The Sparrow
By Jess Guim

Somewhere in the Philippines… during the reign of Marcos dictatorship…

“Calling H1636!… Calling H1636!… This is HQ, …Over!” sounded the built-in radio on the pilot’s helmet of a Huey helicopter flying over the site of a gun battle. The call came from the radio room of Bayani Provincial Military Camp.

“This is H1636! I hear you loud and clear… From here, I could view the dead bodies of our men and their burning car on the ground. There are no more signs of clash here… the enemies must have escaped by now… OVER!” answered the pilot as he maneuvered the flying machine scanning the ground with the aid of its search light. The two uniformed men at the door of the helicopter were all pointing the fully loaded machine-guns to the ground. Two more were pointing their M-16 armalites to the circular area of the ground hit by their search light.

“H1636, there’s a new order suspending ‘OPERATION: CLASH’…REPEAT… Please suspend ‘OPERATION: CLASH’!… You and your men are ordered to implement ‘OPERATION: THE SPARROW’ !… REPEAT… ‘OPERATION: THE SPARROW’! …OVER!”

The order was clear, but the weather may not permit the operation and the night is dangerous for flying helicopters was in the mind of the pilot. He did not object, however, because of the doctrine: “Obey first, before you complain.” So, he swirled his Huey towards the new site of operation. Their mission: SEARCH AND KILL A ESCAPING SPARROW!

The night was cold and dark at Plaridel. The sky was cloudy, with the thunders hurling everytime lightning sparked. The vibrating musical chirping from night insects, which used to rhyme with the swaying sound of dancing leaves of bamboos and trees were gone. Everything which could be heard from around were rumbles, the cast of anger from the skies.

At the westernmost part of Plaridel, there was a hilly place only a mother and two sons lived. The small nipa hut where they dwelled was built after they escaped from an hacienda where they once lived. A few meters behind their hut was a creek running towards a big river. Just at the creek’s bank was a small boat; its half portion was floating on the calm water, while the other half was touching the wet ground of the bank.

Inside the hut was a mother, sitting on a cold but shiny bamboo floor. She was just in her early forties. The different ordeals and sufferings she met with her family made her looked like 10 years older. She had just finished praying the ANGELUS. On her hands were an old shirt and torn picture of her most beloved son, Emilio. Aling Socorro’s tears would not stop dropping from her eyes, as she glanced and touched the two pieces of her son’s memories.

Emilio was only fifteen years old. He was the family’s pet child – an intelligent and very affectionate son. He was a junior student in a small rural barrio high school. But one afternoon, he did not come home from school. Aling Socorro and her elder son, Sonny, could not find any lead as to where he had gone for six months already.

“My God, what is this that you had been doing to us? First, it was my husband who’s gone… Why would my most beloved son disappear, too?!” Aling Socorro uttered, as she cried and kissed the old shirt of her son. Mang Tino, the head of this poor family, was the main suspect on last year’s gruesome death of Don Graciano, the richest Haciendero in the province of Bayani. He killed the greedy millionaire when he was not able to withstand the paying system of labor at his plantation. The flame of wrath in Mang Tino’s chest burned further when he was pounded by butts of guns and kicks by his bodyguards, when he tried to complain in front of Don Graciano. He killed the rich man while sleeping in the midst of the night after that incident.

“They’re not gone, ‘Ma… believe me. They’re just somewhere. Who knows, tomorrow, they’ll be back again…” Sonny broke the silence. He was sitting in front of a bamboo table behind his mother. He was going on twenty, but less educated than his missing younger brother. Being the eldest son, he was his father’s companion in working at the vast coconut plantation of Don Graciano. He had been working there since age twelve.

He had just finished cleaning his 45-caliber gun, and started to assemble its parts in front of a kerosene lamp. The well-shined revolver was left to him by his father before he escaped from the wrath of his enemies and the crime he committed. At the foot of the kerosene lamp were scattered bullets. Near its flame was a young moth flying around. In the midst of turbulent night with impending rain, it was the only flame where the young insect could get heat and light.

“KREEKK…” sounded the bamboo door at the left side of Sonny. Someone was pushing the door outside. Sonny’s instinct of danger was instant. He filled his automatic gun with bullets and pointed it to the moving door.

Aling Socorro’s anguish was relieved by the unexpected sound of the opening door. She immediately rose from the floor and rushed towards it with the old shirt and photograph still on her hands. “It must be your father! O-or …EMILIO! It must be them now!” Without hesitance, the exultant mother opened the door.

Sonny grabbed the small kerosene lamp with his left hand, stood up, and hurried to the door, too. But he was more keen-eyed and alert, with the 45 caliber gun ready to be fired on his right hand. Just as the two opened the door, a bloodied body of a teen-ager dropped at the mother’s bare feet. “M-mother… K-kuya Sonny… Ahhh….” moaned the dying Emilio as he crawled the bamboo floor wet and bloodied.

“EMILIO!… WHO DID THIS TO YOU?!…WHY?! ” the mother cried as she held her son on her arms. Emilio’s face was bruised. His eyes, nose, and lips were all swelling from multiple hard punches. His body bathed with blood from the hits of bullets at his back and right leg.

Sonny placed back the lamp at the table, then helped her mother carry his brother’s body inside the hut. “Who did this to you, Emilio? Where have you been for the past six months?!” The elder brother asked with outrage. While the hysterical mother undressed her wounded son.

“N-never c-cry for these things that happened to me, Mama… K-kuya. My death is a victory for us all in the town of Bayani!…UGH! UGH!…I…I k-killed Mayor Curacot yesterday. I killed the evil who was causing all our sufferings in the town. UGH! UGH! UGH!” Emilio explained as he held the hand of his mother.

“Y-you mean… y-you are a member of the Sparrow Unit?! Oh, SHIT!” Sonny replied in surprise.

“Oh, my God! Why did you do it?!” The mother asked with fears.

“Mayor Curacot is an evil, ‘Ma. If I could only have nine lives… I will always join Commander Silent’s Sparrow unit… UGH! UGH! UGH!… and kill all those evils of our society… UGH! UGH! UGH!” Emilio answered while fighting for his breath.

“BULL SHITTT! That’s what you’ve learned in the school… HEROISM! BULL SHIT, DEAD HEROES! They left us false ideas which you believed literally from the teachers!” Sonny responded with anger as he rose up. He faced back the two and boxed the wall of their hut. ” ‘THE YOUTH IS THE HOPE OF THE FATHERLAND’… is it the reason why you joined the liquidation squad of the New people’s Army?!!… You’re a fool, Emilio. You can not kill all the evils of our society. It’s BULL SHIT foolishness to become a dead hero. It’s better to become an evil and survive!… IT’S BETTER TO BECOME AN EVIL … EVIL AND SURVIVE!!!”

“I joined the Sparrow Unit because I wanted to find our father, too, in the hills where he had been hiding. He told me before he left us that it was better to join the rebel group of the New People’s Army, than to hide here. In the hills, however, I learned from his comrades that he was killed in a clash with the military. They did not return his corpse for our own safety. The military would be linking us to the NPA, and they would kill us all, too.” Emilio recounted with teary eyes. “When I heard Papa’s death, I was so self-possessed by my hatred to people who caused us all these sufferings. I convinced Commander Silent to include me in their mission to liquidate Mayor Curacot.”

Emilio encountered different kinds of inhuman tortures from the military while in captivity. He was made to confess his involvement with the rebels and their whereabouts, but he was so fearless that he did not concede at all. The military decided to liquidate him outside the camp. They scripted a scenario that Emilio was to be transferred to another jail, but they will liquidate him along the way. The dirty trick, however, was already in the mind of Emilio. He knew that several suspected innocent civilians had been killed already by the military just for mere suspicion that they were related or supporters of the rebel group. So, at the site where he was told to run for his life, he did all his efforts to grab a gun from his captors. He was able to kill three of them while escaping and wounded by bullet hits on his body.

“Calling HQ!… Calling HQ!… This is H1636… OVER!”

“This is HQ… I hear you loud and clear! What’s the latest development now?”

“Our men are heading towards a small hut where the direction of blood stains are going. The Sparrow must be in that house, OVER!”

Inside Aling Socorro’s hut, the three were alarmed by the sudden sound of nearing helicopter and barking hound dogs. “They’ve located me, Mama… Kuya Sonny. Go!… Please leave me here now. With all these bullets in my body, my life won’t last longer, anyway,” Emilio pleaded with tears on his eyes.

“No, they would not get you, Emilio. Mama, please go ahead now to our boat at the creek. There’s still time to escape.” Sonny directed his mother towards the back door, and carried his bleeding brother. At the creek, they found a boat just enough for three passengers. Sonny instructed his mother to lay flat inside the boat over the wounded body of Emilio, then pushed the boat to the water. After spreading the nylon fishing net over the back of her mother, he maneuvered the water craft by pushing it from behind, while he was under the water. The moving boat looked like empty in the midst of darkness, which was once in a while brightened by the sudden flashing of lightning from the skies.

“The blood stains are still fresh. Okey, MENN! SEARCH! SEARCH! … The Sparrow is not far from here!” shouted the military leader as he pointed his fingers to different directions. The barking hound dogs were as wild as the uniformed men searching for the fugitive, specially that they did not find their mission. When they arrived at the foot of the creek, the family’s boat had glided too far already, and could not be reached by their flashlights.

The trickles of rain started to pour heavier, making the ground wet and slippery. The military Commander then decided to cease the operation. There were more dangers beyond the creek which was leading to the river. The place was said to be a rebel group’s territory. To have a clash with them at that time was not their mission.

The Huey arrived and hovered above the small hut. Everytime the war machine’s searchlight hit the family’s boat, Sonny would dip his head down the water.

The infra-red night vision of the helicopter team finally recognized human figures lying underneath the fishing net on the boat. The helicopter flew closer to the water, just above the trees surrounding the creek. Then, its men started to fire. The fugitives’ boat was almost hit at the first burst of fires.

Sonny was alerted by the hizzing bullets which hit the water near their boat. His mother shouted in fears, but did not rise up from where she laid.

There was no other way but to fight back was the decision of Sonny. So, he left the boat and swam back to the bank. When he reached the ground he pulled his gun from his waist. He pointed it to the returning Huey, which maneuvered back for another set of fires.

“FUCK YOU!!!… YOU KILLED MY FATHER!!!… AND NOW YOU WANTED TO KILL US!!!….UMM! UMM! UMM!… ” Sonny shouted with rage as he pulled the trigger of his gun. No bullet missed the Huey’s body which was flying too close to the trees.

“KAB-BLOOOMM!” sounded the exploding war machine on air, as it swiftly spread into pieces.

Sonny went back to the boat and calmed down his mother. “It’s over now, Mama… Emilio”

“You’re a sharpshooter, Kuya Sonny! I couldn’t believe it, you could blow down that damned Huey,” Emilio praised his brother as Sonny was caressing his head.

“You’ll live my brother. God knows we will all survive from His trials.” Sonny started to maneuver the boat with a paddle. As the boat glided through the river, he turned his face to view back the smoking site where the helicopter crashed.

The rain stopped pouring. The skies started to clear from clouds – slowly showing the bright full moon of the night.

Not far ahead, at the river bank, silhouette of armed men came out from the bushes. One of the men shouted “SAMPAGUITA!”

As the boat was nearing the river bank, Emilio responded with identifying password, “AGILA!”

The armed rebels finally came out from bushes to rescue the fugitive family.