How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife Essay

My crony Leon was returning to Nagrebcan from far away(predicate) Manila, pitch home his young bride who had been born and had grown up in the capacious city. begin would non accept her for a daughter-in-law unless he taught her worthy to exist in Nagrebcan. Father devised an ingenious way to find out, and waited for the result. She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick, delicate grace. She was enjoyly. She was tall. She sorted up to my fellow with a smile, and her supercilium was on a level with his mouth You are Baldo. She said and placed her heap lightly on my shoulder.Her nails were long, just they were non painted. She was fragrant exchangeable a sunup when papayas are in bloom. And a small dimple appeared momently high up on her cheek. And this is Labang, of whom I cast run into heard so much(prenominal). She held the wrist of iodine hand with the other and looked at Labang, and Labang never stop manduction his cud. He swallowed and b rought up to his mouth more cud, and the sound of his inner(a) was the likes of a drum. I laid a hand on Labangs massive discern and said to her You may scratch his forehead now. She hesitated and I saw that her eyes were on the long curving horns. exclusively she came and touched Labangs forehead with her long fingers, and Labang never stop chewing his cud except that his volumed eyes were half closed. And by and by, she was slit his forehead very daintly. My blood associate Leon put down the two shorts on the grassy side of the data track. He paid Ca Celin doubly the usual fare from the station to the edge of Nagrebcan. Then he was rest beside us, and she false to him eagerly. I watched Ca Celin, where he stood in front of his horse, and he ran his fingers through its forelock and could non keep his eyes away from her. female horse my sidekick Leon said.Read moreHow My Brother Leon Brought Home a wife by Manuel Arguilla EssayHe did not say Maring. He did not say Mayang. I knew then that he had always called her Maria and in my mind I said, Maria, and it was a beautiful clear. Yes,Noel Now where did she get under ones skin that name? I pondered the matter quietly to myself, thinking Father might not like it. But it was only the name of my brother Leon said gamewards, and it sounded much better that way. There is Nagrebcan, Maria my brother said gesturing abundantly toward the west. She move close to him. And after a while she said quietly You love Nagrebcan, take int you, Noel?Ca Celin drove away hi-yi-ing to his horse garishly. At the bend of the camino existing where the big duhat tree grew, he rattled the h denudegrip of his braided rattan whip against the mouths of the wheel. We stood alone on the roadside. The sun was in our eyes, for it was dipping into the bright sea. The sky was wide deep and very blue higher up us just along the saw-tooth rim of the Katayaghan hills to the southwest flamed huge peck of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a golden fogginess through which floated big purple and red and yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun.Labangs whiten coat, which I had washed and brushed that morning with coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the lamplight and his horns appeared tipped with fire. He faced the sun and from his mouth came a call so loud and vibrant that the earth makemed to tremble underfoot. And far way in the spirit of the fields a cow lowed soflty in answer. Hitch him to the coerce, Baldo, my brother Leon said, express feelings and she laughed with him a bit uncertainly, and I saw he had put his munition around her shoulders. Why does he make that sound? she asked. I hire never heard the like of it. There is not another like it, my brother Leon said. I have yet to hear another fuzz call like Labang. In all the world there is no other bull like him. She was smiling at him, and I stopped in the act of tying the vinca across Labangs neck to the oppo site end of the yoke, because her teeth was very white, her eyes were so just of jest, and there was a small dimple high up on her right cheek. If you continue to talk about him like that, either I shall fall in love with him or become very jealous. My brother Leon laughed and she laughed and they looked at each other and it seemed to me there was a world of laughter between them and in them.I climbed into the hang back over the wheel and Labang would have bolted for he was always like that, scarcely I kept incorruptible hold on his rope. He was restless and would not stand still. , so that ny brother Leon had to say Labang again, my brother Leon lifted the trunks into the cart, placing the smaller one on top. She looked down once on her high heeled shoes, then she gave her left(p) hand to my brother Leon, placed a foot on the hub of the wheel, and in one breath she had swung into the cart.Oh, the fragrance of her But Labang was fairly dancing with restlessness and it was a ll I could do to keep him from running away. Give us the rope, Baldo, my brother Leon said. Maria , set on the hay and hold on to anything. Then he put a foot on the left shaft and that instant Labang leaped forward. My brother Leon laughed as he drew himself up to the top of the side of the cart and do the slack of the rope doll above the back of Labang. The wind whistled against my cheeks and the rattling of the wheels on the pebbly road echoed in my ears. She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart, legs dead set(p) unneurotic to one side, her skirt spread over them so that only the toes and the heels of her shoes were visible.Her eyes were on my brother Leons back I saw the wind on her hair. When Labang slowed down, my brother Leon handed me the rope. I knelt on the straw inside the cart and pulled on the rope until Labang was merely shamble along, then I made him turn around. What is it you have forgotten now, Baldo? my brother Leon said. I did not say anything but ti ckled with my fingers the rump of Labang and away we went back to where I had in hitched and waited for them. The sun had sunk and down from the wooded sides of the Katayaghan hills shadows were stealing into the fields.When I sent Labang down the deep cut that would take us to the dry bed of the Waig, which could be used as a path to our place during the dry season, my brother Leon laid a hand on my shoulder and said sternly Who told you to drive through the fields this night? His hand was heavy on my shoulder, but I did not look at him or utter a word until we were on the rocklike bottom of the Waig. Baldo, you fool, answer me before I lay the rope of Labang on you. Why do you follow the Waig instead of the Camino real? His fingers bit into my shoulder.Father- he told me to follow the Waig tonight, Manong. Swiftly his hand fell away from my shoulder and he reached for the rope of Labang. Then my brother Leon laughed, and he sat back, and laughing still, he said And I suppose Fat her also told you to hitch Labang to the cart and assume us with him instead of the Castano and the calesa. Without waiting forn me to answer, he turned to her and said, Maria, wherefore do you think Father should do that, now? He laughed and added, consecrate you ever seen so many stars before? I looked back and they were sit down side by side, leaning against the trunks, hands clasped across the knees.Seemingly but a mans height above the tops of the suck up banks of the Waig, hung the stars. But in the deep gorge the shadows had fallen heavily, and even the white of Labangs coat was chirped from their homes in the cracks in the banks. The thick, unpleasant smell of dangla bushes and cool sun-heated earth mingled with the clean, sharp scent of arrais roots exposed to the night air and of the hay inside the cart. Look, Noel, yonder is our star Deep surprise and happiness were in her translator. Very low in the west, almost touching the rag edge of the bank, was the sta r, the biggest and brightest in the sky.I have been looking at it, my brother Leon said. Do you remember how I would tell you that when you want to see stars you mustinessiness come to Nagrebcan? . Yes, Noel, she said. Look at it she murmured, half to herself. It is so many measure bigger than it was at Ermita beach. The air here is clean and free of broadcast smoke. So it is Noel, she said,drawing a long breath. Making fun of me, Maria? She laughed then, and they laughed together and she took my brother Leons hand and put it against her face. I stopped Labang, climbed down, and lighted the lantern that hung from the cart, and my heart sang.Now the shadows took fright and did not crowd so near. Clumps of andadasi and arias flashed into check and quickly disappeared as we overhauled by. Ahead, the elongated shadow of Labang bobbled up and down and swayed drunkenly from side to side, for the lantern rocked jerkily with the cart. Have we far to go yet, Noel? she asked. Ask Bal do, my brother Leon said,we have been neglecting him. I am asking you, Baldo,she said. Without looking back, I answered, plectron my words slowly Soon we will get out of the Waig and pass into the fields. After the fields is home Manang. So near already. I did not say anything more, because I did not know what to make of the tone of her theatrical role as she said her last words. All the laughter seemed to have kaput(p) out of her. I waited for my brother Leon to say something, but he was not saying anything. Suddenly he broke out into nervous strain and the song was Sky Sown with Stars the same that he and puzzle sang when he cut hay in the fields of nights before he went away to study. He must have taught her the song because she joined him, and her voice flowed into him like a gentle stream meeting a stronger one.And each age the wheel encountered a big rock, a voice would catch in her throat, but my brother Leon would sing on, until, laughing softly, she would join him ag ain. Then we were move up out into the fields, and through the spokes of the wheels the light of the lantern mocked the shadows. Labang quickened his steps. The jolting became more frequent and nasty as we crossed the low dikes. But it is so very wide here, she said. The light of the stars broke and scattered the darkness so that one could see far on every side, though indistinctly. You miss the houses, and the cars, and the people and the noise, dont you? My brother Leon stopped singing. Yes, but in a diametric way. I am glad they are not here. With difficulty, I turned Labang to the left, for he wanted to go straight on. He was breathing hard, but I knew he was more thirsty than tired. In a petty(a) while , we drove up the grassy side onto the camino real. -you see, my brother Leon was explaining, the camino real curves around the foot of the Katayaghan hills and passes by our house. We drove through the fields, because- but Ill be asking father as soon as we get home Noel, s he said. Yes, Maria. I am afraid. He may not like me. Does that worry you still, Maria? my brother said. From the way you talk, he might be an ogre, for all the world. Except when his leg that was wounded in the revolution is deplorable him, Father is the mildest tempered, gentlest man I know. We came to the house of Lacay Julian and I spoke to Labang loudly, but Moning did not come to the window, so I surmised she must be eating with the rest of her family. And I thought of the food being made ready at home and my mouth watered.We met the twins, Urong and Celin, and I said Hoy, barter them by name. And they yelled back and asked if my brother Leon and his wife were with me. And my brother Leon shouted to them and then told me to make Labang run their answers were lost in the noise of the wheels. I stopped Labang on the road before our house and would have gotten down, but my brother Leon took the rope and told me to stay in the cart. He turned Labang into the unresolved gat e and we dashed into our yard. I thought we would crash into the bole of the manila tamarind tree, but my brother Leon reined in Labang in time.There was light ground-floor in the kitchen, and arrest stood in the doorway, and I could see her smiling shyly. My brother Leon was helping Maria over the wheel. The first words that fell from his lips after he had kissed Mothers hand were Father where is he? He is in his room upstairs, Mother said, her face becoming serious. His leg is bothering him again. I did not hear anything more because I had to go back to the cart to unhitch Labang. But I had hardly tied him under the vitamin B complex when I heard Father calling me. I met my brother Leon going away to bring up the trunks.As I passed through the kitchen, there were Mother and my sister Aurelia and Maria, and it seemed to me they were crying, all of them. There was no light in Fathers room. There was no movement. He sat in the big armchair by the eastern window, and a star shon e directly though it. He was smoking, but he removed the roll of baccy from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on the windowsill before speaking. Did you meet anybody on the way? No, Father, I said. Nobody passes through the Waig at night. He reached for his roll of tobacco and hitched himself up in the chair.She is very beautiful, Father. Was she afraid of Labang? My father had not raised his voice, but the room seemed to resound with it. And again I saw her eyes on the long curving horns and the arm off my brother Leon around her shoulders. No, Father, she was not afraid. On the way-She looked at the stars, Father And Manong Leon sang. What did he sing? Sky Sown with Stars. She sang with him. He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of Mother and my sister Aurelia downstairs. There was also the voice of my brother Leon, and I thought that Fathers voice must have been like it when he was young.He had laid the roll of tobacco on the windowsill once more. I watched the smoke waver faintly up(a) from the lighted end and vanish slowly into the night outside. The door undetermined and my brother Leon and Maria came in. Have you watered Labang? Father spoke to me. I told him that Labang was resting yet under the barn. It is time you watered him, my son. My father said. I looked at Maria and she was lovely. She was tall. Beside my brother Leon, she was tall and very still. Then I went out, and in the darkened hall the fragrance of her was like a morning when papayas are in bloom.