2 The visitor

Early in the morning the sun shines directly to the window giving light to the room while the wind blows gently in its old dusty curtain. The birds sweetly chirping with their harmonic melodies as the sounds of the stream flowing down from a distant mountain. The sky is clear while the trees are waving its branches driven by the wind. Prinah is still sleeping like a log in to her father's bed as the sounds of her surroundings feel like a relaxing music. Suddenly, a large bird descend in front of the window firmly holds its claw to an extended iron attached in the sill. The bird then peck the window many times creating a knocking sounds into Prinah's ears. Awakened, Prinah open her eyes, yawned and stretch her both arms. She then turn her head side by side while circling her eyes amazed at her father's room. This is the time where she clearly see the inside. Prinah stand up and do stretching, while doing the workout, her visitor from the window grab her attention. After opening the window, Prinah was shocked, her eyes were wide open and quickly placed her hand over the mouth.

"...oh! such a wonderful creature..!" Prinah glued her eyes as the 'kalaw' a filipino term for Rufous Hornbill bobbing its head.

"..are you hungry..?" Prinah worriedly ask.

The 'Kalaw' just bobs its head, bill pointing the coconut shell acting to get some food from it. Prinah discovers the bird is not afraid of her and realized that her father tamed it as his pet. Evidently, the bird is old already. The feathers were not shiny anymore and even loses its brightness. She attempts to feed it, but she doesn't know what to give while imagining how could her father took care of it for that long period of time thus making the bird to habitually come. The bird missed the care of her father and even temporarily stay while waiting for Prinah. Scratching her head Prinah get outside the house thinking what could she offer, then she recalls from her class what kind of food they eat. She then looks for a shovel and found it in a separate storage room just a few steps from the house. As she stares at the bird who permanently staying at the window, she smiles and just shake her head.

".. Oh, poor bird how come your keeper just leave you like that.." She's joking with her father in her mind, ".. you really owe me this one."

She went straight to her father's garden and then begin removing some rocks randomly and haul up rotten woods, trunks, coconut husk and branches of trees using the shovel. Sweats flows down from her head to her cheeks as she fixes her pixie hair using fingers.

About ten minutes of constant excavation she finally found two centipedes. She then turned her head to the bird pecking the window.

".. This is more than a stretching.." she shook her head while panting and laugh, ".. so this is what you do every morning, father?" she asks her father in her mind.

She then shovels the two large centipedes and put inside the coconut shell. Back in the room with her wet shirt due to sweats she then extends the food to the bird in the window. The bird then quickly tears up the centipedes with no mercy and swallowed it like a spaghetti. Prinah laugh so loud as she sees it. As she looks at the bird she felt like it who longs for love and care.

"Maybe I should call you a name." Prinah talks to the bird

"Ah, What should I call you?" Prinah lift her eyes as she thinks names, "Hmm".

"Swallower? No, I should not call you that, Waiter? No, not appropriate, help me what do you want me to call you? She teasingly talks to the bird.

"Hey! I have an idea I know you'll be happy with this name, from now on I'm gonna call you 'Cally', is that okay? Yeah, that's it. Prinah touch the Casque of the bird while it is bobbing. Prinah was shocked when suddenly the bird honk and fly.

"Good bye Cally." she waved her hand as the bird flies back into the forest.

Prinah then hear her stomach rumbled. "Oh, I see it's your turn, haha I forgot."

She then walk few steps away from the house searching what could she eat. To her surprise, she notice a pond with many large 'carp'-an oily fresh water fish-swimming.

"Wow! This is great, father your such a provider". Prinah gratefully utters from her mouth.

She run quickly to the storage room hoping to find a fishing net and there found it. She immediately maneuvered the net like a hungry lion catches its prey. The net is wide enough that could easily catch as many as she want. When checking how many fish were caught she was shocked for these were large that could weigh half kilo individually. She then realized the fish were many and so she just select two fish enough for her breakfast. Some of the fish scales were stuck in Prinah's messy hair, her whole body was wet, hands and feet were filled with mud but she enjoys so much of what she did. She gathered plenty of dry branches of trees and set afire. As the fire consumed the dry branches creating enough heat Prinah then grilled the cleaned fish. It's eleven thirty five in the morning when she eat's her meal. After gaining her strength and full enough, she waited for thirty minutes watching the birds in the sky, waving branches of the trees and the streams flowing beside the mountain. She then draws water from the well fill it to another bucket and take a bath in the bathroom. After changing her clothes she then lay herself in her father's bed. As she's lying on bed recalling what she did that morning in a moment she fall asleep.