SOPHIA'S DREAMS

The night had been the same as always; tuck on the bed while listening to the soothing silence of the night. Though rarely, light flashes and the sound of a rusty gate opening from a house by Lopinto street triggers me to fall into the darkness. It was just a look over my window. I've assumed the guy arriving late at night to be a fiancé or husband of a woman there. Creating stories and thinking of what could be going on while they ate dinner.

I changed my position into that of looking into the ceiling while my knee rose and the other curled rightly to my other. It was a bearing night. A balancing in the middle. Creating shadows in one and an undisturbed pool of light in the other.

I thought of Kaley's proposal to be an assistant and he was sort of respectful of my minding of it.

I grabbed open my laptop and researched the job catalogs to find any clue about my living situation. As a silent teenager back then, I've enjoyed the adventure of sleuths, and now, I have the chance. Crime doesn't often happen but it also isn't a rarity, we are swimming in a pool of variable occurrences. Although one thing was sure for me, whatever lies ahead was out of my mind. And that was enough for me.

~

After we've settled into slumber last night, I've actually been awake carefully planning and thinking about the offer I was given. This PA job is ideal for me right now. I've been looking for ways to actually get off the ground and get my life moving, but something is holding me back. With unease, I started to pace and ended up on the living room sofa trying to use the flow of information present on the television to distract myself from the choice I have to make.

With my arms around my knees, I started watching a show called Rose to which I understand to be a story of a woman burdened with a secret only she knows and an innocent man accused of a crime he didn't commit. On the history channel showed a documentary about the fall of a dictator and why his generation became hell for his people. Tough shows for a tough night, I thought. It was as if the world saying "Tabula Rasa! Elaine. Tabula Rasa. Don't you want it?"

I made up my choice.

~

"I accept," I said while looking at Kaley eating his breakfast. His disheveled look reminded me of an energy conservative protagonist. His pajamas of stripes of blue and cream really spoke of the thought "I just woke up."

"Alright. You were already hired yesterday though," he said as he pounded on the hotdog he wrapped around a bread.

"What is my task then? Should we discuss this arrangement?"

"I'll email you with the details tomorrow, for now... we'll need to go on a date."

For a minute I got flustered then eventually realized what he meant by it. The arrangement that I didn't agree to eventually changed to something I did.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, a white van had stopped in front of the house. A woman carrying a light-purplish dress in covers waved at me from the ground. The cheeks making my eyes disappear had only communicated the words hello.

I walked the talk to her as I climbed down the stairs.

"I'm assuming you're in," she gave me the sunglass tilt look. She rocked a black dress with a see-through net fabric going around her collar bones to her shoulder. Her black heels tapped as she walked closer to me. Her soft white skin was something to be jealous of. Her lips were bright red, so was her scarlet hair.

"I was obviously bribed, but am still not sure," I opened the gate as I talked. "I was offered a job."

"I could tell, well, I would guess. Come on now, I'm already here with the dress, don't let it go to waste. I've been excited to give you the look too," she flipped the side of the covers and showed me a bag of cosmetics.

"Alright," I offered to carry the dress but she insisted on holding it.

"Where's Kaley?" she said as she looked like a mamita up the stairs talking.

"In his room, probably," I said with uncertainty.

Even if he was in his room, I don't know what kind of strange other things he might like doing. Climbing out the window by connecting his sheets or something. I wouldn't want to know.

"Probably?"

I only smirked.

The apartment had given the same impression as always. Simple. I led her to my room but she knocked Kaley first before we entered. "Kaley, prepared?"

"Yes," he replied.

"That's probably a no. Let me just check." She grabbed a hairpin that held the left part of her hair and... started picking the locks. "Go on and try the outfit now. I just have to deal with this kid."

Kid? Picking locks? They're like the Holmes' in every way. It had been a noticeable element to each mystery, that one mystery has to live on for the fog to suffice. And the fact that I've conjured the thought of him as some sort of consulting detective, I would suggest to my inner psyche- that it is a partial consciousness- a dream. Some sort of exit.

I watched her pick the locks until she finally opened them. We saw Kaley sitting on his bed staring at nothing- the ceiling. In his cyan suit and checkered long-sleeve for the ins, he's got well taste on dressing up for events like this.

"Just had to make sure," Sophia turned away from the room and proceeded to the previous agenda. She raised the bag of cosmetics to be visible to my view and said, "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

I took the dress off the bag and tried it on myself. It was so comfortable. It was a perfect fit, the light orange- to pink color makes it feel light. It was beautiful.

"Ahh, it fits perfectly."

Sophia sat down on the mattress and let off the tense look. "I'm pretty sure you're asking why there is a need for a date."

I nodded a bit as I looked at myself on the mirror, trying to fix myself into a cute poise.

"You see, Kaley is known to be stubborn and- different," she stood. For a second she looked like a modern-day princess as she walked in my direction. "He is the heir to the throne, you might say."

"You mean politics?"

"Yes, though not quite," she said and tilted her head as if curious.

"I don't need to tell you, everything white is stained with wine," I said.

Among the wonders of the world, the natural charisma of Sophia Browns was wondrous of all.

"Kaley is one with astounding wit and exploits of the natural world, but his prudence- well, he could live in a house. Yet he chooses to live in an apartment."

The skirt fringes swayed as I turned to see my back. I only waited for her

"You see other partners and their sons, they bring dates. As a distinguished family, they'd want their kids to be as sociable and, not left out. Don't get offended, we didn't just pick you to cover up the future politician's love-interest."

"Future politician? Love interest?" I turned to her. "I get where you're going with this but I don't know what I'm getting at. What if I get picked as a target to get back to your family? I've seen enough drama and soap operas to understand what could happen."

She laughed at the drama in my head. "Politics isn't always like that, you know?" she sat me down on the mattress and pulled my feet up.

What happens outside always?

"The Browns don't get involved in dirty tricks and, negotiations," she looked at my feet. For a bit I got self-conscious. "The heels that I brought are perfect," she whispered.

She grabbed something out of her bag. Heels of gold color. Probably about 3-4 inches.

She got up and said, "Try it on."

"It looks nice," I told her as I picked them up. Again, it was a perfect fit. I stood and my jaw dropped. It looked- not to toot my own horn- but it was amazing.

I looked at myself in the mirror and saw how beautifully the colors complement each other. I turned, swayed the fringes, fixed my hair like a runway model for...

"Fifs," she said.

"Uhm," I replied to agree. It took me some time to realize it. "Did you just read my mind? You two really are siblings."

She stared at me for a while. She smiled and said, "You look great."

We were to part as she said she needed to tend to some important matters herself by dark. "Anyway, here are the official briefings. The family can be a little tedious. Try not to get too intimidated," she said handing over five index cards indicating some do's and don'ts. It was reasonable for such nobility, but the last page struck me hard.

Page 5 - The Romantic Setting

•You two were introduced by sergeant Fortis on a case or after a case( whichever feels more natural)

•Improvise a story keeping in mind the chronology of invents.

Tips: Just think of it as something that really happened. Believe the lie to stay alive.

"...and they don't know a speck about Kaley's romantic life," she said mischievously. " Pulling a grand prank on the family, heh."

I could only gulp with the directives of the case.

~

We waited by the living room until it was already dark. Sophia had gone out and said she'd send a car to pick us up. She's like a very busy CEO of the family. Moving around all the time. I wonder why they don't let her run considering Kaley's take on this.

I looked at the window and the moon became relevant, stars were appearing. The numbers on the digital watch was a picture of a gardening hoe and a backward written letter E before an egg from the left. It was basically seven-thirty in the evening. When boredom strikes.

From the halls, I could hear the footsteps of a madman. Kaley had danced the halls on his shiny black shoes partnered with his amerikana.

A black limo-like car had parked outside. The driver then turned the lights off and gone out. He wore a black vest with a white shirt underneath and at its peak, a ribbon of black color. He waved upon seeing an image in the window (I don't think he recognized I wasn't a man) and took a cellular phone from his pocket and dialed with his white gloves on. Now, I'm sure they are of that world.

Kaley had gone off outside and said, "Turn the lights off."

~

The seats were comfortable. The leather upholstery made it seem more elegant complementing the cream door card. We took a turn to the left and circled around the apartment. Meanwhile, the light coming off the television from the neighbor that I saw at night through my windows was flashing again. Odd. No one seems to be watching from a close view.

I looked at Kaley in his tapaya posture as he leaned on the door. His face upon his fists.

"Tradition," he said.

"Huh?" I said. "Tradition?"

"Old people, instead of putting them on homes for the elderly, they are placed to live on storage rooms, old rooms, or even kubos," he said. "Sometimes old people forget to turn off the television."

"Oh. Okay," I responded.

He only stared at what was outside. Not much does he say about me.

~

We'd reached Paoay about an hour and a half of ride. We passed by an empanada stall by the corner of the street. The Paoay Church had come into view and passed by its side. I only looked through the window and saw the moss-covered bricks and the grass fields. The limo had stopped at a place that actually looked like ruins.

The driver had gotten me out but Kaley didn't mind not getting served.

"Pick us up by 11:00 p.m.," Kaley said as the driver opened the door for him.

"Surely, sir."

I walked around and stood by Kaley's side. "It really is a ruin," I said as I could hear a lot of chatter from the back. Lights were flashing and I could see the amount of security from the front. There must be pretty important people here.

I started to walk when all of a sudden...

"What?" I asked as he was motioning his arms to me.

"I'm offering you my hands, let's go."

"Huh? why should I hold your—" I stopped midway when I realized why. "Fine." I can't believe I'm doing this.

When we got to the entrance a guard who was about to approach backed off as if he had realized something.

"Oh," I only said of amazement. What is prestige?

It was amazing. The halls were filled with the debris of the old convent. The orange-like bricks looked scraped from their existence. The arching doorways and old rooms were really giving off the ambiance. It was an abandoned building with no ceiling nor roof, it was unfinished or, finished. When we got to the end of the halls, we saw lights of different colors. Well, the love for purple. Royals. Rarity?

It was a wide open-air, fields of grass. People were scattered, some were at the brick staircase, some were clinking their wine glasses while checking the structure of the building. Laughter and murmurs were by the ladies chatting. At an arching door, a group of formally dressed men was having a talk. Some fixing their ties while some hand-brushed their mustaches. Two-faced--

The seats were of course filled with people also. Just one look and you're probably guessing they own a big business conglomerate or, CEO of a company. Under the old tree beside the old structure was a fancy portable bar.

Some had chosen to embrace solitude and fresh air by walking around the upper floors of the convent. An old ruin like this holding a party. This could only one thing. That they are really from that world.

"I change my mind. I don't think--" Kaley stopped me from talking by tightening his hold a little.

"Handle it for a minute," said the Brownian master.

When we got to the back- there were few seats, probably people of prestige and business tycoons occupied them. I saw a man with a dark brown hat almost smudged camo green with a dark brown coat and black pants. He had a monocle that worked well with his mustache which made him look like a very distinguished businessman selling jewelry door-to-door in the olden times. He was only missing a golden tooth and I would be sure that he came from the past.

He noticed me-or probably Kaley, and he walked in our direction from the bar. "I see you've brought a wonderful lady," He said as he raised the wine glass in his hands. "You've finally come through and decided to heed your father's words?" he said.

"No, uncle Ricarte. I've come to talk about the letters."

"What will it take to break you?" he said looking a bit disappointed. He looked at his glass as if to think. He let out a deep sigh and said, "Trust me, it would be for the best."

I only stood there with a poker face until his attention was drawn to me. "This young lady had gone through your heart, maybe she should... convince you. Well, it is still your decision after all." He said as he tapped Kaley by the side and said "good catch!" as he raised his thumbs and looked at me. He gently touched his mustache and raised eyes along with the lips, and turned around.

From the left, I recognized a face. Sophia Browns holding the fort. She sat by the long table with her pink dress and pearl earrings. She wore a pearl pendant as well. Her lips of red and her light skin glowed like a princess, I was sure none had defied a look at her. Her small fringe going to the right suggested a look of a delicate and elegant lady. Anybody would dream of her.

She's completely different from who she was earlier.

Her attention led to us and had us come over there. "Hello," she stood and gave me a beso to the cheeks. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"We just got here," I gave a grin. "But it's great."

"Thanks, I've arranged this. It took me quite a while to get a hold of this meeting place," she said as she offered me one of the seats by her side. "Kaley, you can sit beside her."

"The board, where are they?" Kaley had completely brushed his sister off.

"By the arching door perpendicular to this building."

Kaley had walked away just like that. Gone with the wind.

"Are you two on good terms?" I asked as we both watched Kaley walk away.

"Yeah. Better than most people probably," she laughed. Those moments when you see a maiden give a giggle as they cover their faces with anahaw fan. This was just like that.

I could hear murmurs from the different people on the table, although one thing had plucked my ears, "Isn't she the Asuncion girl? I can't remember," a lady wearing a cream dress that had a stylish fold around the neck said.

Is that my name around here? and when did they know about us?

At the end of the table was a woman in her forty's with short hair that is brown-maybe burgundy- and eyelashes of length. She wore a pretty purple dress that went with her thin body. She had noticed my gaze and so she returned it with a smile. What nice people.

"That is Mila Browns, our mother," Sophia said.

"She's nice." What is different is that she addressed her as a mother.

"Shall we go to the bar? I know it is nerve-wracking to be on this table. Even I can't escape the pressure." She stood and led the way. That's weird. Introducing a guest would have been the first thing you'd do since you've invited me here. What was that about?

We walked the field and heard the crunching of fallen leaves. The soil hopefully didn't get on my foot.

"So, this person called Fifs, who is he? I kind of want her to do my dresses."

"Fifs?" She asked. "Oh, no. Well sort of. We call him that because that's the name of the shop and his rule."

I raised a brow on her as we got to an empty spot by the bar.

"It's like FILO, First In Last Out. For him, it is First In First Served. First come first served doesn't really make a name. But he decided it as an acronym, who can blame him?"

"Can I have a glass of water please?" I said as the bartender looked at me. "What's his real name?" I turned to Sophia who was glowing in purple and her lips popped pale-like beautifully.

She looked down on the bar board. "I just realized. Maybe it was his nickname since his name is Pipo."

She looked at me with a grin then we started laughing.

The dream of loosening up. The feelings of a music video on a black and white with just the right grain effect. The nostalgia that is brought by an old camera. The feeling of being with someone you don't know but you feel like you can trust. The one who'd share the same views as you. The same dreams as you.

"The world isn't fair you know?" she said as she faced me. "I can work as hard, even twice what anyone would, but not once do you get admiration here."

"Why?"

"This place is very... traditional," she said as if being careful.

The world had gone mute for a second. Slowly fading in the noise. The lights fading out and the world turning into white. The sky is being erased the moon is shattered, powdered to grains fading away. The world went blank.

"I know. When we struggle for equality, what they see is domination."

She only gave me a smile as she looked away and gazed upon the field. "They do say the grass is always greener on the other side."

"Don't give up. All will be well."

The smile of a strong woman. A maiden of beauty and strength, enough to change the world.

By the bar, we had watched the bartender serve the drinks while we looked on the board with nothing really to say. Tired and sleepy at the same time.

From where I was, I could see Kaley talking to a group of vested and formally suited people. What men wear. Tux, a black ribbon, sometimes glasses, and most of the time a leather belt.

"Who is he talking to?" I whispered to myself.

"Don't worry about them. Do you know any of these people?"

I widened my gaze like a falcon searching for a target. None so far was I familiar with except for their mother.

"No."

"Then let me introduce you to them."

She raised her glass and pointed it to people, far away of course. "That one is Mr. Theodore Valenciano, owner of a big motorcycle company. He might be old but he's got guts to still go on long rides," she said as she pointed to a table near the circular sacred-looking stones.

He was a skinny old man wearing a casual polo that still looked fancy. His rounded square spectacles complemented his long face. A fancy leather belt went with his pants and black shoes.

"The table next to them, that's the law firm—"

"Ms. Sophia, your presence is requested," a man in a black suit who looked curiously like an Elias joined the conversation. Connotations.

"Excuse me," Sophia said as she took off. "I'll be--"

"You too, Ms. Ramirez." He said as he gestured his hands toward the fanciest long table there is.

Uh oh.

~

A GUIDE TO SPEAKING LIKE A LOCAL

Anahaw Fan - a traditional fan in the Philippines made from anahaw leaves. Anahaw in English is palm.

Beso - a cheek-to-cheek interaction as a greeting.

Tapaya - laying your face upon your palm, like when one is tired or out of mood.

Amerikana(Americana) - clothing referring to suits that were evident to a Filipino that one from the USA wore. They usually belong to the categories of tie-coat routine fashion of businessmen.

Kubo (a hut) - kubo is a traditional resting hut in the Philippines with a roofing of dried leaves and wooden frame. Its floors are usually elevated so that it could be carried from one place to another and can be seen in traditional pictures and depictions of "bayanihan" in the country.

Bayanihan(Sama-sama or "Togetherness") - an act of working together as a community of nayon(nation) to help each other. Other acts of Bayanihan include helping each other out in times of crisis or times of great hardships.

Elias - A character from one of Rizal's famous works, which the author mused in his imagination.