A mystical journey through the Trumps
Chapter I: AN BOBO (The Fool)
Amador woke up before the cock crowed. He had much to do this day, and much to plan about. Josephine was with child, his third, and this means more work, more things to attend to and more acres of land to inspect for probable rice planting and coconut production. He did mostly what he was told, even though Fernando thought he was lazy and good for nothing. It was only yesterday Fernando ranted and berated him for adding excess “crop” to the household, it meant more mouths to feed and he was not even married to Josephine after siring two other children!
Josephine came from far-off Embuscada in the province of Samar. The moment Amador saw her, he was far from being smitten, he was enchanted. She had this unusual essence of beauty that went beyond the alluring. It was as if she came from some different realms far beyond where the sun rose and where the moon set. Her long, dark hair fell like black satin in her white shoulders, her eyes seemed to peer beyond any veil that obliterated this world and she had the most ethereal smile that the people of the village called her “Encantada”.
Oh, Josephine indeed did not mind that. She was a strong woman and her body was built for that strength. She usually kept to herself and accepted sewing jobs. This is how she came by in this adoptive village of San Jose, she thought it uncanny to be in this village to reside because St Joseph was its patron and she was named after the saint then. She left Embuscada at a young age of twelve when the war was raging with her Aunt Isabel to escape the Kempetai (Japanese “police” during World War II) for Josephine’s parents were guerillas who hid in the hills and no one knew whether they were still alive or not. She, and her aunt, escaped the Japanese and came to the village of San Jose with Padre Damian, who then became the village curate. They posed as seamstresses for the church but Josephine no less had the makings of a fine seamstress and even knew how to “calado” (embroider). Her prowess spread to the nearby village of Lantawan and did embroidery jobs for “kamisas” and “baro’t saya”. But it was still post-war Philippines, people were still hard up on having dresses sewn or clothes embroidered. They resorted to having the other basic necessities of life like food and shelter, for clothing was provided by the American Liberation camps in the villages in the province of Leyte. She and her Aunt Isabel lived in a makeshift nipa hut near the church convento and had their most prized treasure with them—a second-hand Singer sewing machine Padre Damian salvaged from an American surplus trade market after the Liberation.
It was in this blossoming to a maiden that Amador saw Josephine, he usually visited the Church where his brother Damian served as Curate. When he gets seared by the fiery rantings of his choleric brother, Fernando, he sought the solitude of the church and brother Damian’s indifference. Josephine was crocheting a doily in the rectory’s receiving room when he caught a sparkle of her aura and was mesmerized by the movement of her fingers thru the threads..he saw in his mind a celestial angel making herself a pair of wings.
Amador always trusted his senses, as a young boy, he saw things beyond things, pictures in shapes and shadows, images that told him stories, events of yesterday or maybe of that of tomorrow. He loved to tell anecdotes, sing and recite a “siday” (poem) at the drop of a “tagay” (drinking spree). His happy-go-lucky and fun character made him a favorite amongst the village people for he always saw the bright side of things. He had lots of friends from every corner of the village where he loved to hang out. Also good-looking, he had captivating eyes framed with thick eyebrows that “spoke” instead of looked. He was good with his hands. One time, before the war, an American came to the village and showed him many things he could do with his hands, he taught him tricks with little balls, cups, playing cards and coins. Amador used this to entertain his friends. When a friend was down and out, Amador was the person to talk to, to be with to brighten up one’s day. He also had a song or two, a riddle or two, to water down the heaviness of a problem. But though sometimes, the riddles Amador quoted bore an answer to a problem. With this disposition Fernando thought of him as unrealistic and too much fancy free, a bummer and a “istamby”(unemployed individual), a useless member in the village.
Thus Fernando decided to put his younger brother to work. His other siblings Damian and Pedro were noteworthy than Amador. Damian was a priest and Pedro attended a public high school of the village. The family owned hectares of coconut and riceland owned by their parents, Juan and Adela. They all lived in a stately house built during the American Occupation. To the village of San Jose, the Solidon family was one of its respected and affluent members of their community. So Amador Solidon was put to work by brother Fernando tending the ricefields and overseeing the planting and the harvest that repeated every rainy and dry season. This would diminish his roving ways, Fernando thought, and at least put order to his life and more income to the family coffers with everybody helping out. He was thinking of settling in the nearby big town of Taboanan, where he just opened up a rice outlet. There was good income in rice now for the demand of rice for export was quite high.
It was post-war Philippines and everybody was picking up where the Americans left off. The country just claimed their independence from the USA but yet the American presence was still there, it came as a tidal wave of new ways, new gadgets, new innovations, culture and trade. How easily his countrymen succumbed to the American ways he thought, why, even his brother Amador was totally taken by that American friend of his who taught him magic tricks and songs! Amador spoke of him all the years during war time and was disconcerted when he vanished from the village when war came. Now Amador sings songs to his friends he has heard from an American channelled radio program…”Gonna take a Sentimental Journey…”. Yes, no doubt Amador had a beautiful baritone voice and has captivated that pretty lass in Damian’s convent with it! So it was of Amador tending the fields and when he had time he would visit Josephine in the convent while she took care of the domestic chores there. Making dresses and embroidering the church linen came rarely those days. The country was slowly picking up the modernization of the western world and everything around came like a subtle culture shock. Usually Fernando came home from the strait port of Taboanan with magazines and reading materials with beautiful pictures of new household appliances now out in the Philippine market. There was the phonograph, a bread toaster and a freezer called Frigidaire…all which Fernando discussed with Amador saying that they would buy one when the harvest was good. Fernando was known for his successful scrimping, but it always paid off with a reasonable luxury one way or another. The household of the Solidon added more rooms and a “kamalig” (outhouse) where the field workers came in to deposit the sacks of palay, ready for the makeshift rice mill Fernando installed in the outhouse.
