27IT WAS 1948, several years after the Philippine/American-Japanese war. The seventeen-year-old Teresa Magallanes noticed the reddish spots on her fingers and toes as she dried herself in their newly built private bathroom, a luxury that only a few families in the countryside could afford. When she was taking a bath she barely felt anything in the area of her feet while she scrubbed them with smooth stone. She told herself she wouldn’t be bothered by these rashes on the day of a very special occasion in her life, but she couldn’t avoid being worried when she felt almost nothing in those affected parts while she was drying herself with the towel. That was why she looked at her hands, because it was odd not feeling the soft cloth. Before she could further worry though, her mother knocked and
