Rico's First Crime

I was on the window staring at my plants when I saw Rico under a jackfruit tree two roofs away from their house. I was wondering what he was doing there, I thought he was just playing when I suddenly glance at an unripe jackfruit hanging and Rico was about to grab it while the owner has no idea of what is happening. I tried to shout at him but it was too late.

In squatter’s area where we live, houses are so small that many of them share the same walls. Our house has four walls (naturally) and all of those walls are the same walls of our neighbor’s houses (just try to visualize it, it’s not that complicated). Fortunately, my father had been able to put up a second floor, but again the walls of our second floor, except the north and south where we managed to build two windows and if you come out of those windows you could walk on the roofs of other houses, the remaining walls are the same walls of our neighbors' houses that’s why sometimes we could hear what’s happening in our neighbors’ place, sometimes I could here if there is trouble or if something fishy is going on or if someone is about to do something naughty and one of them is Rico.

Rico was such a pain on the butt ever since the day he learned to walk, he sent six of his friends running home sometimes with a large bruise on their arm, a bleeding lip, scratched forehead and he almost fractured one of his friends arm. And also a lot of times I saw Rico dashing home with blood on his forehead or his elbows, he was such a naughty naughty boy and sometimes his mother would joke that she will not be surprised if she will discover her son inside the jail, her joke has almost come true that boring afternoon but brought me delight and I couldn’t help myself but to laugh out loud of what I saw.

It was a big green jackfruit about ¾ the size of Rico and he was eager to pull it out of the tree. I shouted two times but he didn’t bother although they brought a little nervousness, I could see that in his face but he continue to rotate the green fruit until it snapped out of the tree’s branch. He was barely embracing the spiky jackfruit and I was a little nervous that the owner might see him and suddenly catch him and beat him or worst he might got shot. The jackfruit slipped from Rico’s arms but he grabbed it quickly making a lot of sounds that made him ran a little faster. With his sister and his cousin cheering him, he ran as fast as he could and for less than 10 seconds he managed to run over the two roofs while holding the big green fruit.

I was laughing hard when Rico finished his crime, thank God he was just a 5-year old boy and he couldn’t be jailed for what he did. He received a barrage of preaching and spanking from his parents and from my mother but he is used to it, he really is a naughty naughty naughty little boy I wonder what he will be in the future. We were silent of what had happened because it might create a hell of trouble knowing that some people in our area are blood thirsty even to those who aren’t “man enough”, I’ve experienced it actually.

Rico might forget it when he grew up but that scene will be painted in my memory forever. It was the day that Rico committed his first crime, and I just hope that he will never ever going to do that ever again.