biscuits

again she is patiently waiting. for time, for something, for someone, i exactly do not know. with all her belongings at her side she looks she is going on a long journey. from time to time she stares at the screen door perhaps hoping to see more than just an empty space. she takes a wrapper from one of her pockets and now she is eating a piece of biscuit.

lola being ulyanin and all, speaks to us in her dialect. bleeding nose and ears i try my very best to come up with coherent statements using the very limited vocabulary that i have of her language. most of the time she understands me as i talk to her with all the gestures that i could employ.

madami ka na namang suot na damit. hindi ka ba naiinitan? i have no choice but to ask in tagalog. i do not know how to say it in bicolano.

she smiles as she offers me a piece of her biscuits.

hindi naman ako gutom lola. sa iyo na lang yan.

there are times when lola surprises me and speaks in tagalog. a brief and passing moment. the next time she would speak bicolano again.

hindi naman mainit. nakita mo ba si lolo mo?

of all the questions in this world. while my mother chooses to lie and tell her that lolo just went home to their province, i always tell her the truth. i know she will cry and be sad for some time but then she will forget about it until she asks again.

taking the picture of lolo i tell her, hindi ba iniwan na niya tayo? naalala mo?

hindi niya sinabi sa akin na aalis na siya. lagi na lang niya akong iniiwan.

i guess lolo was a bit unfair. he did not tell anyone it was his time to go.

sa amin hindi siya nagsabi pero nagsabi yun sa iyo. nagpaalam siya sa iyo lola. tara, ikukuha pa kita ng biscuit. mas masarap pa diyan sa kinakain mo.

she answers me but i have no idea of what she replied. she is speaking bicolano again. i usually give her a nod in reply. she stopped asking questions as i gave her a handful of biscuits. it turns out that lola and i could eat galletas the whole day.