4After a month selling bananas in Chinatown and a month working at the Chinese centre, I decided to visit our house in Valenzuela City. I was homesick for the place and I had two envelopes of money in my backpack, one for Mama Aida and the other for my mother and Adrian.
On the bus there were more people standing than sitting. Some of them slept standing up, like horses, their faces pale from exhaustion. The bodies were crammed together and there was a medley of smells, some of which I could make out – the leather of the seats, the humidity from the air conditioning, sweat, fruit, cheap perfume – and others I didn’t recognise.
I studied all the faces, looking for something among them: there were workmen tanned by the sun, office workers in uniform, nurses wearing white like a sports team
