THE HERO QUEST

Chapter 1 Lupah Sug

Downtown Jolo

Tingingingining…the bell rang signifying the time of mid morning recess in a government school in downtown Jolo. The children rush out from the classroom, hurrying to fall in line and get in que for the hot and tasty Nutri Bun available for 25 cents in the local canteen. The aroma of this newly baked delight can be smelled even from the fourth grade classroom which is located at the opposite end from the canteen of the quadrangular school ground of Muhammad Tulawie Central School.

Ben, being a bit smaller and slower than the rest is at the end of the line. Actually there is no line at all. It's as chaotic as it can get. Bigger children who are at the higher level of Elementary grades are the ones getting the buns first. After some time the scuffling, pushing and yelling mellows down the kids then disperse from the crowd. Ben, who's stomach is aching for that aromatic nutrient fortified sweet roll developed by the USAID in the 70's and 80s, haply walked away empty handed.

Bang! Bang! Pak! pak!

Suddenly there was chaos on the school ground. Children running across the field. Ben stood frozen in the middle of the field near the school's stage where the ceremony is usually held. Suddenly a man appears few meters away from him with a revolver standing against the wall, peeping at the edge and trying to get a glimpse at somebody, petrified and gasping with fear.

Bang bang!

Another shot was heard. Ben, trembled and reflexly ran to the opposite side, being that skinny athletically challenged kid stumbled and tripped and fell on the ground, standing again then entering the sport teacher's room where he saw the teacher himself and some other students hiding underneath the ping pong table. Somewhat relieved, Ben unhesitatingly hid in the same place and felt safe but slowly feeling the burning pain of a bruised right knee.

The walls of the school are so low that even a fourth grade smaller than average Tausug boy like Ben can easily climb over. The main gate was perpetually open – rather there was no gate at all, only a gape between two walls with an oversized acacia tree on its eastern side. There was no way of protecting the children at school so that a shooting episode like this between the Tumawi clan and the Tang clan, political rivals of the day, can easily end up inside the school campus. During summer holidays when all the vegetables planted in the Agriculture class have grown up and ready to be picked, there will be no vegetable to harvest at all because either some people have already harvested them or worst, one can find human poops on the garden that a student worked so hard on. Sadly, Ben's garden is one of them.

Having survived the ordeal and has gotten safely home after the class has been cancelled, Ben thought of a happy weekend coming when he, his brother Al and sister Yeng usually spends in Bus Bus where his great grandmother Buh lives.
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