PARSING ACTIVITY NO. 6

DIRECTION: Mark all conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections, green, yellow, and blue, respectively. Right answers minus wrong answers.

Sprinkle
By Don Michael A De Leon

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I do not know where you are right now. Maybe you are just around the corner, perhaps down the concrete road, or possibly in the grassy backyard. It is very difficult to think of you, knowing that I would be hurt repeatedly, and to think that you have been so unfair to leave me all alone in spite of everything we have gone through. Thinking of you makes me dispirited.

I could never forget the first time our eyes set mark on each other. The very moment my eyes met yours, a powerful attraction enveloped us, and I knew that my life would never be the same again. As I tickled your body, clutched your stiff tail, nudged your moist nose, and caressed your shiny brown coat, you moved uncontrollably, jumped and knocked me down, and licked my face. That sudden and unfavorable response awakened my animalistic spirit. I grabbed you by the neck and wrestled with you in the backyard. After a grueling exhibition of courage, strength, dominance, and some tattered clothes, I declared myself the glorious champion, while you, the big loser, went out cold, defeated by the invincible warrior.

I cared for you very well, and I completely made sure that you would grow strong and healthy. I remember that when we went to the veterinarian for the anti-rabies vaccine that you had to take, the doctor had a hard time injecting the substance because you were whining like a wimp. A weakling, the doctor might have described you, but I knew that you were very brave like me, and you would not easily groan just because of a very tiny wound.

We always walked around together, and every time we played and got splattered with dirt, we would run back home and secretly clean ourselves. Sometimes, we would pretend to be detectives trotting stealthily along the sidewalk, searching for footprints of robbers and their intimidating bloodhounds, which would turn to be out our own tread marks. Although I always got tired of our adventures, I was very happy because I shared happy memories with you. And even if you always bit my notebooks and scratched my legs, there has never been a time when I got mad at you, because whenever you would tend to anger me, all I had to do was carry you in my arms, and all the anger in my heart would simply fade away.

But, everything has a season – a time to live and a time to die. Until now, I still could not understand why all the good things on earth last for a short while and then be gone forever. I just woke up that morning, and as my mother told me what happened, it seemed that everything we had been through was just a lie. She told me that the gate was left open, and as you ran out, you got hit by a tricycle. It seems, she added, that it was meant to be, because instead of cries of pain and agony, you passed away just as though you were sleeping. I did not know what to believe. I felt deprived of the chance to see you just for the last time. I cried because I never thought that after all the joys and the adventures that we have shared together, I would, in the end, be all alone again.

As time passed, I realized how important you were to me. I came to love you not just as a master loves his pet, but as a brother I never had. I still feel sad when I think of you, but I become stronger when I remember all the experiences we had shared. In you, I found the love a brother could give to his own. I found courage to be brave for every endeavor I have to face, and because of you, I learned to find great happiness in simple things I have everyday.

Thank you, Sprinkle for the life and happiness we had shared.