Nothing 06

AFTER THE HARVEST, Valentina summoned me together with Bart to come towards her. She wanted us to take the vegetables to the public market using the old pickup truck.

“I can use my car,” I said, offering my Mercedes-Benz to ride it instead of their old vehicle.

“You are riding the pickup truck for your training because you will proxy Bart in delivering our produce when he is unavailable.”

“But your vehicle is too old, and it looks like it’s going break in just a single bump!” I complained.

Valentina just stared at me blankly. Funny but that was enough to shut up me. I pursed my lips and just marched my way towards their old pickup truck. I caught Bart snickered on his side, so I darted him a glare before getting inside the vehicle. He checked the vegetables first at the back if they were fastened securely before he followed me inside.

Bart rolled down the window on his side to listen to Valentina’s final instructions before we headed down to the public market.

“Do not forget to buy the pandesal for breakfast.”

“Aye, aye, Nanay Valen!”

Whenever Bart was doing his infamous salute, I could not help but roll my eyes. It was really annoying. He was annoying. I do not think I can last around him. Valen nodded at him and then at me.

“Take care, both of you.”

After that, Bart roared the truck’s engine to life and then he began maneuvering the steering wheel. I planned to spend the whole trip in silence, but his fucking mouth won’t just shut the hell up until I talked.

“You can leave Pitong Gatang and go back to your city, you know,” he said while driving.

“I do not want to.”

“You don’t want to or you don’t have a choice?”

I glared at him, but he just chuckled. I then looked away because I did not want to show him that he was actually right. I just do not want to admit it. Even if I go back to the city, there was no job or home that was waiting for me there. I am all alone now, but I am not yet done fighting. I wanted to come back to the city with something big and surprising that would make my uncle regret what he did to me. I will make sure of that.

“The drive going to the public market is still long. Why don’t we just get to know more about each other? I am Bartolome Soriano. My father is Bert. My mother is Anita, and my sister is Basilia, or simply Basha. Nanay Valen is the cousin of my late grandmother, Lola Nenita,” he began.

I did not answer, but Bart seemed persistent to have me narrate my whole life. He just kept on talking! He had so much to say that I do not know where he was getting all of the energy and effort to talk.

“You know, it’s better if you introduce yourself to me now before I can think of something like you are hiding something. I can tell Nanay Valen not to trust you so that she can just send you off—”

“Fine! It’s Sebastian Paner or Baste. I previously worked as a hotel employee in the city. I was supposed to own a portion of that hotel but my greedy uncle won’t allow me. My mother died giving birth to me and my father is someone I haven’t met and I do not ever want to know. My best friend is running that dating agency you mistakenly dialed, and here I am now, working for him for that piece of Valen’s land.”

“Great!”

“What?” I asked, frowning and confused.

I just revealed my entire plan, and it was not exactly good.

“What?” he asked, chuckling.

What the hell was this kind of person I was dealing with?

“You’re good with my plan? I don’t want to go back to the city because I want to have a piece or own Valen’s land when she’s gone, you’re seriously fine with that?”

He slowly shook and nodded his head while the crease on my forehead just deepened.

“I’m not but the way you reveal them and yourself, I’m good,” he retorted with a thumbs up.

“What exactly do you mean? My intentions are kind of cruel.”

“But they are real, and you are honest.”

“Dude, I don’t get any of your bullshits,” I spat.

He chuckled as if finding our conversation and my confusion entertaining. 

“Honesty. I appreciate your honesty. How honest you are with your intentions to someone or something tells so much about the kind of person you are.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Nay Valen told us that we should always value a person’s honesty. It’s because honesty will tell the trustworthiness of that person. Since you have told me about those things, that means you trusted me, and you are also allowing me to trust you, as simple as that.”

I stared at him in silence and subtle disbelief. He said all that while driving nonchalantly. They made honesty a basis for trusting a person they just met and knew. It was both absurd and surprising. Perhaps that explained why Valentina did not push me back to the city. She was fine with me around her as long as I am honest with her. Or maybe… it was the way she looked at me as if looking, scrutinizing, my very soul that made me want to tell the truth about who I am and my real intentions.

“Is honesty that powerful to her?”

“Who?”

“Valen.”

“Exactly. If you plan on staying longer in Pitong Gatang, just be honest. She and the people will appreciate it more.”

“Then why didn’t you tell her the truth about the dating agency?” I challenged.

“That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. I was still mustering the courage to face her on that day, but then you already arrived.”

“You didn’t even know that she signed the contract?”

“We both thought that it was the orphanage. I haven’t contacted the number I have that time, and Basha and I weren’t there when she met the people from your agency.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. Lincoln’s dating agents were exploitative on unenlightened people, and I hated it and him for that. We still have not talked, but I will make sure to give him some good beating over the phone and in person if I did. They should not take advantage of the poor old woman.

“You didn’t know that as well?” he asked.

I shook my head and said, “If had known, I would have beaten the hell out of my friend for doing that to her.”

I do not like seeing people toying on the likes of Valentina. I really felt like I have been built to accommodate them and help them address their concerns in any possible way I can. I do not want to become one of their pain in the rear. Most of them have been through so much, so I did not want to hurt or irate them. As for Valentina, I still do not know her whole story, but I am always willing to listen.

“Congrats, bro! You have not lost completely your moral compass. That’s a great start!”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him again. Bart was probably the mister funny guy of Pitong Gatang. He always seemed optimistic like he had just consumed a whole bottle of an energy drink to keep him alive and active for the rest of the day. I cannot with his bouncy presence and spirit. Oh, good Lord, give some strength and patience to deal with this banshee…

It was still quarter to five when we arrived at the public market. Bart and I began unloading our harvests as a man, who was as old as Uncle Bert, guided us.

“Uncle Boboy, this is Baste, by the way. He is Nanay Valen’s adopted,” Bart introduced me to the man.

When I glared at him, he just sniggered. Uncle Boboy’s lips parted in indistinct surprise because of what he had found out.

“Oh… I thought she wanted a child?”

“We thought so, too,” Bart teasingly replied.

“If he had not mistaken the orphanage’s number for something else,” I countered.

The man looked puzzled, and I just let him. You know, the hardest part of meeting a whole new bunch of people was always the introduction because you will feel like you were compelled to tell your life story again. You will start anew and back from scratch. That alone took a great deal of time, energy, and courage.

I just offered my hand to Uncle Boboy which he accepted and we shook it as I introduced myself formally. “Sebastian Paner, sir.”

“Nice meeting you, Baste. I am Boboy, and they have been my supplier for a long time now. You know, Valen had issues with the businessmen from the city.”

I glanced at Bart for an explanation to that, but the useless guy that he always was, just shrugged his shoulders at me in response. I guess, I still have a lot of learning and knowing to do here.

After dealing with Uncle Boboy, we sold the remaining produce to the other small-market owners. He then took me to a nearby bakery shop wherein he bought four huge packs of pandesals, each of us was carrying two packs with both of our hands.

“Let’s go home. They might have already been waiting for us there for breakfast,” he said as we safely placed everything at the back of the pickup truck.

The weather at the downtown province was sunnier compared to the Pitong Gatang uphill. The good thing there was that we do not need any air-conditioning units to suffice our need for a cool temperature. The weather in Pitong Gatang was more than enough to grant us that favor.

“You’re having breakfast altogether?” I asked, curious.

Bart nodded and smiled. “It’s always one for all, and all for one for Nanay Valen. You will surely love to become her son, bro. She was nothing but always kind and generous to us despite her stoic appearance.”

I simply nodded my head then got inside the old pickup truck. I really hope so…

|• Illinoisdewriter •|•

FILIPINO VOCABULARY

Pandesal – a common bread roll in the Philippines; usually paired with coffee mostly in the morning and in the afternoon.

Lola – an address or polite title for grandmother or an elderly woman, but as of this chapter, it refers to grandmother.