Tala

by Adelaide Schofield

  Dalisay dropped her plump body into a chair, momentarily defeated by the one daughter she’d always been able to control. What had happened to her family? When had they all decided it was okay to start disobeying her? Seeing she was getting nowhere with Tala, she turned her anger to Mia.

  “And you! Did your sister pay you to lie to me?” When Mia said nothing, Dalisay held out her hand. “You will give me your lie money.”

  Mia fumbled in her purse but Tala stopped her. “I did not give her money to lie. I gave her money for the gas and time to get me here. There is no need for you to take this from her.”

  “And who will pay for my gas and time?” Dalisay demanded.

  “You, mama,” Tala said.

  Mia’s eyes grew large. No one spoke to mama this way.

  “I did not ask for you to come here so why should I pay? Why should Mia pay? For the honor of having you follow her like a spy?”

  Dalisay jumped to her feet. “You do not speak to me this way! I do what I must to protect my family. If I have to follow someone to do that job, well—“

  Dalisay shrugged like she’d done nothing wrong.

  “I am hungry now,” Tala said in a bored tone to no one in particular. “Let us go downstairs for brunch.”

  Kelsey smirked at Tala’s abrupt but effective way of ending the conversation.

  Dalisay nodded. In her entire life, the only thing she could not bear to hear was one of her children saying they were hungry. Of course hunger ten years ago had meant something different for the Mercado family than it did today, but Dalisay never forgot the feeling of despair and helplessness when all she could offer her children to satiate the need was a small bowl of rice flavored with fish sauce.

  “Let us go eat then,” she said now.

  Over brunch she questioned Kelsey about her life in America, her work, and anything else she could think of to keep her mind off the fact that this woman was sleeping with her daughter.

  “Do you know any single men, Kelsey?” Mia asked, thinking this was as good an opportunity as any to start making plans to get to America.

  Kelsey sliced into her grilled chicken and smiled. “I know a couple of men who would find you quite beautiful. You should come visit.” She gave Mia a playful wink and felt a hand tighten on her thigh under the table.

  “I need to use the restroom,” Tala said, squeezing Kelsey’s leg a little harder. “Will you show me where it is?”

  “Of course.” Confused, Kelsey rose from the table and led Tala to the restroom in the lobby.

  “Do not flirt with my sister,” Tala said, when the door whispered closed behind them.

  “What?” Kelsey laughed.

  Tala felt a jealousy burn within her that she’d never felt before. She pulled Kelsey into a stall. “I am for you, Kelsey. Only me.”

  “Tala, I think you misunderstood—“

  “Only me,” Tala repeated, pressing Kelsey up against the stall door. Her kiss was possessive as her hand slid up the front of Kelsey’s shirt.

  “Tala, wait.” Kelsey grabbed her wrist. “I wasn’t flirting with your sister.”

  Tala backed away. “You called her beautiful and said she should visit.”

  “I was just being nice. Oh my God, Tala, I came halfway around the world for you. Of course, it’s only you. Believe me; you don’t ever have to remind me of that. I love you.”

  Tala’s cheeks colored but she managed a weak smile. “I am sorry, Kelsey. I am embarrassed. I have never felt jealousy before. “

  “Never?”

  Tala shook her head. “I guess it makes you feel sick and crazy at the same time?”

  Kelsey laughed. “I guess it does, yeah. Please trust me though, Tala. I’m not Stephen. I would never do that to you.”

  “I trust you, Kelsey.” Tala took Kelsey’s hand and gently kissed the inside of her wrist. “Let us go back to my crazy family now. And just think. You have only met two. Imagine when you meet them all.”

  Kelsey smirked and followed Tala back to the restaurant.

  Chapter 15

  It was a long day. After brunch, the four women wandered the resort grounds then sat at a bar outside, where Kelsey made the mistake of mentioning there was a casino on site.

  “Casino?” Dalisay’s eyes lit up.

  “It’s just a small one,” Kelsey said.

  “I will see. They have slot machines?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we will go.” Dalisay rose from the table in her usual commanding way and the three women followed.

  The afternoon dragged by at a snail’s pace as Dalisay circled the small gaming room floor, selecting each machine she played as if it had personally called out to her. After a few spins, she would get up and say “this one does not give”. Then she would circle the room again, ever-aware of the next machine waiting to call her forward. It was exhausting to watch.

  Dalisay played. Kelsey played. Tala played a little. Mia did not play. She had better plans for her money than to give it to a casino.

  When Kelsey sat at a slot machine next to the one Dalisay had been working for ten minutes, the older woman gave her a sideways glance but said nothing. Within three spins Kelsey’s machine hit five of a kind on a maximum bet and started to sing. The payout was ringing up quickly but it was in pesos and Kelsey couldn’t keep track of the conversion.

  “You win!” Dalisay yelled. “Twenty-five thousand pesos. That is over five hundred American dollars!”

  Tala and Mia came rushing over at the sound of the commotion.

  “Now you must give me balato.”

  “What’s balato?” Kelsey asked.

  Tala appeared quickly at her side and said “It is nothing. You do not have to give her balato.” How embarrassing that her mother would ask such a thing.

  “Yes,” Dalisay insisted. “When you win, you give balato. It is goodwill.”

  “I see,” Kelsey said. She didn’t fully understand but it sounded like a gambler’s ‘share the wealth’ kind of thing. “How much do I give?”

  “It is in your heart. But five thousand pesos is nice.”

  Tala gasped. “That is too much!”

  Dalisay sighed. “Three thousand pesos then.”

  “She will give you nothing.” Tala folded her arms across her chest and glared at her mother. “It is not goodwill to ask.”

  Kelsey cashed her ticket and brought back balato. Much to Tala’s dismay, she gave Dalisay five thousand pesos, and gave another two thousand to Mia.

  “Do not make the same mistake Stephen made,” Tala whispered, pulling Kelsey aside. “If you give mama money once, you will give it forever.”

  “I’m not giving her money.” Kelsey grinned disarmingly. “It is just balato.”

  “I see. Then where is mine?”

  Kelsey reached for the wad of money in her pocket but Tala stayed her hand. “I am joking, Kelsey. You do not know when I am joking?”

  Kelsey shook her head. “I thought this was like a ‘do not flirt with my sister’ thing.”

  Tala laughed. “I should be more worried when you meet Ligaya. She is very beautiful.”

  **********

  Kelsey didn’t have to wait long to meet Ligaya or the rest of the Mercado family as Dalisay insisted they go back to the house for dinner later that evening.

  Doneng was the first person she was introduced to and he creeped her out. From the moment she stepped through the door, she could feel the short, greasy man leering at her. His eyes roamed over her body and landed on her breasts, where they remained for several unpleasant seconds. She turned her body away from him and he smirked, content in knowing he’d made her uncomfortable.

  Tala led Kelsey into a large kitchen with high ceilings where an older woman was preparing dinner. When the woman turned to face them, Kelsey thought it was for “mano”, the Filipino tradition of showing respect to an elder, and reached for the woman’s hand. She touched the woman’s hand to her forehead and the woman laughed.

  T
ala smirked. “Kelsey, that is the maid.”

  Kelsey blushed. Since when did “poor” people have maids?

  “Did you just mano on the maid?” Ligaya asked, appearing out of nowhere. Her laugh was like Tala’s.

  “There is nothing wrong with it,” Tala defended. “She was just being respectful.”

  Ligaya laughed harder. “Then by all means, mano on me too.” She extended her hand to Kelsey and Tala slapped it away.

  “Kelsey, this is my youngest sister Ligaya.”

  “I am also her prettiest sister,” Ligaya boasted with a wink.

  “You think very highly of yourself,” Tala said.

  Ligaya shrugged. “Does your friend speak? Or does she just go around doing mano on everyone she sees?”

  Mia was by far already Kelsey’s favorite Mercado sibling. Ligaya was as beautiful as Tala promised, but she was snide and condescending. She looked like a younger version of Tala, but with a personality that was more like Dalisay’s.

  “Maybe she is mute?” Ligaya considered.

  Kelsey was spared having to answer by the sight of the rest of the family entering the room. Cristano said hello, then they all took their places around the table, waiting to be served.

  Tala led Kelsey to a chair and sat in the one beside her.

  “You like Lechon?” Dalisay asked.

  “It is crispy pork,” Mia offered.

  “I haven’t had it, but it sounds good,” Kelsey said. “I look forward to trying it.”

  “We are also having pancit,” Dalisay said. “Noodles.”

  “No rice?”

  Dalisay sighed. “Yes, Cristano. When is there ever not rice?”

  Dalisay piled food high onto a plate and placed it in front of Kelsey. It was way more food than Kelsey was used to eating in one sitting, but she got the feeling that Dalisay was looking for a reason to be offended. And if Kelsey didn’t eat every bit of food she was offered, that would be reason enough.

  Doneng continued to leer at Kelsey from across the table. “Your hair is like the sun setting over Manila Bay,” he told her, in what he thought was a charming tone but sounded more like a man you were afraid of running into on a dark street. “If you have not seen this, I will show you sometime.”

  “She is not interested, Doneng,” Tala said.

  “You do not know that.”

  “Trust me, I know.”

  Mia laughed and Dalisay shot her a look. “Eat,” she commanded of her family.

  “How long is your stay in Manila?” Doneng pressed, shoving a large piece of lechon past his greasy lips. He chewed with his mouth open so wide, Kelsey could see every bit of mangled pork flesh inside.

  She swallowed back her revulsion and politely answered. “About a week.”

  “Hey! Where is Sneekers?” Tala suddenly realized.

  Kelsey smiled. “He’s with Al.”

  “Al is a single man?” Mia asked, hopefully.

  “Al is short for Alison,” Kelsey said. “Sorry.” She turned to Dalisay. “The food is delicious Mrs. Mercado.”

  Dalisay nodded.

  Doneng nodded too, as if someone had spoken to him when no one had. “I will show you this sunset, Kelsey,” he said again. “It is orange-red wild like your hair.”

  “Thank you, Doneng, but I have seen it.”

  “You have not seen it with me.”

  “She does not want to see it with you,” Tala asserted.

  “How can you be so certain?”

  Tala sighed. “Because she is with me, Doneng.”

  The table fell silent. Even Cristano stopped eating long enough to look up and digest his daughter’s words.

  Doneng blinked. “With you? Like how a man is with a woman?” He turned to Kelsey as if she’d broken his heart and he wanted to hear her say it for herself. “Is this true, Kelsey?”

  Kelsey gave a slight nod and Doneng’s eyes turned cold. “That is against God,” he barked.

  “Enough!” Dalisay said. “This is not proper dinner time conversation.”

  Ligaya smirked at her eldest sister. “Finally, there is something cool about you, ate.”

  **********

  “Well, that was unpleasant,” Kelsey teased on the car ride back to the hotel. “I’m surprised they let you leave with me.”

  The driver pretended not to be listening but Tala knew he would report every word back to Dalisay later.

  “We will talk at the hotel,” Tala said, pointing a finger on her lap in the driver’s direction.

  Kelsey nodded. She was quickly learning that everyone and everything in Tala’s Manila was cause for suspicion.

  Back in the room, the two women fell into bed exhausted. Kelsey leaned over to kiss Tala who said, “Oh Kelsey, I am so tired”.

  Kelsey laughed. “I was just kissing you goodnight.”

  “Let us rest now and in the morning we will turn that kiss into something special.”

  Tala had a way of making everything sound polite. Even sex.

  “Can I ask you something, Tala?”

  “Yes, my Kelsey.”

  Kelsey curled up to Tala and pulled the blankets tighter around them. “How is it that poor people have maids?”

  Tala shook her tired head. “I have asked myself this same question. The only answer is that they are not poor anymore.”

  “And your mother gambles, like, a lot.”

  “How do you know it is a lot?”

  “She was pouring quite a bit of money into those machines-- like she had no fear of losing it. In my experience the things you are not afraid of losing are the things you have a lot of.”

  Tala closed her eyes and felt the hurt of her mother’s deception all over again. “Yes. I have learned that they do not need the money I send and that mama uses it for gambling fun.”

  “I’m so sorry, Tala,” Kelsey said, feeling Tala’s sudden sadness as if it were her own. “I didn’t mean to bring up something that would hurt you.”

  Tala pulled Kelsey in closer. “You do not hurt me, Kelsey. You make me happy.” She gave a weak smile and asked a question she was certain would not receive a good answer. “What did you think of my family?”

  Kelsey buried her face in Tala’s neck and chuckled. “It’s not important.”

  “It is. And tell me the truth.”

  “The truth,” Kelsey sighed. “Mia is nice. Your father is quiet. Ligaya is self-centered and Doneng looks like a rapist.”

  Tala burst out laughing. “Yes! This is true of Doneng. I did not have the word for it before but that is exactly what he looks like. How sad! And mama?”

  “She’s everything you said she’d be and more.”

  Satisfied with Kelsey’s honesty, Tala planted a soft kiss on her forehead and said, “Okay, let us sleep now, Kelsey. Tomorrow we have much to discuss.”

  **********

  The next evening Tala and Kelsey went back to Tala’s parent’s house for another impromptu get-together. This time the gathering was outside on a small patio at the side of the house. Doneng watched Kelsey pass through the narrow doorway leading to the patio and smirked when he saw her duck. The doorway was short, but Kelsey was not so tall that she could not pass through without ducking.

  Dragging heavily on what was left of his cigarette; Doneng planted himself at one of the long wooden tables near the fire pit. His eyes roved over Kelsey’s body admiringly. The air was sticky sweet, the humidity so heavy that little beads of sweat were already rolling down Kelsey’s throat and disappearing into the v-neck of her t-shirt. The thin fabric clung to her breasts in all the right places and Doneng was sure she had chosen this outfit for him. She wanted him to notice her, he realized.

  “I have saved you a place near the fire, Kelsey,” Doneng said, patting the seat beside him.

  Kelsey tried to ignore the lustful look in his eyes. “Thank you, Doneng. But it’s so hot already. I think I might stay away from the fire until the night cools down.”

  “The night will not cool down,” Cristan
o said, appearing behind Kelsey and offering a small pat on the back in way of a greeting. He threw an arm across Tala’s shoulders. “The fire is for cooking, not for warmth.”

  Kelsey presented Cristano with the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon she’d purchased at the Mall of Asia earlier in the day. Tala had taken her shopping and she’d been amused to find that the mall wasn’t especially different from any mall in the U.S. Except for the food court. The delicacies there were not likely to be found on many North American food court menus. “Just a thank you for having me, Mr. Mercado,” she said, extending the bottle to him.

  He took it shyly. “Salamat. And you may call me Cristano, or Papa if you prefer.”

  “How ‘bout Big Papa?” Kelsey teased. She liked Cristano. Even though he usually seemed quiet, she sensed he was someone she could be playful with—unlike his wife.

  “Big Papa,” Cristano chuckled. “I like it.”

  Dalisay appeared at his side. “And you may call me Dalisay.” She didn’t offer “mama” as an alternative.

  Cristano handed Mia the bottle of wine. “We have nothing to open this with,” Mia realized, noting that the top of the bottle had a cork instead of screw-top.

  “I will take care of this,” Doneng said. He reached into his pocket and flipped open a sharp knife. Quickly, he slashed the blade against the tall neck of the bottle and the top flew off, along with part of the glass.

  “Wow, that’s some handy work, Doneng,” Kelsey complimented.

  His regular sneer briefly turned into a real smile. “I shall pour you a glass, Kelsey,” he said, pleased that he had impressed her. And rightfully so. His knife skills were better than most.

  “I would like a glass too, Doneng,” Tala said.

  Leave it to Tala to ruin this important moment between Kelsey and him. “Yes, ate.”

  Doneng disappeared into the house to collect wine glasses. His mother had put out cheap, plastic cups but he would not serve Kelsey in such a way. Kelsey was a worldly woman, and when she saw how worldly Doneng too could be, she’d start to see that maybe she wasn’t so interested in sinning with his sister after all.