Angel of the Lord Novel (Part 21) By Jose Leveriza II

Previously:

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Father and sons were ecstatic. They reveled in the trappings of their success. Abe Potenciano was a jeweler with a solid and growing reputation in San Pablo City in the province of Laguna, the richest province in the Philippines. It was a scenic drive of about an hour south of the Capital. The scenery reminded you of Orange County in California except for the occasional rice paddies tilled with real live carabaos bearing the ever present cluster of farmers’ thatched huts.

Together with his driven wife Paula, Abe built a prosperous jewelry business from scratch and nurtured it to lucrative heights from a fledgling hole in the wall carved out of the garage at his grandfather’s house near the market. Abe’s own father negotiated with the patriarch to grant it rent free concession to help him along in gaining a stable footing. The twenty square meter beginnings graduated to two hundred in the biggest mall fronting the town main square.

The Potencianos on Abe’s side of the family as well as the Cabreras on Paula’s end were landowning class. While most members of the twin clans elected a more laid back lifestyle choosing to be reliant on the on the forty five days cycle of coconut harvests from the landholdings, Abe and Paula strove to eke out a fortune of their own. It was an ingenious move.

Some members of the family who became doctors and professionals tended to sell off their inheritance and move on. It was different for Abe and Paula. They used the proceeds accumulated from their business to buy off the clan members who wanted to sell out. In a roundabout way they grew to end up owning most of the clan property to the chagrin of the overshadowed holdovers.

The persistence and hard work paid off in great dividends from the enterprise but drew brickbats from envious clan old boys. They claimed that Abe should have ascribed equity value to the twenty square meter space in the garage of old and should have recognized that as capital participation coming from the old man entitled to half a share in the growing venture. Abe countered that the house ended up being divided among the heirs of the grandfather Don Manuel Potenciano, out of which Abe’s branch through his father Daniel received a fifth portion. Ergo, the rent free concession stemmed from that and nothing more could be legally convoluted to mean stock participation in the take off of the jewelry business.

























Paris Double Vanity



































Walnut Kitchen Island




The lifestyle level of the indolent segment suffered a decline whenever the land legacy was divvied up among the inheritors. The parcels shrunk in proportion to the number of entitlements. Thus as the lifestyle of Abe’s faction soared to astounding heights, the rest grew cobwebs in moribund bottoms. This led to petty conflicts in the beginning and escalated to more serious boundary and proprietary skirmishes as the rumblings of jealousy and reproaches increased in decibels.

It worsened the imbalance to see Abe’s children blaze successful career paths through college and professional stature. Lara, Abe’s eldest girl, clinched a nursing diploma and progressed with keen vision to land a much sought after position in a top Chicago hospital. Fifty thousand dollars a year as salary when multiplied by forty times to arrive at local revenue drew uuh’s and aah’s from the neighborhood pundits. Abe and Paula beamed with pride and always referred to it as part of the fruits of labor.

Abe’s main antagonist in the family circle was the barrel-chested breast thumping Maddox who took pride in leading the forays to protect the family acreage from poachers or encroachers. When communist insurgents trooped down from the neighboring Bondoc peninsula to try to establish a foothold on the other side of the Holy Mountain, Mt. Banahaw, Maddox drew plaudits for the active role he played in repelling them. Risking his life to benefit the security of the inherited lands of the clan, Maddox thought wrong or right, vested in him a license to impose his will in the resolution of internal boundary disputes in the clan councils.

Maddox pegged his destiny to the land and so did his children. Michael, the eldest, and Abner, the boy after a series of girls who either eloped or were impregnated out of wedlock, both failed to finish college. They stuck to the close environs afforded by the lay of the land which their father inherited and much like him lost their ingenuity and drive to secure for themselves a better state or place. They married their high school sweethearts and sired ever growing numbers and sizes of offspring which Maddox took joy with but daunted him with a never ending tug of financial problems. This was only a matter of course because they all chose to live off the static cycle of the coconut harvests.

Alex, the second child and the eldest boy of Abe, breezed through law school and passed the last bar exam. He was due to undertake his oath taking as a full pledged lawyer and Abe wanted to bestow on him a special gift befitting the august occasion. Abe made arrangements with an auto dealer north of the Capital which was owned by his former classmate in high school to procure a brand new 2008 Toyota Camry sedan for Alex. Both Paula and Mar the youngest son who was in his sophomore year in a computer course in college squirmed in delight in anticipation of the head spinning turn of events




















Alex threaded the gas pedal so finely that the engine hummed with a purr and floated smoothly over the cement road of Taft Avenue. The white Toyota Camry gleamed brightly with a newness made more obvious by the temporary license plates which bore the words “For registration.” Alex held off on the speed and glided the car just right to avoid crossing the wayward paths of the public utility jeepneys that wove in and out of the rightmost lane.

Mar, the younger boy, frolicked in the roominess and wide leg room at the back. He rubbed his hands repeatedly on the spanking new upholstery that felt so good to the touch. Mar commented that it was opportune that he came along in the milestone event.

The plush grain of the synthetic leather seat cover gave off that luxuriant smell of new school bags on first days of school. He lazed back and smiled in delectable anticipation of the upcoming lunch ahead at his favorite Pizza place in Makati City, another thirty minutes drive past La Salle University on their route going south on the busy avenue.

Abe felt stirrings of fait accompli in his being. He leaned back on the cushiony head rest and glanced at the glowing expression on Alex’s happy countenance as he drove. It felt good to bask in the reflected glory of his son’s achievement. It even felt better than his own great strides taken to bring his jewelry business to the pinnacle of success. Now there’s only Mar to see through two more years of college and then maybe the endearments coming from grandchildren playing at his feet will be the next big step to assuring the continuation of his legacy.

Right now there were recent souring episodes that needled his recall and made him frown with tension to depart fleetingly from the pleasantness of the present. His memory took him back to that intense conflict plagued family council in the abode of the family matriarch, Dona Ester, who tried to mediate a loggerhead between Alex and Maddox. The meeting was called to thresh out the boiling impasse before it got out of control.





























CAMRON DINING CHAIRS

























PART 21 OF THE ANGEL OF THE LORD NOVEL BY JOSE LEVERIZA II TO BE CONTINUED_ _ _

Continuation of Part 21 Angel of the Lord Novel By Jose R. Leveriza

Maddox claimed a right of way over Abe’s property measuring twenty by one hundred meters. He demanded that it be carved out of the side of Abe’s lot to gain access to the newly constructed highway that so opportunely materialized at the western end of Abe’s landholding which used to be the limbo leading nowhere. Before that Maddox own portion fronted the local feeder road. He appropriated the front portion to himself over the objection of Abe who wanted the inherited farm to be divided horizontally to grant frontal access to the narrow side road for both halves.

Maddox bullied his way to get what he wanted and then rebuffed Abe when the latter asked for a right of way to the dirt road. Maddox was the prime instigator in the intrigues directed at Abe for his vibrant upward mobility putting to shame the niggardly pace of economic affairs for the rest. In imposing his own will in the uneven division of the land, he floated the unlikely yarn that the deceased brothers who were their parents agreed verbally to such an apportionment. To buttress the fact he cajoled and intimidated various spineless members of the clan to be stoolies.

It was with rancor that Abe and his family acceded to their fate. Wife, Paula cried endless tears but kept it from the forlorn Abe to avoid inciting him to take a more forceful stand in the face of the blatant coercion. The kibitzers in the sidelines thought it only proper that proud nosed Abe the achiever of the family should suffer a comeuppance at that point. Then fate turned the wheel around so pompously to favor Abe’s backward position. The new expressway was constructed right behind his backyard. The tables were turned and it was Maddox turn to grovel.

“You cannot refuse me that right of way.” “It will be unfair because the new highway will practically multiply the value of my land many times over.” “My family is not as wealthy as yours.’ “You cannot deny us this golden opportunity that comes rarely.” Maddox did not want to beg and so covered up his family’s dire financial straits in innocuous terms. His sons were in trouble because they run afoul of the illegal numbers kingpin in the locality when they gambled away and lost the remittance due to the gambling lord in the cockpit arena.

Abe shook his head and smiled ruefully. He could not imagine the short memory of people. Or else they purposely choose to be insensitive to again gain an upper ground.“When I pleaded with you many times to give me a right of way to the feeder road after you virtually expropriated the front for yourself so unjustly, you know how you answered me?” “You so callously forgot blood relations and offered to buy it from me for a pittance.” Abe sneered back with disdain. “Now I offer you the same for double the price of your worthless offer!”

“How dare you with all your greed and wealth throw that in my face,” Maddox thundered with vehemence as he got up menacingly. “Weren’t you benefited when I single handedly mowed down those recalcitrant homesteaders, call them squatters, who had the gall to encroach on the family areas?” “Now this is how you treat me, the one who risked life and limb for all of you?” “You are not only selfish and self aggrandizing, but you are a grand ingrate as well!” “I should do to you what I did to those interlopers!” Maddox openly threatened Abe with mayhem.

Abe cowered and was overcome by nervous spasms but he reached that point of rage that he didn’t care anymore what happened to him. Losing his composure which was unusual, he got up and grabbed Maddox by the collar. “SOB, all of us have just one life to spare, I’ve reached the end of my patience with you, you rascal!”
















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PLEASE CLICK OLDER POSTS TO VIEW THE LAST INSTALLMENT FOR PART 21

Last Installment for Part 21 of the Angel of the Lord Novel By Jose Godofredo Roxas Leveriza

Violence was Maddox’s area of expertise and his wrestler’s ruggedness made Abe a pipsqueak in the match-up. With one swipe he unhinged Abe’s trembling arms and grabbed the red faced Abe by the throat and started to strangle him with bare hands.“Good, you struck the first blow, you spiteful bloodsucker, now I can kill you in self-defense in front of all these witnesses!” He pulled Abe’s hair by the top and slapped him so hard which sent Abe reeling backwards into the frail form of Dona Ester. As they both stumbled backwards with the onlookers converging to break the fall, Dona Ester, the elderly aunt matriarch, kept whimpering. “For pity’s sake you are all brothers and cousins. Please have some respect for your common ancestry, boo, huh, sniffle!”

Prospero a heftier cousin embraced Maddox and pushed him back to prevent further violence. Maddox struggled to shove him out of the way but two more pairs of restraining hands wrapped around his flailing upper arms to keep them pinned down. Maddox kept up the offensive with a verbal tirade, “You swindled our grandfather out of his rightful share in your business when you used the garage and refused to pay rent for years. The entire clan is entitled to inherit that share as part of grandpa’s estate, you usurer.” Maddox let out into the open the undercurrents of envy which festered in the gossip circles of the relatives.

“I will not even dignify that ridiculous claim with a proper reply, you worthless buffoon,” Abe regained his composure and his footing and nursed his stinging left cheek. “I promise you as long as I live you will never get that right of way. The suffering of your family from financial hardship is your bad karma. You have to wallow in your misery like a man cognizant of the logical consequences of your irresponsible actions. You have tightened the noose around your own neck and those of your family.” Serves you right and I hope you burn in the fires of hell with your entire kin!” Abe let loose a broadside that was the only weapon he was capable of hurling to injure the psyche of the wide eyed Maddox.

“The law says I am entitled to a right of way. A court order can force you to grant me that. Your wealth does not exempt you from the law!” Maddox shot back with his limited grasp of legal matters.

“You really are an uneducated ignoramus,” Abe began to cackle like a witch; “you have that frontage to the feeder road so you are not hemmed in. The law you are talking about does not apply in your case.” “And besides if its litigation you want I can throw a handful of attorneys to engage your every move so that the case will drag on for a hundred years till we are all dead, har, har !”

Abe stomped out of the place in a huff with Maddox bellowing threats in the background and with Dona Ester playing chorus with her mellifluous shrill shrieking.

The shiny car zipped through Taft Ave. in a leisurely clip as if the time and day belonged entirely to the gaiety of the riders with plastered smiles on their faces. Alex nosed it forward with a quiet ride lifting his foot a wee bit easily on the gas pedal to rein back the the recessed horsepower straining to mesh gear. “Wow it feels softer than my bed,” Mar’s gushing remark snapped Abe back to the serendipity of the present journey.

As the car drew abreast of the hospital, Alex spied the mujadeen fighter running blindly to cross the street with a machine pistol too late. The car bumper nudged him and the startled urban guerilla rolled on the ground in front of the vehicle. Bader following closely behind reacted instinctively and squeezed off two rounds to puncture with two gaping holes the front windshield in front of Alex’s face.

Abe saw Alex’s face blowup to splatter blood all over the dash and the windshield. Both Abe and Mar screamed in terror. “Wait, wait,” Abe got out to bargain for his son’s mortal wounds as if he could still turn back the clock. What he got for his frantic effort was a short burst of submachine gunfire which pulverized his chest and catapulted him backwards to the pavement. Jason Burke saw the gunner turn his aim back to the car to pepper Mar who was hoarsely gesticulating like a madman.

Jason dove to the ground to be level with the downed commando and fired instantly to crack open his skull. In one fluid move he rolled backwards and somersaulted to his feet just in time to feel Bader’s return fire wheeze close by centimeters. Jason Burke didn’t bother to engage Bader. His main concern was Ellebana who he knew was tagging behind him and will attempt to fire at Bader without a bullet proof vest. His instincts proved right as he dropped like a linebacker over Ellebana’s crouching shooter’s posture.Together they rolled harmlessly to the curb in a ball of entangled forms. Bader’s potshots went wide off the mark.

Bader ran to his fighter but saw his brains scattered all over the street. He scampered towards the panicked crowd and lost himself in their confusing melee. Bader headed towards the Pedro Gil Station of the overhead rail system.

In San Pablo City 80 miles away, Paula prepared the favorite nourishing broth of beef ribs and joints known in those parts as “bulalo” of the men of the family who were due to arrive in time for dinner. She made it so special to be fit for the celebration of the unbelievable good luck the family has come to in many years.

In the heavens, the solar storms lapped in predictable patterns, and the planets and the stars grooved according to their orbits. The Father Creator found no cause to intervene in the speck of forever.




















































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