So it happens that Bung Adolfo, a boy of thirteen, was running out of the girls’ camp with a flailing undergarment in hand when the owner of said undergarment, just freshly out of the shower, saw him and ran chasing after him in a towel. She was pure fury, screaming and beating him with a flipflop, but he managed to get away.

By a thicket twenty boys stood around him, gaping and looking bewildered at Bong Adolfo’s cotton loot. They poked at it with sticks, stretched it to its limits, and made a lot of fantastical stories involving the girl and the undergarment. Above them on a rock sat Adolfo, the seniors around him patting his back. The boys nursed his flipflop-beaten head as they thought of what to do with this exotic item.

They had two days more on their school camping trip. On the night of the thievery, they stuck the undergarment to the end of a stick and displayed it to all their mates. The next day they battled in the muddy swamps with it—some boys enjoyed getting beaten by it more than others. And on the second day, they decided to taunt the girls with it.

A wave, a few jeering pairs of hands, a sneering laugh, the girls withstood it all. Even the bereaved girl was made to watch; her face was forlorn as if the undergarment was a kidnapped lover, and the other girls coddled her away from the triumphant boys.

Adolfo was deified on the final day. A tall senior knighted him on both shoulders with the garment, Adolfo’s exultant face rose, and he made a speech to his fellow mates riddled with grammatical errors, but they didn’t care. They jubilantly lifted him up to their shoulders at the end of it, but couldn’t maintain it and chose to pat him instead. The day was his.

Before the bus ride back they had to decide what to do with their veritable crown jewels. Lengthy deliberations were had, but Adolfo, with the haughtiness of a King, took the garment into his own hands. In a show of extreme mercy and with a high head he presented the undergarment to the girl. She took it quizzically, he walked back slowly to the silent respect of his mates, and she shouted to him:

“Adolfo! Next time when I reject your confession don’t cry and steal my things again, okay!”

So it happens that Bong Adolfo, a boy nearly fourteen, was almost raised to school royalty when a girl, unkind and remembered always with blushing embarrassment, undid in a few words what providence had been promising him.

Cover image by Juli Kosolapova on Unsplash. The copyright of this piece belongs to the author of this literary work.  

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