(This is a short story I wrote for my English class. It's about the book 'Patron Saints Of Nothing' by Randy Ribay and I highly recommend that you read it. Though I changed up the storyline a lot, it still has the same characters and atmosphere.)
Randy Ribay has something to say, "Thank you all for reading my novel and I hope that you all enjoy this amazing student's short story. It will delve deep into some of the main topics of my story and hopefully convey the message even more perfectly than I did myself."
The wind blows through my hair, allowing it to fly majestically in the wind. The salty scent of the sea finds its way into my nostrils, though I have nothing against it. My shoulders hang limp by my side as I take a deep breath, relaxing as I wait for my cousins to arrive. The taste of this morning's coffee still lingers on my tongue, going to war with the eggs and bacon I had along with it. The waves of the beach rise and fall, rolling over my feets as the warm water calms my nerves for all of the adventures that may occur today.
The hustling sound of people running breaks me back into reality and soon, the cheerful voices of my cousins take over. Jun wraps me in a large hug, lifting me a few inches off of the ground. I let out a yelp and he laughs joyfully as he lowers me back down. His goatee seems to have grown a bit since the last time I saw him. He looks healthier too, I guess that rehabilitation has been going well for him. That's good. I can't imagine how bad things would have been if I had lost him, and to drugs nonetheless. It probably would've been even worse, we all probably would've lost him to cops or vigilantes. The thought of it all makes my blood boil.
"Good morning, Jay!" They all say in almost perfect unison as Angel and Grace also give me a quick hug.
I let out a nervous chuckle, my body starts to heat up a bit under the early morning sun. "Goodmorning, Jun, Angel, and Grace."
"Are you excited for today?" Angel asks with a youthful and enthusiastic stance. Her smile is beaming and hopeful.
I try to match her energy, though I fail terribly. "You bet I am!"
"Then let's get going already," Tito Manning speaks up, his intimidating voice rises out of nowhere behind us. I swallow my fear and nod, trying to not show exactly how scared of him I really am. "We better not be late!"
All four of us go silent and cold as we follow him and the other adults off of the beach. Tito Manning planned the entire day, sadly. So we end up having to go to the museum and listen to him lecture us about our history and how amazing Duterte is. I swear, he's like a puppy for that horrible, inhumane man. He does exactly what he's told and doesn't bother to question his masters orders.
My parents wave me goodbye as we walk past the beach house. My mother's expression looks like she's wishing me luck, meanwhile, my father's looks more like he's warning me to keep my mouth shut and do as I'm told. My body starts to cool down once we leave the beach and enter a small path of shadows and trees. I'm not looking forward to today, and it's not like we can sneak away later today either because we won't even be allowed to leave his sight.
As we all pile into the car, squishing together in the back seat while the adults take the front, Tito Manning blasts the air conditioning and drives out of the parking lot. It's not long before the car is freezing cold, making the sweat that was once on my body feel more like ice. The temptation to ask him to turn it down is eating at me, though I've known through so many experiences before that it's best if I just stay silent and suffer through it all. Obeying the intimidation factors just like how my father does and how Manning follows Duterte's. It's all just a never ending lineup and people obeying others because they're scared, it's sickening really.
The entire car ride back into the city is in almost complete silence, Grace is busy reading her book, Angel seems to be working on some sort of assignment for class, and Jun is smiling silently to himself as he stares out of the window. I know that at times they love to just sit in the silence, awkward or comforting doesn't matter. Though I bet that today the silence is because of Manning's presence. He's very serious when it comes to the museum, he even plans and prepares an entire day of education and questions beforehand. Though, I know that it's all just mainly meant to point out how ignorant and stupid I am to Philipino history. It's not my fault that there's only a paragraph about it in my history textbooks. Besides, there's not many people who really care about their own history anyway. Very few Americans even bother to research their history outside of school, and most of the people who do learn it in school will end up forgetting about it all after the test.
"So, Jay," Tito Manning finally speaks up. I notice Jun flinch slightly at the suddenness of his voice, but he still doesn't look away from the window. "Are you looking forward to actually learning about your history?" I go to respond but he continues before I can even get a word out. "After all, it's not like you Americans can provide any real history about us. It's all always just propaganda."
I take a moment to make sure that he's actually done, we lock eyes in the rear view mirror, his eyebrows are raised and show slight amusement to my stupidity. "I guess," I mumble and his eyebrows raise just a bit higher.
Before I can correct my answer to something that Manning would be pleased with, Jun chimes in. "You know that there's propaganda in every country you go to? Not just America? For instance, history classes in the Philippines also share negativity towards America." Tito Manning twitches and goes to lecture him but Jun continues, "I find it fascinating really, even though we're no longer going through world wars we still spread propaganda worldwide to make ourselves sound better."
"Shut up!" Manning shouts, making the entire car jump from the booming of his voice. "You don't know what you're talking about! You're just a stupid boy, once you finally know the truth about the world, then maybe you'll know to keep your mouth shut about such lies!"
"Though I guess that it makes sense though," Jun continues with a cold and calm voice, acting as though his father hadn't said a thing. "All human's care about is themselves. Making themselves sound better than others, dragging others down to please their own ego, even spreading suffering through the world just to make themselves look like a hero."
Manning's lip curls, like a pitbull getting ready to fight, "What are you referring to?"
Jun finally looks away from the window, meeting his father's eyes in the rear view mirror. Neither of them relent. "Our president," Manning's face turns to a boiling red rage as he continues to glare at his son. "Duterte."
He hits the breaks, my face almost smashes into the seat in front of me but luckily Jun caught me. Slowly, he pulls over to the side and gets out of the car. His feet stomps on the ground as he marches over to Jun's side of the car and flings the door open. I can see Jun's heart start to race, but he manages a straight face as he stares blankly at his pure red father.
"How dare you say such lies about our amazing president!" He nearly screams as he grabs Jun's collar and drags him out of the car. I attempt to pull Jun back but I'm too slow. My cousins and their mother shout at Manning to stop as Jun rolls on the ground, fresh blood slides down his lip. "You ungrateful teenager!" Manning grabs the back of Jun's shirt and lifts him back up to his feet, shouting in his face as he pulls Jun back to the car. "You clearly know nothing about our amazing country and phenomenal leaders!"
Jun climbs back into the car, wiping the blood and dirt off of his face as Manning slams the door and stomps back to the driver's seat. "How amazing could it be if it has people like you?" Jun mumbles to himself as he goes back to staring out of the window, this time not even the faintest smile shows on his mouth.
We're back to driving again, this time the silence is neither awkward nor comforting. It's tense, suffocating even. It makes the hairs on my body stand up and the air in my lungs go still, like it's too scared to leave my body and be in the proximity of Manning.
I hate that I'm like this. Jun was even taking my side and speaking up for me and I didn't even have the guts to go out there and protect him. Sure, I'd definitely get my ass kicked, but at least I would've been doing the right thing. Why is it so difficult to do the right thing? It comes so easy for Jun, how does he do it? How does he not get scared and decide to keep his mouth shut instead? How can he be so courageous and so certain that what he's doing is for the greater good? I wish I could be more like him, I wish I could be more open about my thoughts and opinions. I wish I had the courage to call people out.
Jun certainly isn't even near wrong either. So many innocent people have been killed because of Duterte. Even people who have nothing to do with drugs. Jun has helped so many people and he's only seventeen. If only people can be more like Jun. I'm sure that the crime rate would be so much lower if Jun were the president than any law that Duterte may pass.
"Hey," Jun nudges my shoulder, speaking in a whisper just quiet enough that only the two of us can hear. "Don't worry about me," He smiles, reassuringly. "I'll be fine.
"Are you sure?" I ask, though I'm not as good at whispering than him.
"Positive," He grins. "And don't worry about not having my back earlier, I won't hold it against you. I noticed that you wanted to help."
"Really?" I glance towards Manning as he focuses on dodging and swerving oncoming traffic then back to Jun. "Are you sure?"
"Of course," He squints as he smiles wider. "We are the saints of nothing after all."