It's raining heavily today and what it makes me do is reminisce a part of my childhood. There's something about the weather that brings a glimpse of my old memories and makes me want to dig more about it. It's a very old memory of mine that feels really fresh every time I remember it.
It goes back to when I was about 10 years old and it was the summer break. I was with my buddies at the farther end of the farms. We were young with lots of energy and so we just keep on exploring every extent of the open field and where ever our feet lead us. I think that whenever we tag along with the rest of our friends we tend to become fearless. Our out of fear also tends to become careless. Rain or shine, we ran around "like wild animals".
During that day, we went out to the fields after we had our lunch. We never planned to go out to the fields because it was a really hot sunny day. We only planned to hang out at the basketball court and play. But we got too bored and hungry after a quick play. And so we decided to go to the fields and find something to snack on. We know that the mangos are at their best during this season. We also know that there is a spot somewhere where they leave the mangos idle. For us, when it's idle then we can freely take some of the fruits. It's a village, the nearest neighbor is probably around 10 miles from the spot where the idle mango is on.
On our way to the area where the mango is, we came across one of our buddies; his name is Marvin. We ask him if he wanted to come with us and he said yes. He tags along until we reach the area where the mango is but then decided to go back to their farm. He is worried that his father will look for him. During the summer breaks, he goes to their farm to help his father with some of the work.
We gave him some of the mangoes so that he has something to snack on his way back to their farm.
A few moments later, we noticed that there are dark clouds that are starting to accumulate around the area. Even though it's summertime, there are still occasional heavy rains from time to time. It happens because of the extremely warm weather, moist air rises and it cools off and drops like rain. This afternoon it seems like a thunderstorm because of the wide area that it covers.
We don't want to get caught in the rain and so we run as fast as we can.
We are at an open field and the closest farm near us is about 5 miles. We agreed to go there and get some shade on one of the shacks.
The rain caught us since we can not outrun it. Still, we just keep on running until we reach the nearest shack. It was under a really tall and old mango tree. The owner of the shack is my uncle and so he allowed us to stay until the rain passes.
The rain was rather quick because it poured heavily. We set foot back to our houses because we don't want to get scolded for being late. We all live in the same area and so we all head back together.
As we are getting closer to our houses, we noticed that there are a lot of people gathering around Marvin's house. Remember him? He's the one who joined us going to the area where the mango is and left earlier to go back to their farm.
We were curious and so we get through the crowd to check what's going on. As we get closer to their house, we are hearing a loud cry. It was his mother calling his name while crying. The village faith healer is also inside the house asking for vinegar (it was believed to alleviate the electric shock), she is saying it loudly and hastily.
I got scared to learn that Marvin, one of our buddies, was struck by lightning.
He didn't make it alive after the lighting strike.
What are the odds I thought?
It turns out that there is a higher chance of being struck by lighting especially on the open fields. It's very unfortunate for him that out of the many trees and animals around their farm, he was the one that was struck.
I also thought, why not me or one of our other buddies?
I guess we were too shocked that me and my buddies never really talked about it until now. I feel that the reason why it feels fresh in my memory is that I have not really moved on from this event of my life. After that day, we never really did anything like that again. We, especially myself have been very cautious afterward.
Today, I consider it a repressed memory. I seldom remember it but whenever something reminds me about it, it feels memorable enough.
My goal of sharing it on my blog is to help me get through this experience or memory.
I hope that someone could relate to it.
