Baldo: *narrating* I can see how my brother is very happy with Maria.

They look
good together. I still remember the time when my brother returned to our province
with his wife. She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick delicate
grace. She was lovely. She was tall. She looked to my brother with a smile, and her
forehead was on a level with his mouth.
Maria: You are Baldo.
Baldo: *narrating* Her nails was long but they were not painted. She was fragrant
like a morning when papayas are in bloom, and the small dimple appeared momently
high high on her right cheek.
Marian: And this is Labang of whom I have heard so much.
Baldo: You may scratch his forehead now.
Leon: Maria
Baldo: *narrating* He did not say Maring. He did not say Mayang. I knew the he
had always called her Maria and in my mind I said Maria and it was a beautiful
name.
Maria: Yes Noel
Baldo: *narrating* Now where did she get 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 backward and it sounded much better that way.
Leon: There is Negrebcan, Maria.
Maria: You love Negrebcan, don’t you Noel?
Leon: Yes… (Tumingin kay Baldo) Hitch him to the cart, Baldo.
Maria: Why does he make that sound? I have never heard the like of it.
Leon: There is not another like it, I have yet to hear another bull call like Labang. In
all the world, there is no other like him.
Maria: If you continue to talk about him like that, Either I shall fall in love with him
or become greaty jealous. (Sumakay sila sa Cart)
Leon: Give me the rope, Baldo
Baldo: *narrating* She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart, legs bent together
to one side, her skirt spread over them, so that only the toes and heels of her shoes
were visible. Her eyes were on my brother leans back. I saw the wind on her hair.
Leon: What is it you have forgotten now, Baldo? Who told you to drive through the
field tonight? Baldo, you fool, answer me before I lay the rope of Labang on you!
Baldo: Father!
Leon: Why do you follow the waig instead of the Camino Reat?
Baldo: Father? He told me to follow the Waig tonight, Manong.
Leon: I suppose
Baldo: Father also told you to hitch Labang to the carts and meet us with him intead
of Castano and Caksa.
Leon: Maria, why do you think father should do that now?
Maria: *shrugged*
Leon: Have you ever seen so many stars before?
Maria: Look, Neol! (pointing at the stars) Yonder is our star!
Leon: I have been looking at it. Do you remember how would I tell you that when
you want to see stars, you must come to Nagrebcam?
Maria: Yes, Noel. Look at it, it so many times bigger and brighter that it was in
Ermita Beach. The air here is so clean, free of dust and smoke. So it is Noel,
Leon: Making fun of me, Maria?
*Bumaba si Baldo para buksan ang lamp sa unahan ng cart*
Leon: Good job Baldo.
Maria: Have we far to go yet, Noel?
Leon: Ask Baldo, we have neglecting him.
Maria: I am asking you, Baldo
Baldo: Soon, we will get out of the Waig and past into the fields. After the fields is
home, Manong.
Maria: So near already.
Baldo: *narrating* I did not say anything more because I did not know what to make
of the tone of her voice as she said the last word. All the laughter seemed to have
gone out of her. I waited for my brother Leon to say anything, but he was not saying
anything. Suddenly, he broke out into song, and the song was “Sky Sown With Star”
the same that he and father sang when we cut hay in the fields at night, before he
went away to study. He must have taught her the song, because she joined him, and
her voice flowed into his, like a gentle stream meeting a stronger one. And each time
the wheels encountered a big rock, her voice would catch in her throat, but my
brother Leon would sing on it. Until laughing softly, she would join him again.
(habang dumadaan sa field)
Maria: But it is so very wide here.
Leon: You miss the houses and the cars and the people and the noises, don’t you?
Maria: Yes, but in a different way. I’m glad that they are not here.
Leon: You see the Camino Real curves, around the foot of the Katayaghan hills and
passes by our house. We drove through the fields because--- but I’ll be asking Father
as soon as we get home.
Maria: Noel
Leon: Yes, Maria?
Maria: I am afraid. He may not like me.
Leon: Does that worry you still Maria? 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 troubling
him again. Father is the mildest-tempered, gentlest man I know.
Maria: Ok
*Scenario ng dalawang babae*
Baldo: Hoy! Urong and Celin!
Two girls: Does your brother Leon and his wife were with you?
Leon: Baldo let’s go.
*Scenario na papasok na sila sa bahay*
Leon: father? Where is he?
Mother: He is in the room upstair. His leg is bothering him again
Father: *shouting* Baldo! Baldo!
Baldo: *narrating* There wer
\e no light in Father’s room. There was no movement. He sat in the big armchair by
the western window, and the stars shone directly to it. He was smoking but he
removed the roll of tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on
the windowsill before speaking.
Father: Did you meet anybody on the way?
Baldo: No, Father. Nobody passes through the Waig at night. She is very beautiful
father.
Father: Was she afraid of Labang?
Baldo: No, Father. She was not afraid. On the way she looked at the stars and
manong Leon sang.
Father: What did he sing?
Baldo: “Sky Sown With Stars” she sang with him.
*And another scene flashed (Naguusap sina Leon, Marie, kapatid ni Leon na babae
at ang Nanay)*
Father: Have you watered Labang?
Baldo: Not yet, Father.
Father: It is time to watered him my son.
*Nakasalubong ni Baldo si Maria at Leon bago siya tuluyang makalabas ng bahay*
Baldo: *narrating* 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 fragrant of her was like a morning papayas are in bloom.
*Another scene flashed sitting beside ilog*
Leon: I still can’t believe that we’ve gone this far.
Maria: Me too. I guess, if you really love someone, you will accept him for who he
was, for what he is and for what he will be.
Leon: I love you, Maria.
Maria: I love you yesterday, I love you still, I always have and I always will.
*Scene of their Labing Labing and a scene when they are already matanda na*