My beautiful day was hijacked by cow manure

Sunday. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to drive up to Suicide Cliff for that much needed personal day. I live in Kagman, and with the high cost of gasoline, I seldom drive pass the Retirement Fund building, unless it’s a must that I go downtown. Everything we need for our daily necessities are right here in the heart of Kagman. Well, basically everything except a much-needed police station, dispensary, and yes, a designated place where we can throw our garbage so some of us don’t litter the roads and the undeveloped homestead lots.

Anyways, so I headed north with my latest book, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I wanted so much to spend the late afternoon under one of the trees, reading my book, reflecting, and basically just enjoying the first day of the rest of my life. As I got out of the car, I took a moment to inhale the clean, fresh air. Gosh, this is so beautiful. The heat from the sun was just perfect, not to mention the breeze.

All of a sudden I had this weird feeling that my life was in danger. Hmmm, this is spooky, but I wasn’t going to let my imagination run me off this cliff. I’ve come this far with a few drops of gas in my reserve tank so might as well face my fears and enjoy the day. I quickly scanned the area in search of a nice spot. Yes, I found a really nice tree not far from the parking area. I took my folding chair, coffee, laptop and my book and headed toward the edge of the field. The grasses were long, but that was to be expected from July to August (rainy season.) What I didn’t expect was cow manure everywhere. I mean everywhere! Ugh! My so-called beautiful day was hijacked by cow manure! Flashback! Flashback! Am I back on Pagan? Am I dreaming? I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was awake and standing right here in the parking lot of Suicide cliff. Cow manure everywhere, from the parking area, to the lookout, under the trees, and yes, sad to say, even on the monument.

I immediately got back in my car with a heavy heart in search of a quiet, cow manure-free place. I headed down to the Last Command Post and found a nice spot under a beautiful flame tree. Yes! This is perfect! I decided to work on my lesson plan instead but the scene at Suicide Cliff bombarded my mind. How could we let this happen? How could we be so insensitive, careless, and unconcerned for our beautiful island? Beautiful? I almost couldn’t get that word out of my mouth; it sounded more like an insult.

This scene brought me back to my early years on Pagan. There were so many animals roaming the island that we had to build a fence to grow a vegetable garden. Our neighboring islands built a fence around their homes to keep the animals out. Picture this: the humans were fenced in while the animals roam the island. I can’t help but laugh every time I remember those days when the animals took charge of our island.

So? What say you? Shall we (humans) take back our island, or let the animals do as they please? First there are dogs that are forever shitting in my yard, then chickens digging up my doni garden, and then rats building a hotel in my roof, now cows taking over the tourist sites? This is so unbelievable. Where are the authorities? Oh! That’s right, budget cut, austerity Fridays, unpaid holidays, low salary, unpaid overtime, skyrocketing gas price, electricity, blah blah blah. Nah! Let the animals run our island, and let’s just sit back, drink beer, eat lobster and steak. Yeah, I think that sounds better. Buahaha!