Chapter 47
MARIA glanced at her mother in their living room. She was currently busy counting their sales of dried fish today. As soon as she stepped inside their house after the whole day of selling around their barrio, her mother quickly snatched the bag of money from her. She didn’t even ask her if she has eaten lunch or dinner. Instead, she scolded her for being late and told her to cook their dinner.
“Angelica,” her mother called her. “Is this all your sales?” she asked, showing the money to her. “You sold all our dried fishes, but your sales are only this?”
Maria walked slowly towards her mother. She clutched on her dirty skirt as her chest hammered in fear that her mother might hurt her again. “I… I got hungry while selling—”
Her mother threw the basket of dried fish to her. Maria squealed and caught her face. “Who gave you permission to spend my money?!”
“Mama, I need to eat in order to work. I hadn’t eaten my breakfast when I left early—”
She slapped her face. “You have no right to spend the money that I earned in making those dried fishes!”
Maria fought back her tears and looked at her mother. “But, you didn’t make any of those dried fishes, I made it all. You’re busy gambling to Mr. Ramon’s house—”
“Bitch!” she hissed and grabbed her collar. “Where did you learn to raise your voice at your mother, huh? From that city boy that you’re seeing? Our neighbors are right, my knit-wit daughter is flirting to the newcomer.”
Maria pressed her lips. “Euclid is kind to me, unlike you!”
Her mother grabbed her hair and dragged her inside the room. “From now on, you will stop seeing that guy,” she said and closed the door.
“Mama! Let me out of here! Please!” she shouted.
“Shut up!” she shouted back. “I’d rather make money out of you than to let you flirt with a poor man like you! You are really like your dumb father. You always chose the wrong decisions.”
Maria knew what her mother is talking about. Mr. Ramon, the current governor of their barrio, once asked him if he could court his only daughter. In return, they will give him a job inside his hacienda and will support their daily needs. But, because Maria was just a sixteen-year-old girl back then, his father refused. Her mother got so furious by her father’s decision that she started pestering him every day. She also blamed him for having not enough money to support their daily food.
For Maria, their life at the Balesin seashore was more than enough. She was contented as long as her father provided enough for them. But, her mother is different. She’s luxurious and selfish. And, she doesn’t care if her father was tired of fishing. She will get his money and go out to the gambling corner with her friends.
Maria sat on the bed as she cried her heart out. She’s so tired of her mother’s treatment to her that she wished to die now. She wanted to end her life and her sufferings in the hands of her own mother. She then remembered Euclid and her promise to her.
“I will get you away from here…” she remembered him saying to her when he saw her the other day full of wounds on her face.
Maria paused. She and Euclid will see each other tonight because tomorrow is the day that he’ll go back to Manila for their graduation. She has to see him before he leaves the island. But how will she escape her mother?
She stood and peeked behind the spaces of their bamboo-made door. She saw her mother sitting in the living room and counting their money. An open bottle of alcohol is on the table. Maria looked at the remaining contents. It’s still almost full. If her mother consumed it all, she’d surely fall asleep.
“I’ll wait for her to get drunk…” she whispered and went back to her bed. “Euclid, I need you now…” she said and cried again.
*
“ARE you going with us?” Euclid’s classmate asked him after they finished their basketball game. “We’re going to the beerhouse near the governor’s house. They say there’s a lot of available beautiful countrywomen in there.”
Euclid shook his head. “I have other plans tonight.”
Tony, his batchmate at the academy, laughed. “You’re going exclusive with that fish vendor girl? What’s her name again? Angelica?”
“Maria,” Euclid corrected. “But, yes, she’s known here as Angelica because of her angelic face.”
“So you like her?” Tony asked, narrowing his eyes at him. “I can see in your face that you like her.”
Euclid grinned. “I love her.”
Tony and his other classmates burst out laughing.
“You can’t be serious, bro,” Richard said. Among all of them, he was the most playboy and often visits the beerhouse. “I heard that girl will soon be part of the comfort women of the beerhouse.”
Euclid knotted her forehead. “Where did you get that?”
“Just from some of the men in the bar,” he said. “They say that they’ve been seeing the governor talking to her mother. And, my father also told me that Angelica’s father was the governor’s friend when he was still alive.”
Euclid’s face darkened. “That’s just hearsay,” he said, clenching his fist on his side. “Maria will never work in that place.”
Tony tapped his shoulders. “Chill, Euclid. Of course, it wasn’t true—”
“It’s not impossible to happen,” Richard insisted. “The governor gets all that he wants.”
Euclid smirked. “Then, not this time.”
He didn’t wait for his classmates to speak again. He turned his back and walked his way towards the small bungalow house beside the Balesin that his father made before returning to the camp for a call of mission.
Euclid looked at his wristwatch when he stepped inside the house. It’s still early, but he can wait for Maria. He knew that she will keep her promise to him that she’ll see him before he leaves for Manila. And, he told her that he’ll wait for her in this place until midnight.
Four years is more than enough for Euclid to say that he already fell in love with Maria. She’s the only girl that could listen to all his school stories even though he knew that she can’t understand any of them. She’s the only girl that showed him that the key to happiness is not wealth but contentment and love.
Maria gave the darkness of his life a ray of sunshine. Slowly, she pulled her out from that dark and gave him a particular space in her bright world. Maria gave him the reason to continue the life that he lost when her mother was killed by an unknown gunman when he was just a child.
Euclid heaved a sigh and smiled. He watched the sea waves come and go to the shore. “Maria, I will wait for you… I love you.”
***
