Chapter 6

In any case, he had barely finished eating when the foreman snapped at him as soon as he was found, and was ordered to tend to the fresh ore brought back from the shaft this morning.

There was no water at the barrel, however, so he had to fetch some. There was also no one to assist him until around two-thirty, when one of the two striplings just hired yesterday arrived.

The mud was already caking around the ring on his right hand. Really now, did his fingers actually shrivel over the years? It used to cling so tightly he thought it might cut off that finger. The ring itself had been greatly faded and tarnished. It had been so long. And so cheap, it was only thing they could afford, and even now, this was still all they could afford. Maybe he could get some vinegar at home to rub off a bit of the blemish. Well, might as well not spoil it any further. He carefully slid it off his fingers and placed it in the toolbox.

Tatang Huseng went home early as his elbows were beginning to act up, much to the foreman’s annoyance. But he wasn’t too bothered by that. He was worried that Gardo might turn to drinking again. Eh, he was a good boy, maybe he will try to hold back this time. He hoped.

Nanang Sitay massaged her husband’s joints before making supper. The old man then fell into a deep sleep and missed the meal. The next morning, he woke up while it was still dark to a covered bowl with the now-cold dinner, as well as espasol for breakfast. All in all it was a heavy meal, and he was up so early, but… oh yes, he just heard last night, the mayor had ordered the mine closed for a week to have the whole place investigated in relation to the missing crew on that one mountain. It was a first, actually. So the police really had to wait for a certain quota of casualties to get moving? Regardless, the management and the people who will ship the ore to Manila will be clocking in and still get paid, likely with a portion of the sale, while the rest of their workforce sits by with a week’s wages turned into stone.

There was nothing to do about anything, so Grandpa decided he could just get around to cleaning the wedding ring. There must be some vinegar around…

Wait…

What?

Where is it?

Oh…

"The only way to lose that is to cut off that finger of yours!" snapped his wife.

"I told you, I doffed it while washing the tools!"

"What ignoramus of a man would remove his wedding ring!?"

“It would get lost in the muck! I put it with the tools. I know where the toolbox is!”

“You better get that ring back before lunch or there is no lunch for you!”

Which was an unfortunate, as the mine would be off-limits. Who knows where they have moved the toolbox to, anyway? He saw Gardo get up an hour after him while he was eating. He will be going to the bananas and ube he had planted by the forest. Maybe the young man will dig up some of the roots for him, he would at least have something to snack on in the afternoon.

At around eleven Gardo came in from the fields and went on ahead with lunch as he was already famished from the heavy work. Despite the earlier threat, he snuck in and ate his on time with Carlito, a little after midday. Granny wasn't with them. By one, they had already cleared the dishes, the boy had returned to school, and the old lady was still outdoors, feeding the chickens.

“Nanang is sulking,” remarked Gardo. “Did you do something?”

"Bah, leave her be, she'll probably be around for minindal, anyway."

Gardo was unconvinced. “Leave her be” simply did not feel right to him, so he set aside Grandma’s share of the lunch in a pot and went out to her with it. He found her sitting on a flat rock, trying to ease some back pain. “Nanang,” he said, “have this. It’s not like you to skip meals.”

“I will be fine. I have been working a lot at my age, I’m no invalid.”

“You don’t look fine.” He began taking a portion into a bowl. “Even I would not be fine working as much as you do right now, especially without lunch.”

“…”

He decided to be blunt. "Grandma, holding a grudge is bad for your joints."

"And what do you know about joints?"

Nothing, really. What Gardo should have known about instead, was that Grandma holds on to grudges a little too tightly. But that did not stop him from trying. “Nanang, I know Tatang can be a handful sometimes, but do you have to walk out of the house? Look, I will talk sense into him, OK?”

“You? Talk sense to him? When you’re the one drinking a lot lately?”

Guh. How did this backfire so soon? “Granny, you will just have to be patient, I told you, Tatang can be a drag, but that’s just how he is.”

“My patience wears thin just like everybody else’s!”

Fair enough. Sigh. “Granny, maybe you should just stay at Uncle Polong’s for a week. A change of scene. That will regrow your patience, for sure.”

“It’s more than just patience, Gardo! That old man lost his one and only wedding ring!”

Huh?

“I told him, ‘what dunce of a man would lose a wedding ring?’ And yet he acts like nothing happened!”

Oh…

Come to think, he never bothered to notice details as minute as whatever was on Grandpa’s hand. Tch. Wait. He did say he fought with the USAFFE in Leyte in his war days. He said he had even stashed a bunch of materiel he smuggled out of his company. What if he had a grenade in his sleeve? Hold it, am I going be a guard now?! Agh! But Granny never moped like this in a long time. And Tatang really was annoyingly cavalier about the whole thing… “leave her be,” eh?

“And you be very careful, young man,” she continued. “Those eyes. Those eyes they found at your workplace is becoming the talk of the town.”

That again? “It’s nothing!” he snapped. Why are folks up in arms over silly stuff like that? He was already beginning to think those were just goat eyes, after all.

“Nothing, my days! If there is a murderer in your camp…”

“Nobody knows anybody who kills there!”

“Nobody got caught!”

Huff. “Shouldn’t we just focus on your making up with Tatang?”

At this, she went back to sulking. “Humph…”

Sigh. Well. If this, not some outlandish prank, was the kind of trouble that would bother his very home, his only resting place in the world, then yes, maybe he can be a guard just this once.

Time to talk to Grandpa.

“Of course your Granny is important to me!” said Tatang. “Why did I even marry her if that wasn’t so?”

Tch. Gardo puffed at himself. He must have come on a bit strong if Grandpa reacted like that. Anyways, that reply sounded like a poor excuse. Everybody he knew got married, albeit out of the mere dictates of their family or relatives, or out of “accidents.”

“It’s just that a ring is nothing more than a symbol. Why should your Grandma be so particular over a piece of metal like that? It probably isn’t even pure silver, for all I care.”

Yeah, Gardo agreed, I was wondering that, too, but… “She just won’t have it, Tatang, you know that. Granny is upset already. Just do what she wants. Get that ring back.”

Grandpa lay back in his chair and stared into thin air as if looking for a solution there. “There’s no way we could get it back now, Gardo. I might get a replacement, however.”

“Alright. Tell her to wait for a month or two so we can save up.”

He shook his head. “I’m not comfortable with your Grandma being mad at me for that long. She holds on to her resentment once you offended her enough.” He exhaled his frustration. “Actually, there was something I was planning… but I hope it doesn’t sound silly to you or anything.”

“Isn’t this whole fight of yours with Gran silly enough?”

True that. Welp, here goes…

There was this one place his own father had told him as a boy....

"Really old jewelry had been dug up at the place where they are trying to dig the nickel mine now. A few people were able to move to Manila from pawning the pieces they found.

"And there was this really huge jade and silver pendant. I think it was larger than your hand."

At the end of it, Gardo was gaping in disbelief. “So now you are telling me to go on a treasure hunt like those missing fellas?”

“I told you not to think of it like that!”

“Do you even know the way there?”

“I know someone. Even gave me a sketch. I think it is in the cabinet…”

“Is there really no other way?”

“Well, is there?”

“…”

They certainly weren’t a well-off lot, so… none.