The last item on the list was the brooms. Inchoy gazed up and down the stalls, which were uniform in nearly every way. Finally, with purposeful strides he approached the chosen stall. The woman—Inchoy preferred doing business with women as he thought them to be more honest—seemed to recognize the oncoming challenge but smiled invitingly. The prices were set on neat squares of cardboard and were the same as all the other prices at the other stalls. Brooms ranged from P135 to P200, based on quality, I assumed, although some brooms were made of a rainbow of fibers, and those cost slightly more than the others. Inchoy’s first volley was to ask the woman why her brooms were so expensive, for which she had a ready answer, and soon she was pulling different brooms from the wall, digging others out from beneath a table, explaining the virtues of each with expertise and passion as Inchoy nodded on, mentally calculating the cost with precision, ease, and speed.

“How many brooms do you need?” he asked me.

“Six,” I said.

“Get ten. It’s a better price.”

“I don’t need ten. Just six, please. Remember, we’re getting the bus back.”

We were struggling under all our loot. The jars were heavy and had necessitated the purchase of some woven shopping bags, bargained for without mercy. “We’re going to have to go back to the hotel,” I said. “There’s no way I’m lugging this to Burnham Park.”

“True,” said Inchoy. “Well, if we’re headed back, maybe we should just get everything now.”

“Everything?” I looked at the two bags filled with jars, the bundles of brooms, and the two ornamental salakot woven hats, an impulse purchase, because Inchoy had managed to get a good price. He’d even been fingering the packages of betel nut, which was only enjoyed by old people, who chewed it, got red teeth, and were then photographed by National Geographic. “First we go to Chowking and get halo halo.”

“But it’s too cold for halo halo,” said Inchoy.

“You can get something else,” I said. I was already headed out of the market, toward the Chowking I’d seen on the way in.