The author meant to treat the story of Ildefonsa as a straight narrative but his ongoing conferences with the two families (every member lobbying to be depicted in a positive light) is turning this serialization into a "Big Brother" type reality show. From now on all future developments can only be revealed after they are first cleared (after much haggling) with the anxious cast of characters.

Wedding Bills Are Ringing

The aftermath of Filipino weddings, big or small, is invariably bleak for the parents of the newly weds. In the Philippines where the parents of the groom usually foot the bill, the euphoria of having staged an impressive show of one's wealth is soon eclipsed by the anxiety of dealing with, excuse the pun, the wedding bills.

Rico did not expect his widowed mother Conchita to pay for anything. He and his siblings have in fact financially supported their mother since their father died. But for the old woman this was her big and only opportunity to "return" the favour. She had no money of her own because everything that Conchita received from Rico she had put in rebuilding their family home, now boasting six spacious en-suite bedrooms and three living rooms, one each for the children, their parents and the grandparents that will be expected to constantly come visiting.

Conchita's children jointly owned the family general store that she was overseeing and their respective spouses maintained a strict book of accounts. Whoever participated either as investor or shopkeeper is rewarded their appropriate share of the profit at the end of every quarter, so there was no sizeable cash lying around somewhere Conchita could "borrow" for times like this.

Conchita knew all along that everything, from the icing on the cake down to the paving of the pathways, was taken cared of, but she nevertheless insisted on paying for something substantial for the wedding. Rico and Ildefonsa would not hear of it, but in the end, the couple reluctantly agreed thinking that Conchita through the years might have squirreled some money in preparation for this eventuality.

Conchita did not tell them that she was going to pawn her most treasured possession, the diamond solitaire ring that her late husband Manuel gave her on their tenth wedding anniversary.

The local pawnshop offered 50,000 pesos for it but the lurking town usurer Lolita suddenly barged into the scene and sweet-talked Conchita into an 80,000-peso deal. Despite Lolita's sleazy reputation, Conchita in her excitement trusted the usurer with her flawless diamond ring without examining Lolita's illegal and cunning terms and conditions.

Eighty thousand pesos meant that Conchita could pay for the fares and hotel accommodations of her own personal out of town guests – people that she literally forced to be at the wedding. The list consisted of friends and secret rivals alike that she wanted to impress and be envious, most of whom expressed reluctance" because of the expenses the trip would entail. Now Conchita has found the solution.

For a widow of her means the gesture was immense and gave her a sense of importance. She felt left out and inadequate in the midst of all the great fuss and generous contributions that poured in from all directions during the frantic build up to the biggest wedding ever in Ildefonsa's town.

At the reception the personal guests of Conchita were, of course, impressed by the scale of the feast. Two tourist coaches conveyed them in air-conditioned comfort between their hotel in the city and the reception site 80 kilometres away. As far as Conchita was concerned, she was the star of the show as her personal guests acknowledged her generosity by gushing at her dress and laughing at her jokes.

After the guests were gone and the bride and groom were hundreds of miles away on their honeymoon, Conchita was suddenly hit by the reality of raising the eighty-thousand pesos to redeem her diamond ring.

In her quandary she felt very alone and cried at night wishing to every saint in her altar that her late husband were alive to help her out of her misery. She has done the unimaginable by losing a very precious memento which was a surprise gift on their 10^th wedding anniversary.

She saw no point in discussing her dilemma with Rico and Ildefonsa because the couple had always been staunchly against her ostentatious and unwise idea of paying for the importation of a bunch of people who were not exactly very keen to attend the wedding anyway.

The make a long story short, Conchita lost her cherished diamond ring to the cunning Lolita. She had only herself to blame for her imprudence but instead of confessing to Rico what had happened, she kept quiet but converted her remorse to anger and focused it on Ildefonsa.

She never liked Ildefonsa, anyway.

 

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