SUPERNATURAL STORY: LITTLE DARK BOY

My father was a tailor, a very good one and a hard worker. He and a male cousin owned a succesful tailoring shop at one time. Aside from them, they also employed a "tig sursi" (stitch woman). Between (tailors) them, one would sometimes stay very late to finish some outfit especially if the deadline is the next day. This story is one such night/dawn.

The tailoring shop was about 15-20 minutes walk from our house. It was located in the main thoroughfare to the City, we call "karsada" (road). To get there, we have to use a dirt feeder road. Sometimes a tricyle (mode of transportation, motorcycle with sidecar) could use it, but the dirt road is mostly for foot use. As it is just a dirt road, the place would become so muddy and small pools of water would collect in the small potholes on the grassy side of the road when it rains. Growing up, I found this stretch of dirt road a little scary, especially at night. It is in the middle between the fence of the Base (MAB) and big tress, weeds, bushes and a smattering of only a couple of nipa (thatch) huts on the other side. No lamp post, so at night this road is dark and quiet. Not much "civilization" for a scaredy cat like me :).
A typical Philippine dirt road.



So, there was Papa in one of his overtimes going home at two in the morning. The road was still a little muddy as it rained hard a couple of days before, some small pools of water were still on the grassy part of the road. The night wasn't that dark, quiet but for the croaking of frogs. He was walking and halfway thru the road, Papa heard splashing. At first, he didn't pay much attention thinking that it was just the frogs, having fun in their pool :). He continued to walk, then he heard the splashing again. The sound seems to came behind him, he turned around and looked on the grassy side of the road where one of the small pools of water was. He saw a small boy, two or three years old, happily splashing himself in the water. The boy didn't have any clothes, robust looking and had dark complexion. The distance between them was between nine or ten feet. Papa was thinking "kabugoy bata-a" (what a rambunctious kid) and continued walking. As he continued to walk he realized that it's two in the morning! Kids aren't supposed to be out by themselves at that age at that time of the day! With a raised hair on the back of his neck and goosebumps, he pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary until he arrived home.
When he told us this story, we tried to tell him that maybe the kid was the son of one of the families that live not far away from where he saw the boy. He told us, he already asked the mother of that family and was being told that none of their children has the habit of going out without telling any of the members of the family, and at that time of day? Besides, she told my father that their youngest is seven years old.