December
8-14
It all started when Jo was a young lady, growing
up in a small fishing community in Samar. Everybody calls her Pinay. She helps
her mother Rosal, who looked like Tetchie Agbayani in Yanggaw, in their sidewalk eatery in the market. They start
preparing before dawn, as her father Juanito, who looked like Joel Torre in Amigo, gets ready for his work as a
fisherman.
"Pinay, it's almost
four in the morning," said Rosal, wrapping her hair in a bandana. "I
have to go to the market. You cook the champorado
and macaroni," she added, getting a large mat-like bag hanging from a
nail. "You fry lots of eggs, yesterday we ran out early."
"I'll take care of
it, Mother," Jo replied, bringing a mug of steaming coffee to the table.
"Here's your coffee, Father!"
"Where's your brother?"
he asked grumpily. "It's already late!"
"I already woke him
earlier," said Jo, crossing the kitchen.
The curtain separating
the bedrooms parted and out came Juancho, who looked like Rocco Nacino in Ang Sayaw Ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa.
"There's Kuya
now," Jo said.
"What's the matter
with you?" their father demanded as the young man groggily went to the
table. "You've been drinking every night!"
"Father, it was
only last night!" Juancho protested. "Besides, it was Leandro's
birthday!"
"And where's that
friend of yours?" nagged Juanito. "He's also late!"
Just then, they heard
footsteps and Leandro, who looked like Paulo Avelino in Aswang, entered.
"Good morning, Mang
Juanito!" he greeted.
"You two,"
said Juanito, pointing to the boys and standing up, "you hurry up or we
won't catch any fish!" He went out, saying, "I'll go prepare the
net!"
"Yes, sir."
"Yes, Father."
"Leandro, here's
your coffee," said Jo, serving him.
"Thanks,
Pinay!"
"Hey, wait a
second!" said Juancho. "How come he has coffee and I don't?"
"Alright,
Kuya!" smiled Jo, rolling her eyes. "I'll make you coffee too!"
Juancho put his hand on
Leandro's shoulder. "Leandro, I love you like a brother, you know
that!" he said affectionately with a trace of menace. "But I don't
want you and my sister--"
"Kuya!"
exclaimed Jo, outraged.
"Bro, what are you
talking about?" protested Leandro.
Juancho nodded,
accepting his coffee, looking at Jo then Leandro. "Just so we understand
each other!" he said.
Later that afternoon, Jo and Rosal were rushing
to serve the customers on their eatery.
"Here's the extra
rice," Rosal told a customer devouring a bowl of menudo. Turning to
another customer standing next to her, she asked, "Yours is caldereta,
right?"
Jo was handing some
money to another customer who standing up and unhitching his belt. "Here's
the change for the fifty."
"Pinay," said
Rosal, "you go to the market now."
Jo looked around
unobtrusively while wiping her hands in a rag. "Uh, Mother," she
replied hesitantly, "can I go later?"
"What's wrong with
going now?" Rosal asked, pumping the small kerosene stove to ignite the flame.
"Well ..."
Juancho and Leandro
arrived, carrying a large metal basin full of fish. "Where shall we put
this, Mother?" asked Juancho.
"Here," said
Rosal, motioning to a table, taking away the frying pan over it.
"Mother," said
Jo, quickly taking off her apron. "I'll go to the market now!"
"Now you're the one
rushing," said Rosal, shaking her head and digging into her apron.
"Here's the list and the money!"
" By
the way, Mother," said Jo, taking a paperback from a drawer, "I'll
have to drop by Isay's house to return this pocketbook and borrow another
one!"
As they heaved the metal
basin on the table, Leandro told Juancho, "Bro, I think I'll go home
early, I feel a little dizzy!"
"Are you okay,
bro?" asked Juancho, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm
alright," assured Leandro. "Just need a little rest, that's
all!"
"Mother," said
Jo, "I have to go now!" She walked away, pretending not to rush.
"I'll go ahead,
Aling Rosal!" Leandro told her. Turning to Juancho, he said, "See you
tomorrow, bro!" Then he walked away in another direction.
Birds were singing in the large mango tree, its
leaves filtering the sunlight like a kaleidoscope. Jo and Leandro embraced and
kissed passionately as they reached their secret meeting place under the mango
tree in the middle of the forest.
"Oh, my God,
Leandro!" said Jo. "I'm afraid that Kuya is getting suspicious!"
"I told you,
Pinay!" said Leandro, breathless. "Let's run away!"
"Leandro, I'm
afraid!"
"Think of us being
together!" he said. "Free at last!"
"Oh, Leandro,"
moaned Jo, feeling a strange kind of heat but liking it.
"Come on!"
said Leandro, taking her hand and almost dragging her. "There's no one in
our house now!"
"Leandro!" Jo
was shocked.
"Pinay, I can't
fight this feeling anymore!" Leandro, said, panting, seeming to be in
agony.
"But...?"
"You love me,
right?" the young man demanded.
Jo was on the verge of
tears. "Leandro, you know I do...!"
He cupped her face in
his hands, looking at her straight in the eyes. "Then prove it!" he
challenged. "Prove to me that you really love me!"
The weeks swept by like thieves in the night.
Life went on. Then came a day when nothing would ever be the same again.
"It's torta and one and a half rice, right?"
Rosal confirmed from a customer. "Only twenty!" Another customer was
gesturing for water. "Pinay," Rosal told Jo, "give sir a
glass!"
"Yes, Mother,"
Jo answered weakly, turning from the stove.
Rosal was clearing the
plates when she heard the glass shatter. "OH-A-GIANT-HORSE-DICK!!!"
she exclaimed. "Pinay! What happened?!"
"I'm sorry, Mother,
I dropped the glass," said Jo miserably. "I'll sweep it up."
"Oh, Lord, Pinay,
you're so pale!" said Rosal, frightened, coming to her. "Here, sit
down, never mind that!"
Jo sat down, almost
falling on the chair. She was swaying, her eyes glazed.
"Pinay, what's the
matter?" Rosal was taking the broom and the dustpan from Jo while
machine-gunning prayers to heaven.
In a flash, Jo was
throwing up, seized by violent spasms. From G15 somewhere far away, she could
hear her mother's hysterical screams as the world slowly went down into a dark
abyss.
The municipal hospital was a mile away. Rosal
was in the waiting room, trying to remember the prayers from her stack of
novenas back home. With her was Etang, a neighbor who looked like Caridad
Sanchez in Kahit Konting Pagtingin, whispering about how God works in
mysterious ways. Hearing approaching footsteps, they looked up to see Juanito
and the boys.
"What happened to
Pinay, Rosal?" Juanito demanded.
"Juanito, thank God
you came!" she nearly shouted. "She was throwing up, then she
fainted," Rosal explained, stammering.
"How is she, Aling
Rosal?" asked Leandro, sick with fear.
"There's the
doctor!" said Juancho, pointing to a female doctor who looked like Hilda
Coronel in Tanging Yaman.
"How is my
daughter, doctor?" Rosal asked, almost pleading.
"She's fine,
ma'am," said the doctor. "You have nothing to worry about!"
"What happened,
doctor?" asked Juanito. "It isn't food poisoning, is it?"
The doctor slowly shook
her head. "No," she said hesitantly. "It wasn't anything she
ate."
Rosal was looking at the
doctor, confirming her worst fears. "Doctor," she said quietly.
"I am also a woman."
The doctor hesitated.
"Yes, ma'am,"
she said finally. "You're daughter is pregnant."
The revelation stunned
them.
Juancho was seathing
with fury. He started to go to Jo's room.
"Stop it,
Juancho!" Rosal commanded. "Let your sister rest!"
"But
Mother...?!"
"Calm down,
son," said Juanito in a voice of thundering steel. "We'll find out
who did this." His eyes flashed with revenge. "We're going make him
wish he's never been born!"
Juancho stood still.
"Where's Leandro?" he asked no one in particular. "He was just
here." A growing realization possessed him like a demon. "I knew
it," he whispered. Suddenly, he was running out of the hospital, out for
blood.
"Juanito, go after
our son!" screamed Rosal, crying. "For the love of God, stop
him!"
19 comments:
The average time I spend on Facebook is now 5 minutes, down from 10, and that's only when I need to go online, for an hour or so, in an Internet cafe to send my manuscripts and check my e-mail (I stopped Twitter a long ago). I've set my blog 2Rivers to auto-publish my short novel Jukebox up to the third week of January so I have more time to make headway on my long-term goals and finish up the short-term ones before the year (or the world) ends. I'm happy that I'm streamlining my life, eliminating non-essentials and finding focus. What I would do is write everything on my phone, transfer them to the PC, log in, Copy-Paste, then log out. It's 1:34 p.m., Dec. 4, 2012, Tuesday, as I write this on my phone, happy because I'm grateful for all many the blessings in all sorts of sizes and disguises, and still giddy from talking to my crush last night in the office. "You are the love of my life, I knew it right from the start..."
“Deep down inside, I'm happy, because I choose to be happy, and I have the right to claim happiness and peace of mind for myself. I define happiness as being at peace with myself, at peace with my fellowmen, at peace with God, whatever people conceive Him to be, and being One with the universe.” ~ Jonathan Aquino aka Huggybear's Stories, from The Journey With Shirley MacLaine
"He is a CGI programmer who’s one of the pioneers of the film-to-digital scanners and an award-winning inventor of digital ink and print technology, but he says that the distorted stories about him taking his clothes off at the office have become urban legend." ~ from Huggybear's article on Silicon Valley, Where Ideas Change The World, published August 26, 2012 in Philippine Panorama
"I would rather die than lose my freedom. I deeply admire Rodney Traver’s lifestyle: traveling the north England countryside, doing odd jobs along the way, then moving on – with only his dog Jake and a baby carriage for company." ~ from Huggybear's essay A Celebration Of Life: The World According To James Herriot, published July 1, 2007, My Favorite Book Contest, Lifestyle Section, The Philippine Star
"He asked me if I had some cigarettes
and I said, 'Yeah, but we can’t smoke,'
and he said, “Rules, rules, rules!' "
~ from Huggybear's poem Once Upon A Time In Manila, published December 4, 2006 in Philippine Graphic
'Lesser states cant stand those above them...'
"...Weakness, imperfection cries out against strength, goodness and innocence..." ~ Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
'Like many old churches, this one stood isolated on a hill half a mile away from the town...'
"...with only the manse nearby. It was a stark, forbidding structure, built of rough, dark stone. The facade was plain, and the single heavy tower thrust upward toward heaven like an accusing finger..." Barbara Michaels, Greygallows
'People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the Devil...'
"...I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult..." Anne Rice, Interview With The Vampire
'There was a whole generation of beings who came to earth in the far past...'
"...and took up earth life. They were from the family of Ranm. They said that was why the old god names were as they were on earth: Rama, Brahma, Ra..." ~ Whitley Strieber, Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us
'Have plenty, and more than has been taken, of oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit...'
"...and the like. These supply salts that should be had by the body. Preferably use the fresh fruits..." ~ Thomas Sugrue, There Is A River: The Story of Edgar Cayce
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots. I've lost almost 300 games..."
"...I've failed over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan
"I saw my life as if I stood apart from it, the vanity, the self-serving, the constantly fleeing from one petty annoyance after another..."
"...the lip service to God and the Virgin and a host of saints whose names filled my prayer books, none of whom made the slightest difference in a narrow, materialistic and selfish existence..." ~ the character Louis in Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire (Photo courtesy of FanPop.com)
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