The Magpie said, “Lolo Sito died…”
At 81. One of Lola’s younger siblings. And Lola, comatose at 88 and slipping away from time for grace…The Mouse did not say anything and just did the things she was supposed to do.
The Magpie continued, “…We have to represent the family…Remember, none of them are here anymore…”
The Mouse once again did not say anything---still in Mourning For The Dead For Almost A Year--- and just did the things she was supposed to do but relented, “Of course. You go. Remember to go somewhere else before coming home.” Bring Death somewhere else.
So the Magpie and Brother Rat went to the wake, and after, the Magpie said that Lolo Sixto--- another of their Lola’s younger siblings who came home from The Land Where There Are No Cats According To American Tale--- had reprimanded the Magpie How come you didn’t visit your Lola when you were in LA? The Magpie had only smiled and said Yes, I didn’t visit her with that “po” but didn’t answer.
The Mouse only snorted to the Magpie, “Well, if I were the one asked, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to hear what my machine gun mouth had to say. Aren’t you glad I didn’t come?” That honesty had always made their Mother anxious.
The Magpie laughed and said that the Rat was being called by the Elders “Guapito” and surely that would make the General laugh and their Mother claim that he all got it from her. And that after they left the wake, the Rat was coaxing the Magpie that they should take the Pasig Ferry to go to Binondo, just to go around and maybe eat somewhere there. But they were too late for the 5:30 pm boarding and went somewhere else instead.
When the Mouse heard about that trip, she laughed, thought I don’t think I’ll ever ride the Pasig but I’d row it again and nodded as the Magpie related how patient their brother Rat had become.
The Magpie said that the funeral’s on Friday, the mass would be at 9:00 am, and the General said to take her with them.
The Mouse laughed When my first name is used in a sentence, it means an order, “But why?!”
The Magpie answered with laughter. Later on the Mouse followed the Magpie to the kitchen and said, “I remember him and Lola Titang. Daddy told me some stories about them…”
The General had taken the Mouse While Still Attending The University Of Pila and other offspring to see them twelve years ago, somewhere called Looban. The General had sat exchanging stories and news with them while Lolo Sito and Lola Titang sat together. The General told the Mouse after that he had stayed with them while he was in The Engineering Institute and working. The General’s Parents had refused to support his schooling, unlike his other siblings. The General would do household chores and errands for Lolo Sito and Lola Titang in gratitude.
The Mouse remembered too when the General had taken her last November to be introduced once again to the two generations of caretakers of their inherited land---- as far as you can see, here, there, that’s ours, the harvest of what would be planted in the coming years would not be just for you but for the children----
And so the Mouse said to the Magpie, “…I’ll come.”
Onto Friday of Last Rites And Funeral, the first one the Mouse had been to in twenty years (for the last one had been her Papa’s): The On Leave From Work Magpie, the Sleepless From Graveyard Work Gnome, the Insomniac Mouse, and Unico Hijo Driver Rat were once more introduced to Relatives That Are Strangers--- the siblings introduced as the Offspring of…
The siblings all held the elders’ hands to touch their foreheads out of respect with polite smiles. The Mouse hugged Lola Titang and sat beside her, holding her hand. Lola Titang was so much older and kept on thanking them, and then the siblings took their proper places while waiting for the Mass to begin.
The Mouse refused to look at Dead Lolo Sito.
The Gnome kept on teasing the other Lolos And Lolas With Cameras, “The camera is obviously in our genes!”
And they laughed their agreement. The Mouse laughed and thought as it looked at the wreaths of anthurium, lilies, orchids from different universities, So is teaching, apparently.
The Rat asked, “So how come they look for our family’s representative…”
The Mouse answered, “Because Lolo helped Lola raise and support her siblings…”
Onto the Mass, and the Mouse had refused to be the Representative To Do The Prayers Of The Faithful, refused to do the sign of the cross and other ritual responses but stood and sat when the others did. Uncle Father Future Archbishop sermonized on the Fidelity To This And That So That We Would Be Granted Entrance To Heaven. The Mouse found herself humming along to Our Father after (while in her head she was singing Salve Regina) and participated in Wishing Everyone Peace With Nods And Kisses Including the Dead.
The Gnome later whispered, “Lolo Sito just passed by. I saw him. There.”
The Mouse nodded and held the Gnome’s hand.
Onto the Eulogy, and one of the daughters spoke of how her father and mother were always sitting beside each other. The Mouse thought of the Cat who had sat beside her for almost eleven years now.
Onto the Last Rites and Lola Titang finally wailed. The Mouse flinched. Lola Titang could not and would not bless the coffin with the Holy Water with her stiff and shaking hands. The Gnome had goose-bumps on her left arm and the Mouse rubbed them away, remembering the pin their own Lola always wore that said If anything happens to me, please call a priest. Not a doctor but a priest, so that she would be blessed if she died and therefore go to heaven.
Waiting for the convoy:
Chatter news with one set of first-cousins whom they thought were all abroad, like how the General held a vigil for their Lolo and the rest of the loved dead on All Souls Day because Lolo had been appearing at their home.
They gasped, “Really?”
The Gnome answered, “Even the yayas saw him,” and as always, the youngest of them was sensitive to their Lolo’s presence.
And once more it became a reunion with this set of first-cousins’ now-self-deprecating teasing--about growing older and having children who would complain about inherited traits like their dark complexion that could not even be lightened by Papaya soap and their family’s short height--
“But it seems that in every generation, there is a very Chinese one like Lolo,” they said.
“We already have one, the youngest child, Milo,” the Mouse smiled.
“As Chinese as Egg and Lizette and Auntie Bernie,” the Gnome added.
“Hopefully, Milo would be taller,” the Mouse laughed.
The Mouse remembered that it was said that the Egg was one of the favorites of the Lolo and that when Lizette had first come to the Philippines, she and the Egg could’ve been halves of the same coconut.
One Ate First Cousin laughingly relayed how difficult it was to let go of only brothers to their wives. Ate First Cousin teased the Rat, “Oy, you better watch out. When you marry, you have five sisters who will get jealous. Pity you!”
The Mouse said, “Don’t forget the jealous Mama.”
They all laughed.
Then they said, “We do not spend enough time with each other.”
The siblings answered, “Perhaps this summer, when the children come for a visit, we should all go swimming.”
The Mouse thought, Yes, the things we do for our love for the children, remembering how she had forced herself to be drunk enough to rage with two calm tears last January before her Cat and Fairy Dolphin--- The goddamn things I could not do at that time because of the children! My blood was screaming! So goddamn close but the children were right there! After, the Fairy Dolphin had said, I wish I could just hug away a fraction of your pain…
Onto the Funeral,
And the Mouse stood on her black four-inch-stilettos throughout the last prayers, knowing that she was standing on someone’s grave. She had slipped off her heels, her purple-painted toenails peeking from her sweeping black slacks, needing to feel her feet standing on green grass covering what was dead. And she had refused to take that walk with everyone towards the coffin for a last look on the Dead Lolo Sito, refused to take the dying white orchids that were being handed out to be given to the dead. She only watched her Lola Titang sitting there beside her children: the old woman looked so alone while sitting before the coffin.
The Mouse looked away, looked to the nearest tree, began to whisper silently Take this from me. The Magpie returned to where the Mouse was standing, followed by the Gnome and the Rat. The Magpie was crying and mumbling something about Love for siblings…
The Mouse whispered to the Rat, “Nonoy, hug Ate.” Damn, if I had died years ago, Magpie would be… and my other siblings…Ma…Dad…And the Mouse thought of the Cat who had been sitting beside her for the past ten years, almost eleven…
There was another wail and the Mouse flinched once more while looking to the leaves of the tree being rustled by the wind--- If you want to find out whom you love, it is the one you know will be sitting beside you until you die.
The Mouse turned her gaze once again onto her Lola Titang who was watching the man who had sat beside her for most of her life being lowered to the ground in a box, being covered by soil, buried.
And what do people do after burying a loved dead?
Eat and share stories.
The Mouse could not eat and sat through more chatter, even spoke sentences here and there. After, more Relatives Who Have Become Older Strangers were given respect, including Uncle Engineer Businessman Son Of Dead Lolo Engineer, remembering that she had played with that uncle’s son when they visited from Manila when she was in elementary. The Mouse whispered to the Magpie, “I remember his son and that his children were cute.”
Uncle Engineer Businessman Son Of Dead Lolo Engineer said to them, “Well, we only get to be reunited when someone dies.”
They all asked about the other two absent siblings and were informed that the Second Offspring was in KL and that the Sixth was back home with her husband and children. They said to the present First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Offspring, Of course we know you, you siblings all have the same look, the same mold.
One Lola Wife of Dead Lolo Doctor--- the Mother Of Uncle Father Future Archbishop, Uncle Doctor, Aunt Who Was The Magpie’s Classmate, Uncle Who Is The Same Age As And Snubbed By The Mouse (for no way in Hell will she take a contemporary’s hand to her forehead out of traditional respect, besides it makes that Uncle uncomfortable)--- said You are all guapas and guapo, you have the look of Mayang. Their Mother’s blood ran strong in their features. The Mouse smiled, thinking, My face actually is a combination of the Grandmothers.
All the Offspring were asked, “And what do you do?”
To the Mouse, “Ah, you’re the one who teaches…”
The Mouse almost laughed, thinking, I wonder if anyone would have the audacity to say what they know and have heard and remember about everyone here.
The Gnome said, “I’m sleepy already,” and the Mouse told the Magpie this and, “Let’s leave, I’m hungry.” And this feels so heavy, bearing down on me. And when hungry, the siblings always get snappy.
More introductions for goodbye: Uncle Father Future Archbishop said to the Mouse, “Ah, you’re the one who writes.”
And to the Gnome, “And you’re the one I saw in the airport. You were going to Boracay with your Manay.” And teasingly grumbled to Uncle Who Was One of Dead Lolo Politician Lawyer’s Naughty Sons, “They didn’t even invite me.”
Naughty Uncle said, “Well, why would they?! They wouldn’t be able to have fun with a priest around!”
They laughed.
The Mouse said to Naughty Uncle, “I do remember you. You guys always teased us kids in San Nicolas about the kapre and other things,” remembering how these uncles and aunts and cousins ran that whole town for a time as their playground of a kingdom. Inherited power, unjustified in some of those at this time.
They asked about the General and when he and their Mother would return. The Gnome and Mouse answered that the General had been home for a time last year because of an operation.
Naughty Uncle asked, “What operation?”
The Mouse answered.
Naughty Uncle teased, “Oh that. Manoy is out of practice then!”
The Mouse thought, Parents having sex? At that age?! Eew.
Uncle Father Future Archbishop drawled, “So you mean that I would likely have that too because of course I’m not practicing that?”
The Mouse quipped to Uncle Father Future Archbishop, “You are keeping your fidelity after all Uncle. It would be really bad if you didn’t go to heaven.”
They laughed.
The Mouse said to the First-Cousins that maybe the next time they meet, they would get to see the Cat and teased, “His head now looks more like Lolo’s.” Remembering, Lola had liked that and that he has kind eyes and that liking didn’t matter to me. Remembering how the General used to tell her about Lolo’s taking time to smooth Old Spice on his bald head, or how her Lolo used to tap his own forehead twice with a forefinger to say to her father Think, Think, and other memories of a father that had scarred her own father like those scars on his lower back from a beating.
Then they all mumbled about Lola being in a coma.
And as they were saying goodbye to their Lolo Sixto, the Mouse only said to him as if she weren’t talking to an elder, “You look like Lola, especially the last time I saw her which was around nine or ten years ago.” And the back of your head looks like the back of the head of Daddy.
The siblings all walked back to the car, with the Rat leading, the Gnome following, and the Mouse holding onto the Magpie’s hand.
The Mouse was groaning about her feet and the Gnome was groaning about the heat (who then changed into one of the Rat’s stored shirts in his car, a shirt which the two liked).
The Mouse whispered, “You finally get to wear that shirt.”
The Gnome whispered back, “I know. I won’t return it to him.”
The Mouse giggled, “Okay. Let me borrow that some time, okay?”
The Gnome giggled back, “Okay. Sshhh.”
And on the drive to Mister Kabab--- bring Death somewhere else, not home--- the Sisters were telling Brother Just pick up your check on Monday, hello, too late today--- the General had called for a report on how they were and how things went. They reported that all went well and ended the conversation with their “I love you Dad” and his “Love you too Igin.”
The four laughed as they joked around while eating and taking pictures of each other, then left to drop off the Magpie at work who was already late for a 2:00 pm meeting while the three went home. The Mouse napped the heat away during the drive.
Home, the Rat and the Gnome caught up with their sleep and the Mouse began to prepare dinner for them, busied herself with unfinished chores, waiting for the Cat who sat beside her for almost eleven years now to come.
Home, they had
Dinner and the Cat asked, “How was it---” knowing that she was already saddened by the coming death anniversaries.
The Mouse shrugged, smiled, and asked instead about the Cat’s bad day and they talked about that, even quietly laughed in exasperation about things.
Then the Mouse sighed, “I’m tired,” and excused herself to go to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and washed her face, then went to her bedroom to lie down--- the Cat followed her, rubbed her back, and wiped the two tears that trickled onto her cheeks.
The Mouse began to sob, “Death still hurts…And…I thought…One day…It would be one of the family…One day…You won’t be sitting beside me…”
The Cat hugged her, rocking her, “I know…I know…I saw the sadness in your eyes…”
The sadness that the Mouse rarely talks about and has always been there, even when the Mouse happily smiles. Those eyes that had become happier through time, that become sadder once more every time they are made to see that someone dies. Those eyes that hold the sadness of doing what must be done.
The Magpie sent a message, “Thanks guys for coming kanina. Am sure we made Dad proud.” The love of a father for children who show that they’ve been brought up well and do not forget where they come from, proud that none of them will ever be beholden to serve a family that did not love them.
The Egg later sent a laughing email to the Magpie…With what did you have to bribe them to come… And the Mouse laughed. And the Egg said that it was good that they all went, that it might be time to resume time with these relatives.
For after all, the children--- those three loved children in their family--- need to know where they come from, and this too is their inheritance.
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