Pinoy historical romance: Intramuros

Pinoy historical romance: Intramuros - Part 2

Walking to the headquarters, Corporal Manuel thought about the whole thing. Three weeks, he thought. The dog was long gone by now and was most likely dead and/or eaten, he thought grimly of other people's practices. He looked at the sketch again. It was definitely a pet dog and with a pink bow on her head, the kind only rich people would have. He looked at the sketch once more and realized that "Francia" was written on the bottom corner of the sketch. He stopped walking for a moment.

Was this Francisita, like the one in the portrait? Francisita was an affectionate version of Francia that's reserved for a young woman, right? So Francisita likely made the drawing. She's an artist and not just a pretty face, he thought happily and started walking again.

He looked more closely at the sketch, as if the paper could help him see through Francisita's soul. He was so intent on looking at the paper, he was almost run over by a horse-drawn vegetable delivery wagon. He quickly rolled the Foo-Foo parchment, as he now thought of the sketch, and jogged to the civil guard headquarters.

Inside, he went straight to the section of the room which dealt with local law enforcement, to his desk at the corner of the big room. He actually shared his desk with two other corporals, since there were a lot of them. The boss of their section, who was a sergeant, had his own desk at one well-lit part of the section. The higher-ranking officers were in another part of the headquarters, each having a bigger desk of their own in a room where they can have bookshelves and occasional visitors. Most of the officers were insulars and some peninsulars, who were pure-blood Spaniards born in Spain. Donia Victoriana would love them, Corporal Manuel thought, remembering the donia's face when he talked about his background. He looked around and realized that none of his co-desk owners were in the headquarters so he reached for a chair and sat. Trying to ignore Francisita's name in the corner, Corporal Manuel looked carefully at the Foo-Foo parchment.

It was clearly made much earlier, probably a year ago, since the sketch was of a puppy not of a full-grown dog. The puppy was also standing on its two hind legs, its forelegs in the air and its mouth open in a smile. It was probably not smiling but panting with the effort, he thought. But he also thought that the dog was somewhat intelligent if it could be trained to stay still in that position for a drawing session. He had to ask the servants to give him more information about Foo-Foo, he thought then realized that he was caressing the name Francia on the paper's corner. It's a little smudged now since the name and sketch was all done in pencil and charcoal, but he didn't really care very much. But he did roll it so he can return to Donia Victoriana if he solved this case. If ever.