In Quezon City now, land is as expensive as gold. Back then, when Lola was young, no one paid much attention. I don’t know why Lola carefully asked each of her relatives for a little bit and then gathered it into a large plot of land for the whole family to live together.

Lola said she planned to have many children, so that when she had many grandchildren, she could live close by to take care of them. But my grandfather died early, so Lola raised Tatay (my father) alone. Even though she didn’t have as many children as she wished, she kept that piece of land until the end; now it has become a huge asset. The land papers have been transferred to Nanay & Tatay.

Tatay Nanay has 5 children, I am the youngest and the only daughter. The four older brothers (the Kuyas) all decided to get married and still live on Lola’s land — just like her wish to have a family together.

My family is large but we rarely quarrel. We live in harmony.

The house has two frontages: one facing the main road (main gate), one facing the alley/barangay road (with a back gate) to open a business space on both sides. The back gate is where Kuya Ca opened a coffee shop.

A few years ago, the house next to the alley was sold to someone from another province who moved up. Around here, there are many changes of ownership, but that house is different — bad-tempered. Normally, “old ghosts bully new ghosts,” but this one started a fight as soon as it arrived, as a way to intimidate people so that no one dares to touch it.

My kasambahay (gentle, quiet) was also being watched by them. Whenever they saw someone from my family passing by, they would call her back to badmouth her, make up stories about “eating less meat and vegetables”… While my family never complained — why would kapitbahay cry for hire?

And then, the back gate of the coffee shop, every morning when we opened the door, there was a huge pile of trash in front of it. Not the kind that was thrown away casually; but intentionally dumped everywhere. Every morning, Kuya & Ate Dau worked hard to clean it up. Selling but just opened her eyes and was already annoyed, the whole day was boring.

She couldn’t catch anyone, didn’t know what to do. The two of them discussed installing CCTV, then Ms. kasambahay ran out and said: “I know the culprit, let me deal with it.”

She woke up early for several mornings in a row to watch, but it seemed like the other person caught her scent and disappeared. Finally, the other day she drank several cups of kapeng barako, stayed up all night and caught the garbage thief with her own hands.

Just as she guessed: the culprit was a bad neighbor. The reason: it was an eyesore because my shop was crowded. They also opened a coffee shop but it was deep in the alley, customers rarely came. My sister-in-law’s shop invested in beautiful decor, very “instagrammable” — every corner was filled with sparkling photos; the other side only had a few temporary tables and chairs in the house, no barista, no wonder they could compare.

The day she was caught red-handed, Ms. kasambahay kept the scene intact, called the neighborhood association/Homeowners’ association and Barangay tanod to come and work. It was late at that time, the people in the area heard the noise and came out to see, the other house was embarrassed and bowed its head.

After that, the rumor spread far and wide: everyone wanted to avoid the collision because they were afraid that “she was mean and would play tricks if she didn’t like it”. That house hated my kasambahay even more.

As for my family, they felt relieved: from now on they didn’t have to clean up the trash every morning, and they were even more proud of having a 10/10 kasambahay who didn’t talk much!