“I Remember”

On a drought filled July, the water authority was conserving water so water was limited in some areas. One moonlit night, most of the children in the village that I grew up in, went to the elementary school that we attended to get water. The only light we had was from the full moon, but it was a beautiful night with a nice breeze blowing~ The trade winds was just what the night needed after the hot~ hot~ humid day we had.

I was about 5 years old and I was given a big Klim pan that my father had put two holes on the top and a piece of wood to make a handle. Most of the children around my age had the same kind of pan, but the older children had buckets.

I left home with my brothers and sisters, but they all walked ahead of me, so did all of the other big children. Us younger ones were walking as fast as we could. The bigger ones were able to reach the school, full their buckets then started walking back home~ passing us. When we finally got to the school, we had to wait for a free pipe to fill our pans. After we all filled them, we headed home. All the children in our group were about my age or younger. We walked carefully, talking about this-and-that and laughing at our jokes~ Just enjoying the carefree life we were living. Halfway of our journey our brothers and sisters passed us as they made their second trip to the school. As my big sister walked by me she said, “When you get home, stay, don’t come back.”

I asked my friends if they were coming back, they said that they were. I decided that I was not going to miss out on this fun-filled time I was having. I was going to ignore her demand so I said, “Come on guys, let’s walk faster.” We arrive at our homes, emptied our water into the barrels. I made sure my parents did not hear or see me as I quietly walked out of the yard, ran to meet my friends~ We set off for the school...