Conclusion

He walked into their bedroom and saw her grabbing all her clothes from the closet and dumping all of it into a suitcase.

“Tessa, please don’t do this,” Johnny was crying now as he walked towards Tessa. He clung onto her shoulders and buried his face on her neck.

He started kissing her neck with his very damp lips. She stopped dumping clothes in the suitcase and stood there as he unzipped her dress and grazed her back delicately with his palms.

He kissed her forehead right after they made love, and as he lay beside her, she continued staring at the ceiling as though nothing eventful happened for the past six hours.
“We could keep trying,” Johnny whispered.

“Or you could start looking for another wife who could actually give you a child,” Tessa replied before she pulled the blanket and turned her back on him forever.

She would never forget how he looked at her on the drive home. He looked at her as if she went to bed with another man, she felt as though she had to pay for a mistake that she never committed. She thought he was bigger than his need for someone to carry on his name. On some level, Tessa was glad she couldn’t conceive a child for if it happened to be a girl, she would never know how to protect her from the feeling of being unwanted by her own father. She may be the one left alone in the house every day for the last five years, but she was the one who abandoned Johnny along with his mannish whims. Tessa thought she alone would be enough to fulfill them.

“Mang Toto, are we ready to go?” Tessa called out as she descended the stairs.

“Yes, Ma’am!” Mang Toto has always been giddy and polite. He loved working for Tessa because she never demanded that he drive for them on weekends, and she would always invite his family in the house when they would celebrate her birthday.

“Where are we headed today, Ma’am?” he asked as he opened the door to the passenger seat. Tessa doesn’t like taking the back seat.     She liked sharing conversations with Mang Toto.

“Can you take me to the cemetery after we go to the market?”

“Which cemetery, ma’am?”

“Oh, the small private one. Near St. Peter’s Memorial Garden?”
“Sure, ma’am!” Mang Toto smiled.

As they got caught in the traffic jam, Tessa started looking around the city. Not much has changed, there were still beggars knocking on windows—children, old people, mothers carrying infants.

She hated how Johnny shooed them away when he was driving. He would curse at them, even the old people who she believed were already blind.

“If they’re really blind, what are they doing in the highway?” he would scoff.

She never replied to any of those taunts. She despised how he called them good-for-nothing citizens or main pollutants of the metro.

“We’re here now, ma’am,” Mang Toto said as he pulled on the handbrake.

“Thanks, manong,” she undid her seatbelt and grabbed her purse, “Please just wait for me here.”

She got off the car and surveyed the public market. Johnny always told her to go to the mall’s supermarket if she ever needed to buy groceries. Tessa preferred the public market. The meats are always fresh and the fish are firm, besides the vendors are more cordial and unlike those who worked in the supermarket, the salespersons do not snob customers when asked about their merchandise.

Sure, it did not smell as pleasant, and she hated how mud and god knows what would land on her feet as she passed by other buyers, but she liked buying stuff here. Her mother would always tell her that people are pleasant in the public market as the goods are always fresh.

“You’re the only lady I know in our village who prefers to buy groceries     in the public market, ma’am,” Mang Toto said as he helped Tessa carry the bags.

“Oh please, manong, people in supermarkets are snobs,” Tessa smiled.

“So, are we headed to the cemetery now?”

“Yes,” Tessa opened the door, “Oh wait, sorry.”

She rushed to the side of the market where flowers are sold and bought a bouquet of yellow daisies.

She requested that Mang Toto find a parking outside the cemetery. She handed him extra cash and asked him to buy food from any nearby store. He refused but then realized that Tessa needed to be left alone for her visit. He took the money and told her he’ll be back after 30 minutes.

Cradling the bouquet of daisies in her hands, Tessa searched for the tombstone she desired to visit. When she found it, she carefully placed the flowers beside it and sat on the grass.

The tombstone reads:
Therese Angelica
March 14, 2007
Today is Friday: March 14, 2012.