Family

This story includes some words in Tagalog, the language of the Philippines. See the glossary at the end of the story. Today, Lina didn’t wake up from hunger, thirst, or the heat like she usually did. Today she woke up from the sound of voices. She looked at the rusty alarm clock on the shelf above her: 4:45 A.M. It was too early for voices. Tatay should still be at work. Lina looked over to her little brothers and sisters who lay sleeping on the floor beside her. Standing up, she tiptoed toward the voices, the old bamboo floors creaking with every step. Lina leaned up against the thin wall and listened. “I know, but they wouldn’t listen,” Lina’s father said loudly, not quite shouting, but almost. “But why you? Why did they fire you? You only missed three days! Tatlo!” You were sick!” her mother exclaimed, firmly holding up three fingers. “I know it is not fair, but it’s the way things are. I’ll find a new job, I promise,” her father assured her. “No, Miguel. You need to rest. I will find a job.” Her parents embraced each other. Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “Mahal kita.” “Mahal kita higit pa. I’ll check on the children. I hope we didn’t wake them,” her mother said. Lina quickly ran back into her room and pretended to be asleep, just as her mother peered in. Lina thought about everything she just heard. She knew that the next few weeks would be even tougher than usual. Her dad had lost his night job as a jeepney driver. He didn’t get paid that much, especially for their family of eight. Most of the money was spent on rent, the rest on food, which usually meant a cup of rice or soup. The food was barely enough to keep them alive. Lina’s family was interminably hungry, like everyone else in their village. Lina never said it aloud, but she always thought about money. She prayed every night that their family would be rich. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about anything. They could move out of the little shack, out of the slums, and into a beautiful house. They would replace all their rags with real clothes. Insufficient meals would become colossal feasts. Life would be easy. *          *          * Hours later, after the sun rose, Lina heard the door open. It was their father. “Magandang umaga, children. How did you sleep?” “Fine, Tatay,” all six children lied. They didn’t sleep well at all. The noise from the passing jeepneys outside was too loud, it was too hot, and the floor was too hard underneath them. “Nanay is out today. She will be back soon, but I’ll stay with all of you today, OK?” The children nodded and didn’t question their father. He loved them, and Lina knew, whatever decision he made was the best for them. If he said things would get better, they would. Nanay arrived later that evening. “I’m home! I have so much to tell you!” The children ran to the door to welcome their mother with big hugs. She continued, “I got a job as a house-cleaner in the middle of the city. The house is huge, like a castle!” Nanay exclaimed. Lina’s eyes opened wide. She could already imagine it, though she had seen houses like this only in her dreams. “And guess what, Lina? You can help me clean tomorrow and you can see it for yourself!” Lina was ecstatic. She hugged her mother tight and fell asleep to dreams of the house she’d soon see. *          *          * The next morning, Lina woke early and joined her mother on her commute to the city. Lina looked out the window of the jeepney and caught a glimpse of the huge mansions that lined the road. Wow, Lina thought. She was no longer in her village, that was for sure. Lina and her mother walked up the smooth, paved road until they both turned the corner and found themselves facing the biggest, most beautiful house of all. Lina had to tilt her head up in order to see all of it. The awe-inspiring mansion towered over her and glistened in the sun. It looked like something from the storybooks her mother used to read her. “Just wait until you see what’s inside,” her mother whispered. They ambled down the stone pavement leading to the massive white front door, and her mother pressed a strange button at its side. A loud ringing noise filled the house from the inside and the door swung open. She wished her life could be like this. She envied it all “Hello,” exclaimed a woman with peculiarly light-colored hair as she extended her hand out to both Lina and her mother. She was taller than anyone Lina had seen before. Her skin was so light, not like the usual tanned skin she was so familiar with. Lina didn’t realize how closely she was examining the woman until she started talking once again. “I am Ms. Barker. You must be Lina.” “Yes, ma’am,” Lina replied politely. The woman smiled and led them inside. Lina looked around and found herself in an enormous cream-colored room that seemed to glow in the light that overflowed from the large rectangular windows that dominated the walls. The floor wasn’t hard and creaky like Lina had been so used to; rather this floor was covered in an ancient-looking carpet that welcomed her feet with every step she took. A grand chandelier hung from the ceiling, making the room even more imposing. The room alone was bigger than her entire house. These people must be really rich, Lina thought to herself. She tried not to be, but she couldn’t help but feel jealous. She wanted to live here and have this much money. She wished her life could be like this. She envied it all. “I’ll show you what needs cleaning,” Ms. Barker said, looking over to Lina, who

“You know you’re not supposed to use the stove!” “Bye, guys!” Mom called as she shut the door behind her. I looked at my sister. “Can I watch TV?” That was one of the two questions that I asked Nava every time we were home alone. “No,” she said. “Can I have some ice cream?” She looked at me with her I-can’t-believe-what-I-have-to-live-with face and said, “What do you think?” “Humph!” I got up. Usually the answer to both the questions was no, so that didn’t surprise me. But every time, it was the same disappointment. I walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, stared into it for a second, and shut it. That was the routine. I walked back into the living room and sat down next to my sister with a thud. “There’s nothing to do!” I whined. “You know what, Bella?” Nava asked me. “What?” I asked. “Figure something out and leave me alone!!” She walked into her room and slammed the door. “Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” I said to no one in particular. I sat on the couch for a while, not doing anything. “Ow!” I whispered as our cat Brownie jumped onto my lap, claws first. She rubbed her head against me and purred. We named her Brownie because every inch of her body was the luscious color of the fudgy inside of a brownie. Looking at her, I thought about how much I loved her and how much I loved brownies when a thought went off in my head: I would make brownies. As I got out a pot and the ingredients, I decided that I would make a double batch, which wasn’t that much harder. I was melting the butter and chocolate on the stove, when Nava came out of her bedroom. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked, not looking up from the magazine she was reading. “Making brownies.” She looked up. “What? Bella, you didn’t ask! You know you’re not supposed to use the stove!” “Well, you didn’t say no.” “You didn’t give me the chance!!” “Well, if you hadn’t told me I couldn’t watch TV, I wouldn’t have had to do anything else!” “Oh, so now it’s my fault?” “Yeah, I had nothing to do and you didn’t care, so I had to figure it out on my own and I chose this.” “Well, excuse me, I was doing the best that I could. Would you like to try having the world’s most annoying person in the world as your sister?” “Well, you don’t even know my best friend’s name!” “Oh, I so do!” she yelled back. “Really? Then what’s her name?” “Ah, uh, Lila, she has been your best friend since kindergarten.” “Wrong, guess again,” I said. “Hmm, Mattie, she has always been one of your closest friends!” “See, you don’t even realize that the two people you just said are my two least favorite people at school! You don’t pay any attention to me. It’s all just you and your stupid friends. You have not hugged me since May 2010… It’s been like, what? Three years?!” “I hug you all the time. How about that time that you fell and had to get stitches on your knee, I hugged you then!” “No you didn’t, you stayed in the emergency room with me for two minutes, faking sympathy, and then you called your friends to come pick you up, and you left!” “You’re making that up.” “I am not!” I slammed my hand down on the counter, or I meant to slam it down on the counter, but instead I slammed it down on the only part of the burner that was not covered by the pot. I screamed and screamed so loud that probably everyone in the neighborhood could hear me. My sister freaked. She grabbed me and pulled me toward the sink and poured cold water over my hand. It didn’t help, it was bubbling and turning dark red. “Stay here,” Nava told me. She flew across the room, grabbing ice, turning off the stove, and pulling the plastic wrap out of a drawer. In seconds, before I knew it, she was back by the sink, dumping out all of the ice in the ice tray onto the counter. She grabbed my hand with one of hers and with the other she grabbed as much ice from the counter as she could. Putting all the ice in her hand onto mine, she quickly cut a piece of plastic wrap and wrapped it around my hand, holding the ice in place. This soothed the pain enough for me to stop screaming. Nava grabbed her keys and rushed me out the door. She jumped into the front seat as I slid in the back. Closing the door and quickly buckling up, she took off. She was only sixteen and wasn’t supposed to be driving other people yet, but she could pass for eighteen and this was an emergency. She drove me to the nearest children’s hospital, which was only a few blocks away. She slid into the nearest parking space and jumped out, followed by me, and we ran into the emergency room. A few hours later we came out with Mom and Dad. My hand was newly bandaged with some kind of hospital bandage that felt so good that multiple times I forgot it was even there. I thought of all the questions I was going to get at school and what I was going to say to them. I wasn’t sure if I would tell people that I had gotten into a fight with Nava or I would just say that I had put my hand on a burner. The doctor had said that Nava had done the right thing, making the ice bandage and taking me to the hospital so quickly. Mom and Dad were so proud of how we handled the situation that they were going to ease