Anecdotes of a Hobo [[on hold]]

Seven - Orphan

A/N:

Sadly, even if you click Vote, it won't result in a meal/clean clothes for homeless orphans. So I won't ask you. And please don't be mad at me after reading this chapter, I have a thing for irony. Heck, Chapter 4 is ironic as well. I didn't really put much emphasis on Gio. You will understand once we get to the conclusion of this book. When I write about the two authors, Trina and Jen.

halo-halo - shaved ice with fruits and milk, sometimes topped with ube or purple yam

Fiesta - a festival or religious holiday, especially on a Saint's day (freedictionary.com)

Noche Buena - Spanish words referring to the night of Christmas Eve. In Spain, Cuba, Latin America, and the Philippines, the evening consists of a traditional dinner with family. (wikipedia)

Media Noche - midnight meal, a feast that is also supposed to symbolize hopes for a prosperous New Year. (wikipedia)

kasambahay - the help

M.U. - "mutual understanding", in the Philippines, it refers to a boy and a girl who like each other but are not in a relationship

malandi - flirt

R.N. - registered nurse

tita - aunt

nanay - nanay

tatay - father

ate - older sister/older female relative/acquaintance/friend

kuya - older brother

bunso - the youngest child, can be used to refer to a boy or a girl

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The big window in the living room revealed houses covered with white snow. It was six forty-five  at night and a dark blue background can be observed behind the houses Meira was staring at. The rooftops, tree barks, and the tops of cars appeared like they were generously topped with bright, white icing.

Meira tipped her head to look at the ground from the window of her family's second floor apartment. There were only a few parking spaces left. If Ate Hale saw this she would sigh, but she was still at work. If the snow on the rooftops resembled white icing on cakes, Meira couldn't say the same for the street. Her eyebrows met and she frowned at the mess. The melted snow that covered the street was ran over by the passing cars. It looked like mud slushy. Mei imagined the shaved ice from a tall glass of halo-halo without the fruits. The evaporated milk on the halo-halo was replaced with grey-colored puddle water. Gross, the movies never showed this when they portrayed winter.

What a ripoff!

 To her right, her brothers Mark and Rex were playing video games. Little Jimmy was cheering for Rex while sitting on the couch beside Andy was reading a Harry Potter book.

"Mei! Can you help me drain the water from the pasta?" Mrs. Angeles bellowed from the kitchen. She was making spaghetti tonight.

"Yes mom."

Mei left the living room and absentmindedly walked past an area with a table lined with fancy, white cloth. The family rarely ate their meals here because there was another table in the kitchen. However, on Christmas Eve, delicious food would be placed on this table. Meira also remembered her mother said that she plans to do the same on Media Noche. After passing the dining room, she entered the narrow hallway that led to the kitchen. She could smell the aroma of sweet spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove.

"I'm here mom."

Mrs. Angeles explained the procedure and they went to work. Mei carefully poured the steel pot that contained the pasta into a strainer her mom was holding with her left hand. Simultaneously, Mrs. Angeles was fascilitating the flow of pasta, from the pot to the strainer, using a pasta scoop she was holding with her right hand, to make sure no piece was left on the pot. When all the water was out, Mrs. Angeles transferred the pasta to a clean bowl that Meira handed her. The next thing Mrs. Angeles did was to mix the spaghetti sauce with the pasta. Meira's mom grabbed a ladle and poured sweet spaghetti sauce on the noodles. Meira was alien to this process. In her childhood, Mei always thought the pasta and the sauce were cooked together as one. Even before Rex and Jimmy were born, she had always spent birthdays and Fiestas playing with Andy, Mark and their cousins in Maceda.