Ang Pamamanhikan. Bow.

Writer's note: This entry is part 2 of a series that took place a couple of weeks ago. The entire entry has been finished already, but my beloved editor and I agreed that releasing it in 1 blog entry would be too much. We ended up breaking up the story into a number of parts. Also, to avoid confusion, we'll be including the actual dates when these event actaully occured.

July 17, 2006

It's a Sunday afternoon. It's a bit rainy, but other than that, everything is ok. You don't have work today. You actually have the free time that you've been looking forward to all week. What to do... what to do...

There's Church, although some choose to go to mass earlier in the morning, rather than the afternoon. You can visit the gym- sayang naman yung membership fee kung di mo gagamitin dbia? You can try calling up your friends and officemates and meet up at b_connected @ Greenbelt or Phoenix @ Jaka Center for a DOTA session. Or if you don't feel like going out, you cna just stay home, grab a book or the TV Remote, put your feet up and relax.

On top of my head, I can think of many (un)productive things to do on a Sunday. Being in a middle of a crowd of strangers while being asked if I'm there to ask Emma's hand for marriage is not one of them.

Pat's voice still rang in my head. "Namamanhikan".

Imagine watching a fragile vase falling in slow motion. You know its going to break and you can't do anything about it. You can only watch while the inevitable takes place. The vase hits the floor and the glass shatters into a pieces with a loud piercing crash. It takes a couple of seconds to sink in, but as soon as the brain processes the information, you know all the kings horses and all the king's men will not be enough to put humpty dumpty together again.

"Magpapakasal kayo?"
"Kelan ang kasal?"
"Kayo na ni Emma?"
"Kelan pa?"
"Pano ka nya sinagot?"
"Hindi nga?"
"Eh diba may girlfriend ka na?"
"Pano magiging kayo eh para na kayong magkapatid?"
"Magnobyo na pala kayo, bat di mo man lang sinabi?"
"Madalas ba kayo mag date?"
"Eh lagi kayong nag-aaway diba?"
"Matagal na ba kayo?"

Questions after questions came, but I did not dare give an answer. All that left my lips was embarassed laughter. It's not that I can't answer their questions myself, but I thought that Emma would prefer to answer them herself, because after all, this is her family, and I'm just the person that she happened to tag along.

"Its out now," I thought. after the initial questions, Emma's relatives began stating their hypotheses and opinions (some of them weren't exactly nice, but they were under the guise of jokes.), but I just ignored them. Pasok sa kaliwa, labas sa kanan. My cheeks begin to hurt from smiling, hoping that my non-response would make the qestions stop. In my head, I can't get rid of the mother of all interrogatives that Aunty Lo asked (no pun intended):

"Alam ba ng magulang nyo yan?"

I knew things were becoming serious when some of the mahjong players stood up to get a better view of the interrogation.

"Asan na ba yang batang yan?" asked Tito Fred. The Alpha male spoke, and everyone else around me fell silent. "EMMA!"

So... Where was Emma when all these was happening? She was inside the kitchen, washing Apple's hands after eating ice cream, totally oblivious that I was surrounded be around a dozen of her relatives, each is eager to know the story between us.

"PO?" Emma responded to tito Fred's calls.

"LIKA NGA DITO SAGLIT."

Tito Fred's voice was loud. Its not loud enough to be a shout, but it was modulated and I knew it caught the attention of everyone in the terrace. I couldn't determine if he was angry or not, but I felt a bit... harassed.

"Bakit po?" Emma asked, finally stepping out from aluminum swinging door. She walked straight to Tito Fred and took his hand andraised it gently to her forehead.

"Yang baon mo, mamamanhikan na raw"

"Sino may sabi?"

"Si Patricia," told Tito Fred. I would've loved to raise my hand and point it accusingly at the culprit.

Emma knew that she didn't have to ask. Pat is the only one she told about the blog. She gave an angry look at Pat's direction. Pat, on the other hand, was grinnig.

I thought it was ironic that Pat's grin looked very similar to Emma's. Among her female cousins, it was Pat who looked like Emma the most. Also, I have to state that it is an established fact that Emma looks prettier than Pat. If I don't, I'll be cooking my own meals for at least a week. (Editor's note: make that a month)

I thought that they would have a staredown, but Emma turned her attention to me instead.

Emma is a genius at mind games. I could never win against her. She can easily get away from tight situations without breaking a sweat. I know this because since we were young, I was her co-conspirator. As do all children, we took matters into our own hands to avoid being grounded and scolded. Believe me, conspiring under the watchful eyes of two single moms is a difficult task. We found it necessary to communicate without the use of words. Because of this, we got to know each other so well, we can finish each other's sentences. I dare say we can practically read each other's minds (well, at least Emma could. She can still catch me off guard, which, I must confess, is kind of a turn on lol).

At the very moment Emma looked at me, her eyes were enough ot tell me that she has a plan, and if we were to survive the day, I would have to ride with it.

Emma began by reacting to Tito Fred's statement. "Yuuuuck, yan? Ew!" she revolted.

Ouch. Pandirian daw ba.

"Eh di nga makapagcommit sa girlfriend nya, mamamanhikan pa?" she added.

Hey. C'mon. Below the belt na yata yan ah.

Pat began to chant "LQ! LQ! LQ!"

"Nako isa ka pa. Pahamak ka rin eh"

"Teka...so... hindi kayo?", one of her male cousins asked.

"Nako... May girlfriend na yan no," she said and she walked over at the mahjong table to take a seat. Clever girl. See? She's already walking away from the issue.

"Baka naman di makapag commit dahil sayo," one her tita's said.

"Ewan ko ba dyan."

Ok... I'm now labelled as a guy who can't commit. I think I liked it better when I was being confronted with the pamamanhikan accusation.

I didn't mind all the teasing and attention I'm getting earlier, but Emma's "disgusted" and "he can't commit" remarks kept gnawing at the back of my mind. Sobra naman to. Do I really have commitment problems? I began to think that Emma's words were half meant rants. It felt like Emma is angry at me for a reason and rather than tell me about it, she wants me to realize it myself.

The tension has died down. Nothing to see here, false alarm kuno. Some of the crowd began walking away and going about their business.

The mahjong players started playing and the sound of the shuffling of mahjong pieces has masked Emma's comment and I wasn't able to understand. I walked back into the house to give Apple the icecream cone thats been melting in my hand. From the corner of my eye, I can see Emma's relatives staring at me and I'm sure I can hear them whispering as well.

Oh boy... This party is far from over.