Finding Your Roots

Arrival

"Oh, damn, it's humid."

Mom looked at me funny, "'Nak, don't curse ha?"

I nodded and apologized under my breath. I don't know why, but I was just not feeling so social right now. Yes, this is my decision to move, but I'm here now and I don't feel so good about it. I walked out of the airport with a helper pushing the rolling cart with our luggages and Dad speaking to him in full on Tagalog. I can only understand a few words so I quit trying to eavesdrop.

I walked behind Mom. She whispered for me to hold my MK tote closer to my body. I shrugged.

We stopped right in the middle of everyone's way for Mom to scan the crowd of people for Tita and her family who were assigned to pick us up today. I saw 3 signs that indicated that 3 Garcia families were being picked up today, none of them were for our Garcia family. It was me that first saw my cousin Evan walk out of the crowd and screamed, "Tita Lisa! Tito David!"

My mom turned towards Evan and almost ran. I raised an eyebrow. I think seeing Evan just made my day.

-

Evan opened the door to Kuya Jamie's Toyota Camry for me to enter. Mom and Dad got into Tita and Tito's Hyundai Tucson. "Tara, you're gonna love it at The Ateneo." Kuya Jamie looked at me through the rearview mirror. Kuya Jamie, a current employee of the business aspect of Nestlé and a graduate of the John Gokongwei School of Management in The Ateneo, was a pretty safe bet. I nodded towards his way and sat back, thinking of the life I had just left behind. I swallowed the part of me that was scared half to death about a new adventure that I'm facing.

Evan turned around to face me as we took a right towards South Luzon Express Way. "You know what, kambal, you'll need to learn your Tagalog around here." My eyes widened, that's not what Mom had told me. I mean, yes I know I have to know my basics of the Filipino language, but what was I going to do if I had to read in Tagalog, talk constantly in Tagalog? My life just flashed ahead of me.

"Kambal, you'll need to guide me. I know you're going to Ateneo, also, you'll need to have my back." I said. Evan passed me a double stuffed Oreo cookie, and I devoured it entirely without much chewing. 

"You know I will. Pero parang we need to get you used to speaking in Tagalog, ha?"

-

Mom put the last of my bags down in front of the house for Tita Nat's driver, Manong Niño, to pick up and bring to their guest room in the 2nd floor. I tilted my head back as I stepped out of the Camry with Evan right behind me. "Nice house, Ev." I said. He nodded at me, grabbing my MK bag out of my hands.

"Yeah, it's alright. Mom and Dad worked on this house around '05. Remember when you went here for the first time in '04 for Ate Leilani to pick a college dito sa Pinas? We lived in Forbes Park then."

I said I remembered. I remembered their Spanish but still a little modern inspired house in Makati where I stayed, along with Ate Lei and Kuya Leo, while our parents stayed at a hotel in Quezon City along with the younger ones. Their house was situated in the middle of the lot with surrounding trees, a front and back patio, a garden full of different flowers, a wading pool, and a big oval shaped pool to its right with a fountain emphasizing its size. I can't believe they moved out of that house. "Why did you guys move?"

"Kasi Mom and Dad wanted their own house where they can call it their own, whereas that house back in Makati was basically my Dad's Mom's house. And so they sold it, created a new house from scratch, and here we are at Ayala Alabang!" He walked into the house and their house help walked up to me and asked if I needed her tulong with the bag that I was still holding. I smiled at her and said I was alright, honest.

I took slow steps towards the front door and found myself in a hallway, a big mirror to my right and a  dark wood table under it with a china vase, and a row of pictures on my left framed in similar dark wood with personalized engravings of names under them: Brian. Natalia. John. Evander. Laura. Vincent. Raphael. I think that's just about the cutest thing I've seen all day.

To the right of the pictures was a cracked door, so I put my nose inside and saw neatly folded white towels. I stepped out of the closet and walked into the living room area. "Tita, this is wonderful house, you have going on." They giggled at me and shyly said thank you.

"'Nak, you're going to stay with your Tito and Tita here while we look for a condo, alright?" Dad looked at me. I nodded.

"Yeah, that's cool." My parents were planning to find a condo for me instead of staying with my tita and tito here in Muntinlupa, which is a good 40 minutes to an hour away from Ateneo. "I mean, it's alright if I go with you guys, right? Picking out a condo?"

Two other house hold help came out of the kitchen through the dining room with a tray of yellow colored juice, too light to be orange juice and still too light to be mango juice, I thanked them when they set one on top of a saucer in front of me. "Atara, this is Nanang Kelly," Tita Nat waved to the elder looking woman and the only one in a white maid's uniform, "Madel," now to the young looking woman in dark blue, as was the other help near the front door, "These are our yayas in the house, if you need absolutely anything, sakanila ka lang pumunta especially if no one else is in the house. Pero as I tell your cousins, hindi dapat over the top ang ipagagawa natin sakanila because they are also very much part of the family, alright?" I nodded at her.

"Hi, po." I said.