Beautiful Carmencita and other short stories

Madam Martha

A pair of feet covered in mud stained, worn-out slippers lightly touched the blistered road of the busy Poblacion. Tap tap. Tap tap. With the litheness of a fairy, her soiled feet pranced on the rough cemented floor. She was deaf to the loud sounds of the crowd, the endless honking of the passing raging vehicles, and the overall hustle and bustle of the busy city. One of her filthy hands held a side of the skirt of her dirty dress, waving its greasy cloth to the air -- a middle-aged woman playing princess in the middle of an overcrowded street. Her crown was her unwashed hair, a tangle of oily mess with candy wrappers and pieces of other little trash as ornaments

"Ay (Oh) Andres, ay Badong. Thank you for the pasalubong (gift/souvenir)" she would say to every stranger she would see. The sidewalk vendors would always laugh at her, along with the shop owners and the assistants of the stores and karenderia (cafeteria) in that part of Poblacion. Those in suits, uniforms, and fancy clothing would stare at her with either fear or disgust, eagerly distancing themselves away from the stinky woman with a smile that never seemed to leave her unwashed face.

"That crazy old woman," one of them would say, "she thinks that this whole street and the next is her mansion! That's why we call her Madam. Yes, that is Madam Martha." A stranger would reluctantly give the madwoman a coin or two just so that she would go away and stop bothering them anymore.

"Thank you, my child." Madam Martha would answer, again with that disgusting display of blackening teeth and a burst of bad breath leaving her mouth.

She had been called too many names. She had been a source of jokes for the kids playing around the area wherever she was staying at and a constant laughing stock for the others. She had been viewed as some kind of a monster by the judging eyes of passing strangers. Yet, she remained oblivious of such treatment and judgment, for in Madam Martha's eyes she was perfectly sane and her heart was in constant joy for the pure bliss endowed to her by her beloved sons.

Leyte was not her hometown anymore. She had long left it with Fernan so many years ago to find a better future here in this city of opportunities -- Manila. Once they had arrived in its city gates, they were surprised by its maze of different sized buildings made of either concrete or wood and its streets that were always filled with crowds of people. It was very different from the quiet, vast fields back in their province. However, as time went by, the couple found less comfort in the city as Fernan suffered the burden of finding the hardest and dirtiest jobs that gave minimum pay. After the birth of their second child, the hardworking husband had the opportunity to find work as a construction worker in Nigeria. It was a country both of them never knew of, but the brave man, nevertheless, took the job. Fernan stayed abroad for years and spent only a few days at his home in the Philippines. One day, he never came back.

"Shower! Shower!" The old Martha raised her ringless hand towards the grey sky and let its drizzle shower upon her. Her eyes, which were already sunk in black bags, kept their youthful shine; for through them she saw the flooding road as a marbled floor and the harsh drops of rain as the long-promised warm shower bath by her eldest son Andres. She put her plastic bags on top of the garbage bin, not wanting to let her expensive bags get drenched in water.

A flash of light and a loud honk from a passing car startled her. "Hoy (Hey), baliw (madwoman), get away from the road!" An angry driver shouted at her and almost hit her with his white van. Madam Martha instantly gave way, wondering if that was the car her son Badong was riding with his friends. She waved at it but her light-hearted greeting was replied back with a string of curses that she never heard.

"Ay Andres, ay Badong." The crazy madam continued her hum. The plastic bags we're light for her thin arms. They contained almost nothing but a few biscuits and a number of coins. It clanged and clanged as she pranced through the rain. "Ay Andres, ay Badong. Ay--" Her face lightened. She knew that she was heading in the right direction. The shop selling second-hand clothing was her own wardrobe and she believed that everything that was there was hers. It was a gift from Andres.

Madam Martha giggled like a teenager when she saw a brown skirt with leaf patterns on its side and a slight slit on its back. "Look at this, Andres!" She said to no one but herself. "Doesn't it look like it would go well with that blouse you gave me when you were in sixth grade? Ay, you were so handsome and hardworking even when you were still a child. Helping me sell rice cakes while doing your best in your studies." Her dirty thin hands reached its soft fabric. So smooth. So nice to the touch. "My sweet, dear child."

"There you are again, Madam!" The plump shop owner's voice was the familiar voice of her children's old school principal. The fabric beneath her hands was no longer soft but had become rough, like the table cloth on the stern-looking bespectacled man's desk. His heavily wrinkled face was frowning at her and at her poor son. "Why, sir, my Badong is too kind of a child to do such a thing. Right, Badong?"

The shop owner scratched her head and getting irritated, said, "Just go over there, Madam. Your stench is getting to the clothes."

"But Badong is a good boy!" The old Martha continued her monologue, "You know boys. Sometimes they just fight. I'm sure there's a reason for it." She tried to hold the principal's hand but it was harshly struck away. "Please don't suspend him again from his classes. What will become of my little Badong?"

"There will be no suspension, crazy Madam, because there is no Badong. Now, go away!"

Martha did exit the store.

Alas, the gray clouds had left the blue sky and the sun had peeked out from its hiding place again. Once her feet touched the rough street, the old woman remembered her garden. How could she forget? She was in her mansion. The prim madam liked to spend the rest of her afternoons at her garden. The leaves of the plants there were beautifully shaped and adorned with tiny colorful flowers. She loved it. Around the plants were rocks and here and there were figurines of lovely smiling fairies. It was the tiny garden of a mall nearby but in the eyes of Madam Martha, it was specially made for her. It was her personal space where she always spent her siesta time. Its muddy ground was her soft couch. The wriggling and crawling bugs never irritated her skin. She would easily doze off in her sanctuary.

When she woke up, she picked up the coins and a couple of packed biscuits she found littered on the ground. She thought that her sons might have forgotten to clean them up again so she just put those in her bags. Suddenly, a fragrant, silky hand appeared in front of her eyes. She saw it as a man's and got the twenty peso bill from him. "Thank you, Andres. You're working too hard with your part-time job." The poor woman never noticed the frown in her son's face whenever he gave her money when he had grown up. Another stranger approached her and gave her a ten peso coin. "Badong, where did you get this money?" she asked with worry.

When dusk approached, she stood up. The beautiful hues of pink, orange, and yellow could easily be seen through the large windows of her gigantic mansion. It was time for dinner. She thought as she heard her stomach grumble. She trotted on her carpeted floor, leaving a trail of mud and dust on the street.

The window-walled convenience store was her food storage and the guard there was their storage keeper. He waved at her because he was already familiar with her. However, Madam Martha never understood why she was forbidden to enter her own food storage. She needed to wait for her sons to get her something from it. Maybe they were worried that she would get lost in it. It was a very huge fridge. If neither Andres nor Badong would give her food, then she would settle with whatever food she had received from them earlier. She could not be too greedy. After all, her sons had already been spoiling her too much.

Two teenagers dressed in their school uniforms were startled at the sight of her when they saw the filthy woman in front of the convenience store smiling at them.

"Don't be afraid. She's harmless. She thinks she owns this store," the guard explained. The two ladies looked at each other and looked back at the odd woman. Then, they walked away and left her that way.

The sky was beginning to be covered in darkness. Madam Martha was numb to the feeling of cold. She waited and waited for her dear sons. She saw them everywhere, yet she always waited for them everywhere. The people never knew about Martha's story. They never knew how Andres had been tired of her until he abandoned her and how Badong was killed in a gang fight. "Ay, Andres. Ay, Badong," cried the mother's heart.