frankie's story-3

Frankie stared fascinated at the map which, under the fluorescent light that hung low from a beam, revealed some marks: lines, crooked and straight; stars; arrows; circles; Xs; and crosses.

A cock crowed. Scarface began rolling the map in haste as Orange struggled to stand. Frankie fled to his room, almost tripping on used Virgins huddled in one corner.

As he caught his breath inside his room, Frankie heard a door open. He looked at his watch: 4:53. He made moments pass before he went out.

The main door was ajar. Had they left?

He knocked at the papel de Japon’s room; nothing. He opened the door; no one!

He hurried outside. The red Nissan vanette was still closed: its windows fogged by the morning dew, and on its dusty side was written, “Nerissa boring!”

He went back inside and woke Nening to prepare breakfast.

***

At about 7:00, the papel de Japon returned.

“We went around. Nice place you got here,” Scarface said. Orange and Green nodded, as though they understood what Scarface was saying in Bisaya.

“You should have woken me. I would have shown you the place myself,” Frankie said.

“It’s okay. We didn’t lose our way,” Scarface smiled, showing some rotten teeth.

“But of course, you have the map to guide you,” Frankie wanted to say, but instead he said, “Where did you go?”

“Here and there,” he said. “You have a nice park. And an even nicer shoreline.”

If Frankie was surprised, he didn't show it.

“Breakfast is ready,” Nening called from the table.

The eyes of the papel de Japon almost fell off when they saw the table heave from all the seafood that Tago was known for. While he felt proud watching the Japanese eat heartily, Frankie could only hope that they would give him the money so he could pay for them.

***

“Is there some hotel here where we can check in?” Scarface said to Frankie. They were at the sala, after breakfast. Orange and Green were outside, talking by the van.

“But why? You can stay here as long as you want,” Frankie said, his voice competing with the wails his children gave as Nening bathed them.

“Thank you, but we need to transfer to a hotel.”

“Okay. There’s one in Tandag.”

Scarface looked at him, quizzical.

“About seven kilometers from here,” Frankie said.

Before noon that Saturday, Frankie made the Japanese check in at Shacene Pension House in Tandag. As they requested, Frankie stayed for the rest of the day in Shacene. But because they never invited him in, he stayed at the lounge. Except for a few times that Scarface went out of their room to check on him, they were holed up inside.

But in the few times that Scarface went out, Frankie had a glimpse of what went inside as he was seated at an angle that allowed him to see things when the door was opened. One time, he saw Green, sitting on the bed, his back against the narra headboard, holding and looking at the same map that Scarface had unscrolled back in Tago.

Later that evening, Frankie went home to Tago. On Sunday, he went back to Shacene and spent the day the same way he did the day before. When he asked one of the waiters if the Japanese went out, he said, no, they just stayed inside their room the whole time, always asking for room service.

***

Very early in the morning on Monday, the Japanese picked up Frankie and left for Butuan. “We’ll be back here on Friday,” Scarface said with certainty.

As the red Nissan vanette reached Victoria Junction and turned left toward Gamut, Frankie had a sense of where all this would lead to. Especially after what his fisherman neighbor said that he saw one of the Japanese early morning on Saturday go up the unfinished bridge, face the Pacific Ocean, and wait for the sun to rise. And when it did, he unscrolled a wide piece of paper, looked at the sun again, then back to the paper, but this time, he stared at it like it were an apparition. Then he turned this way and that as though he was dancing with the paper he was holding. After a while, he gestured with his hand to the two Japanese who stood waiting at the shore.

Moments later, he came down from the bridge, joined the two others, and together they walked to the direction that he earlier pointed to them---toward the cemetery of Tago!