LOVE IN THE CORNHUSK

Ctto: By Aida Rivera-Ford

Tinang stopped before the Señora’s gate and adjusted the baby’s cap. The

dogs that came to bark at the gate were strange dogs, big-mouthed animals with a

sense of superiority. They stuck their heads through the hogfence, lolling their

tongues and straining. Suddenly, from the gumamela row, a little black mongrel

emerged and slithered through the fence with ease. It came to her, head down and

body quivering.

“Bantay. Ay, Bantay!” Tinang was surpise and her baby was cried. Tito command the

dog to stop barking.

Tito had seen her and was calling to his mother. “Ma, it’s Tinang. He came running

down to open the gate.

Tinang notices the veranda stairs line with ferns and many - colored bougainvillea

that he took care when she became the maid. She also concerned about the purple

waling - waling that she love to took care before must be covering from the hot sun.

The Señora called Tinang to get inside. “Tinang, let me see your baby. Is it a boy?”

Yes, Señora and the ears are huge.

Señora replied “What do you expect Tinang? “The father is a Bagobo. Even you looks

like a Bagobo now.”

Señora offered her sofa to Tinang to sat as a first time visitor. Then he asked Tinang

that she can carry her baby. Tinang replied with smile and giving her baby to Señora.

How are you Tinang? is it not a good thing to be married?” the Señora asked, pitying

Tinang because her dress gave way at the placket and pressed at her swollen

breasts. It was, as a matter of fact, a dress she had given Tinang a long time ago.

“It is hard, Señora, very hard. Better that I were working here again.”

“There!” the Señora said. “Didn’t I tell you what it would be like, huh? … That you

would be a slave to your husband and that you would work a baby eternally strapped

to you. “Come, I will give you some dresses and an old blanket that you can cut into

things for the baby.”

Tinang asked Señora, “How is Señor?”

Señora replied, he is always losing his temper over the tractor drivers. It is not the

way it was when Amado was here. You remember what a good driver he was. The

tractors were always kept in working condition. But now I wonder why he left all of a

sudden. He said he would be gone for only two days but he did not come back.

The baby is crying due to hungry that’s why Señora told to Tinang to come to the

kitchen.

For the next hour, Tinang sat in the kitchen with an odd feeling; she watched

the girl who was now in possession of the kitchen work around with a handkerchief.

She set down a can of evaporated milk for the baby and served her coffee and cake.

The Señora drank coffee with her and lectured about keeping the baby’s stomach

bound and training it to stay by itself so she could work. Finally, Tinang brought up,
haltingly, with phrases like “if it will not offend you” and “if you are not too busy” the

purpose of her visit — which was to ask Señora to be a madrina in baptism. The

Señora readily assented and said she would provide the baptismal clothes and the

fee for the priest. It was time to go.

“When are you coming again, Tinang?” the Señora asked as Tinang got the baby

ready. “Don’t forget the bundle of clothes. You better stop by the drugstore. They

asked me once whether you were still with us. You have a letter there and I was

going to open it to see if there was bad news but I thought you would be coming.”

A letter! Tinang’s heart beat violently. She think negatively that somebody is

dead. She hurried and went to the drugstore to get the letter.

The man pulled a box and slowly went through the pile of envelopes most of

which were scribbled in pencil. He finally pulled out a letter and handed it to her. She

stared at the unfamiliar scrawl. It was not from her sister and she could think of no

one else who could write to her.

The rains had made a deep slough of the clay road and Tinang followed the
prints left by the men and the carabaos that had gone before her to keep from
sinking mud up to her knees. She was deep in the road before she became
conscious of her shoes.
There must be a place to put the baby down, she thought, desperate now
about the letter. She walked on until she spotted a corner of a field where cornhusks
were scattered under a kalamansi tree. She shoved together a pile of husks with her
foot and laid the baby down upon it. With a sigh, she drew the letter from the
envelope. She stared at the letter, which was written in English.

My dearest Tinay,
 Hello, how is life getting along? Are you still in good condition? As for
myself, the same as usual. But you’re far from my side. It is not easy to be far from
our lover.
Tinay, do you still love me? I hope your kind and generous heart will never
fade. Someday or somehow I’ll be there again to fulfill our promise.
Many weeks and months have elapsed. Still I remember our bygone days.
Especially when I was suffering with the heat of the tractor under the heat of the
sun. I was always in despair until I imagine your personal appearance coming
forward bearing the sweetest smile that enabled me to view the distant horizon.
Tinay, I could not return because I found that my mother was very ill. That
is why I was not able to take you as a partner of life. Please respond to my missive
at once so that I know whether you still love me or not. I hope you did not love
anybody except myself.
I think I am going beyond the limit of your leisure hours, so I close with best
wishes to you, my friends Gonding, Sefarin, Bondio, etc.
Yours forever,
Amado
P.S. My mother died last month.
Address your letter:
Mr. Amado Galauran
Binalunan, Cotabato

It was Tinang’s first love letter. A flush spread over her face and crept into her
body. She read the letter again. “It is not easy to be far from our love. I imagine your
personal appearance coming forward. Someday, somehow I’ll be there to fulfill our
promise.” Tinang was intoxicated. She pressed herself against the kalamansi tree.

My lover is true to me. He never meant to desert me. Amado, she thought. Amado.

And she cried, remembering her past when she became a maid in a wealthy
family. Her eyes is full of sadness and tears falling down. She thought herself above
them for she was always neat and clean in her hometown, before she went away to
work, she had gone to school and had reached sixth grade. Her skin, too, was not as
dark as those of the girls who worked in the fields weeding around the clumps of
abaca. Her lower lip jutted out disdainfully when the farm hands spoke to her with
many flattering words. She laughed when a Bagobo with two hectares of land asked
her to marry him. It was only Amado, the tractor driver, who could look at her and
make her lower her eyes. He was very dark and wore filthy and torn clothes on the
farm.

Tinang wrote back to Amado. Hoping that they can meet together and starting
building their family together.

My dearest Amado,
Your letter is always my dream. Thank you for the letter that you send. I am
in good condition together with our child name Amado Jr. and still hoping that you
come back. And wishing you hug tightly. I hope you are in good health and stay
strong despite of losing your mother. Please come back. My love to you is never
fade. I love you my Amado.

Love,
Tinang
Address your letter:
Ms. Constantina Tirol
Cainta, Rizal

While Tinang busy writing the letter. A little green snake slithered languidly
into the tall grass a few yards from the kalamansi tree. Tinang started violently and
remembered her child. It lay motionless on the mat of husk. With a shriek she
grabbed it wildly and hugged it close. The baby awoke from its sleep and cries
lustily. Ave Maria Santisima! Do not punish me, she prayed.

One day, Señora called Tinang to come back to their home as soon as
possible because somebody searching her. Tinang hoping that it was Amado. When
Tinang near from the house of Señora. She saw a man and her imagination was
Amado but it was true. They are excited to meet again and hugging tightly. While
they are hugging, they’re eyes is full of tears and so much happy. Then Amado talk
his child, seeing from they’re eyes missing each other. Then Amado talk Tinang to
marry him and Tinang accepted it.

Time passed, Amado and Tinang are married and starting building their family
into a happy, productive and loving family. They live happily and contented.