Ling
A shiny pickup truck parked right by the school gate just when I entered the school premises to deliver Papa's lunch. My heart quivered and flipped in anticipation of seeing Joshua again. Since my trip with him two days ago my head was filled with his kiss. It was an all new feeling to me that I just couldn't bring myself to forget the way his tongue grazed my lip.
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IsabellaMonster. Mama oftentimes called Papa a monster, a demon who tore our family apart. "I hate him, Ling," she used to tell me before I went to sleep every night. But for an eight-year-old child, I couldn't understand why. Papa loved man
JoshuaMother was a quiet person. She hated noise. Any noise could stir her anger. I grew up tiptoeing on eggshells, always careful not to make her mad. Dad, at that time, was afraid of her, too. He was afraid she'd leave him. He couldn't bare that. She was his only one, or so he believed. “Colpo di fulmine! When I first saw her a thunderbolt hit me,” he told me.
LingThe falls used to be Charlene's and my favorite spot in Paki-bato. Papa said that it used to be very secluded, where lovers had rendezvous, friends shared bottles of beer and sang songs with a guitar in private. But a lot had changed after many years, and many people had built their houses close to the falls. The water had turned murky and there were less fish to fish, but Papa said it was still the most beautiful part of Paki-bato.
JoshuaExactly seventeen years passed since mother fired a gun to her head. In the Memorial Park, you could just count the number of people in the area with one hand. Save for the whistling wind rustling the leaves of trees, the park was quiet and void of
LingThe house quaked when I woke up in the morning. Papa jumped all around our house while he packed his things for school. He grinned and sang, “Mi hija, today is the day. Today is the day the sponsor will come.” “What time will he come?” I asked.
JoshuaIt was a two-hour drive. I left the house around ten in the morning, which was also the time I woke up. I had no idea how I got into a suit in the first place, but I knew I needed food. Driving with Manong Arturo was like driving with a marble statue, like the one in Times Beach, that replica of Statue of David with his nuts hanging loose for everyone to see.
Ling There was much whispering around the lone, long, round table the school faculty prepared for this rarest occasion: a sponsor's visit. The talk wasn't about the chicken adobo prepared by Mrs. Carpio, the school principal, or why my father was giving the meanest glare to kuya Ronny. Everyone, including the young teen girls of the high school department, were staring and talking about the sponsor.
JoshuaThat night, after the visit, I was in Jude’s car. The sky was a black, giant ink blot. Streetlamps beamed and taillights of passing cars flashed and flickered. Jude drove in silence and I rested my head on the window, watching girls in short shorts or skirts and dresses, and guys in tight shirts and black jackets walk to The Red Strip, the club where we parked ne