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192 The Lihhaan Anthalogy oJ Philippine Literature in
English"How you talk. In this country, there's a cure for
everything.,,"I guess we can't complain. We had it good here all
the time. Most of the
time, any tvay.""I wish, though, they had come. I could...""Yes,
they could have. They didnt have to see me, but I could have
seen
them. I have seen their pictures, but what do they really look
like?""Tony, they're beautiful, all of them, but especially the
girls. Their complexion,
their grace, their eyes, they were what we call talking eyes,
they say things royou. And the scenr of them!"
There was a sigh from the room, soft, hardly like a sigh. A
louder, graringsound, almost under his hands that had relaxed their
hold, called his atention.The sound mirror had kept going, the tape
was fast unravelling.
"Oh, no!" he screamed, noricing that somehow, he had pushed rhe
eraser.
Frantically, he tried ro rewind and play back the sounds and the
music, butlhere was nothing now but the dull creaking o[ rhe rape
on rhe spool andmeaningless sounds that somehow had not been
erased, the thud of dancingfeet, a quick clapping of hands, alien
voices and words: in this country ...everything... all of them...
talbing eyes ... and the scent... a fading away intonothingness,
till about the end when there was a screaming, senseless kind
offinale detached from the body of a song in the background, drums
and sticksand the tolling of a bell.
"Tony! Tony!" Fil cried, Iooking rowards the sick man's room,
,,I,ve lostthem all."
Biting his lips, Fil turned rowards the window, startled by the
first light ofdawn. He hadn't realized till rhen the long nighr was
over.
T h e Lililutttn Anth olog oJ Philippine Literature in English
193
Magnificence {,iIiSTRELLA D. ALFON
.T.here was nothing to fear, for the nlan was always so gentle,
so kind. At nightI *h"r, the little girl and her brorher were
bathed in the light of the big shaded
bulb thar hu.,g orei the big study table in the downstairs hall,
the man wouldpr-rock gently J., th" door, u.rd come in. He would
stand for a while just beyondrhe poo"l of l'ight, his t'eet in the
circle o[ illumination, the rest of him in shadow'I he little
giriand her brother would look up at him where they sat at the
bigrable, rheti eyes bright in the bright light, and watch him come
fully into theIight, a dark iittle rnan wlth protuberant lips, his
eyes glinting in thelight, buthls voice soft, his manner slow He
would smell very faintly of sweat and pomade,but the children
didn't mind although they did notice, for they waited for himcvery
evening as rhey sar at their lerslo.rs like this. He'd throw his
visored cap onthe iable, anJ it would fall down with a soft plop,
then he'd nod his head to sayone was right, or shake it to say one
was wrong'
It waJnot always that he came' They could remember perhaps two
weekswhen he remarked to their mother that he had never seen two
children lookingso smart. The praise had made their mother look
over them as they stood aroundlistening to the goings-on at the
meeting of the neighborhood association, ofwhich tf,eir mother was
president. Two children, one a girl o[ seven, and a boy o[eight.
They were both very tall for their age, and their legs were the
long ganglytels of flne spirired colts. ihei. mother saw them with
eyes that held pride, andth"en to pr.tiy glo* oyer rhe maternal
gloating she exhibited,,she said to thema.r, in answeito hls
praise, But their homework' They're solazy with them'And the man
said, I havl nothing to do in the evenings, let me help them.
Mothernodded her head and said, If you want to bother yourself. And
the thing restedthere, and rhe man came in the evenings therefore,
and he helped solve fractionsfor the boy, and write correct phrases
in language for the little girl'
,lnthosedays,theragewasforpencils.Schoolchildrenalwayshaveragesgoing
at one time o. urroth".. Sometimes it is for paper butterflies that
are heldI., .Ii.rc, and whirr in the wind. The Japanese bazaars
promoted a rage forthose. Sometimes it is for little lead toys
found in the folded waffles thatJapaneseconfection-makers had such
light hands with. At this particular time, it was forpencils.
Pencils big but light in circumference not smaller than a man's
thumb.Th"y *."." unwieldy in a child's hands, but in all schools
then, where Japanese
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I94 Thc Lihhaan Anthology oj Philippitt: Literatun: in
[nglish
bazaars ciustered there were all colors of these pencils selling
flor very low, burunattainable to a child budgeted ar abaon of a
cenravo a day. They were all of fivecentavos each, and one pencil
was not at all what one had ambitions for. Inrages, one kept a
collection. Four or five pencils, of different colors, to tie
withstrings near the eraser end, to dangle from one's book-basket,
to arouse the envyo[ the other children who probably possessed
less.
Add to the man's gentleness his kindness in knowing a childs
desires, hispromise that he would give each of them not one pencil
but two. And for thelittle girl who he said was very bright and
deserved more, he would get rhebiggest pencil he could find.
One evening he did bring them. The evenings of waiting had made
themlook forward to this final giving, and when they got the
pencils they whoopedwith joy. The little boy had two pencils, one
green, one blue. And the little girlhad three pencils, two o[ the
same circumflerence as the little boys but coloredred and yellow.
And the third pencil, a jumbo size pencil really, was white, andhad
been sharpened, and the little girl jumped up and down, and shouted
withglee. Until their mother called from down the stairs. What are
you shoutingabout? And they told her, shouting gladly, Vicente, for
thar was his name. Vicenrehad brought the pencils he had promised
them.
Thank him, their mother called. The little boy smiled and said,
Thank you.And the little girl smiled, and said, Thank you, roo. Bur
the man said, Are younot going to kiss me for those pencils? They
both came forward, the little girland the little boy, and they both
made to kiss him but Vicenre slapped the boysmartly on his lean
hips, and said, Boys do not kiss boys. And the little boyIaughed
and scampered away, and then ran back and kissed him anyway.
The little girl went up ro the man shyly, pur her arms about his
neck as hecrouched to receive her embrace, and kissed him on the
cheeks.
The man's arms tightened suddenly about the little girl until
the little girlsquirmed out o[his arms, and laughed a little
breathlessly, disturbed but innocent,looking at the man with a
smiling little question of puzzlement.
The next evening, he came around again. All through that day,
they hadbeen very proud in school showing off their brand new
pencils. All the little girlsand boys had been envying them. And
their mother had finally to tell them tostop talking about the
perrcils, pencils, for now that they had, the boy two, andthe girl
three, they were asking their mother to buy more, so that they
couldeach have five, and three at least in the jumbo size that the
little girl's third pencilwas. Their mother said, Oh stop it, what
will you do with so many pencils, youcan only write with one at a
time.
And the little girl murtered under her breath, I'll ask Vicente
for somemore.
Their mother replied, He's only a bus conductor, don't ask him
for too manythings. It's a pity. And this observarion their mother
said to their father, who was
'I-lrr' I-ilrhrtrtn Arrthrrlo.qy oJ Philippinc Literaturt in
English 195
r',rtrng his cvcning meal between paragraphs o[ the book on
masonry rites thatlre was rcacling. lt is a pity, said their
mother, people like those, they make friendsu,ith people like us,
and they feel it is nice to give us gifts, or the children
toys.rrrtl things. You'd think they wouldn't be able to afford
it.
The fathe r grunted, and said, The man probably needed a new
job, and wass,rl'te ning his way tl-rrough to him by going at the
children like that. And thernother said, No, I donlt think scl,
he's a rather queer young man, I think hetlocsn't have many
friends, but I have watched him with the children, and he\ce rns [o
dote on them.
Tl-re father grunted again, and did not pay any further
attention.Vicente was earlier than usual that evening. The children
immediately put
tlicir lessons clown, telling him of the envy o[ their
schoolmates, and would hebuy them more please?
Vicente said to the little boy, Go and ask i[ you can let me
have a glass ofwater. And the little boy ran away to comply, saying
behind him, But buy ussome more pencils, huh, buy us more pencils,
and then went up the stairs totlreir nrother.
Vicente held the little girl by the arm, and said gently, Of
course I will buyyoll more pencils, as many as you want.
And the little girl giggled and said, Oh, then I will tell my
friends, and theywill envy me, for they don". have as many or as
pretty.
Vicente took the girl up lightly in his arms, holding her under
the armpits,and held her to sit down on his lap and he said, still
gently, What are your lessonsfor tomorrow? And the little girl
turned to the paper on the table where she hadbeen writing with the
jumbo pencil, and she told him that that was her lessonbut it was
easy.
Then go ahead and write, and I will watch you.Don't hold me on
your lap, said the little girl, I am very heavy, you will get
very tired.The man shook his head, and said nothing, but held
her on his lap just the
same.
The little girl kept squirming, for somehow she felt
uncomfortable to beheld thus, her mother and father always treated
her like a big girl, she was alwaystold never to act like a baby.
She looked around at Vicente, interrupting hercareful writing to
twist around.
His face was all in sweat, and his eyes looked very strange, and
he indicatedto her that she must turn around, attend to the
homework she was writing.
But the little girl felt very queer, she didn't know why, all of
a sudden shewas immensely frightened, and she jumped up away from
Vicente's lap.
She stood looking at him, feeling that queer frightened feeling,
not knowingwhat to do. By and by, in a very short while her mother
came down the stairs,holding in her hand a glass of zarzaparilla.
The little boy followed her. The mothersaid, I brought you some
zarzaparilla, Vicente.
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196 T.he Lilzhaan Anthologlt oJ philippinc Lilerature in
[nglishBut vicente had jumped up roo as soon as rhe linle girl had
jumped flrom his
lap. He snatched ar rhe papers that lay on rhe rable and held
them to his stomach,turning away from the mother's coming.
The mother looked at him, sropped in her tracks, and advanced
intothe light. she had been in'the shadow Her voice had been like a
bell ofsafety to the little girl. But now she advanced into the
glare o[ the light thatheld like a tableau the figures o[ vicente
holding the little girl's papers tohim, and the Iittle girl looking
up at him frightenedly, in her eyes dark poolsof wonder and fear
and question.
The little girl looked at her morher, and saw the beloved face
transfiguredby some sort of glow. The mother kept coming into the
lighr, and when vicentemade as if to move away into the shadow, she
said, very low, but very heavily, Donot move.
she put the glass of soft drink down on rhe table, where in rhe
light onecould watch the little bubbles go up and down in the dark
liquid. The mothersaid to the little boy, oscar, finish your
lessons. And then turning to the littlegirl, she said, come here.
The little girl wenr to her, and the mother knelt clown,for she was
a tall woman and she said, Tirrn around. obediently the little
girlturned around, and her morher passed her hands over rhe little
gir|s back.
Go upstairs, she said.The mother's voice was of such a heavy
quality and of such awfur timbre
that the girl could only nod her head, and without looking at
vicente again, sheraced up the stairs. The little boy bent over his
lessons.
The mother went to the cowering man, and marched him with a
glance outof the circle of light that held the liule boy. once in
the shadow, she extended herhand, and withour any opposition took
away the papers that Vicente was holdingto himself. she stood there
saying nothing as the man fumbled with his handsand with his
fingers, and she waited until he had finished. she was going ro
openher mouth but she glanced at the boy and closed it, and with a
look and aninclination of the head, she bade Vicente go up the
stairs.
The man said nothing, for she said nothing either. Up the stairs
went theman, and the mother followed him behind. when they had
reached the upperlanding, the woman called down to her son, Son,
come up and go to your rrom.
The little boy did as he was told, asking no quesrions, for
indeed he wasfeeling sleepy already.
As soon as the boy was gone, the mother turned on vicente. There
was a pause.Finally, the woman raised her hand, and slapped him
full hard in the
face. He retrear.ed down one tread of the stairs with the force
of the blow,but the mother followed him. with her other hand she
slapped him on rheother side of the face again. And so down the
stairs they went, the manbackwards, his face continually open ro
the force of the woman's slapping.Alternately she lifted her right
hand and made him retrear before her untilthey reached the bottom
landing.
Tlrc Lihlman Anthology oJ Philippnrc Literature in English
197
He made no resisrance, offered no defense. Before the silence
and the grimness,,1' her attack he cowered, retreating, until out
of his mouth issued somethinglrl