Thursday, July 22, 2010
Chapter Three: Strange Things
Aian waited patiently while Katrin helped Pie pick off all the little burrs.
‘They’re ruining your pretty dress,” Katrin lamented.
“Ah, don’t feel bad, Kat,” Pie said, patting her skirt down to make sure it was amorseco-free. “It isn’t an expensive one anyway, and look, the snags barely show.”
Finally they got back to the house. Jenny welcomed her sister back by jumping into her arms, shrieking happily. While Andy took the basket of fruit to their mother, Aian nudged his twin.
“There aren’t any amorseco in our orchard,” he whispered.
“There aren’t? You’re sure?” Kat asked.
“They don’t like the shade much, dummy,” Aian said. “In the Barrios orchard there’s plenty of sunshine.”
“Watch who you’re calling a dummy, lunkhead,” Katrin said.
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with going over there,” Aian said. ‘We were in and out of there all the time when Shy and Junjun’s family used to live there, and anyway they asked us to keep an eye on the place while they were gone.”
“Well, you know Papa,” Katrin said.
“So you did go over there!” Aian said and Katrin groaned.
Just then, the Nolasco car pulled up in front of the gate, and Pie and Jenny had to say their goodbyes. As Katrin walked them to the gate, she saw Mrs. Nolasco get out of the car. At the same time, Katrin’s mother came hurrying out of the house after them.
“Pie,” said Mrs. Perez, holding out a basket, “Here are some fresh vegetables and fruits for your mother.” Then she looked up and saw Mrs. Nolasco and her mouth opened, but Mrs. Nolasco spoke first.
“Oh, my, can it be… Margie? Margie Leysa?”
“Anna? I can’t believe it… is that you, Anna Seromines?”
Katrin and Pie looked on in bemusement while their mothers hugged each other.
“It is you! You’re back for good?” Mrs. Perez asked Mrs. Nolasco. “When Pie said she lived at the Mansion I thought someone had bought the place.”
‘Luis, my husband, wanted our children to grow up in the province,” Mrs. Nolasco said. “So that’s why I was thinking that Katrin looked so familiar, Margie. She looks like you! Oh, we have a lot to talk about!”
“We do!” Mrs. Perez agreed. “Won’t you come in and meet my husband?” But Katrin’s father, drawn by the number of people at his front gate, was already coming out of the house. He shook hands with Mrs. Nolasco.
Katrin and Pie looked at each other and shrugged as their parents talked. The car motor, which had been idling, was switched off and Katrin saw the car window go down.
‘Mike!” Mrs. Nolasco called. “Come out for a moment.”
Slowly the car window opened and Katrin saw the boy she’d briefly glimpsed at the Mansion step out reluctantly. He was taller than Andy or Aian, and had straight dark hair with brown highlights. His eyes were also dark brown, and had the quality of looking through a person as if she wasn’t there, or so it seemed to Kat. At the moment, he wore an annoyed look, which he quickly erased as he approached his mother.
“This is our oldest, Michael,” Mrs. Nolasco said to Katrin’s parents. Jenny ran to him, and he swung her up into his arms without a pause. The parents exchanged the usual platitudes about their children.
“At least he behaved,” Katrin heard Pie mutter under her breath.
“What did you say, Pie?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Pie said. “Look at the parents carry on. Isn’t it weird, to find out our mothers were good friends long ago?”
“Well, they both did grow up here after all,” Katrin said. She heard Mrs. Nolasco invite all of them over to the Mansion.
“Of course you are all always welcome!” she said. “Do you remember, Marge, we used to run in and out of each other’s houses all the time? Your mom used to make the best lugaw in the purok and I always made sure to arrive at merienda time in hopes of getting a bowl or two.”
“Yes, and I always thought it so weird that you liked lugaw so much,” said Mrs. Perez, laughing.
“What’s so special about lugaw?” Pie asked Katrin. “It’s just rice porridge.”
“Ours rarely has rice, just sticky rice balls, sweet potato, ube, saba bananas and sago, with coconut milk,” Katrin said.
“Are we talking about the same thing here?” Pie laughed. “You’re describing ginataan.”
“Well, that’s our lugaw,” Katrin said. “I think I’ll ask Mama to cook some soon, so you can taste it.”
“You must all come over tomorrow night and we can all have dinner,” Mrs. Nolasco was saying. “No, I insist, Marge.”
“Well, if you put it that way, Anna…” said Mrs. Perez.
Finally, the Nolascos said goodbye, with Pie telling Katrin, “Just text me, okay!” The Perezes stood at their gate waving till the car drove off.
Andy went off to chop some wood, and Aian and Katrin fed the animals and looked for eggs.
“She’s really pretty, isn’t she?” Aian said wistfully.
“Who?” Katrin asked, feeling around in a nest for eggs.
“Bea Alonzo? No, Pie Nolasco, who do you think I was talking about?”
"Now see what you've done... you almost made me drop the egg!" Katrin carefully drew it from the nest and laid it in the basket. Aian was right, though, she thought. Pie was really pretty with her small heart-shaped face, straight brown hair, and chinky dark eyes that always seemed to be smiling.
"Hnh," Aian said, absent-mindedly catching a rooster that seemed bent on pecking them, and subduing it. "It's not as if I have a crush on her on anything, I just think she's pretty."
"Yeah, right, bro," said Katrin, looking for more eggs.
"So where'd you get to this afternoon?" Aian asked brightly.
"Oh, Pie wanted to see the orchard," Katrin said off-handedly, "so I showed it to her. She loves mangoes." She could practically see the gears ticking in her twin brother's head as he processed this information. Aian, like their older brother Andy, was an intelligent boy. While Katrin could hold her own in literature and art, Aian was good at science and math, which was what made the Perez twins such a formidable pair in class.
Speaking of which... Katrin thought things over and opened her mouth.
"Uh, bro, remember Tiyo Berting's cottage?" she asked.
Aian looked at her.
"The one that used to be on the other side of the wall?" he asked.
"It's still there," Katrin said.
"Huh?" Aian said, and she told him where she and Pie had been.
"You and Pie went there? Are you crazy? There could have been snakes in there!" Aian exclaimed. "What if Pie got bitten by one?"
"I like that! You got worried about Pie but not about your own sister!" Katrin huffed.
"Well, you're from here and she's not," Aian answered. "Although, you really should've known better, sis."
They finished gathering the eggs and walked back to the house.
"Although something was weird," Katrin said thoughtfully.
"What?" Aian said.
"It looks like someone's been there recently. Not Pie and me, you lunkhead. But there was a way in that we hadn't seen at once. And the cottage was locked."
When Aian started to say something about it at supper, Katrin kicked him under the table, and he pretended to have choked on something. Andy, however, was not fooled. He lay in wait for the twins as they came upstairs, still hotly debating on whether to tell their parents or not.
"But you know Papa is the official caretaker of the place! He should know that someone's been trespassing!" Aian argued.
"We don't know that for sure!" Katrin said. "Who knows, that way in has been there all along?"
"With the Barrioses away for two years now? Unless you think Tiyo Berting came back because he missed his old cottage?"
"Still," Katrin said.
"Still what, Katrin Marie?" Andy asked from behind them, causing both twins to jump at least a foot in the air and come down hard on the wooden floor, and their mother to call, "Tone it down, up there!" from the sala where she was watching TV along with their father and Kyle.
"Ooops," Aian said.
Andy collared his siblings and pulled them into his and Aian's room.
"Would you two mind telling me what's going on?" he asked.
The twins exchanged glances.
"Are you telling him or shall I?" Aian asked.
"Whatever," Katrin said, and let him speak, butting in at times to expound on something.
Andy glared at her after Aian finished his narrative.
"You know you should've told Papa about it," he said.
"It's not important enough to bother Papa about," Katrin said. "Besides, who knows? Someone could have been there, but could already have left a long time ago."
"I still don't like it," Andy said. "I'll be keeping an eye on that place from now on. And you two stop keeping secrets from me."
"Yeah right, Big Brother," Katrin said, dashing for the door and into her own room before her big brother could do something such as throw a pillow at her.
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