How my brother leon brought home a wife

How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife

(American Colonial Literature)

By Manuel E. Arguilla

She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick, delicate grace. She was lovely. SHe was tall. She looked up to my brother with a smile, and her forehead was on a level with his mouth.

"You are Baldo," she said and placed her hand lightly on my shoulder. Her nails were long, but they were not painted. She was fragrant like a morning when papayas are in bloom. And a small dimple appeared momently high on her right cheek.  "And this is Labang of whom I have heard so much." She held the wrist of one hand with the other and looked at Labang, and Labang never stopped chewing his cud. He swallowed and brought up to his mouth more cud and the sound of his insides was like a drum.

I laid a hand on Labang's massive neck and said to her: "You may scratch his forehead now."

She hesitated and I saw that her eyes were on the long, curving horns. But she came and touched Labang's forehead with her long fingers, and Labang never stopped chewing his cud except that his big eyes half closed. And by and by she was scratching his forehead very daintily.

My brother Leon put down the two trunks on the grassy side of the road. He paid Ca Celin twice the usual fare from the station to the edge of Nagrebcan. Then he was standing beside us, and she turned to him eagerly. I watched Ca Celin, where he stood in front of his horse, and he ran his fingers through its forelock and could not keep his eyes away from her.
"Maria---" my brother Leon said.

He did not say Maring. He did not say Mayang. I knew then that he had always called her Maria and that to us all she would be Maria; and in my mind I said 'Maria' and it was a beautiful name.

"Yes, Noel."

Now where did she get that name? I pondered the matter quietly to myself, thinking Father might not like it. But it was only the name of my brother Leon said backward and it sounded much better that way.

"There is Nagrebcan, Maria," my brother Leon said, gesturing widely toward the west.

She moved close to him and slipped her arm through his. And after a while she said quietly.

"You love Nagrebcan, don't you, Noel?"

Ca Celin drove away hi-yi-ing to his horse loudly. At the bend of the camino real where the big duhat tree grew, he rattled the handle of his braided rattan whip against the spokes of the wheel.

We stood alone on the roadside.

The sun was in our eyes, for it was dipping into the bright sea. The sky was wide and deep and very blue above us: but along the saw-tooth rim of the Katayaghan hills to the southwest flamed huge masses of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a golden haze through which floated big purple and red and yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun. Labang's white coat, which I had wshed and brushed that morning with coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the lamplight and his horns appeared tipped with fire.

He faced the sun and from his mouth came a call so loud and vibrant that the earth seemed to tremble underfoot. And far away in the middle of the field a cow lowed softly in answer.

"Hitch him to the cart, Baldo," my brother Leon said, laughing, and she laughed with him a big uncertainly, and I saw that he had put his arm around her shoulders.

"Why does he make that sound?" she asked. "I have never heard the like of it."

"There is not another like it," my brother Leon said. "I have yet to hear another bull call like Labang. In all the world there is no other bull like him."

She was smiling at him, and I stopped in the act of tying the sinta across Labang's neck to the opposite end of the yoke, because her teeth were very white, her eyes were so full of laughter, and there was the small dimple high up on her right cheek.

"If you continue to talk about him like that, either I shall fall in love with him or become greatly jealous."

My brother Leon laughed and she laughed and they looked at each other and it seemed to me there was a world of laughter between them and in them.

I climbed into the cart over the wheel and Labang would have bolted, for he was always like that, but I kept a firm hold on his rope. He was restless and would not stand still, so that my brother Leon had to say "Labang" several times. When he was quiet again, my brother Leon lifted the trunks into the cart, placing the smaller on top.

She looked down once at her high-heeled shoes, then she gave her left hand to my brother Leon, placed a foot on the hub of the wheel, and in one breath she had swung up into the cart. Oh, the fragrance of her. But Labang was fairly dancing with impatience and it was all I could do to keep him from running away.

"Give me the rope, Baldo," my brother Leon said. "Maria, sit down on the hay and hold on to anything." Then he put a foot on the left shaft and that instand labang leaped forward. My brother Leon laughed as he drew himself up to the top of the side of the cart and made the slack of the rope hiss above the back of labang. The wind whistled against my cheeks and the rattling of the wheels on the pebbly road echoed in my ears.

She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart, legs bent togther to one side, her skirts spread over them so that only the toes and heels of her shoes were visible. her eyes were on my brother Leon's back; I saw the wind on her hair. When Labang slowed down, my brother Leon handed to me the rope. I knelt on the straw inside the cart and pulled on the rope until Labang was merely shuffling along, then I made him turn around.

"What is it you have forgotten now, Baldo?" my brother Leon said.

I did not say anything but tickled with my fingers the rump of Labang; and away we went---back to where I had unhitched and waited for them. The sun had sunk and down from the wooded sides of the Katayaghan hills shadows were stealing into the fields. High up overhead the sky burned with many slow fires.

When I sent Labang down the deep cut that would take us to the dry bed of the Waig which could be used as a path to our place during the dry season, my brother Leon laid a hand on my shoulder and said sternly:

"Who told you to drive through the fields tonight?"

His hand was heavy on my shoulder, but I did not look at him or utter a word until we were on the rocky bottom of the Waig.

"Baldo, you fool, answer me before I lay the rope of Labang on you. Why do you follow the Wait instead of the camino real?"

His fingers bit into my shoulder.

"Father, he told me to follow the Waig tonight, Manong."

Swiftly, his hand fell away from my shoulder and he reached for the rope of Labang. Then my brother Leon laughed, and he sat back, and laughing still, he said:

"And I suppose Father also told you to hitch Labang to the cart and meet us with him instead of with Castano and the calesa."

Without waiting for me to answer, he turned to her and said, "Maria, why do you think Father should do that, now?" He laughed and added, "Have you ever seen so many stars before?"

I looked back and they were sitting side by side, leaning against the trunks, hands clasped across knees. Seemingly, but a man's height above the tops of the steep banks of the Wait, hung the stars. But in the deep gorge the shadows had fallen heavily, and even the white of Labang's coat was merely a dim, grayish blur. Crickets chirped from their homes in the cracks in the banks. The thick, unpleasant smell of dangla bushes and cooling sun-heated earth mingled with the clean, sharp scent of arrais roots exposed to the night air and of the hay inside the cart.

"Look, Noel, yonder is our star!" Deep surprise and gladness were in her voice. Very low in the west, almost touching the ragged edge of the bank, was the star, the biggest and brightest in the sky.

"I have been looking at it," my brother Leon said. "Do you remember how I would tell you that when you want to see stars you must come to Nagrebcan?"

"Yes, Noel," she said. "Look at it," she murmured, half to herself. "It is so many times bigger and brighter than it was at Ermita beach."

"The air here is clean, free of dust and smoke."

"So it is, Noel," she said, drawing a long breath.

"Making fun of me, Maria?"

She laughed then and they laughed together and she took my brother Leon's hand and put it against her face.

I stopped Labang, climbed down, and lighted the lantern that hung from the cart between the wheels.

"Good boy, Baldo," my brother Leon said as I climbed back into the cart, and my heart sant.

Now the shadows took fright and did not crowd so near. Clumps of andadasi and arrais flashed into view and quickly disappeared as we passed by. Ahead, the elongated shadow of Labang bobbled up and down and swayed drunkenly from side to side, for the lantern rocked jerkily with the cart.

"Have we far to go yet, Noel?" she asked.

"Ask Baldo," my brother Leon said, "we have been neglecting him."

"I am asking you, Baldo," she said.

Without looking back, I answered, picking my words slowly:

"Soon we will get out of the Wait and pass into the fields. After the fields is home---Manong."

"So near already."

I did not say anything more because I did not know what to make of the tone of her voice as she said her last words. All the laughter seemed to have gone out of her. I waited for my brother Leon to say something, but he was not saying anything. Suddenly he broke out into song and the song was 'Sky Sown with Stars'---the same that he and Father sang when we cut hay in the fields at night before he went away to study. He must have taught her the song because she joined him, and her voice flowed into his like a gentle stream meeting a stronger one. And each time the wheels encountered a big rock, her voice would catch in her throat, but my brother Leon would sing on, until, laughing softly, she would join him again.

Then we were climbing out into the fields, and through the spokes of the wheels the light of the lantern mocked the shadows. Labang quickened his steps. The jolting became more frequent and painful as we crossed the low dikes.

"But it is so very wide here," she said. The light of the stars broke and scattered the darkness so that one could see far on every side, though indistinctly.

"You miss the houses, and the cars, and the people and the noise, don't you?" My brother Leon stopped singing.

"Yes, but in a different way. I am glad they are not here."

With difficulty I turned Labang to the left, for he wanted to go straight on. He was breathing hard, but I knew he was more thirsty than tired. In a little while we drope up the grassy side onto the camino real.

"---you see," my brother Leon was explaining, "the camino real curves around the foot of the Katayaghan hills and passes by our house. We drove through the fields because---but I'll be asking Father as soon as we get home."

"Noel," she said.

"Yes, Maria."

"I am afraid. He may not like me."

"Does that worry you still, Maria?" my brother Leon said. "From the way you talk, he might be an ogre, for all the world. Except when his leg that was wounded in the Revolution is troubling him, Father is the mildest-tempered, gentlest man I know."

We came to the house of Lacay Julian and I spoke to Labang loudly, but Moning did not come to the window, so I surmised she must be eating with the rest of her family. And I thought of the food being made ready at home and my mouth watered. We met the twins, Urong and Celin, and I said "Hoy!" calling them by name. And they shouted back and asked if my brother Leon and his wife were with me. And my brother Leon shouted to them and then told me to make Labang run; their answers were lost in the noise of the wheels.

I stopped labang on the road before our house and would have gotten down but my brother Leon took the rope and told me to stay in the cart. He turned Labang into the open gate and we dashed into our yard. I thought we would crash into the camachile tree, but my brother Leon reined in Labang in time. There was light downstairs in the kitchen, and Mother stood in the doorway, and I could see her smiling shyly. My brother Leon was helping Maria over the wheel. The first words that fell from his lips after he had kissed Mother's hand were:

"Father... where is he?"

"He is in his room upstairs," Mother said, her face becoming serious. "His leg is bothering him again."

I did not hear anything more because I had to go back to the cart to unhitch Labang. But I hardly tied him under the barn when I heard Father calling me. I met my brother Leon going to bring up the trunks. As I passed through the kitchen, there were Mother and my sister Aurelia and Maria and it seemed to me they were crying, all of them.

There was no light in Father's room. There was no movement. He sat in the big armchair by the western window, and a star shone directly through it. He was smoking, but he removed the roll of tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on the windowsill before speaking.

"Did you meet anybody on the way?" he asked.

"No, Father," I said. "Nobody passes through the Waig at night."

He reached for his roll of tobacco and hithced himself up in the chair.

"She is very beautiful, Father."

"Was she afraid of Labang?" My father had not raised his voice, but the room seemed to resound with it. And again I saw her eyes on the long curving horns and the arm of my brother Leon around her shoulders.

"No, Father, she was not afraid."

"On the way---"

"She looked at the stars, Father. And Manong Leon sang."

"What did he sing?"

"---Sky Sown with Stars... She sang with him."

He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of Mother and my sister Aurelia downstairs. There was also the voice of my brother Leon, and I thought that Father's voice must have been like it when Father was young. He had laid the roll of tobacco on the windowsill once more. I watched the smoke waver faintly upward from the lighted end and vanish slowly into the night outside.

The door opened and my brother Leon and Maria came in.

"Have you watered Labang?" Father spoke to me.

I told him that Labang was resting yet under the barn.

"It is time you watered him, my son," my father said.

I looked at Maria and she was lovely. She was tall. Beside my brother Leon, she was tall and very still. Then I went out, and in the darkened hall the fragrance of her was like a morning when papayas are in bloom.

from: http://www.seasite.niu.edu

Some things to highlight in PH literature during the US colonization

Please copy this very short poem:

Vacation days at last are here,

And we have time for fun so dear,

All boys and girls do gladly cheer,

This welcomed season of the year.

In early June in school we’ll meet;

A harder task shall we complete

And if we fail we must repeat

That self same task without retreat.

We simply rest to come again

To school where boys and girls obtain

The Creator’s gift to men

Whose sanguine hopes in us remain.

Vacation means a time for play

For young and old in night and day

My wish for all is to be gay,

And evil none lead you astray

                       

 - Juan F. Salazar    

Philippines Free Press, May 9, 1909

from: NCCA

Vocabulary Words for the Short Story: My father goes to court

Instructions:
1. Consult the dictionary (not the Tagalog to English vise versa kind) for the meaning of the words. 
2. Read the short story: My father goes to court by Carlos Bulosan to see how each words was used.
3. Create sentences that display the proper use of the vocabulary words.
4. Put it in a whole legal paper (yellow paper).

Ready?? let's begin!

1. Enchanting
2. Glowered
3. Condemning
4. Contagious
5. Grotesque
6. Faint
7. Boisterous
8. Sturdy
9. Gratuitously
10. Feeble
11. Spectators
12. Strode
13. Strutted
14. Roaring
15. Chase

have a wonderful time reading the short story! I know it will be filled with fun and laughter :)

Hospitals in the Philippines and some personal stuffs.

Here I am.

Bumabawi ng lakas, sakit ng bangs ko dahil sa stress.

Two weeks ago, my mother was hospitalized. Her hemoglobin was so low she needed a blood transfusion. We found out about it because of monthly check-up, so the best option is to do it and check further for any internal bleeding that may have caused the drastic decline of hemoglobin.

I chose to have it done in a public hospital because it was more of precaution, because mom did not show any sign of illness: nausea, feeling faint, tired or such. We can do all the the things at a quarter of the price compared to Makati Medical. You see there's only the two of us, I can't get any help from any relatives because they have been experiencing some financial troubles and I have been raised to be independent from relatives. My mom would be mad stricken if I even tried to borrow money from relatives, and call it Pride or whatever but I won't do such too because I feel that I should not in any way show that I am incapable of taking care of my mother after all she have done adopting me, raising me and giving me all that I need in and during our younger days.

So, there we go! I decided to go to Sta. Ana Hospital to have the transfusion done, It is near us than the Ospital ng Makati in Pembo. That hospital gave me a good first impression because I have brought mom there for her UTI and to have her stitches after she had an accident at home (damn pets!).

After the grueling 24 hours of convincing my mom to stay there at the hospital and of looking for an O+ blood type around Manila, we where now transferred to the Phil health ward. I was expecting it to be at least air conditioned, but it wasn't. We only have to stay there for a week. Keri ko naman mag-tiis, at mas gusto din ni Mother ang ganuon na set-up.

Here are some pics to remind me of our stay:

as you can see above, there are many reminders in the room, one is the prohibition of charging any mobile devices which is a BUMMER! but i am a rogue :) sorry SAH, I have a lot of work to do, so my mobile phone is my life! I am the only attendant of my mom.

 

we are very lucky to have an extra bed for me to sleep, the room has four (4) beds: two are used by mom and another patient whom we call mommy and the other two will be used by the patient's attendants. Thank you SAH, the task of which I am responsible of is not such an agony to do. :) Thank God above all!

What you see in the second picture is a selfie or some sort haha! we have a good view via the large glass windows of the room. 

what do we have here? A visitor, Filipinos has some strange beliefs on animals and objects such as these, it is for the purpose of harboring positive vibes and calmness. I'd like to believe that this butterfly who stayed with us, on our side of the room is my deceased father. Bantay namin sya from the time we were transferred in the room and until the day we were discharged. An hour before we are about to go out, this butterfly was gone and nowhere to be seen.

So, how is my stay at the hospital? FULL OF DRAMA! 

I'm speaking of the family feud? Misunderstanding lang naman siguro ng mga anak at apo ni Mommy na roommate ng nanay ko :) I wish them well and I miss them already. I have been able to share some light moments with mommy's apo: Ronalyn and her anak, si ate whom I forgot to ask the name.

We had our own drama too, with a certain doctor. I think because of the stress I became arrogant to the point of even questioning the credibility of that certain doctor. Thanks to her doc at Makati Med, I regained myself. I do ask for forgiveness (I prayed) if ever I showed an air of arrogance.

The nurses are very helpful, and approachable, Some of them not :) sorry if I am very inquisitive, I am worrying about my mom, please understand that. I believe you do encourage patients and attendants to ask questions right? I am in no way questioning your capabilities. Sobrang nag-aalala lang po sorry. IT IS A MUST FOR PATIENTS TO ASK. DO THINK AND COMPREHEND EVERYTHING TOO SO AS TO MAKE THE DOCTOR AND THE NURSE'S JOB EASIER.

One nurse which is is a breath of fresh air is Christian and that nurse who was close to making me make my mom take the wrong medicine ( naku kung hindi mo ako inabutan, baka demanda na ang masusumpungan nyo! haha di bale next time ATE HA?! it's a lesson learned from you and it's not your fault entirely). Despite the long and very stressful wok environment, they still manage to smile and make jokes to ease us all in the room. Thank you so much!

The SAH was once, according to people whom I shall not name, a good hospital. There are much speculation about the big modification due to the new mayor. The SAH is a Lim project. If that is true, Mr. Joseph Estrada please do take some time in making new policies for the Hospital, MAKE IT BETTER rather than changing it. ASK THE PATIENTS AND/OR ATTENDANTS! They have much to tell you. THEY ARE THE RECIPIENT OF THE SERVICES YOUR CITY OFFERS! OF COURSE YOU NOR MR. LIM WILL NOT KNOW IT, BECAUSE YOU HAVE MONEY TO CONFINE YOURSELF TO SWANKY HOSPITALS IF EVER THE NEED ARISE. Am i right? Yes I am right!. :D :D well, if ever you did confine yourself to the a public hospital, they will treat you with much care because you are the not the common taos.

ALL IN ALL, Thank you SAH, although I am from Makati, you never turned us down. You never thwarted the goal of making my mother better!

Sounding Board - Philippine Daily Inquirer : RH BILL

Miss Samson says: RH bill is as hot as the the hottest celebrity gossip around the Philippines. So long as it is not fully executed it will be there in the news and will be debated by our dear politicians. I have my own opinions about the RH bill and the declining morality of the Philippines (That is why I should NEVER be voted to presidency. I will be as harsh as it gets :D :D ).  


Speech, religion and equal protection in the RH Law

By Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas S. J.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:04 pm | Sunday, August 4th, 2013

In the course of the Supreme Court oral arguments on the Reproductive Health Law, the first issue that came up was the meaning of “conception” in the constitutional provision which says “The State… shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” The view which, to mind, prevailed during the first day of oral arguments was that conception happens at fertilization and not at implantation in the uterus. This meaning is also implicit in the definition of abortion as the expulsion of a fetus anytime before its viability. Expulsion after viability is already infanticide, no longer abortion.

The other issues that have arisen are liberty of speech, of religion and equal protection.

I have been involved in the discussions of these issues even while the RH Law was still being debated in Congress, and I feel that it is my civic duty to continue my participation until the Supreme Court arrives at a decision. I propose to discuss the issues of speech, religion and equality as they have cropped up in the oral arguments.

Any student of constitutional law will immediately see that by their nature, the constitutional doctrines on speech and religion are closely intertwined. Freedom of speech includes not just the right to speak but also the right not to speak.  Freedom of religion for its part involves not just the right to choose what to believe but also and especially the right to externalize or not to externalize one’s belief. Externalization of one’s belief is done through speech or other forms of communication, whether oral or symbolic. Freedom of religion is violated when one is either forced to speak or in any manner communicate his belief or when one is prevented from expressing his religious belief.

All these take place in a pluralistic society where government may not prefer one religion over other religions. It is against this background that I propose to discuss provisions of the RH Law which deal with speaking or not speaking about religion.

We must understand that the health workers under the RH Law have the public duty to implement its provisions for the common good and not just for the good of some religious adherents. Moreover, a public duty is a public trust to be exercised for the good of all and not for the good of the preferred religion of a majority. And since our government is under a democratic system which respects plurality of religions, and considering that the RH Law is about sexual practices over which our people are divided on whether they are moral or not, it is inevitable that some health workers may encounter duties which their religion do not allow them to do. This is recognized by the law and the IRR (implementing rules and regulations) contains a proviso on this matter, namely:

“Provided, That the conscientious objection of a health care service provider based on his/her ethical or religious beliefs shall be respected; however, the conscientious objector shall immediately refer the person seeking such care and services to another health care service provider within the same facility or one which is conveniently accessible…”

According to critics of the RH Law, however, for all its noble intention, this rule violates freedom of speech and freedom of religion resulting in a two-fold violence of the conscience of the health worker. First, by obliging the health worker to make a referral, the law is obliging him to speak contrary to his right not to speak. Second, by obliging the health worker to make the referral, the health worker is being obliged to send the patient to where she or he can sin thereby making the health worker who makes the referral a participant in the sin.

Indeed, if the health worker believes that these are sinful acts which he or she cannot perform without violating his or her conscience, he or she should not be forced to do so. His or her belief, whether right or wrong in the view of government, must be honored. But the next question is, considering that this inability to perform a legal duty strikes at the very heart of the purpose for which the health center exists, is it reasonable or even just for the person to cling to the job? In a labor law situation, when a laborer on strike refuses to follow a return to work order, he or she will not be forced to return to work, but he or she  may have to look for another job. Or should we ask that such RH worker be retired as a  pensionado  martyr?

Another  objection which RH Law critics bring up is against the provision on age appropriate sexual education in public and private schools. To evaluate this criticism intelligently it is necessary to see the provision on the subject. It should be noted that the law does not yet attempt to impose a specific program. Rather, it provides that a program be formulated following certain careful guidelines for the manner in which the program should be formulated. Since the law does not yet create the program itself, this is not yet the time to challenge this aspect of the RH Law. Wait until the program is formulated. Before that, there is no “case” to bring to Court.

I shall take this up again next time since I am running out of space.


ref: http://opinion.inquirer.net

A-10-SHUN!

As the toon suggest it: I've been hit with the COMPUTER ILLITERACY bug!

I know I was suppose to attach the jpeg and png copy of the prelim examination titled: Eye of a needle by W.Ma. Guerrero however, Today, I just found out that it was stored in the drafts and would not post due to very high mb content.

SO THEREFORE, this will leave you with the one act play: New Yorker in Tondo as the only play you will read and write about for the Prelim exam. 

I still want to have the play: Eye of a needle posted here tho,  but I gotta find some way to transfer or type or whatever it takes to get that done! :D :D I really loved it, and I'd wanna share it with the rest of you!

again, I apologize for the "freakin" inconvenience and Godbless you!

NEW YORKER IN TONDO

(Marcelino Agana, Jr.)

SCENE: The parlor of the Mendoza house in Tondo. Front door is at right. Curtained
window is at left. Left side of stage is occupied by a rattan set –sofa and two
chairs flanking a table. On the right side of the stage, a cabinet radio stands
against a back wall. Open door-way in center, background, leads into the rest of
the house.

MRS. M: (As she walks toward the door) –Visitors, always visitors. Nothing but visitors all
day long. Naku, I’m beginning to feel like a society matron.
(She opens door. Tony steps in, carrying a bouquet. Tony is 26, dressed to kill, and is the suave
type. Right now, however, he is feeling a trifle nervous. He starts slightly on seeing Mrs.
Mendoza.)

MRS. M : Tony! I thought you were in the provinces.

TONY : (Startling) –But is that you, Aling Atang?

MRS. M : ( Laughing) --- Of course. It’s I, foolish boy. Who did you think it was
…Carmen Rosales?

TONY : You …you don’t look like Aling Atang.

MRS. M : (shyly touching her boyish bob) – I had my hair cut. Do I look
so horrible?

TONY : Oh, no, no … you look just wonderful, Aling Atang. For a moment I
thought you were your own daughter. I thought you were Kikay.

MRS. M : (Playfully slapping his cheek) --- Oh, you are as palikero as ever, Tony. But come
in, come in. (She moves toward the furniture and Tony follows.) Here, sit down,
Tony. How is your mother?

TONY : (As he sits down, still holding the bouquet) --- Oh, poor mother is terribly
homesick for Tondo, Aling Atang. She wants to come back here at once.

MRS. M : (Standing beside his chair, putting on an apron) – How long have you
been away?

TONY : Only three months

MR. M : Only three months! Three months is too long for a Tondo native to be
away from Tondo. Ay, my kumare, how bored she must be out there!

TONY : Well, Aling Atang, you know how it is with us engineers. We must go
where our jobs call us. But as soon as I have finished with that bridge in Bulacan, mother and I are coming back here to Tondo.

MRS. M : Yes, you must bring her back as soon as possible. We miss her
whenever we play panguingue.

TONY : (Laughing) --- That is what she misses most of all.

MRS. M : Now I understand how she feels! Your mother could never, never become
a provinciana, Tony. Once a Tondo girl, always a Tondo girl, I always say. (She
pauses, struck by a thought). But I wonder if that’s true after all. Look at my
Kikay; she was over there in America for a whole year, and she says that she
never, never felt homesick at all!

TONY : (Beginning to look nervous again) --- When … when did she, Kikay,
arrive, Aling Atang?

MRS. M : Last Monday.

TONY : I didn’t know she had come back from New York until I read about it
in the newspapers.

MRS. M : (Plaintively) --- That girl arrived only last Monday and look at what has happened
to me! When she first saw me, she was furious; she said that I need a complete
overhauling. She dragged me off to a beauty shop, and look, look what she had
done to me! My hair is cut, my eyebrows are shaved, my nails are manicured,
and whenever I go to market, I must use lipstick and rouge! All my kumares are
laughing at me. People must think I have become a … loose woman! And at my
age, too! But what can I do. You know how impossible it is to argue with Kikay.
And she says that I must learn how to look and act like an Americana because I
have a daughter who has been to America. Dios mio, do I look like an American?

TONY : (Too worried to pay much attention) --- You look just wonderful,
Aling Atang. And … and where is she now?

MRS. M : (who’s rather engrossed in her own troubles too) --- Who?

TONY : Kikay? Is she at home?

MRS. M : (Snorting) --- Of course she is at home. She’d still sleeping!

TONY : (Glancing at his watch) ---Still sleeping!

MRS. M : She says that in New York people do not wake up before twelve o’clock noon.

TONY : (Glancing at his watch once more) --- It’s only ten o’clock now.

MRS. M : Besides, she has been very, very busy. Uy, the life of that girl since she came
home! Welcome parties here and welcome parties there and visitors all day long.
That girl has been spinning around like a top!

TONY : (Rising disconsolately) --- Well, will you just tell her I called … to welcome her
home. Oh, and will you please give her these flowers?

MRS. M : (Taking the flowers) --- But surely, you’re not going yet, Tony. Why, you and she
grew up together! Sit right down again, Tony. I will go and wake her up.

TONY : Oh, please don’t bother, Aling Atang. I can come back some other time.

MRS. M : (Moving away) --- You wait right there, Tony. She’ll be simply delighted to see
her old childhood friend. And she’ll want to thank you in person for these flowers.
How beautiful they are, Tony…. How expensive they must be!

TONY : (Sitting down again) --- Oh, they’re nothing at all, Aling Atang.

MRS. M : (Pausing, already at center doorway) --- Oh, Tony …

TONY : Yes, Aling Atang?

MRS. M : You mustn’t call me “Aling Atang.”

TONY : Why not?

MRS. M : Kikay doesn’t like it. She says I must tell people to call me Mrs. Mendoza. She
says it’s a more civilized form of address. So … and especially in front of
Kikay…. You must call me Mrs. Mendoza.

TONY : Yes, Aling … I, mean yes, Mrs. Mendoza.

MRS. M : (Turning to go) --- Well, wait just a minute and I will call Kikay.

TONY : (To himself as he sits down) --- Hah!

MRS. M : (Turning around again) ---- Oh, and Tony …

TONY : (Jumping up again) --- Yes, Aling … I mean yes, Mrs. Mendoza.

MRS. M : You must not call Kikay, “Kikay.”

TONY : (Blankly) --- and what shall I call her?

MRS. M : You must call her Francesca.

TONY : Francisca?

MRS. M : Not Francisca … Fran…CES…ca.

TONY : But why Francesca?

MRS. M : She says that in New York, every body calls her Fran-CES-ca.That is how all
those Americans in New York pronounce her name. And all she wants everybody
here to pronounce it in the same way. She says it sounds so “chi-chi”, so Italian.
Do you know that many people in New York thought she was an Italian…an
Italian from California? So be sure and remember; do not call her Kikay, she
hates that name … call her Fran-CES-ca.

TONY : (Limply, sitting down again) --- yes, Mrs. Mendoza.

MRS. M : (Turning to go again) – Now wait right here while I call Fran-CES-ca. (Somebody
knocks at the front door. She turns around again.) Aie, Dios mio!

TONY : (Jumping up once again) – Never mind, Mrs. Mendoza, I’ll answer it.
(He goes to open the door.)

MRS. M : (As she exists) --- Just tell them to wait, Tony.
(Tony opens door and Totoy steps in. Totoy is the same age as Tony and is more clearly a
Tondo sheik. The one word that could possibly describe his attire is “spooting”. Both boys
extend their arms out wide on beholding each other.)

TOTOY : Tony!

TONY : Totoy! (They pound each other’s bellies.)

TOTO : You old son of your father!

TONY : You big carabao, you!

TOTOY : Mayroon ba tayo diyan?

TONY : You ask me that … and you look like a walking goldmine! How many depots
have you been looting, huh?

TOTOY : Hoy, hoy, more slowly there … It’s you the police are out looking for.

TONY : Impossible! I’m a reformed character!

TOTOY : (Arms around each other’s shoulders, they march across the room) ---
Make way for the Tondo boys … Bang! Bang!

TONY : (Pushing Totoy away and producing a package of cigarettes) Good to see you,
old pal … here, have a smoke.

TOTOY : (Taking a cigarette) – I thought you were in Bulacan, partner.

TONY : I am. I just came to say hello to Kikay.

TOTOY : (As they light cigarette) --- Tony, I’ve been hearing the most frightful things about
that girl.

TONY : (Sinking into a chair) --- So have I.

TOTOY : (Sitting down too) --- People are saying that she has gone crazy.

TONY : No, she has only gone New York.

TOTOY : What was she doing in New York?

TONY : Oh, studying. Hair culture and beauty science. She got a diploma.

TOTOY : Uy, imagine that! Our dear old Kikay!

TONY : Pardon me, but she’s not Kikay anymore … she is Fran-CES-ca.

TOTOY : Fran-CES-ca?

TONY : Miss Tondo has become Miss New York. Our dear old Kikay is now an American.

TOTOY : Kikay, an American? Don’t make me laugh! Why, I knew that girl when she was
still selling rice cakes! (Stands up and imitates a girl puto vendor) --- Puto kayo
diyan … bili na kayo ng puto.

TONY : (Laughing) – Remember when we pushed her into the canal?

TOTOY : She chased us all around the streets.

TONY : Naku, how that girl could fight!

TOTOY : (Fondly) --- Dear old Kikay!

(Knocking at the door. Totoy goes to open it. Enter Nena. Nena is a very well possessed young
lady of 24. )

NENA : Why, it’s Totoy!

TOTOY : (Opening his arms) --- Nena, my own!

NENA : (Brushing him aside as she walks into the room) – and Tony too! What’s
all this? A Canto boy Reunion?

TOTOY : (Following behind her) – We have come to greet the lady from New York.

NENA : So have I. Is she at home?

TONY : Aling Atang is trying to wake her up.

NENA : To wake her up! Is she still dreaming?

MRS. M : (Appearing in the center doorway) – No, she’s awake already. She’s
changing. Good morning, Nena. Good morning, Totoy.
(Totoy and Nena are staring speechless. Mrs. Mendoza is carrying a vase in which she has
arranged Tony’s flowers. She self-consciously walks into the room and sets the vase on the
table amidst the silence broken only by Totoy’s helpless wolf whistle.)

MRS. M : (Having set the vase on the table) –Well, Totoy? Well, Nena? I said good
morning. Why are you staring at me like that?

NENA : Is … is that you Aling Atang?

TOTOY : Good God, It is Aling Atang! (He collapses into a chair)

TONY : Totoy, Aling Atang now prefers to be called Mrs. Mendoza.

MRS. M : Oh, Tony … you know it is not I but Kikay who prefers it. She was delighted with
these flowers, Tony. She thanks you very much. Nena, if you don’t stop gaping
at me, I’ll pinch you!

NENA : (Laughing) – How you used to pinch and pinch me, Aling Atang, when I was a
little girl.

MRS. M : You were a very naughty girl, always fighting with Kikay. You were all very
naughty children. (She points at Totoy) – This one, especially, always sneaking
into our backyard to steal mangoes from our mango tree.

TOTOY : Do you still have the mango tree?

MRS. M : Yes, it’s still out there in our backyard.

TOTOY : (Jumping up) – Come on, Nena…let’s steal their mangoes!

MRS.M : Ah-ah, you just try! I still run as fast as ever. See if I don’t catch you again and
pull your pants off!

TOTOY : (Gripping his pants) – ah, but I wear suspenders now, Mrs. Mendoza.

MRS. M : Oh, you rascal! Come with me to the kitchen.

TOTOY : Why? To pull my pants off?

MRS. M : No, idiot! I want you to help me carry something.

NENA : Aling Atang, don’t prepare anything for us. We’re not visitors. And we’re not
hungry.

MRS. M : It’s only orange juice, Nena. I was preparing some for Kikay. She takes nothing
else in the morning. She says that in New York nobody eats breakfast. Come
along, Totoy.
(Exits Mrs. Mendoza and Totoy. Left alone, Nena and Tony are silent for a moment. Tony
seated; Nena stands behind the sofa.)

NENA : Well, Tony?

TONY : You shouldn’t have come today, Nena.

NENA : Oh, why not?

TONY : I haven’t talked to Kikay yet.

NENA : You haven’t talked to Kikay yet..! I thought you were going to come here
and tell her everything last night.

TONY : I lost my nerve. I didn’t come last night.

NENA : Oh, Tony, Tony!

TONY : (Irritated, imitating her tone) – Oh, Tony, Tony! Use your head, Nena. Whoever
heard of a man breaking off his engagement with a girl! It’s not usual! And … my
God …it’s not easy!

NENA : (Belligerently) – Are you in love with Kikay or with me?

TONY : Of course I’m in love with you. I’m engaged to you.

NENA : (Bitterly) –Yes…and you were engaged to Kikay, too!

TONY : But that was a year ago!

NENA : (Flaring up) – Oh, you wolf! (She flounces away, furious)

TONY : (Jumping up and following her) – Nena, Nena, you know I love you, only you!

NENA : (Whirling around to face him) – How could you have the nerve to propose to me
when you were still engaged to Kikay?

TONY : I wish I had never told you. This is what I get for being honest!

NENA : Honest! You call yourself honest? Getting me to fall in love with you when
you still belonged to Kikay?

TONY : I … I thought I didn’t belong to Kikay anymore. It was only a secret engagement
anyway. I proposed to her just before she left for America and she said we must
keep our engagement a secret until she came back. But when she had been
there a couple of months, she stopped answering my letters. So I considered
myself a free man again.

NENA : (Sarcastically) – And you proposed to me.

TONY : (Miserably) – Yes …

NENA : And then asked me to keep our engagement a secret!

TONY : Because right afterwards, I found out that Kikay was coming back.

NENA : Well, I’m tired of being secretly engaged to you! What fun is it being engaged if you
can’t tell everybody!

TONY : Just give me a chance to talk to Kikay and explain everything to her. Then you
and I will announce our engagement.

NENA : Well, you better hurry. I’m getting impatient.

TONY : The trouble is, how can I talk with Kikay now?

NENA : Why not?
TONY : Well you are here, and Totoy is here. You don’t expect me to jilt Kikay in front of
everybody, do you?

NENA : You want me and Totoy to clear out?

TONY : No…just give me a chance to be alone with Kikay for a moment.

NENA : I’ll take care of Totoy.

TONY : That’s good.

NENA : Just leave it to me.

(Totoy appears in the doorway with tray on his head; glasses and a pitcher are on a tray.)
TOTOY : (Sailing in) – Puto kayo diyan, bili na kayo ng puto…!
(Mrs. Mendoza appears in the doorway, carrying a plate of sandwiches.)

MRS. M : Listen everybody…here comes Kikay…but she prefers to be called Fran-CES-ca.
(She moves away from the doorway and Kikay appears. Kikay is garbed in a trailing gown
trimmed with fur at the neck and hemline. From one hand she dangles a large silk handkerchief
which she keeps waving about as she walks and talks. In the other hand, she carries a very
long cigarette holder with an unlighted cigarette affixed. Kikay’s manner and appearance are
…to use a Hollywood expression …”chi-chi mad.”)

KIKAY : (Having paused a long moment in the doorway, hands uplifted in surprise and
delight) – Oh, hello, hello… you darling, darling people! (She glides into the
room. Everybody else is too astonished to move) Nena, my dear…but how cute
you’ve become! (She kisses Nena)And Tony, my little pal of the valley…how are
you? (She gives her hand to Tony) and Totoy…my, how ravishing you look. (She
walks all around the apprehensive Totoy) goodness, you look like a Tondo superproduction in Technicolor! But sit down everybody…do sit down and let me look
at you. (Her three visitors sit down. She sees the tray with the glasses and
pitcher on the table and throws her hands up in amused horror.) Oh, mumsy,
mumsy!

MRS. M : What’s the matter now?

KIKAY : How many times must I tell you, mumsy dearest, never, never serve fruit
juice in water glasses!

MRS. M : I couldn’t find those tall glasses you brought home.

KIKAY : (Approaching and kissing her mother) – Oh, my poor li’l mumsy…she is
so clumsy, no? But never mind, dearest; don’t break your heart about it.
Here sit down.

MRS. M : No, I must be going to the market.

KIKAY : Oh, mumsy, don’t forget my celery. (to her visitors) – I can’t live without
celery. I’m like a rabbit…munch, munch all day.

MRS. M : Well, if you people will excuse me…Tony, remember me to your mother.
(She moves away)

KIKAY : (Gesturing make up) – and remember, mumsy…a little bloom on the lips,
a little bloom on the cheeks.

MRS. M : Oh, Kikay, do I have to?

KIKAY : Again, mumsy?

MRS. M : (Already in the center doorway) – Do I have to paint this old face of mine,
Fran-CES-ca?

KIKAY : (Breaking into laughter and turning towards the others) – But how dreadfully she
puts it! Oh, mumsy, mumsy…what am I going to do with you?

MRS. M : (As she exits) – I give up!

KIKAY : (Still laughing) – Poor mumsy, she’s quite a problem. (She waves her cigarette)
Oh, does anybody have a light?
(Totoy jumps up and gives her a light.)

KIKAY : Merci.

TOTOY : Huh?

KIKAY : I said merci. That means thank you… in French.

TOTOY : (As he sits down) – Merci!

(Kikay poses herself on the arm of the sofa where Nena is sitting and sipping orange juice. The
two boys, also sipping juice and munching sandwiches, occupying the two chairs)
NENA : Tell us about New York.

KIKAY : (Fervently) – Ah, New York, New York!

TONY : How long did you stay there?

KIKAY : (In a trance) – 10 months, 4 days, 7 hours and 21 minutes!

TOTOY : (Aside to the others) – and she’s still there … in her dreams!

KIKAY : (With emotion choking her voice) – Yes, I feel as if I were still there, as though I
had never left it, as though I had lived there all my life. But I look around me (She
bitterly looks around her at the three gaping visitors) and I realize that no, no I’m
not there. I’m not in New York… I’m here, here!

KIKAY : (She rises abruptly and goes to window where she stands looking out) I’m home,
they tell me. Home! But which is home for me? This cannot be home because my
heart aches with home sickness. I feel myself to be an exile…yes, a spiritual
exile. My spirit aches for its true home across the sea. Ah, New York! My own
dear New York! (She is silent a moment, looking across the horizon, her arms
cross over her breast. Her visitors glanced uneasily at each other.)

NENA : (To others) – I don’t think we ought to be here at all, boys.

TONY : Yes, we shouldn’t disturb her.

NENA : (With a languishing gesture) – And leave her alone with her memories.

TONY : (Glancing at the entranced Kikay) – Is that the girl we used to go swimming with
in the mud paddies?

TOTOY : (Crossing his arms over his chest) – Ah, New York! My own dear New York!

KIKAY : (Whirling around, enraptured) – Listen…oh listen! Now, in New York, it’s
springtime…it’s spring in New York! The daisies are just appearing in Central
Park and out in Staten Island the grass is green again. (With a little fond laugh)
Oh, we have a funny custom in New York…an old, old and very dear custom.
When spring comes around each year, we New Yorkers, we make a sort of
pilgrimage to an old tree growing down by the Battery. Oh, it’s an old tree. It’s
been growing there ever since New York was New York. And we New Yorkers,
we call it “Our Tree”. Every spring we go down to say hello to it and to watch its
first green leaves coming out. In a way, that tree is our symbol for New
York…undying immortal, forever growing and forever green! (She laughs and
makes an apologetic gesture) But please, please forgive me! Here I am going
sentimental and just mooning away over things you have no idea about. No, you
can’t understand this emotion I feel for our dear old tree over there in New York.

NENA : Oh, but I do, I understand perfectly! I feel that way too about “our” tree.

KIKAY : (Blankly) – About what tree?

NENA : Our mango tree, Kikay. Have you forgotten about it? Why you and I used to go
climbing up there every day and gorging ourselves on green mangoes. How our
stomachs ached afterwards! And then these bad boys would come and start
shaking the branches until we fell down!

TOTOY : Aling Atang once caught me climbing that tree and she grabbed my pants and
off they came!

NENA : And Kikay and me, we were rolling on the ground, simply hysterical with laughter.
And Totoy, you kept shouting,”Give me back my pants! Give me back my pants!”
(They were all shaking with laughter except Kikay who is staring blankly at this.)

KIKAY : But wait a minute, wait a minute…what is this tree you’re talking about?

NENA : Our mango tree, Kikay. The mango tree out there in your back yard.

KIKAY : (Flatly) – Oh that tree…

TONY : What’s the matter, Kikay? Don’t you feel the same emotion for that tree as you
do for the one in New York?

KIKAY : (Tartly) – Of course not! They…they’re completely different! I don’t feel any
emotion for this silly old mango tree. It doesn’t awaken any memories for me at
all!

NENA : (Rising) – Well it does…for me. And such happy, happy memories! I really must
run out to the backyard and say hello to it. (Imitating Kikay’s tone and manner)
You know, Kikay, over here in Tondo, we have a funny custom…an old, old and
very dear custom. We make a sort of pilgrimage to a silly old mango tree
growing in a backyard. And for us here in Tondo, that tree is “our” tree. In a way,
it is a symbol…

KIKAY : (Interrupting) – don’t be silly, Nena.

TONY : Look who’s talking.

KIKAY : (In amused despair) – Oh, you people can’t understand at all!

TONY : Of course not. We’ve never been to New york!

KIKAY : (Earnestly) –- That’s it exactly! Until you’ve been to New York, you can’t, can’t
understand ever. Oh, believe me…not to have lived in New York is not to have
lived at all! That tree of ours over there… it doesn’t stand for kid stuff and childish
foolishness. It stands for higher and finer things; for a more vivacious, a more
streamlined, and a more daring way of life!

KIKAY : It stands for Freedom and for the Manhattan skyline and for the Copacabana and
for Coney Island in summer and for Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive and for
Tuesday nights at Eddie Condons with Wild Bill Davidson working on that
trumpet of his and for Saturday nights at Madison Square Garden with the
crowds spilling all over the side walk and for the nickel ferry ride to Staten Island
and for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue and for all (She stops,
overcome with her memories) Oh, it’s impossible to make you see!

TONY : I still prefer a tree that grows in Tondo.

TOTOY : I second the motion

NENA : So do I.

KIKAY : (Tolerantly, very much the woman of the world) – Oh you funny, funny children!

NENA : I really must go and say hello to our tree. You don’t mind, Kikay, do you?

KIKAY : (Laughing) – Of course not, child. Do go.

NENA : Totoy, will you come with me?

TOTOY : (Fervently, as he rises) – To the ends of the earth!

NENA : (In the Kikay manner) – No darling…just out to our dear little backyard.

TOTOY : (Acting up too) – Oh , the backyard of Tondo, the barong-barongs of Maypaho,
the streets of Sibakong…

NENA : (In the center doorway) – Listen, idiot, are you coming with me or not?

TOTOY : (Following her) – Anywhere, dream girl, anywhere at all!
(Exits Nena and Totoy)

KIKAY : (Sitting down on the sofa) – Apparently, our Totoy still has a most terrific crush
on Nena. (Tony is silent) Do wake up, Tony… what are you looking so miserable
about?
(Tony rises from his chair and sits down beside Kikay on the sofa. He is nervous and cannot
speak. Kikay smilingly gazes at him.)

TONY : (Finally gathering courage) – Kikay…I don’t know just how to begin.

KIKAY : Just call me Francesca... a good beginning.

TONY : There is something I must tell you…something very important.

KIKAY : Oh, Tony, can’t we just forget all about it?

TONY : Forget?

KIKAY : That’s the New York way, Tony. Forget. Nothing must ever be so serious,
nothing must drag on too long. Tonight, give all your heart. Tomorrow forget. And
when you meet again, smile, shake hands…just good sports.

TONY : What are you talking about?

KIKAY : Tony, I was only a child at that time.

TONY : When?

KIKAY : When you and I got engaged. I’ve changed so much since then, Tony.

TONY : That was only a year ago.

KIKAY : To me, it seems a century. So much has happened to me. I’ve become a
completely different person in just one year. After all, what’s a year, what’s a
person? Just relative terms. More can happen to you in just one year in New
York than in all a lifetime spent anywhere else. Do you know…I feel as if I’ve
always lived in New York. In spirit, I am and have always been a native of
Manhattan. When I first arrived there, I felt I had come home at last. It’s my real
home. Oh, listen, last summer it was really hot…one of the hottest summers we
ever had. I’d go riding on one of those double-decker buses just to cool off, and
all those people from Kalamazoo and Peoria and other places like that would be
wandering around the streets…sightseeing, you know…and there I would be on
top of this bus looking down at them and feeling very amused at the way they
gaped at the sky-scrapers and the way they gaped at the shop windows; but I’d
be feeling very proud too, because it was my city they were admiring, and I’d feel
rather sorry for them living out in the sticks…

TONY : Listen, I don’t want to talk about New York…I want to talk about our engagement.

KIKAY : And that’s what we cannot do. Tony…not anymore.

TONY : Why not?

KIKAY : Tony, you got engaged to a girl named Kikay. Well, that girl doesn’t exist
anymore…she’s dead. The person you see before me is Francesca. Don’t you
see, Tony, I’m a stranger to you…we don’t speak the same language…and I feel
so much, much older than you. I’m a woman of the world, you are only a boy. I
hate to hurt you, Tony…but surely you see that there can between us would be
stark miscegenation! Imagine a New Yorker marrying a Tondo boy!

TONY : (Blazing) – Now look here…

KIKAY : (Very tolerantly) – I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, Tony but I wanted you to realize how
ridiculous it would be to think that I could still be engaged to you.

TONY : (Leaping up) – I’m not going to sit here and be insulted.

KIKAY : Hush, Tony, hush! Don’t shout, don’t lose your temper…it’s so uncivilized.
People in New York don’t lose their temper. Not people of the haute monde
anyway!

TONY : (Shouting) – What do you want me to do…smile and say thank you for slapping
my face?

KIKAY : Yes, Tony, be a sport. Let’s smile and shake hands and be just friends, huh? Be
brave, Tony…forget: that’s the New York way. Find another girl. There are other
“goils” in the “esters”, as they say in Brooklyn. You’ll find somebody
else…someone more proper for you.

TONY : (Waving his fist) – If you weren’t a woman, I’d…I’d…

KIKAY : Hold it, Tony…you must never, never hit a woman.

NENA : What’s all this?

KIKAY : Nothing…nothing at all.

TOTOY : What were you two quarrelling about?

KIKAY : We were not quarrelling. Tony and I just decided to be good friends and nothing
more.

NENA : Tony, is this true?

TONY : (Shouting) –Yes!

NENA : Oh good! Now we can tell them!

KIKAY : Tell us what?

TOTOY : What’s going on here, eh?

NENA : (Taking Tony’s hand) –Tony and I are engaged.

KIKAY : (Rising) – Engaged!

TOTOY : (At the same time) – Engaged!

NENA : Yes! We’ve been secretly engaged for a month.

KIKAY : A month! (Fiercely, to Tony) – Why, you…you…

TONY : (Backing off) – I did try to tell you, Kikay…I was trying to tell you…

KIKAY : You unspeakable cad!

NENA : Hey, careful there…you’re speaking to my fiancé.

KIKAY : He’s not your fiancé!

NENA : Oh no? And why not, ha?

KIKAY : Because he was still engaged to me when he got engaged to you!

NENA : Well, he’s not engaged to you anymore, you just said so yourself.

KIKAY : Ah, but I didn’t know about all this. This treacherous business! Oh, the shame of
it! Getting engaged to you when he was still engaged to me! Do I look like the
kind of girl who’d let a man jilt her? (Moving towards Tony) Oh, you horrible,
horrible monster!

TONY : (Backing off some more) – Now remember Kikay…it’s uncivilized to lose one’s
temper. People in New York don’t lose their temper. Not people of the haute
monde anyway!

KIKAY : I’ve never felt so humiliated in all my life! You beast! I’ll teach you to humiliate
me!

NENA : (Blocking her way) – I told you to leave him alone. He’s my fiancé.

KIKAY : And I tell you he’s not! He’s engaged to me until I release him …and I haven’t
released him yet.

NENA : You ought to be ashamed of yourself! You’re just being a dog in the manger!

KIKAY : You ought to be ashamed of yourself…stealing my man behind my back!

NENA : (Exploding) – WHAT! What did you say?

TONY : (Keeping a safe distance) – Totoy, pull them apart!

KIKAY : (To Totoy, as he approaches) – You keep out of this or I’ll knock your head off!

TOTOY : Naku, lumabas din and pagka Tondo!

NENA : Shameless hussy!

KIKAY : Man-eater!

(They grapple and stagger. Tony and Totoy rush forward to separate them and finally
succeeded but not before Kikay has socked Nena. Nena, infuriated, breaks away from
Tony…who’s dragging her away. and pounces on Kikay…whom Totoy is holding. Tony came
running but is too late to prevent Nena from socking Kikay. Kikay sags down in Totoy’s arms.
Tony pulls Nena away.)

TONY : (Furious) – How dare you sock her?

NENA : What? She hit me first!

TONY : Look what you’ve done to her!
( Totoy has dropped the knocked-out Kikay on a chair.)

NENA : Are you trying to defend her? You never defended me!

TONY : SHUT UP!

NENA : I hate you! I hate you!

TONY : Shut up or I’ll bash your mouth off!

TOTOY : (Deserting the reviving Kikay) – Hey, don’t you talk to Nena that way.

TONY : You keep out of this!

NENA : He’s more of a gentleman than you are, he defends me!

TOTOY : (To Tony) – You take your hands off her!

TONY : I told you to keep out of this!
(Totoy socks Tony. Tony drops to the floor.)

NENA : (Running to Totoy) – Oh Totoy, you’ve saved my life.
(Meanwhile, Kikay has run to Tony’s side.)

KIKAY : (Kneeling beside Tony) – Tony, Tony … open your eyes!

TONY : (Sitting up and brushing her hands away) – Oh, get away from here.
(Kikay rises and haughtily moves away. Tony continues to sit on the floor, in the attitude of
Rodin’s “Thinker”.)

NENA : Totoy, take me away from here!

TOTOY : (Pointing to Tony) – Are you still engaged to him?

NENA : I hate him! I never want to see him again in my life!

TOTOY : Good! Come on, let’s go.
(He takes her arm and propels her to the door.)

TONY : (As they pass him) – Hey!

NENA : (Pausing) – Don’t you speak to me, you brute!

TONY : (Still sitting on the floor) – I wasn’t talking to you.

TOTOY : Don’t you speak to me either! You have insulted the woman I love!

NENA : (Beaming up at him) – Oh Totoy, why have you never told me?

TOTOY : (Shyly) – Well…now you know…

TONY : (Still on the floor) – Congratulations!

NENA : (Coldly) – Let’s go darling…I don’t like the smell around here.
(Exit Nena and Totoy. Tony rises and dusts himself. Kikay is on the floor on the other side of the
room, her haughty back to him.)

TONY : Now you’ve ruined my life. I hope you’re satisfied.

KIKAY : (Whirling around) – I... have ruined your life? You…have ruined mine!

TONY : (Advancing) – What you need is a good spanking.

KIKAY : (Retreating) - Don’t you come near me, you…you Canto Boy!

TONY : (Stopping) - Don’t worry; I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole.

KIKAY : And I wouldn’t touch you with a 20-foot pole.

TONY : Just one year in New York and you forget your old friends!

KIKAY : Just one year that I’m in New York… and what do you do! But when we got
engaged, you swore to be true, you promised to wait for me. And I believed you, I
believed you! (She begins to weep) Oh, you’re fickle, fickle!

TONY : What are you crying about? Be brave…forget…that’s the New York way. Nothing
must ever be too serious, nothing must ever drag on too long…

KIKAY : Oh Tony, I’ve been such a fool! I’m so sorry, Tony!

TONY : Well, I’m not! I’m glad I found out what kind of a person you are!

KIKAY : (Alarmed, approaching him) – Oh, Tony, you’re wrong, you’re wrong! I’m not that
kind of a person at all!

TONY : Oh “person” is just a relative term, huh?

KIKAY : Yes, Tony…that was Francesca saying all those silly things. But Francesca
exists no more, Tony. The girl standing before you is Kikay.

TONY : In that silly dress?

KIKAY : It’s true, Tony. I’m Kikay…remember me? We used to go swimming together,
when we were kids. I’ve come back, Tony.

TONY : If I were right, I was engaged to a girl named Kikay.

KIKAY : Yes, and you’re still engaged to her, Tony.

TONY : Welcome home, Kikay! How was the trip?

KIKAY : Horrible! I couldn’t wait to get back.

TONY : Liked it in New York?

KIKAY : Uh-uh. Give me Tondo anytime.

TONY : Why didn’t you answer my letters?

KIKAY : (After just a wee pause) – Francesca wouldn’t let me write, Tony.

TONY : That misty girl. I’m glad she’s dead!
(Offstage Mrs. Mendoza is heard calling “ Francesca, Francesca.” Tony and Kikay listen, then
burst into laughter.)

MRS. M : (Appearing in doorway) – Frances…Oh, Tony, are you still here? Francesca,
don’t be angry but I couldn’t live without it!

TONY : (Moving towards the radio) – That was Francesca, Aling Atang, and Francesca is
dead. The girl standing before you is Kikay.

MRS. M : (Dazed) – But Kikay is Francesca…

KIKAY : Oh no, Inay. I’m not Francesca…I’m Kikay.

MRS. M : (After gazing from on to the other, throwing her hands up.) – I GIVE UP!
(Exits)

(Tony and Kikay burst into laughter. They have turned on the radio. It’s playing “Again” or some
such silly song.)

KIKAY : (Subsiding) – Sorry, darling. (She approaches him.) May I have this “jaggingjagging” with you, partner?

TONY : (Bowing) – Delighted, Madame. (They dance around the room as the CURTAIN
FALLS.)

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