Mestiza

Chapter 5 - Maria

Okay, I'm not completely new to this whole "big city thing", because I've always lived in Manila. But Manhattan is different, and it unnerves me a little. It's just so...American. Ugh! How do I explain it in English? I can't think about that right now, I'm too tired.

"We could buy...anything?" Emilia asks, her brow furrowed. She shifts, and I can tell she's feeling overwhelmed with the idea of such an enormous place.
"Of course! Anything for my girls!" Nanay says with a smile. "Where should we go first? Maria, would you like some sweaters? You're looking a bit cold."
"Opo." I whisper, realizing that I was shivering. The weather in the Philippines is so different from Manhattan's it was a shock to my system. "I mean...yes po. I mean..." 
"Anak, tara!" Mom says, linking an arm through mine and walking briskly towards the escalator. English is hard when I'm nervous. Thank goodness she understands because anything other then Tagalog is rather impossible right now. Emilia catches onto my arm, and we follow her up to the third floor, which advertises "Stylish Clothing for Any Occasion!" 

"Come this way!" Nanay says, leading me through racks of expensive clothing. Emilia follows behind me, and helps me hold the piles of sweaters that Mom pulls off the racks. I swear we have over fifty by the time that we reach the dressing room. "They're so expensive!" I think, quickly calculating the difference of pesos to dollars. I knew that things were more expensive in the US because of inflation and all that, but I didn't realize how drastic the difference was. I try on dozens of sweaters and come out to show Nanay who stands outside the dressing room. Beside her, Emilia has slumped against the wall and is snoring softly. "The poor girl must be exhausted." I think, as I pull on a burgundy letterman jacket and step out of the dressing room. 

"This looks so nice on you, Maria!" Nanay says, beaming. "Do you like it?"

"Opo." I say, smiling as I tug at the front of the collar.

"Emilia? Shall we find you something?" Nancy says as she picks up several sweaters and hefts them over her arm. "We'll take these." she says to the bored attendant, who nods sullenly and starts picking up the forgotten clothing. Emilia shifts in her sleep, yawning. 

"Emilia, honey, let's find you something. What would you like? You brought your violin, right? They sell sheet music here. We could look at that, or we can look at clothes, or shoes, what do you want?" 

"Uhm...whatever is fine." Emilia says rather shyly. 

"What about matching jackets? You could be twins with Maria. Oh, how adorable would that be? Would you like that?" Mom says, smiling so brightly that if Emilia thought about saying "no" I would've scolded her.

"Okay...." Emilia says, and then we're back at the racks of clothing again, pulling off dozens of jackets that are nearly identical to the several that Mom picked out for me, but in different colors. After purchasing, we're whisked out the door, laden down with our bags of clothing. Nanay takes us everywhere, the Empire State Building, art museums, her favorite pastry shop. We buy makeup from Sephora and purchase cheesy "I love NYC" merchandise, sampling cheese and taking a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty. By the time that our taxi pulls back in front of the Hampton Hotel, I'm so tired that I have to try three times before I realize that the door is "push" not "pull".

Emilia and I follow Nanay up to the room that she's reserved for us, and I promptly collapse into a deep, dreamless sleep.