MY MOTHER’S SECRET

When first day of school comes, it always reminds me of my mother’s myth of nourishing my mind for according to her, it would make me more intelligent for the whole school year.

It started since I was kindergarten. When I went home after my class in the morning, my mother always told me to drink the blackish juice she had made from a paper. What she did was, she burnt the paper which I had used before such as scratch or those I used in school for writing. After burning the paper, she dropped it in a bottle with water. Then put it in the altar.

If you were going to ask me how it looked like, well, it was like water dipped from a canal. The appearance of the water was black where the ashes had been suspended at the bottom of the bottle and some small sheets of burnt paper were floating on the water.

It tasted bitter, of course, it was because of the concentration of ashes in the water.

I don’t know what actually the real reason for drinking it. All I know, I had nothing to complain but to drink it though I don’t want to.

It continued until I stepped in high school. Before I went to school, I told her not to make anymore that kind of drink. But, when I went home, it was there again. She would just tell me that there was nothing wrong if I would believe on it. So, I was there again, drinking it over and over again.

I don’t know if it was effective. Actually, I graduated in elementary as valedictorian. And always first honor in my 2nd and 3rd year when I transferred at Quipayo High School.

When I was already in my fourth year in high school, I told her not to make it anymore because she would no longer convinced me to drink it.

She still did it anyway but it was drunken by my nephews and nieces who were also studying.

I graduated Salutatorian during my fourth year in high school.