6
Gloria Gets Work
“Nanang, I’m not a slut,” Gloria cried. “I’m a working girl.”
“What’s the difference?” Vicenta begged to know.
“I’m in business. Look around you. We’re camped in hell here. The dead gather flies faster than we can bury them. Those who aren’t shot are dead from hunger or the
bayonet. This way at least we survive.”
“You don’t owe me or that old man a damned thing.”
“Po-Pa is sick. Nanang, you can’t heal the world and feed these children too. He needs medicine, leaves are not enough for this sickness.”
“I said, you don’t owe me. If you think Isabel has been a burden, you’re wrong, as usual. You say the old man is sick. This, what you do now, this will kill him. You were
always his favorite.”
“I’m not doing it for you. Don’t you know, if these Japanese can’t buy a
