#Devour meaning tagalog free
Even though at first, they lost money on the shop, giving away egg roll gift baskets, raffling off free dinners at community meetings. They bought a storefront in 1996, even though the neighbors were not so friendly. Ikaw, she whispered, closing her eyes, wishing the dream was not a dream, but a message. Why am I old and you are not? she asked him. She noticed her wrinkled hands, spotted with grease burns. He lit a cigarette, and she pushed the smoke away. America still beautiful?Ĭome on, he said. In her dream, Orlando was a young man with hair greased back and parted to the side, chiseled jaw and a smile that still made her feel weak. The blonde commentator called the states like a teacher taking attendance. Held hostage, she could hear him saying, his body pacing circles in their bungalow back home. It took another fifteen years of catering out of their kitchen before they bought the shop.īack home, they would have been surrounded by their big families. Her husband saved every paycheck for almost ten years before he moved into his own place, before he could sponsor Faustina and their son, Boy. He rented a room with a busboy and an elevator operator. In Milwaukee, he got a job as a bellman at the Pfister Hotel. But between them, in their bedroom, she was against it. Kissed him on the tarp of Manila International Airport. Before their families, she stood in support of the move. He left the Philippines months before the dictator proclaimed martial law. He insisted Manila was no place to raise a family. She’s not perfect, Mahal said, but she’d be our first female president.Īnd you know, Mahal said, if that guy wins, he’ll deport immigrants.Īfter being blacklisted, Orlando could not find any work as a journalist. She hasn’t even won and see how she acts? Balloons the color of the flag fell around her. Was labeled a communist.įaustina pointed to the screen. The old woman wrinkled her brow, envisioned him, a young man standing before Malacañang Palace with his batch mates. Mahal’s devotion to politics reminded her a lot of Orlando. The sixteen-year-old leaned on her lola.įaustina ran her hands through the child’s hair, felt the coarse strands weaving through her fingers. Mahal sat on the rug next to her lola, offered her the popcorn. A white image of Illinois filled the screen. Music from the news program scored their conversation. If Orlando were alive, his old body would be perched on the edge of the recliner, rooting as if at a boxing tournament.
Lola, you want company? Mahal stood in the doorway, holding out a bowl of popcorn. Outside the sun had set early, even for November.
Faustina leaned back in her recliner, feet twitching.
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