Vignette 4: Social Telegrams, Flowers and Molly

Molly sat with us during our group business case analysis sessions. She had long wavy hair and a shy smile. She had a vulnerable aura that made you want to protect her.

The first time I saw her shivered, I thought it was because she was reed thin. The next time, I noticed it was when Frederick passed by our group. And after the third time, I concluded it was him who was causing her shivers.

It was on the third month of the semester when she started getting deliveries of social telegrams, at first, then flowers. Her face would be flushed with a deep blush as she read each telegram and card that went with the flowers. She absolutely refused though to let us read them, dismissing our requests by saying, "It's personal."

Then one day, she gave in to one group mate who was always pestering her about the telegrams and flowers. She whispered to her that they were from Frederick, her boyfriend. The group mate shrieked long and loud when she heard the name. Frederick, after all, was a big man on campus - athlete, born to an elite family, and a prize catch. Soon, the name of Molly's secret admirer was passed from mouth to ear until it reached Frederick.

We were discussing the last business case assigned to us when Frederick interrupted our session and asked Molly to talk with him in private. They went to an isolated corner of the college building and soon after, we heard their loud argument.

"How dare you, Molly spread the rumor about us when you know fully well I'm in love with Agnes!"

"Frederick, please listen -"

"Stop the lies, Molly, stop sending those telegrams and flowers to yourself claiming they came from me and stop loitering outside my dorm! You're freaking me out!"

"But Frederick, I love you!"

"Well, I don't and I won't! So leave me alone!"

Frederick left in a huff and when Molly saw that all eyes were on them, she blushed and turned to her heels.

Molly never attended our succeeding sessions after that. She was absent during the finals. Her dorm mates told us she never left her room for meals or anything. At night, they would hear her sobs.

After a week, the campus police picked her up outside Frederick's dorm. She was dressed in her soiled pajamas, face tear-stained, wavy hair askew, eyes bulging from their sockets. Her parents got her from the campus police station and brought her home.

We never heard from her again.

Vignette 3: Chains

I noticed it right away when I entered the jeep - five passengers at the back of the driver and only one across them. So I sat beside the lone passenger.

Glancing up as soon I sat, I saw fear, revulsion cross the faces of those across the two of us. The woman next to me was plump, silent.

Then I heard it. Clink. Clink.

That's when I saw she was barefoot.

Moving up my glimpse, I saw the dog chains tied on her right hand.

Then I saw the damp circles on her shirt. She was lactating!

That's when I understood the looks on the passengers' faces across us.

Vignette 2: Baby niece inside a drawer

When I saw the scene in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where Queenie, baby Benjamin's adoptive mother, put him in a clothes drawer right after finding him on the steps of the old folks' home where she works, I was reminded of the same thing I did.

Our first niece, Nerissa Joy, who was 6 months old then, was staying with us that time. She was left in my care while Mama went to the market. Mama was taking a long time coming back and it was almost time for my class. So I packed some linen and one bottle of baby formula and rushed to school.

I cleared the top drawer of my desk at school and placed the sleeping baby gingerly inside. No one was in the faculty room so I had no one to ask to look after the baby. Already late for my one-hour class, I left for my classroom.

When some co-teachers arrived from their classes several minutes later, baby Nerissa Joy was awake and gurgling. The teachers were frightened by the sounds the baby was making. They thought it was a tiyanak (a Philippine monster in the form of a baby) as they weren't able to see baby Nerissa Joy inside the slight open drawer.

Coming back to the faculty an hour later, I was surprised to hear them talking about a tiyanak haunting the room. I laughed upon hearing them and proceeded to take baby Nerissa Joy out of the drawer and show her to them.

The room was filled with laughter and cooing sounds when I proudly passed my baby niece around.

Vignette 1: Papa snoring in Golden Cinema while "The Fiddler on the Roof" was playing

In my final year in high school, Mama was able to persuade Papa to give me a rare treat for being the second honor in one of my periodical exams. Papa gave me several choices: merienda at our favorite Chinese restaurant, cash, or a movie at the then newest movie house. Since I knew he also liked watching movies, I went for it.

The movie house was showing double programs then, two English movies for the price of one. Papa got us tickets to the balcony. There were only a few people inside the cinema. Papa sat through the first movie, the title of which I had already forgotten. The second movie was another story. It was The Fiddler on the Roof, the film version of a Broadway musical. From the first frame showing the fiddler on a roof playing a melancholy tune on his violin, I was entranced. However Papa slept through it, punctuating the soundtrack with his snores that sounded like a boat sounding its horn as it departs from the wharf.

When the lights were lit at the end of the movie, I shook Papa to wake him up. He saw in my face how much I enjoyed the movie and that was enough for him.