moirai

ching

One lazy weekend afternoon, Maine was at Rj's house. This had become their 'ritual'. If they didn't have plans on their days off, they'd hang out at each others' houses – Saturdays at Rj's, Sundays at Maine's. They would watch movies or play board games or play video games. Sometimes, Dean or Rizza would tag along.

This particular Saturday, Maine was at Rj's house. They had just watched a flick on Rj's computer in his room and she was lying on his bed, flicking through her phone. He had gone down to check on their merienda which he had requested Nanay to prepare – his favourite, pancit with ketchup! Maine found this combination a bit odd when she first found out about it but she too, had her own food quirk – topping isaw bits on ice cream....mango ice cream.

She could still hear sounds coming from the outside of the room like Rizza calling on the helper for something she was looking for or Rj's dad calling for the driver because he was leaving to go somewhere. Maine heard Rj's mom say something like....

"Rj....hijo....Ching....."

At first, Maine didn't mind it. It was none of her business anyway. But she became curious when she heard Rj repeat "Ching" (or "Jing") several times. She decided to just keep quiet about it. She didn't know what it was about anyway. And it wasn't in her to pry into other people's business also.

Several days passed and Maine almost forgot the name she heard at Rj's house. Work had kept them pretty occupied during the week so they barely spoke about anything else.

"How was work?" Rj would often ask when he'd pick her up from work. He didn't get to do this very often as he was also busy with his own work. She would sigh heavily and just rest her head on his shoulders. He knew how stressed she was depending on how deep her sigh was or where she'd rest her head on him.

"I like my work...kadamo lang sang himu-on..." (there's just a lot to do) she would often reason out. He would listen to her rants about her work load.

To de-stress, she would belt out to showtunes, mostly in his car. He liked listening to showtunes even before but now, he enjoyed his "free concerts" even more.

One typical Thursday evening, while in his car, she was again "concertizing" to random showtunes that would play (they had set her phone on shuffle) and they were giggling at wrong lyrics or intentional out of tune singing. She noticed that his phone kept on lighting up indicating a message or call which he had been ignoring for a while.

After about more an hour of ignoring the consistent flashing of light she nudged him to check on it. "Why aren't you checking your phone? Basi it's important na..."

He picked up his phone from the car stand and flicked through it, his face being illuminated by the light from the screen.

She saw how his expression changed from serious to almost disgust to a smile and to an even bigger smile. She was curious again but, like always, she kept quiet about it.

Then, one weekend at Rj's house again, she heard Nanay, Tita Rio and Rizza all mention the name "Ching" or "Jing" again while Maine was in Rj's room. The three people whom she heard the name spoken by all sounded quite happy when they said it.

"Makadto diri si Ching?" (Ching's coming over?) Rizza excitedly asked.

"Hu-o...daw ka dugay na sang last time..." (Yes! It's been a while since the last time....) Tita Rio exclaimed...

"Ay! Sigurado nga happy gid si Oy-oy kung mabal-an nya na makadto di si Ching...." (I'm sure Oy-oy would be very happy if he finds out Ching is coming over) Nanay said.

"Makadto di si Ching?!....San-o?" (Ching is coming?....when?) Maine heard Rj ask enthusiastically. "San-o?!" he repeated

Her mind was racing now. "Sin-o si Ching?!" (Who is Ching?) she asked herself. She wanted to run out the room and ask them who this "Ching" person was. She was hoping she could ask Rizza but she wasn't sure. She wanted to confront Rj but she wasn't sure either. She just kept everything to herself and tried to act as normal as she could when Rj was around.