The Kims barely had any room for their family and much less for two growing girls. Their straw-roofed house was a giant bedroom at night. In the morning and in the afternoon, a dining table would be pulled out for meals.While at midday, it would be a place for Yerin's mother to do her sewing and bakery wrapping when she was not present at the family store.
So if they were to stay in their abode, conditions were set. The first condition included helping out at the bakery. And so they worked. They accompanied Madame Kim to her daily market trips in restless Manila, to the chatty tindero who sold them the best coconuts, and to the famous strawberry fields of Baguio for the sweetest fruits best for the pastries. The second condition declared that on Sundays, the girls would join the Kims at mass to thank the Saviour.
The third condition required them to go to school. Madame Kim was very strict about this, she strongly believed in women's education. Though paying for two more girls to send to school would cost her, she did not hesitate. As a result, on the weekdays the girls would go to a local makeshift hut. It was where the best-educated would teach children how to read and write in english.
Anna dreaded school. She thought that it was a blessing to be able to touch a book, but the trip there and back was unbearable. Sometimes they would to hitch-hike on a passing Willy Jeep (which would later become the popular jeepney) that a kind American soldier would be driving in. Other times, they had to walk for a mile in their slippers to get to the shelter. Sometimes, she would receive blisters as a result of the thongs of her slipper irritated the space between her big toe and the index toe. On some days it would rain, drowning their feet in mud, while other times it would be scorching hot and they would enter class with their clothes sticking tightly onto their skin as if they were mud suckers. When Anna complained, her adoptive mother would just scold her and lecture her about how lucky the former was.
Meanwhile, Yerin's father would just laugh and smile. Anna would always remember him that way. A kind, loving man, who always smiled. In fact, he was the one who convinced Madame Kim to let the girls live in their home.
Finally the last condition: Always eat dinner with the family. Madame Kim was much more strict on this rule than the previous. She was a family woman who wanted her family to eat together on the small dining table that they all shared. There, they would not only eat the small portions of rice and fish that Yerin's father can acquire, but they would also share how their day went and address the problems that they needed to solve. However, if you came home after curfew, you will not receive dinner.
This daily routine cycled for two more years or so. During in which, the sisters' father had been killed in the death march. There was a funeral for an unrecognizable corpse. The sisters wailed as if they were children all over again. Anna and Maria were now officially orphans and continued to live with the Kims.
As time passed, they began to call Madame Kim, "Mother." Anna and Yerin became closer and such experts in each other's vocabulary to the point where they can differentiate between a curse word or a compliment. Everything was fine for a while and it seemed as if all was normal.
Little did they know that the deadly battle came approached as the days turned into weeks. Which in turn, became months. Until the day became February 3, 1945. The start of a tragedy that would be overlooked by society.
On one of the days that the women of the Kim household went out for their weekly grocery-trip, Anna had been taught a song. This song was special. The lyrics would forever be embedded in older Anna.
"Oy, Maria is sick," the matriarch had told the younger girls that Sunday morning, "I'll take care of her and the two of you go and fetch the supplies. No baewae 'kay? No loitering 'kay?" The girls giggled but agreed and set off for the market. They hitch-hiked there safely as if it were a normal day and gathered as much as of the supplies as they needed earlier than expected. So, of course, they forgot their mother's concern, and went on an adventure. With the spare change, the girls were able to to stuff their faces with small balut eggs and gigantic fish balls fresh out of the fryer by the tindera. The fisherman's wife sold them the snacks for a little over sixty pesos and even offered them a drink.
"Ahh," Anna let out a satisfied sigh after she had taken a sip of her plastic-bagged soda that complimented the fried delights. Meanwhile, Yerin struggled to sip out the soupy liquid of the chick, until Anna offered to help her. Yerin agreed and watched as adopted sister broke the shell effortlessly, allowing easy access to the contents. Yerin received the egg back and drank until it was only the best part that was last. "Ang sarap no?" Anna said after Yerin swallowed her snack. After living in the Philippines for a few years now, Yerin was finally able to eat the unusual delicacy without gagging.
"Mashiseo" Yerin replied. On the way home, they slid skewered bananas off the sticks with their teeth for dessert that they had bought with the extra spare change. They passed by other advertising tinderos and their products that varied from noisy chickens, squealing pigs, wooden toys, produce, and colorful flowers that contrasted with the day's approaching tragedy.
YOU ARE READING
Because They Were Here
Tiểu thuyết Lịch sửIt was preventable. It was real. It wasn't fake. It happened. This is based on my Lola's story, but most of it is fiction. But what they did was true.
