KS Chapter 11
Aling Precious and her children RC, KC, JP, JB, TJ and their spouses, the youngest Jonymay, and the grand-kids Mhemalyn, Jasper Von, Jennavee, Flordeliza, and Lucibelle—are all out in the road. All of them are sitting in a long bench that covers both sides of the road. Like always. On the side of the bench are separate chairs for the other members: men wearing sandos if not topless, women with the shortest shorts, and children filling themselves up with junk food. Like always. They find the vehicles pa.s.sing by a disturbance so they often frown at the pa.s.sing drivers. A few steps from them is a basketball court in the middle of the street. A few steps from the basketball court is another group of loiterers on the road. Like always.
But Anghela"s not here. Different client. Instead, opposite Aling Precious is her mortal enemy and favorite chat-mate Aling Baby.
"So that"s how it is, we just bought a Technics Turntable instead."
"Oh my, mare¹, you are so rich!"
"Oh, not really…"
"Yeah, not really, mare, of course I know that. In reality, the Kenwood Turntable is much more expensive. That"s what the mister brought home the last time he came back, see."
Polite laughter. But in the split-second everyone in the world closes their eyes, the two are able to claw at each other in three seconds and smile again when everyone"s looking at them again.
"Your Pioneer double ca.s.sette recorder, how is it anyway? Have you got it back from the p.a.w.nshop?"
"Hmp! I just let it go, it"s old anyways. How about your broken TV, I heard Rogelio"s done fixing it. It"s been with you for ten years already, right? So old. Toshiba"s are really st.u.r.dy!"
"They are pricy, so that"s why they"re st.u.r.dy. As st.u.r.dy as our Hitachi Betamax."
"Oh, c"mon! Betamax? You mean to say…you still don"t have VHS?"
"We hav…ummm, we don"t! So what? Why—do you?"
"Of course, we have!"
"You guys have?!"
"Have a plan to buy. In the near future!"
Aling Precious is widow to a pensioned government official and the youngest child to two accountants in America that support her. Aling Baby is the spouse of an engineer with a good job in Saudi and from a family with land in Nueva Ecija. Neighbors. Friends. They absolutely love talking to each other. But both of them have a fear in their hearts, a fear that by the next question they can"t match up to the arrogance of the other.
"How"s the baby in there? I"m sure it"s going to be a picture-taking fest once it comes out."
"Why, of course, mare."
"I"m sure you already have a Minolta. I mean, Jonymay already has one."
"Mare, to be honest with you, cameras are a thing of the past. They"re scary to use since they could have side effects!"
"Huh?"
"The hubby is just going to buy a video camera when he returns to Saudi, package it home. We were supposed to buy one earlier when we went out, but we agreed we shouldn"t let the youngest touch a Sony Handicam until she grows her molars. We don"t want the kid to grow up knowing her family"s rich."
Appliances are their newest topic.But this past few weeks, they also allotted some days to who has the more excellent child, the tastier food, the bigger house despite both of their"s being small, the prettier plants, the one who booked the manicurist Anghela more, and lately–the one with a bigger part to play in the cooperative, sportsfest, and the Clean and Green project which no one has done anything for. A never-ending conflict of arrogance, that often just ends with the pa.s.sing of the cycling barangay tanod Berto, or the inconsiderate burning of garbage by Mang Dino. That day, the both of them happened at the same time.
"Nakow! The missus"s meet once again. Good thing both of you haven"t been kidnapped yet."
"Could you stop that, Berto…cough!" Aling Precious wasn"t able to finish her sentence due to coughing. "Why don"t you focus on your patrol and find Mang Jose already so we could start the plans for Pelaez!"
"Mang Jose? What Mang Jose…cough!…are you talking about?"
"Why, has the family been found?"
"Nope. There are other people missing!"
"My! You"re scaring me, Berto. That monster again! What in the world is happening in–cough! cough! cough!" Aling Baby is stopped once again. "Is Mang Dino burning garbage again?!"
"Where else will that smoke be coming from?"
The three look for the source of the smoke while fanning the wind with their hands.
"Hay naku! Ill-bred caveman. No surprise from someone uneducated! How hard is it to throw away trash…cough!…instead of burning it?"
"Don"t worry, when I become the president of this country, I will outlaw the burning of trash…and I will enforce that law!"
"And if someone doesn"t follow?"
"Why, I"ll nail a sign on their forehead: I"m Sc.u.m!" he says while stepping on the pedal of the bicycle. Berto leaves the women with scrunched faces from the smoke of the garbage.
Translator’s Notes:
1 – The female equivalent of k.u.mpare, affectionate Filipino slang for “pal” or “friend”