The Lipstick General by Reine Bautista Mercado

Author:Reine Bautista Mercado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: feminist literature, women's literature, women writers, historical fiction, alternative historical fiction, historical fantasy, asian writer, asian literature, philippine literature, literary fiction
Publisher: Meihudie Publishing
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part Four

I WAITED PATIENTLY while remaining seated on her living room couch. It was a beige or, perhaps, light brown L-shaped lounge that was faded with age and stained and torn in some parts with eventful memories. I sat there reviewing my notes about our interview and formulating new questions to ask her until she appeared by her kitchen door and beckoned me over.

‘Come, let’s eat!’, she cried.

I immediately got up and made my way into the kitchen. A small and square wooden table stood pressed against the inner wall and surrounded by three plastic chairs on each free side. On it simmered a clay pot filled with soup from whose smell I could easily tell that it was sinigang. Whether it was pork or fish or, perhaps, even prawns, I was still uncertain. Beside it, laid a plate filled with a mound of rice and another plate filled with stir-fried vegetables—I could only recognise kangkong. The last item on the table was an oval-shaped dish filled with fried banana plantains drizzled with white sugar.

‘Sit down’, she commanded and gestured as she placed a rather huge pitcher of water and three glasses on the table. I complied and asked her:

‘Did you cook all of these’?

‘Not all by myself’, she replied. ‘I have Pina to help me’.

A small and stout woman with short and curly hair, which reminded me of the beloved iron lady senator whom we had recently lost, entered the kitchen from the backdoor. She was carrying a freshly sliced jackfruit that was almost as big as her upper body. She asked Miss Rosanna if she should pick apart the fruit right at that moment and the latter responded that it could be done later. She left the fruit by the sink and joined us at the table.

‘This is Pina’, Miss Rosanna said as she pointed swiftly to the other woman. ‘She has been my helper ever since Jimeno died. It was the children who hired her to do it, you know, because I would have never agreed to it and say that it was unnecessary. I can manage by myself. But she just appeared at my door one day and stayed here ever since’.

The two women laughed and shared a warm friendly look with each other. Miss Pina was obviously a lot younger for her hair and skin did not betray any signs of her age except for a few wrinkles around her eyes.

‘Go on, let’s eat!’, Miss Rosanna said as she handed me the plate of rice.

I picked up the serving spoon and served myself with two full scoops. She then gave me the plate of stir-fried vegetables and I helped myself with it once again as she filled a small bowl with soup and meat from the clay pot. It was pork.

‘Here’, she said as she handed me the bowl. ‘We cooked it with fresh tamarind, you know, not using the instant mix that you can buy from the store. I also used the taro tubers from the backyard.

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