Chapter 2

A Chapter by DeluxeAsian

2017

The afternoon sun was orange and hot, striking down mercilessly at the baked clay of the roads and the stone rooftops of Santiago. The seaside town had no mountains to shade them and no cold wind to aid them, all they had was unrelenting dry sunshine and the fishless ocean to the east.

But now, finally, construction had finished on the brand-new mall right in the middle of the town before the church in the plaza. You could see its vast, white walls from any spot in town, towering over the squat Spanish homes and wooden windows. At night, the new fluorescent lights shone and washed the neighboring houses. Everyone was excited about it, the offers of new jobs, new shops, and air conditioning. Sweet, cold refuge from the unforgiving Santiago sun.

There was a ceremony to be held, a mall opening, one unlike anything ever to happen in Santiago whose last new establishment was the community university opened back in 1994. The upcoming ceremony had attracted the neighboring TV crew from Pasuquin, as well as some small D-list celebrities and political figures. The streets hummed with anticipation and excitement as barangays started putting up banners and some began renting their homes and advertising local services with cardboard signs drawn in permanent marker. Everywhere, aromas of local foods wafting from karinderyas greeted the tourists and locals alike: seafood stew, vinegary ceviche, lobsters, crabs, and shellfish all mixing in the air. Butter and vinegar were laid out. Tables kept multiplying in number on the streets, crowding traffic. The locals were bemusedly calling it the mall pista, Fiesta of the Mall.

The plaza that day, was jam-packed. You couldn’t move without elbowing someone’s sticky, sweaty flesh. Somehow, it made the mall’s wide glass windows more attractive. Inside, a lucky security guard could be seen dressed in long sleeves. It almost seemed to be mocking at the crowd of thin cotton and shorts outside.

The Mayor arrived in his outdated black Pajero. His stacked, squat figure was enveloped somehow by an extra-large business barong the color of pistachio. He waddled around in old leather shoes and smiled at the people in general. His bodyguards, bigger and fatter men, swatted hands away from the Mayor with silent grunts and warning glances. But when elders of the community approached, the Mayor had no choice but to turn and acknowledge them.

“Apo Mayor,” The dean of the university said loudly, stepping out of the crowd. “Thank god you’re here! I’m excited to get in the new mall and away from this heat.” The dean smiled, showing yellow teeth and patting a white handkerchief at his balding head. “I’m losing hair from the sun, if I have any left!”

The Mayor laughed and shook the dean’s hand. “Don’t worry, sir Parinas. We will get you in as soon as we can open. Let’s have a beer together at the bar, no?”

“Fantastic! They have beer in there!”

The Mayor left the dean to gloat quietly among the crowd of having been offered inside. He spotted other figures try to encroach on his line of sight and ducked out of the way, towards the giant glass doors of the entrance to the mall. Before it, the Mayor saw the mall’s sales representative dressed ridiculously in a suit and sweating profusely. Next to the poor man was a woman he had never seen before.

He approached.

The salesman jogged forward to meet him halfway. “Ah! Mayor Franklin. Thank you po, that you’ve arrived. I’m Paolo Ladera, the sales rep for the mall.” He raised a hand to shake the Mayor’s and shook it eagerly.

“Why are you dressed so formally?” Franklin laughed, gesturing at the young man’s outfit. “Didn’t anyone tell you of the heat here?”

Ladera frowned and shook his head. “No. Actually, I saw Madame Samson dress like this so I thought it’d be cold since it was by the sea, and followed her suit.”

“Madame Samson?”

Ladera’s face was quite plain but expressed surprise with animated movements. “Ay, I forgot, sir. This mall branch is a franchise by the Madame. Here she is, I’ll introduce her.” Ladera then ushered Franklin before the tall woman and within a few meters, the Mayor could tell that this woman had foreign blood, and exquisitely beautiful.

Her features were middle eastern or European, it was hard to tell. She had a strong nose, thick eyebrows, and startling light-grey eyes. Her skin was a beautiful creamy olive and her dark her was braided behind her head. She was dressed in a long blouse and wide pants, and made even taller in dark red heels. She smiled with closed lips at the approaching Mayor, and a crease between her cheek and her jaw popped out.

“Ma’am Samson, this is the Mayor of Santiago. Franklin Adricio.”

The Mayor found himself bowing instead of extending a hand and the Madame laughed lightly, her voice sounding like smooth oil. “Very courteous, Mayor. But there is no need for such formality. I was born here in Santiago, and I studied here in Santiago. I am glad to be back, and I am glad to see you again.”

“Hah!” The Mayor straightened up in surprise, clutching his belly. “I don’t think I would’ve forgotten a face like yours if you were truly born here and have seen me before!”

The woman smiled now, baring her teeth. “I looked quite different when I was young. I was afraid of the sun, and malnourished. I have moved to Pasuquin, you see, and I was forced to get accustomed to the heat of the ocean due to the line of work my husband is in.”

“Yes, I notice that you do not even bother to squint under this sun. Probably, you are really from here, as you say.”

“I apologize for not sweating,” The Madame laughed with amusement. “I must have offended you.” She said, looking pointedly at the Mayor’s forming sweat on his brow.

“Ah, it is just not everyday I see a woman taking heat like it is nothing while a man like me sweats.” The Mayor sneered and chuckled but elicited no other reaction than a wider smile from the woman. Frustrated, he cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows at Ladera. “So? How shall we get this over with?”

Samson moved forward and began to steer the Mayor towards the mall grounds, closer to the crowd waiting below. “We will begin by you giving a small welcome speech, then the two of us must cut the ribbon. After that, the mall doors will be opened and the people can come in from the sun.”

Dumbfounded that a woman was leading him around, the Mayor turned to Ladera, a little too roughly from Samson’s grip. “Ladera?”

“It’s as how ma’am says it is, Mayor.” Ladera’s eyebrows began to furrow as if questioning Franklin’s doubt. The Mayor sighed internally. These city folks from the malls in Manila really had no boundaries between men and women. They were all “progressive” men, letting women work and wear suits like theirs.

“So,” Samson continued as if there were no interruptions. “You must give a little speech now, to announce the mall.”

The Mayor’s throat closed and suddenly he was irritable. “No one informed me of a speech, Madame.” Instantly, everything this woman suggested he do, he found the utmost need to refuse and ridicule. “Besides who gives a speech to these dumb people? They don’t care about the economy or the jobs or the opportunities this mall will bring. They simply want the air-conditioning!”

His voice was twice as loud as it should’ve been, and rang in his ears. Startled, Franklin looked around and saw that Samson had led him closer and closer to the podium where a microphone stood, awaiting him. He turned back to the woman in rage, his dark pudgy face contorting and his mouth opening and closing as angry throughs raced to be said.

Samson shook her head subtly at him, her light eyes glinting, before moving in front of him and smiling towards the shocked crowd. “Santiago! Who doesn’t want to admit that they need some conditioned air? Come now! We all know this cursed heat drives the energy out of our bones and our eyes to blindness!”

She was speaking in fluent, perfectly accented Ilocano, the dialect of the province Ilocos wherein Santiago resided. The Mayor, dumbfounded even more, took a subconscious step back.

“I’m glad to see everyone here, gathered and excited. When I was young, I would’ve loved this opportunity. I’m happy that I get to share this with you all now, to make up for all those years, lying around useless in the heat. Especially during summer! Ah those days in May where all one can do is breathe useless air! Now, no longer! Your children won’t be as useless as I, for I’m happy to announce that the mall is big enough for the whole town to loiter in!”

The crowd laughed, cheered, and whistled in glee at the beautiful woman offering free cold air. Mayor Franklin looked in confusion around him and saw nothing but happy faces, Ladera clapping encouragingly, and his town not caring that a woman had replaced him on the podium.

Samson greeted them in Santiago slang, “Ala, ket intayun!” And the crowd exploded. The tall woman smiled graciously, waved a few times, then turned to Ladera. Without taking her light eyes off of Mayor Franklin, she reached for the giant scissors, and snipped the big ribbon behind them. The Mayor watched it fall, fluttering and glimmering against the sun.

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