Thursday, July 22, 2010
Chapter Ten: Bordon
“You sure walk fast,” Michael said, hurrying to catch up with her.
“Just keep an eye open for them,” Katrin said. “If worse comes to worst, we can always have them paged at the lost-and-found counter.”
“Then our moms will hear,” Michael pointed out. “Let’s not make them worry unnecessarily.”
They had covered all the shops in that part of the mall when Katrin received a message from Pie.
No luck on this end; you?
None either. You think they’re still in the department store?
Maybe? We’ll try the ground floor and you try the second.
Okay.
Katrin and Michael looked at each other and headed for the nearest entrance to the department store.
“Where do you think they could be?” Katrin fretted.
“Jenny loves stuffed toys,” Michael said. “Shall we check the toy department first?”
When they reached the area filled with stuffed toys on display, the two of them broke into a run, for Katrin had already caught a glimpse of Jenny’s lacy peach-colored dress. The salesgirl was trying to make her get off of a stuffed toy tiger, which she was sitting on and hugging.
“Jenny!” Michael exclaimed.
“Kyle!” Katrin cried.
The salesgirl breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s a good thing you arrived,” she said. “She wouldn’t let it go.”
“Darling, you already have one like that at home,” said Michael, picking up his little sister.
“Yes, I know,” said Jenny. “I just missed it.”
“Come, Kyle,” said Katrin. “Mama will be worried.” She kept a firm grip on her brother’s hand while she sent Pie a message saying they had found the truants. Soon, the other three arrived, and all five of them went back into the main part of the mall. They amused the little ones at the arcade until their mothers had finished their shopping and came looking for them.
“There you are,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “I hope the little ones weren’t too much trouble?”
“Oh, no, Mommy, no trouble at all,” Pie said hastily. The five of them caught one another’s eyes and burst out laughing and wouldn’t tell their mothers why.
Soon they were in the van and headed home to Riverside. Jenny was already dozing in the front seat and Kyle, who had moved to sit beside his mother, was doing the same thing.
“Tonight’s the last night of the wake,” Mrs. Perez said out loud.
“We’re going, aren’t we, Mama?” said Katrin.
“Yes, we are,” said Mrs. Perez. “How about you, Anna?”
“We’re going, too,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “If the kids aren’t too tired?”
“We aren’t too tired,” said Pie immediately.
“See you there, then,” said Katrin.
Mr. Perez arrived home shortly after they did. After all the shopping had been put away, they had an early dinner and then piled into the tricycle and set out for the wake.
While their parents and Kyle joined the other parents and younger children inside the house, Katrin, Aian and Andy went to sit with some of their schoolmates who had already arrived and were sitting at the table they’d occupied the other night. Isang was sitting with them.
“Oh, good, you guys are here,” she said. “Mother said we might want to play Bordon later, and Andy always makes the best sentenciador.”
“Uh-oh,” said Katrin, mentally making a list of the luwas, or four-line nonsense rhymes, that she knew and composing on the spot a few more to hold in reserve.
“Whose ring are we going to use?” she asked.
“Mother said she’d lend us her ring,” said Isang. “It really is good that you came; I’m not sure I remember all the words to the song.”
“What song?” asked Pie, sliding into the seat beside Katrin. “Hey, all.” She wore a white blouse with long sleeves and a knee-length denim skirt, and had her hair tied back with a white clip.
“Hey, Pie, hey Mike,” said Isang. “Do you know how to play Bordon?”
“No-o-o… what is it?” Pie asked. “And by the way, guys, this is my cousin Betty.” All three Perezes looked around so fast that Katrin almost got whiplash. Betty indeed stood behind them, wearing a silvery shirt and another one of her denim miniskirts, and the same supercilious expression on her face. One of the boys hurriedly vacated a place on the bench so she could sit down.
“Hello, Betty,” said Isang. “Are you from Manila, too?”
“Yes,” said Betty.
“What’s Bordon, Isang?” Michael asked hastily.
“I’ll let Andy explain, since he will be the sentenciador,” said Isang. “I’ll go get your whip, Andy.”
“A whip!” Pie exclaimed.
“Don’t worry Pie, it’s not exactly a whip,” said Katrin reassuringly. While Andy explained the rules of the game, Isang went into the house and shortly came back with a towel, twisted into a soft thick rope the size of a baseball bat, which she handed to Andy.
“Oh, I see,” and Pie laughed.
“Essentially, the important thing in Bordon is being able to think up verses on the spot,” Andy explained. “I’m the sentenciador; it will be my job to pass judgment on your luwas and decide if you should be punished or not.”
“We can play after the prayers are finished,” said Isang.
“I don’t know any verses!” Pie said to Katrin.
“Just make them up!” Katrin answered.
“I’m no good at that sort of thing!”
“Just try your best! Why did your mom bring Betty?”
“Because she was griping about being left out,” Pie said. “Mommy made her promise she would behave, so that she could come along.”
Katrin took another look at Betty.
“She doesn’t look like she’s going to,” she said. “Behave, I mean.”
“Yeah,” Pie said. “Mike said exactly the same thing.”
Katrin saw her mother beckoning from the doorway, so she excused herself from the group and got up and went to her. The prayers had ended, and the women inside the house were talking. She looked around for her father and saw him at another table outside, talking with Mr. Nolasco and the other men of the purok.
Her mother was sitting beside a couple of old women wearing flowered cotton dusters and wrapped in shawls. Katrin politely took their hands and touched them to her forehead.
“Ah, this is your Katrin already, Margarita? How big she’s grown,” said one of the old woman.
“Yes, practically a young woman already,” the other one agreed, peering at Katrin. “So pretty, too.”
“Kat, was that Betty I saw at your table?” Mrs. Perez asked in a low voice.
“Yes, Mama; Aunt Anna had to bring her along,” said Katrin, sitting down beside her mother. She looked across the room at Mrs. Nolasco, who was sitting beside Isang’s mother and listening to something she was saying.
“Mind you be nice to her, now,” said Mrs. Perez.
“Mama! I am always nice. You mean to say I still have to be nice even when Betty is trying to wallop me?” Katrin said indignantly. “Besides, this isn’t her house.”
“Yes, but you are both still guests here,” said her mother, “and even though Betty doesn’t seem to know how to behave as such, you do, and so you will behave as one, which means you will be nice. Do you understand me, Kat?”
Katrin pouted. “Yes, Mama.”
“And please get Kyle’s hat and jacket from Andy when you go out again.”
“Okay, Mama.”
Mrs. Nolasco saw Katrin and beckoned, so she crossed the room.
“Kat, would you please tell Pie, Mike and Betty to come here?” she asked.
“Okay, Aunt Anna,” said Katrin. She went to the coffin to pay her respects before going out again.
“Pie, your mom wants the three of you to go inside,” she said once she’d reached the table again. By that time there were around a dozen young people there, crowded on the benches around the table.
“I think I’ll stay out here,” said Betty. “I don’t like to look at coffins.”
“No, Betty,” said Pie. “Mommy said you should go.” She pulled her cousin up out of her seat on the bench. “Come on. Mike?”
Katrin collected Kyle’s hat and jacket from the table in front of Andy and followed the Nolascos, Pie pulling the reluctant Betty who was balking at going into the house. She stopped to deliver what her mother requested and watched the other three cross the room to Mrs. Nolasco.
“My, whose daughter is that?” the old woman sitting beside her mother exclaimed.
“That skirt is so short it looks like it will uncover her soul!” said the other one.
“Not to mention she’ll catch her death of cold in that. Here, somebody, give her a shawl.”
“Is that Anna’s daughter?” asked the other old woman. “She looks as if she will get blown away by the wind. Doesn’t she eat anything? After all, they are rich, aren’t they?”
“No, Iyay Noring, the other one is Anna’s daughter,” Mrs. Perez said gently. “That girl is her husband’s niece.”
“Oh, I see. What’s Anna’s daughter’s name? Pretty girl!” said the old woman. “She knows how to dress properly, why doesn’t the other one?”
From the set of her shoulders, Katrin was sure Betty had heard every word.
“Lola Noring, they come from Manila,” she said hastily. “That’s how many girls dress there.”
“Mind you never go there then, Katrin,” said the old woman. “That boy is Anna’s son? A fine-looking boy. Looks just like his grandfather when he was younger.”
“Indeed,” said the other old woman, and they fell into reminiscences of the times when they were young. Katrin excused herself and went outside again. Threading her way around the long tables, which had now gotten very crowded, she headed back towards their own table at the edge of the yard. The gates to the yard had been propped open, and people were arriving and leaving all the time.
Halfway there, she stumbled and saw that someone’s legs were sticking out into the way. A man was sitting on a bench, half-leaning against a post, with his eyes closed. He didn’t even move when Kat stumbled, or take his legs away. Katrin recognized the rude laborer who had been at the orchard. Sitting on the bench beside him, playing cards with some of her schoolmates’ older brothers and uncles, were the other men who had been with him the day before.
Katrin, more careful now, went on to their table and slid onto the bench between Aian and Eddie. The table was full of young people by then, crowded on the benches and some of them even sitting on the table. Others stood behind them. Everyone was talking and laughing, and some of the boys were playing tong-its again.
Soon Pie, Michael and Betty came back as well, just as Andy announced that they would start the game. Isang gave him a golden ring.
“Take care of that, it’s my mother’s,” she said.
“Everyone in the game on the benches,” Andy said, handing the ring to Katrin. “Who knows the words? Let’s start.”
Cuerdas de la bordon ang singsing papanawon… they began the simple game that involved the passing of the ring from hand to hand until suddenly Andy brought his towel whip crashing down on the planks of the table and everybody froze.
“The ring!” Andy demanded, and the girl sitting across from Katrin opened her hand to reveal the small gold circle.
“The one who has the ring must pay a tribute!” Andy declared.
“Love is like
a lollipop,
bata mal-am (young and old)
makadilap (can lick it),” the girl declared to much laughter and applause, and Andy hit the table again with his whip.
“Bitooooor!” he declared, and the game was on again. This time the one who got caught wasn’t fast enough with his rhyme, and Andy “sentenced” him to sing for the group.
“Sa sulod sang kasing-kasing (Inside the heart)
may ara sing waling-waling (there is an orchid)
wala sing makalingling (no one can peek at it)
kung indi akon darling (except my darling),” was Aian’s offering when he got caught with the ring, to loud cheers from the boys and shouts of “who is it?” from the girls.
“Ako’y tutula (I shall say a poem)
Mahabang-mahaba (It will be very long)
ako’y uupo (I shall sit down)
tapos na po (for it is finished),” another boy said, earning jeers and objections from the crowd, which was settled by Andy’s “Bitooooooor!” accompanied by a whack on the table.
The game was really underway, with Katrin sorting out the rhymes in her mind to hold them ready in case she got the ring, when suddenly there was a commotion at the table at the far end of the yard. The song stopped as everyone looked around to see what was happening.
“My wallet! It’s gone!” a man declared, standing up from a table. He began looking beneath the table and behind him, in case it may have fallen out. This also made other men reach for their back pockets to check their own wallets.
“Mine is gone too!” another exclaimed.
The yard was suddenly full of people crawling around under tables and looking on the ground. The women came to the door to see what was the matter.
“What happened?” asked Isang’s mother.
“My wallet is gone!” said the man who had first complained.
“I can’t find my cellphone as well!” another man said suddenly. “It was just here on the table beside me, and now it’s gone!”
Katrin was suddenly aware of Betty at the far end of the table, slowly turning her head to look at her cousin with a cold smile.
“It didn’t take you too long to get up to your old tricks again, huh, Mike?” she asked in a voice that carried over the hush that had fallen over their group.
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