HACIENDA
by Rodney Dakita Garcia
(A Musical Tribute to the spirit of EDSA)

WHERE ARE YOU

(Kristine stands alone. She remembers the envelop --tries to call out to him "Odel, your envelop--" but he has left. A ball rolls to her, she picks it up and Therese and a younger girl -- about six years old, with mud on her face and no slipper -- come running up with hands outstretched.)

Theresa: Yung bola, Miss (Ma'm, the ball)
(Kristine tosses the ball to the girl. But Kristine continues looking at the distance for Odel)
Theresa: Salamat po (Thank you). (Kristine wipes here eyes.) Are you okay?
Kristine: I'l be alright.
Theresa: I know all about you--everybody in the park knows about you -- how smart you are--and how you used to play here like we do.

Kristine: You were dancing with us this afternoon. What are your names?

Theresa: I'm Theresa. This is my sister, Karla.
Karla: Watch out for me -- I'm cute but I can take care of myself.
Kristine: Oh really? (Kristine kneels down beside Karla and gently wipes the girl's face with her fingers) Looks like you fell into a mudhole.
Karla: I fell down when Chito -- the sorbetero -- chased me around after I took a popsicle from him.
Theresa: Keep quiet. You didn't bother to swipe two popsicles so I could have one.
Karla: You didn't ask.
Kristine: Where are your parents?
Theresa: They're gone. We're with our grandmother now. I take care of my grandmother and little sister now.

Kristine: Where did you're parents go? What happened?

Theresa: One day the soldiers took them. We've not seen them since that day. We keep looking. My grandmother said she may send us tothe province. But I don't want to go back until I find my parents.

Kristine: I want to help. You're so young, there is much ahead of you.

Theresa: Really? I wish I could be like you. To learn and go to the places you've gone to. But my lola (grandmother) said only the lucky ones get to do these things.

Kristine: But--
(Lola approaches)
Lola: Hoy! Halika na Theresa at gugulo dito, dumidilim na at uulan pa (clap of thunder) [Come on, it's going to be dangerous here, it's getting dark and the storm is upon us!]

WHERE ARE YOU
Things I discovered,
Things I have found
Now a year later
My life's turned around
I'm asking the sun
To lend me its light
Will I see wrong from right
In the night?

Where did I go?
What did I do?
Where am I now that I must ask these things?
How can I show what I have found
What I have made from things around
That sprung from me for all the world to sing?

Is it just a foolish hope?
By evening, it is old.
Is it a wish as light as the breeze,
Is the sunset made of gold?
Is it just another song?
It makes me wonder why.
(she opens her palm to feel the drizzle)
Is it the rain, that gives me the pain?
Where do the best years fly by?
Where do the best years fly?

All the tears, I have cried,
I have wiped them dry,
I have sinned, now I pray,
I found words to say.

Where have you gone?
What have you done?
Where are you now that I must look for you?
How can I show what I have found?
That I have seen His grace surround?
Once I was old,
Now God has made me new!
But where are you?

Rodney Dakita Garcia
copyright 1991

EXCERPTS:
Martial Law Begins | Fourteen Years Later | Rest on Me | Captain Odel and Kristine | Where are You | Bayani's Hacienda