How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife

(American Colonial Literature) She was smiling at him, and I stopped in the act of tying the
By Manuel E. Arguilla sinta across Labang's neck to the opposite end of the yoke,
because her teeth were very white, her eyes were so full of
She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick, laughter, and there was the small dimple high up on her right
delicate grace. She was lovely. She was tall. cheek. "If you continue to talk about him like that, either I shall
She looked up to my brother with a smile, and her forehead fall in love with him or become greatly jealous." My brother
was on a level with his mouth. Leon laughed and she laughed and they looked at each other
"You are Baldo," she said and placed her hand lightly on my and it seemed to me there was a world of laughter between
shoulder. Her nails were long, but they were not painted. She them and in them.
was fragrant like a morning when papayas are in bloom. And a
small dimple appeared momently high on her right cheek. I climbed into the cart over the wheel and Labang would have
"And this is Labang of whom I have heard so much." She held bolted, for he was always like that, but I kept a firm hold on his
the wrist of one hand with the other and looked at Labang, and rope. He was restless and would not stand still, so that my
Labang never stopped chewing his cud. He swallowed and brother Leon had to say "Labang" several times. When he was
brought up to his mouth more cud and the sound of his insides quiet again, my brother Leon lifted the trunks into the cart,
was like a drum. placing the smaller on top.

I laid a hand on Labang's massive neck and said to her: "You She looked down once at her high-heeled shoes, then she
may scratch his forehead now." She hesitated and I saw that gave her left hand to my brother Leon, placed a foot on the
her eyes were on the long, curving horns. But she came and hub of the wheel, and in one breath she had swung up into the
touched Labang's forehead with her long fingers, and Labang cart. Oh, the fragrance of her. But Labang was fairly dancing
never stopped chewing his cud except that his big eyes half with impatience and it was all I could do to keep him from
closed. And by and by she was scratching his forehead very running away.
daintily.
"Give me the rope, Baldo," my brother Leon said. "Maria, sit
My brother Leon put down the two trunks on the grassy side of down on the hay and hold on to anything." Then he put a foot
the road. He paid Ca Celin twice the usual fare from the station on the left shaft and that instand labang leaped forward. My
to the edge of Nagrebcan. Then he was standing beside us, brother Leon laughed as he drew himself up to the top of the
and she turned to him eagerly. I watched Ca Celin, where he side of the cart and made the slack of the rope hiss above the
stood in front of his horse, and he ran his fingers through its back of labang. The wind whistled against my cheeks and the
forelock and could not keep his eyes away from her. "Maria---" rattling of the wheels on the pebbly road echoed in my ears.
my brother Leon said. He did not say Maring. He did not say
Mayang. I knew then that he had always called her Maria and She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart, legs bent togther
that to us all she would be Maria; and in my mind I said 'Maria' to one side, her skirts spread over them so that only the toes
and it was a beautiful name. "Yes, Noel." and heels of her shoes were visible. her eyes were on my
brother Leon's back; I saw the wind on her hair. When Labang
Now where did she get that name? I pondered the matter slowed down, my brother Leon handed to me the rope. I knelt
quietly to myself, thinking Father might not like it. But it was on the straw inside the cart and pulled on the rope until Labang
only the name of my brother Leon said backward and it was merely shuffling along, then I made him turn around.
sounded much better that way. "There is Nagrebcan, Maria," "What is it you have forgotten now, Baldo?" my brother Leon
my brother Leon said, gesturing widely toward the west. She said.
moved close to him and slipped her arm through his. And after I did not say anything but tickled with my fingers the rump of
a while she said quietly. "You love Nagrebcan, don't you, Labang; and away we went---back to where I had unhitched
Noel?" and waited for them. The sun had sunk and down from the
wooded sides of the Katayaghan hills shadows were stealing
Ca Celin drove away hi-yi-ing to his horse loudly. At the bend into the fields. High up overhead the sky burned with many
of the camino real where the big duhat tree grew, he rattled the slow fires.
handle of his braided rattan whip against the spokes of the
wheel. We stood alone on the roadside. 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
The sun was in our eyes, for it was dipping into the bright sea. place during the dry season, my brother Leon laid a hand on
The sky was wide and deep and very blue above us: but along my shoulder and said sternly:
the saw-tooth rim of the Katayaghan hills to the southwest "Who told you to drive through the fields tonight?" His hand
flamed huge masses of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a was heavy on my shoulder, but I did not look at him or utter a
golden haze through which floated big purple and red and word until we were on the rocky bottom of the Waig. "Baldo,
yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun. Labang's you fool, answer me before I lay the rope of Labang on you.
white coat, which I had wshed and brushed that morning with Why do you follow the Wait instead of the camino real?" His
coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the lamplight fingers bit into my shoulder.
and his horns appeared tipped with fire.
"Father, he told me to follow the Waig tonight, Manong."
He faced the sun and from his mouth came a call so loud and Swiftly, his hand fell away from my shoulder and he reached
vibrant that the earth seemed to tremble underfoot. And far for the rope of Labang. Then my brother Leon laughed, and he
away in the middle of the field a cow lowed softly in answer. sat back, and laughing still, he said:
"Hitch him to the cart, Baldo," my brother Leon said, laughing, "And I suppose Father also told you to hitch Labang to the cart
and she laughed with him a big uncertainly, and I saw that he and meet us with him instead of with Castano and the calesa."
had put his arm around her shoulders. "Why does he make Without waiting for me to answer, he turned to her and said,
that sound?" she asked. "I have never heard the like of it." "Maria, why do you think Father should do that, now?" He
"There is not another like it," my brother Leon said. "I have yet laughed and added, "Have you ever seen so many stars
to hear another bull call like Labang. In all the world there is no before?"
other bull like him."
 the fields because---but I'll be asking Father as soon as we get
I looked back and they were sitting side by side, leaning home." "Noel," she said.
against the trunks, hands clasped across knees. Seemingly,
but a man's height above the tops of the steep banks of the
Wait, hung the stars. But in the deep gorge the shadows had "Yes, Maria." "I am afraid. He may not like me."
fallen heavily, and even the white of Labang's coat was merely "Does that worry you still, Maria?" my brother Leon said. "From
a dim, grayish blur. Crickets chirped from their homes in the the way you talk, he might be an ogre, for all the world. Except
cracks in the banks. The thick, unpleasant smell of dangla when his leg that was wounded in the Revolution is troubling
bushes and cooling sun-heated earth mingled with the clean, him, Father is the mildest-tempered, gentlest man I know."
sharp scent of arrais roots exposed to the night air and of the
hay inside the cart. 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
"Look, Noel, yonder is our star!" Deep surprise and gladness she must be eating with the rest of her family. And I thought of
were in her voice. Very low in the west, almost touching the the food being made ready at home and my mouth watered.
ragged edge of the bank, was the star, the biggest and We met the twins, Urong and Celin, and I said "Hoy!" calling
brightest in the sky. "I have been looking at it," my brother them by name. And they shouted back and asked if my brother
Leon said. "Do you remember how I would tell you that when Leon and his wife were with me. And my brother Leon shouted
you want to see stars you must come to Nagrebcan?" "Yes, to them and then told me to make Labang run; their answers
Noel," she said. "Look at it," she murmured, half to herself. "It were lost in the noise of the wheels.
is so many times bigger and brighter than it was at Ermita
beach." "The air here is clean, free of dust and smoke." "So it I stopped labang on the road before our house and would have
is, Noel," she said, drawing a long breath. "Making fun of me, gotten down but my brother Leon took the rope and told me to
Maria?" She laughed then and they laughed together and she stay in the cart. He turned Labang into the open gate and we
took my brother Leon's hand and put it against her face. dashed into our yard. I thought we would crash into the
camachile tree, but my brother Leon reined in Labang in time.
I stopped Labang, climbed down, and lighted the lantern that There was light downstairs in the kitchen, and Mother stood in
hung from the cart between the wheels. the doorway, and I could see her smiling shyly. My brother
"Good boy, Baldo," my brother Leon said as I climbed back Leon was helping Maria over the wheel. The first words that
into the cart, and my heart sant. Now the shadows took fright fell from his lips after he had kissed Mother's hand were:
and did not crowd so near. Clumps of andadasi and arrais
flashed into view and quickly disappeared as we passed by. "Father... where is he?" "He is in his room upstairs," Mother
Ahead, the elongated shadow of Labang bobbled up and down said, her face becoming serious. "His leg is bothering him
and swayed drunkenly from side to side, for the lantern rocked again." I did not hear anything more because I had to go back
jerkily with the cart. "Have we far to go yet, Noel?" she asked. to the cart to unhitch Labang. But I hardly tied him under the
"Ask Baldo," my brother Leon said, "we have been neglecting barn when I heard Father calling me. I met my brother Leon
him." "I am asking you, Baldo," she said. Without looking going to bring up the trunks. As I passed through the kitchen,
back, I answered, picking my words slowly: "Soon we will get there were Mother and my sister Aurelia and Maria and it
out of the Wait and pass into the fields. After the fields is seemed to me they were crying, all of them.
home---Manong." "So near already."
There was no light in Father's room. There was no movement.
I did not say anything more because I did not know what to He sat in the big armchair by the western window, and a star
make of the tone of her voice as she said her last words. All shone directly through it. He was smoking, but he removed the
the laughter seemed to have gone out of her. I waited for my roll of tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it
brother Leon to say something, but he was not saying carefully on the windowsill before speaking. "Did you meet
anything. Suddenly he broke out into song and the song was anybody on the way?" he asked.
'Sky Sown with Stars'---the same that he and Father sang "No, Father," I said. "Nobody passes through the Waig at
when we cut hay in the fields at night before he went away to night." He reached for his roll of tobacco and hitched himself
study. He must have taught her the song because she joined up in the chair. "She is very beautiful, Father."
him, and her voice flowed into his like a gentle stream meeting
a stronger one. And each time the wheels encountered a big "Was she afraid of Labang?" My father had not raised his
rock, her voice would catch in her throat, but my brother Leon voice, but the room seemed to resound with it. And again I saw
would sing on, until, laughing softly, she would join him again. her eyes on the long curving horns and the arm of my brother
Leon around her shoulders.
Then we were climbing out into the fields, and through the "No, Father, she was not afraid." "On the way---" "She looked
spokes of the wheels the light of the lantern mocked the at the stars, Father. And Manong Leon sang."
shadows. Labang quickened his steps. The jolting became "What did he sing?" "---Sky Sown with Stars... She sang with
more frequent and painful as we crossed the low dikes. "But it him."
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, He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of Mother and
though indistinctly. "You miss the houses, and the cars, and my sister Aurelia downstairs. There was also the voice of my
the people and the noise, don't you?" My brother Leon stopped brother Leon, and I thought that Father's voice must have been
singing. "Yes, but in a different way. I am glad they are not like it when Father was young. He had laid the roll of tobacco
here." on the windowsill once more. I watched the smoke waver
faintly upward from the lighted end and vanish slowly into the
With difficulty I turned Labang to the left, for he wanted to go night outside.
straight on. He was breathing hard, but I knew he was more The door opened and my brother Leon and Maria came in.
thirsty than tired. In a little while we drope up the grassy side "Have you watered Labang?" Father spoke to me.
onto the camino real. "---you see," my brother Leon was I told him that Labang was resting yet under the barn.
explaining, "the camino real curves around the foot of the "It is time you watered him, my son," my father said.
Katayaghan hills and passes by our house. We drove through 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.