demands her mother for new shoes, she feels guilty because she knows that her demands for new shoes will bring an issue to her parents, who will surely discuss money matters, which leads to conflicts. “That I do not want to happen. “Ericka exclaims as she quickly change house clothes and proceed towards her room to pretend sleeping and feeling sick with a heavy head ache.

She is in that scenario when her parents return from the market, having purchased some dried fish, fish sauce, and canned goods for the week's farm work to eats. They also have something inside the box that makes Ericka want to stand up and shout,

"Something must be going on, and I know they're planning to let me go to a dance party. My problem now is shoes, or I just wear slippers, which is embarrassing to my classmates."

Ericka is thinking when she recalls her elder sister's worn out high heeled sandals. "I can still use it and made an excuse not to dance always because my feet get hurt because my sandals are too heavy to wear," she says.

Ericka's eyes turn widen as she realizes she has no intention of attending a party. “I merely wanted to show my students that I am not an old-fashioned person, but rather one who is well-educated. "

Ericka murmurs as she hastily gets up, dresses, and packs her sandals, saying, "I can wear it when I am already there. No problem. I still have to cross the river, so it will get wet. I should wear slippers first."

Ericka's plan was already in place, which made her very excited when she arrived at her parents ‘place ready to go. "Okay, let us go now!"

Ericka stated as her parents looked at her with interest. "Little honey, we can't accompany you right now. We'll simply follow you later. Can you go now on your own because we trusted you to handle yourself and the party well? "

Ericka consented and left with parents' trust and confidence that everything would be well.

After three love songs and no one dares to invite her to dance, she quickly pretended to find a comfort room, meet some familiar fellow acquaintances, and left afterwards before the party ends.

She can only see the feelings that male taunting on her as she displayed herself to them and they wanted to show her that they are not really interested in her. Ericka remembers this and does not expect any man to court her again. She just stays at home, which her parents notice because she is inclined to become a homebody and disgustedly conformed to the patterns of her parents.

Ericka is now convinced and believes that study first is the basic foundation of a successful life.It will upgraded ones' standard of living  and improve  poor  lifesryles although a person has no much tangibles to show ,to gain knowledge is always  powerful weapon against all odds and fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom where there is love,peace and joy inside ones heart  uncompared to popularity and fame which the world considered as the most preciuos treasures in life. Ericka is now satisfied to what she believes that  God is the most powerful,everfaithful,always present everywhere ,infinite and sources of everythng she needs.