Feelings
Sayang! (Conclusion)
By Emmanuelle
Older by a few wise years, Nene did not have to play crab with the rest of the sunworshippers. Most of the girls had gotten hitched to minor stars, so the playing field around John was a lot less crowded. All John had to do was look up from his grieving and Nene would be the prettiest there, in all her obviously virtuous shining glory.
And so, when John did look up, he looked at Nene. She was maybe the neighborhood virgin but she was the most desired attachment to the dwindling number of picky bachelors around. She was accountant in a big bank, remember?
First loves never really die. John did not have to work hard for her hand. A decent interval after the babang-luksa John and Nene married. And promptly, Nene proudly strutted to and from work with their first born in her belly. Obviously, they were in a rush to beat the biological time.
When she arrived home from the citibank, John, the municipal engineer, would reach out both hands to welcome his mag-ina. His left hand would go around his wife’s shoulder, his right hand would rub the breadth of her distended belly. He would bend his head and kiss his yet-unborn child. It was a scene so touching an observer would go gaga and misty-eyed.
This same observer, if truly observing, would also observe he forgot to touch his lips to his wife’s lips, kahit na cheeks na nga lamang.
When John Junior was born, John Senior was the proudest Tatay around. Strangely, the boy bore no semblance to Nene, who was small in built and so frail-looking, a true Asian from thick black hair to kayumanggi skin. The boy was the exact snap-shot of John. Big-boned,fair-skinned, brown hair and big curls.
John was fascinated with this little clone to himself. Nay, he was passionately obsessed. He was no pauper when it came to the well-being of his child. Everyday was a new day. He brought home a new most expensive crib, newly-bought accessories, baby clothes and all the likes.
Each day was a wonder too! Everyone kept wondering what he would bring home to his child next? He even brought home one day, a yaya, complete with uniform and a neat cap to her hair.
In this whole new world, the wife felt cast out, dispossessed. More often than not, Nene slept alone the rest of the night, her hand resting forlornly on a deserted pillow. John had fallen asleep on his wife’s rocking chair beside the crib.
He turned neglectful of Nene, her heartaches, her pains. You are too needy of me, he would say. Then he would reach out for her in the dark of the night with his need aroused.
A few months after, Nene grew a stomach from her thin self. John was again ecstatic! A second child! No doubt about it, he boasted. He was a real man, healthy and verile.
Only, what grew was not another life. Like his dead Nieme, it was a benign tumor first, then a malignant cancer. It was maybe because of a fluke in Nene’s genes, but it was maybe because John never did have a circumcision. It was against his family religion.
This latest turn of events made things worse in this family of three. Nene had returned to work a month after John Junior’s birth. Now, she intended to continue working until she could not. After all, work was a better place to be than at home where the nanny reigned and the husband ruled after five.
And so, Nene found fun in being with her sister Cita, and serving mild punch and beer and crunchy peanuts to her sister’s friends who kept reliving the past in the oils and ponds of their present. Oils as in Oil of Olay and ponds as in Pond’s age-defense creams.
In the last reunion, Cita and her friends raised a new toast. Here’s to Nene! She would have lived long if she had not longed to live.
Refilling the bowl of mild punch, the glasses of beer and the plates of peanuts is another helpful sister. They hope it is not someone with a sadder story to tell.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
