Luh Akin 'Yan || Badjao De Castro

chapter 1

MAGNUM TROSTLE GETS NERVOUS FOR  a number of things. [1] waiting to say "present" for the attendance check, [2] when you're next in line but your mum leaves you at the counter to get "just one more thing", and [3] trying to get a taxi in the Philippines.

To be honest, the entire Philippines just made Magnum Trostle more nervous than she ever had and will be. It took a lot of courage for Magnum to walk out of her plane, face the hot af sun and then finally, try to get a taxi.

Magnum manages to do so, after half an hour, because either someone suddenly appears out of nowhere and rides the taxi before her or the driver gave up trying to talk in English. Since, Magnum forgot to tell them that she could understand Filipino, she just didn't look like it.

She can't blame them, or anyone. Magnum was as pale as a ghost. She didn't look like a Filipino nor had a drop of their blood in her. Magnum simply had a lot of relative-in-laws (is that a real thing?) in her family, ever since she was small.

Magnum was born and raised in New Jersey, and nearly half of her neighbors were Filipinos, she was even classmates with a few. Though Magnum had to admit, she didn't like them people. Because she had been bullied about it.

But here she was, a day after her 22th birthday, all by herself, in the Philippines.

"Para po!" she calls out, hoping she finally gets a ride. Indeed, Magnum does get a ride and easily slides in with a single hiking backpack, that was all she had. "Kuya, alam mo po ba kung saan ako makakabili ng phone?"  Magnum tries to keep all her words in Filipino. The driver was confused at first, maybe it was her accent. 

"Like," she even adds, though she tries to avoid it. "second handed ones lang, pero maayos?"

"Ah, alam ko po kung saan ma'am"

And in a matter of minutes, Magnum found herself outside of  a sari-sari store, was it? They sold what they do in convenient stores, why would there be a phone here?

But the driver said that they recently got a new iPhone, a second-handed one, being sold for a much more lower price. "Excuse me po?"  Magnum knocked on their wooden counter.

"Ha, sino naman yan?" someone had eyed Magnum uneasily. "What do you need?"

"Oh, English" Magnum was delighted, then gets straight to the point. "Do you happen to sell second-handed iPhones?"

"Ah, yes, sure miss, wait lang!"

Magnum knew that something was different once she managed to choose which phone she wanted. The phone was plain black with an orange lock screen with a white spade in the center. Magnum loved it, even purchasing a light blue case for it.

Though Magnum didn't think that her new second-handed phone could lead her to the rising IV of Spades.

She didn't even know who they were.