Story In A Yellow Bag
Illustration by: Kim Carlos
He gets out of the house and locks his door, shoves his keys to his pocket and goes. Stands at the waiting shed, hails a jeepney, and rides.
Gets off. Walks inside an old building and gets in an old elevator.
This is Jose L. Reyes. Better known as Mang Joe. He is the head salesman for a small paper clip and post-it company called Samuel’s Stickies (serving you since 1970) somewhere in the busy streets of Pasay City. He is one of the older employees to date. He is younger next to his boss. The rest were young sales ladies and there were a total of 5 employees in the store. Do the math.
He lives all by himself. He never married. Never had kids. No family nor relatives.
Everyday, he wakes up at 6 in the morning. Buys Pandesal from the neighborhood bakeshop, Josie’s Sari-sari Store. He prepares his usual black coffee and reads Bandila tabloid. He brushes his teeth, takes a bath and dress up all in 20 to 25 minutes, and off he goes to work. Times in at exactly 8:00 with the Bundy clock.
Files papers, answers phone calls, run errands and prepares coffee for the bosses.
Times out at 5:00 PM. Walks to the shed and rides the jeepney again.
On Saturdays, he still wakes up at 6. Eats Pandesal from Josie’s Sari-sari Store and drinks coffee. Watches the Saturday news on channel 9 and dozes off.
On Sundays, he hears mass at 9 in the morning and goes to the nearest park. Buys Boy Bawang and nibble with it while watching kids play around him. He loves Boy Bawang. It was something he didn’t have in his childhood.
Ten years. It’s been this long for this whole routine. And he wasn’t sure he was loving it. At least he could tell it was his comfort zone.
Everyday to work, he would always bring with him two bags. One was an old black leather sling bag that contained an eyeglasses case, a Soduku booklet (difficulty level!), black pen, a toothbrush and a half-full toothpaste, a banana and a Vicks Vaporize. And the other…was a yellow bag with black outline, dirtied by pollution over time and had a big simple smiley in the middle. This never failed to turn his officemates’ heads every time. No one knew what was in it.
The youngest sales lady, Romina, was the perkiest of them, was always the first one to greet Mang Joe in the morning and would always ask what was in the bag. Sadly, she always fail to get the answer. Mang Joe just smiles and walk to his assigned area.
He always concluded that the younger the person was, the perkier.
They thought the bag was really interesting because:
1. Why would he pick yellow of all the colors in the world?
2. Why did it look like a woman’s bag?
3. They never saw him pull out anything from it, so why did he always have to bring it to work everyday if there was nothing important in it?
4. Why was it so bulky?
5. Why does he never tell?
It’s been ten years since he’s been carrying that bag. It’s been ten years of mystery.
On one very lazy Thursday afternoon, the Bundy clock says: 3:12. Mang Joe decided to take a break after talking to the only customer for the day who had second thoughts of buying a pink post-it but bought one anyway.
He made himself a hot coffee with that 3 in 1 Nescafe sachet and sipped a little. Stepped outside. And decided to smoke. For the first time in ten years, he decided to smoke.
Letlet (second saleslady): “Waw! Mang Joe! Nagyoyosi po pala kayo?”
He smoked it in, let it out and breathed.
Mang Joe: “Hindi, ngayon lang ‘to.”
Letlet was a smoker. She loved being outside the store when their boss, Samuel, wasn’t around.
Letlet: “Bakit nyo po naisipang magyosi ngayon? Di po ba masama yan sa inyo?”
Mang Joe: “Iha wala naman akong sakit.”
Letlet: “Ahh. Mang Joe, kwento!”
Mang Joe: “Ano naman ikukwento ko sayo?”
Letlet: “Kahit ano po. Hindi po kasi kayo nagkukuwento tungkol sa buhay niyo. Yung Lolo ko po ang daldal! Kahit walang koneksyon sa pinaguusapan namin, ibibida lagi ang sarili niya!” (laughs)
Mang Joe: “Eh hindi mo naman ako Lolo.”
Letlet: “Mang Joe naman eh, ang KJ nyo po.”
Mang Joe: “Anong KJ?”
Letlet: “Wala ho, kwento po kayo. Kwentuhan nyo po ako tungkol sa yellow nyong bag! Daliii!”
Mang Joe stared at her. Gave a big sigh and said: “O sige basta atin lang to ha?”
Letlet: “Opo! Exciting!!”
So he said his story. And this is where our story begins.
30 years ago, Joe (Mang Joe na bata!) met Estella. She was petite and cute, had chinky eyes, round face, curly, bouncy long hair and had fair complexion. She always wore a pretty dress and a headband that matched the color of the dress and the pair of shoes. She loved flowers and always wore a big fat smile on her face. She loved the color Yellow.
He started courting him and soon after, they became a couple. Joe was in the military so he had to be away from her from time to time. She worried about him all the time. Her parents disliked Joe because he came from a not so well-off family plus he was a military man. During that time, once a man entered into military, you would have to consider him dead because most of them never came home alive. They thought that he would just crush her heart so hard if he died from the war.
Their only means of communication was of course through letters. They would write to each other as much as possible.
Estella would tell him how her day went, on how much he thought of him. Joe would write about the nice things that were happening in the camp. About the food they ate and about some jokes he hears from his friends there. He tells her how much he misses her and of wanting to be home. He never tells her about the bad things like his injuries and how many people have already died there. He never told her about the sad things going on in his life.
Then at some point, Estella asked why there were a lot of erasures in his letters. This gave her a hint he was not telling her something and she wanted to know. He just said he wanted his letter to be nicer than the last that’s why he would always rephrase his sentences from time to time but it was as trivial as that. So Estella believed him.
The last letter he wrote was about the two of them flying in the sky and laughing with each other, sitting on the rainbow at night, stargazing and eating dirty ice cream. They would stay there for as long as they wanted. This was Estella’s favorite.
A year has passed and Joe stopped writing to her. She thought he was already dead. Her parents decided to send her to Europe to be married to their family friends’ son, Pablo Villaflor. There, they lived silently and had one daughter named Beatrice.
Joe came home and so did Estella and her family, coincidentally. Joe just had to find Estella to clear up everything that happened. He went to her old house and saw Beatrice. Instantly, he knew who she could be. And he was right. Estella was walking behind Beatrice. Both stopped from where they were standing.
Estella’s tears ran down her right cheek and said:
“Anong ginagawa mo dito?”
Joe: “May pamilya kana pala.”
Estella: “Bakit hindi ka sumulat ng isang taon? Anong nangyari sayo? Akala ko patay kana! Pinadala ako nila Mama sa Europe dahil sabi nila patay kana!”
Joe: “Hinadlang ng Papa mo ang mga sulat ko, nung isang buwan ko lang nalaman ang lahat ng tumawag ako sa inyo. Sabi ng Mama mo ay nagpakasal kana raw.”
Estella gasped. She could not breathe. She broke down and cried so hard, Pablo came running towards her.
Pablo: “Anong nangya—..Estella, siya ba si Jose?”
Estella nodded in disbelief.
Pablo stood stone cold. He was lost for words. Everyone thought Jose was dead.
Pablo: “Estella, iiwan ko muna kayo para mag-usap pero inaasahan kong magiging maayos pa rin ang lahat sa atin pagkatapos ng paguusap niyo.” He went inside their house along with little Beatrice.
Jose quickly ran to her and embraced her with all his might, crying. They talked for hours and hours. Laughing, crying, reminiscing and telling each other what really happened over that one long excruciating year of being apart from each other.
Estella: “Hanggang dito nalang. Jose, may pamilya na ako. May obligasyon na ako sa kanila.”
Jose: “Naiintindihan ko.”
Joe left and that was the last time they saw each other. He never looked back but he took his time in getting to the gate. She was crying silently, watching him walk away from her house. Never to see him again.
Letlet: “Eh ano po ang koneksyon niyan sa yellow niyong bag?
Mang Joe: “Simula ng naghiwalay na kami ng tuluyan ni Estella. Niregaluhan ako ng isang studyanteng tumira sa isang apartment malapit sa bahay. Lagi kong kakwentuhan yun pag wala siyang pasok. Bago siya umalis nung pagkagraduate niya, binigyan niya ako ng dilaw na bag na yan. Subenir daw. Para bang sign siya para maalala ko si Estella habang buhay. Kamukha rin ni Estella yung pamangkin ko na yun. At pinangako ko sa kanya na lagi kong gagamitin ang bag na iyon kaya’t heto, ginagamit ko siya araw-araw.”
Letlet: “Eh pero bakit maraming laman ang bag niyo?”
Mang Joe: “Araw-araw ay bumibili ako ng pambura. At iniipon ko ito.”
Letlet: “Ho? Astig naman ng collection niyo. Bakit pambura.”
Mang Joe: “Dahil sa pambura, hindi ko nasasabi yung mga nakakalungkot na bagay dati kay Estella. Kung minsan gusto ko ng isulat ang totoong nararamdaman ko na sobrang nakakalungkot, salamat sa pambura ay diko nasasabi yun dahil alam kong malulungkot lang siya lalo.”
Letlet: “Eh pero hindi niyo na po siya sinusulatan ngayon ah. Di po ba?”
Mang Joe: “Oo.”
Letlet: “So bakit pa kayo nag-iipon ng pambura?”
Mang Joe: “Para balang araw, pag napuno ko na ang bag ko, ay mabura na rin yung memorya ko tungkol dun sa huling araw na nakita ko si Estella.”
Letlet dropped a tear and shrugged it off without Mang Joe noticing it.
Letlet: “Sino nga po ulet yung nagbigay sa inyo ng bag na iyan?”
Mang Joe: “Ang pagkakaalala ko ang pangalan niya ay Bea. Bea Villaflor yata iyon. Napakabait na bata.”
