Truly Yours

Chapter 4

“When the time came for me to meet Jameson’s parents, I was very apprehensive about how I should act and behave in front of them, and what I should say. They are high up in society; in fact, the family are descended from a long line of Spanish nobility, which is evident from their family name. They are what we indigenous Filipinos call ‘Kastila’ (Castilian). What most attracted me to him was his light skin and non-Asian Spanish traits, his straight blue-black hair, his chiselled features, and his high intelligent forehead. They say his family even reaches back to the conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi of Cebu who also founded Manila, and that it was due to his influence the islands were called the Philippines in tribute to the king he served, King Philip II of Spain.”

“So you can imagine my apprehension on meeting the parents of my high-born lover –I was a mere ‘native’ girlwho had by some miracle emerged from the Filipino masses, and was able to touch the hand and heart of this exalted noble Spanish prince.”

“ ‘I’m so nervous, I hope your parents will like me,’ I said.”

“ ‘Don’t worry. I’m sure, they’ll like you. Just relax,’he said, trying to calm me with his words.”

“In fact his family are rarely in contact with the ‘natives’ of Manila, because they live in a walled-off community, which bars the admittance of ordinary Filipinos–that is, natives like myself. They live in Forbes Park, a gated community, and barangay in Makati.”

“We went to their mansion in Forbes Park, Makati, which was extravagant and magnificent. The community was protected by heavily armed guards, as if they were expecting an imminent invasion of the barbarians (ordinary Filipinos). It constituted a private army defending this private fenced-off area. But at least his parents could sleep safe at night,as they were protected by the huge number of guards who were armed with an arsenal of handguns, rifles, shotguns and automatic weapons.”

“Wealth and sophistication were shouting out in every aspect of the Ferreira mansion. I felt quite out of place there. The only luxury I was used to was shopping in the corporate owned malls, such as the Mall of Asia (which isalso defended by private security guards–but not so heavily armed–as they welcomed being ‘invaded’ by ‘barbarians’, as long as they had money to spend). We were to dine together with his parents. Jameson held my hand tightly as we walkedtowards the very spacious diningarea of the mansion, which had a very bright and large chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling and illuminating the whole room.”

“His parents were already sitting there in the roomwhen we arrived, and his mother, Imelda, rang the bell when she saw us coming. A large number of uniformed helpers appeared with numerous casseroles containing a large variety of foods, which they then put on the dining table. Everything there spoke of class.

I started to wonder if the rugs on the floor were also fashioned from the dust of diamonds.”

“ ‘Good evening mom and dad,’ Jameson began.”

“ ‘Good evening son,’ his parents replied formally in chorus.”

“ ‘This is Santina, she’s my girlfriend. Santi, these are my parents.’he introduced us.”

“ ‘Good evening, Sir, Madam,’ I nervously greeted them, noticing that his mother looked askance at me.”

“ ‘Take a seat; dinner is ready, ’his father said welcomingly.”

“This was the longest and most tedious dinner I had ever partaken in. I couldn’t help noticing that his mother was constantly ‘inspecting’ me –and seemed very judgemental. I was just hoping the whole thing would end soon. But I still tried to smile and get along with them; perhaps I was paranoid, and imagining the whole ‘inquisition’ thing. It was then that an amusing thought struck me –that’s it –they are not only descended from Spanish nobility, but also from those people who made up the Inquisition. It seemed, his mother, Imelda, thought it sheer heresy that I, a native Filipina, should ‘bewitch’ her aristocratic son by devilish means.”

“I managed to ‘wake-up’ from these imaginings –and remembered that Jameson had told me that his parents were strict, especially his mother, Imelda. So, I had to get out of this frame of mind that his mother disliked me.”

“ ‘How’s the pork adobo, dear? I hope they didn’t use too much garlic and pepper,’ his father asked me.”

“To tell you the truth I was sick-to-death of ‘adobo’ because of the pig swill I had to eat at the college, and would rather have had some ‘Chicken Joy’ at Jollibee. But I couldn’t say so, so I said, ‘It’s good, sir. Thanks for inviting me here.’ ”

“ ‘Of course she likes it,’ his mother commented, implying that I would be satisfied with anything, that is, that I normally dined at Jollibee11with the other Plebeians, or bought cheap food from street vendors, when I couldn’t afford Jollibee.”

“ ‘Are you okay?’Jameson asked when he noticed that I looked a little uncomfortable.”

“ ‘Just a little stomach ache,’ I said.”

“ ‘You wanna take a rest?’he kindly asked.”

“ ‘If it’s okay,’ Isaid.”

“Jameson drove me home, but I couldn’t sleep that night, because of what had happened. I had nightmares about ‘Maleficent’ (Imelda) pricking my finger with a drug, so I would never wake up again –but the nightmare and interminable sleep was broken by the dream of Jameson’s kiss of true love. So the next morning, I went to college with my head spinning.”

The next day at college one of my classmates came up to me and said, ‘Santi? Someone’s looking for you.’”

“ ‘Who?’ ”

“ ‘I don’t know. But she’s in the Dean’s office.’ ”

“I headed to the Dean’s office and found Jameson’s mother, Imelda Ferriera, there, talking to the Dean. The Dean left the office on the mother’s instruction when I appeared.”

“ ‘Madam? Are you the one looking for me?’ I asked the obvious.”

“ ‘Yes it was me –and I will be frank with you. You’re a very beautiful and nice girl, but I can’t permit your marriage to my son, because you are his social inferior. We consider it almost traitorous to marry outside our class. I have already picked out a suitable girl for him of his own class. I would never permit my son to marry a squatter from the north side of the Pasig River. Is it correct that you live amongst squatters in Tondo? A girl from the gutter may not marry into the upper class, however nice and pretty she may be. Moreover, if you really loved him you wouldn’t expect him to stoop so low as to marry you, and give him bastard children with tainted blood’.”

“Her words stung me like a thousand bee-bites. I had suspected this was how she felt aboutme, because of her glowering looks, when we were eating dinner in their Makati mansion. But I wasn’t going to take her vitriollying down, and decided to fight back.”

“ ‘I’m sorry, ma’am but we love each other. And everything you say is wholly untrue. I may live in Tondo, but my family are not squatters, they are God-fearing Christians and respectable. It’s true –Jameson is of noble birth –but he has explained to me that love is more important than class –and he has even said he would relinquish his class for my love. Would you despise Mary, the mother of Jesus, if she were not of nobility?’ I said, but she just smirked cynically at my defence of my love for her son.”

“ ‘He’s young and so are you. He will change his mind eventually. He won’t stoop to your low level. Why don’t you just tell me how much money you want? I can offer you a gift of one million pesos if you just stay away from him,’ she said.”

“ ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, but I love your son and I don’t need any money from you,’ I said bravely, while my heart was racing.”

“ ‘I’m trying to be reasonable. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You refuse my generous offer –the easy way –and insist on dragging my son down into your Tondo gutter amongst the vermin. If you hate my son so much that you’re hell bent on trying to destroy him with your whorish ways then so be it. I will sacrifice him and destroy you to protect our family name and honour. I give you this one last warning –stay away from my son!’ which were her last words, as she marched out of the Dean’s office, casting a murderous look at me as she passed by.”