Our Slanted House

 Throughout the village of Guruyan, our house was unique, so passersby were always amazed while I have always been ashamed.

"Wow, their house is beautiful! How could they sleep in there?" I heard the fat woman say.

"Their hut is indeed great! When the storm passes, they might be blown away," the companion said.

I turn red when they criticize our house. I want to get mad at them. I want to be glad too. I almost did not want to go out and wander because my playmate would just invite me. He always wanted us to go into our house. Oftentimes, I hide when Doro calls because I am sure he will roll around on our bamboo bed. He liked the feeling of a ball rolling down.

I melt with shame whenever Doro is happy to imitate the sloping door until he falls. I usually go along with him, so he does not get into our house.

"Ellis, let’s go to your house. Let's play there," Doro said to me.

"I don’t like to. We just stay here in the tree," I said.

"I want to go into your hut. Why are you forbidding me to come?"

I felt like I was about to shake the branch to make him fall, but I stopped myself. I quickly went down to the tree and left Doro.

Doro's laughter rolled as I ran away.

"Ellis, I'm going to your slanted house!" Doro yelled annoyingly.

"Try it. I will punch you," I yelled at him.

"You are truly lucky. Your house is the only one that has not been destroyed," I heard him say.

I quickly went to the house to try to get it fixed.

I pushed the wooden pillar with all my might, but nothing happened. I'm still looking at the walls.

I went to the back and pushed the pillar, but nothing happened either. It is still slanted.

I remember the bamboo poles my dad and I got in the river. I immediately put it as support from its possible collapse. I wanted to be happy, but my tears were about to fall because when I see it, bamboo pole has been useless.

Then, I took a long rope. Using the bamboo staircase, that my father had just made, I tied the roof. Having the end of the rope, I went down, then climbed up the mango tree.

I thought of tying the end of the rope to the top part of the mango tree so that the wind would not blow our roof away. But before I could do that, I could see the houses around.

There were only four pillars left in Aling Tali’s house.

The roof of Mang Damian’s house was on the other side of the fence.

Grandpa Tasyo's house was like human, sitting on the ground.

And I saw Doro’s house in the distance. Flipped!

"The storm was so strong last night," I said to myself. "Doro’s right, our slanted house is very lucky."

Immediately, I also went down into a large tree.

"Oh, Ellis, what did you do up the mango tree?" my mother asked, who just arrived. "And you are holding the rope of your father."

"You've tried to fix our house, son?" my father said. He laid down the bamboo poles.

I laughed and I scratched my head. "I thought... our house is ridiculous."

His mother and father laughed together.

"Son, our house is the strongest of all in the Guruyan Village," Mama said.

"Ellis, even though our house was diagonal, it saved our lives last night."

"Good morning!" Doro greeted us.

We greeted Doro.

"Your house is immensely strong!" said my friend.

"Of course! I'm proud of someone who made this." I hugged my father.

"And to make it stronger, I have already picked up bamboo poles along the riverbank."

"Yehey!" Doro and I shouted together.