Within the Walls

Chapter 13

 Chickens clucked occasionally from the sides of the street, housed inside feathered, muck-filled cages where you can smell from far away. I had to hold my breath to continue.

 “Do I leave you breathless,” he whispers in my ear suggestively, “friend.”

 I shiver from his warm breath. He gotta stop doing that but I am tied down by my shyness, further shackled with heating cheeks and pursed lips. He laughs and we tread the crowded streets.

 “Uy, bili na kayo! ” A loud voice from beside me, asking me to buy something.

 “Hmm?” I turn around to the voice and see a man sitting on the sidewalk, a red cloth sprawled beside him with various jewelries, mostly brass that gleamed under the sun.

 “Kwintas, singsing, pulseras!” He gestures to his wares, showing the various designs of necklaces, rings, and bracelets.

 “Gusto mo?” Aurelio asks if I want one.

 I crouch down to have a closer look, my eyes running around the red cloth. It would be really great to have some form of memory in this place. The designs had repetitive filigree with sampaguita flowers, a sun with a detailed face with wavy rays, and also the most prominent are molded from saints or from religious people. Mother Mary in one, then St. Joseph, then another with Jesus on a cross. But a pendant’s gleam caught my eye. It’s design are like two waves opposite to each other forming one big circle, the bottom wave made of brass while the top from a crystal of a cool, mint green color.

 I reach behind me to grab my wallet, only to remember I didn’t wear pants. That’s right, I left it at Mang Narding’s. I try to think on what I forgot but I shrug it away, it’s safe with Mang Narding since Aurelio knows him well. With defeated eyes, I stand up and asks Aurelio and I to head on. I start to walk further but when I turn around, he’s crouching, holding the pendant that I liked and inspecting it.

 He raises the pendant to show it to me. “Ito ba?”

 I stare at him, a wave of guilt building in my body. We’re just friends and that might be too expensive, I don’t like other people buying things for me, makes me feel…weird inside. I swing my head from side to side, waving my hands in polite decline, smiling as well.

 “Hmph, magkano rito?” He asks the man the price of the pendant.

 “Walong escudos!” The man chirped.

 Reaching in his pockets, Aurelio gives 8 gold coins to the man and stands up with a pendant in hand. He approaches me, and I was frozen in place.  He looks at the pendant, then at me, proceeding to place it on me but I step back.

 “Uy, baka mahal yan.” I decline with a fear that it maybe expensive.

 “Mas sayang naman kung hindi mo suotin, nabili ko na.” He tells me that it’ll be a waste if I don’t wear it, since he did buy it already. He approaches me and smiles before placing the pendant, onto my head then to my neck, where it nestles above my chest.

 I toy with a necklace and look at Aurelio who has a beaming expression on his face. “Thank you!” I pounce on him for a hug which took him by surprise.

 At first, he doesn’t hug back, letting his arms flail from the impact. But, after a second, he wraps his arms around me. Feeling a smile forming on his lips. I let go and his eyes impassive while looking down and lips pulled up from one corner then back on one side. Did I do something?

 “Hey, did I do something?”

 Suddenly, he’s back, a smile on his face once more.

 “No, nothing of the sort,” he thumbs the pendant, “why this?”

 “It looks beautiful, and the color.”

 “Just like you.” He presses my chin.

 Stooop!

 I stutter. “Sha–shall we keep going?” I flash an awkward smile.

 He nods in reply and walk further into the street.

 “Kaano-ano mo si Mang Narding?” I ask about his relationship with the tailor.

 “He’s the family tailor, though his clothes cost too much, it is magnificent nonetheless.”

 We reach the Fort Santiago once more. But now, the cannons doesn’t line this part of the wall, just on the other. Men clad in grey uniforms patrol the walkway of the wall with rifles with bayonets pressed on their chest. At night, the place looks terrifying. But now, I want to take a picture. Then, I knew it. The camera!

 “My bag!” I panic.

 “Na kila Mang Narding, nais mo bang puntahan?” Aurelio asks if we want to detour to Mang Narding’s place. I think about it for awhile, like I’ve said earlier, it might be safe there, right? It’s their family tailor, any wrongdoing he can be fired. So, I reply with a shake of my head.

 Then, we reach the Plaza Roma, where me and Aurelio first met and the grand cathedral towering over us. Kalesas dart from left to right so we had to seek refuge on the grass.

 “Are we almost there?”

 “Yes.” He cuts in, as if already knowing my question beforehand.

 Our footwear scraping the dirt road, trudging to the place we’re supposed to go. Until, I catch a glimpse of the metal chair I sat on last night, now with men in uniforms guarding the place. I giggle at the thought that I have to hide from Aurelio. But, we were back to the place last night as well. The Aduana Building as I recall during dad and I’s frequent trips to Intramuros. It looks stunning even at the day, it shouts rich people very well to the people walking around the area dressed in chinos and thin pants that flutter in the gentle breeze.

 “I thought we’ll be in a different place?”

 “A different place, we were at my house, now we’re here.” He chuckles.

 “Oh.” I look dumb right now, don’t I.

 We head inside the double doors with two men in suits opening the doors for us. The sweeping staircase with a full-length window at the carpeted landing. Instead of heading to the kitchen, where I last saw that place, we climb the stairs. Its grandiosity making me a little nauseous, I haven’t been to any kind of house like this. The glass chandelier hangs in the center of the room as I saw it at eye-level. We walk through the wooden balustrades and head into a room deep within the hallway. We stand face to face with the door that almost blended in with the walls, if not for the slight discoloration of the knob, I wouldn’t have noticed it.

 He knocks three times and utters. “Sa itaas, magalang ang mga anak ng bayan.”

 The door opens from a brief silence, and the first thing I saw was a large table where men of various ages smoke cigars, some with canes, and some with top hats. A lone window at the far end that was boarded up. It was filled with chatter as some men stood up to prove a point of some sorts, another standing trying to calm them down, until everyone shifts their gaze at the door. Their eyes piercing through mine and a pit in my stomach forms as I gulp nervously.

 Not again.