Kalamazoo isa city in Michigan. Peoria isa city ut monde refers to the TONY ‘That was only a year ago. KIKAY ‘To me, it seems a century. So much has happened to me. I've become a completely different person in just one year. After all, what's a yea= what's a person? Just relative terms. More can happen to you in just one year i= ‘New York than in all a lifetime spent anywhere else. Do you know...I feel as # T’ve always lived in New York. In spirit, I am and have always been a native of ‘Manhattan, When I first arrived there, I felt [had come home at last. I's my rea! home. Oh, listen, last summer it was really hot...one of the hottest summers we ever had. I'd go riding on one of those double-decker buses just to cool off, an all those people from Kalamazoo and Peoria" and other places like that wou! be wandering around the streets... sightseeing, you know...and there I wou! be on top of this bus looking down at them and feeling very amused at the way they gaped at the sky-scrapers and the way they gaped at the shop windows but I'd be feeling very proud too, because it was my city they were admiring and I'd feel rather sorry for them living out in the sticks. TONY Listen, I don’t want to talk about New York...I want to talk about our engagement. KIKAY And that’s what we cannot do. Tony...not anymore, TONY ‘Why not? KIKAY ‘Tony, you got engaged to a girl named Kikay. Well, that gir doesn't exist anymore... she’s dead. The person you see before me is Francesca Don't you see, Tony, I'ma stranger to you... we don't speak the same language. and I feel so much, much older than you. I'm a woman of the world, you are only a boy. [hate to hurt you, Tony... but surely you see that there can between ‘us would be stark miscegenation! Imagine a New Yorker marrying a Tondo boy TONY [Blazing] — Now look here KIKAY [Very toleranty| -1'm sorry if I've hurt you, Tony but I wanted you to realize how ridiculous it would be to think that I could still be engaged to you TONY [Leaping up] ~ I'm not going to sit here and be insulted. KIKAY Hush, Tony, hush! Don't shout, don't lose your temper...it's so uncivilized, People in New York don’t lose their temper. Not people of the haut monde” anyway! TONY [Shouting] — What do you want me to do. ..smile and say thank you for slapping my face? somebody TONY KIKAY NENA TOTOY KIKAY Siends an NENA TONY NENA NENA KIKAY TOTOY NENA KIKAY TONY to tell yor KIKAY NENAKAY Yes, Tony, be a sport. Let's smile and shake hands and be just ‘ends, huh? Be brave, Tony... forget that's the New York way. Find another i, There are other “goils” in the “esters”, as they say in Brooklyn. You'll find body else... someone more proper for you. [Waving his ist] If you weren't a woman, I'd...1'd. Hold it, Tony...you must never, never hit a woman, ‘What's all this? ‘Nothing... nothing at all. What were you two quarrelling about? We were not quarrelling. Tony and I just decided to be good sends and nothing more. the gravel road to the house on hill. The Judge's wife invariably fered them beer, which Don Julian ssjoyed and Alfredo did not. After a -alf hour or so, the chessboard would %= brought out; then Alfredo and Julia Salas would go out to the porch to t. She sat in the low hammock d he in a rocking chair and the cars—warm, quiet March hours— wped by. He enjoyed talking with her sod it was evident that she liked his ;pany; yet what feeling there was se=ween them was so undisturbed that seemed a matter of course. Only eben Esperanza chanced to ask him directly about those visits did some sneasiness creep into his thoughts of ‘Se girl next door. Esperanza had wanted to know © be went straight home after mass. Sedo suddenly realized that for sereral Sundays now he had not waited for Esperanza to come out sf the church as he had been wont © do. He had been eager to go weighboring” He answered that he went home © work. And, because he was et habitually untruthful, added, “Sometimes I go with Papa to Judge del Valle’s.” She dropped the topic. Esperanza was not prone to indulge in unprovoked jealousies. She was a believer in the regenerative virtue of institutions, in their power to regulate feeling as well as conduct. If a man ‘were married, why, of course, he loved his wife; if he were engaged, he could not possibly love another woman.* That half-lie told him what he had not admitted openly to himself, that he was giving Julia Salas something which he was not free to give. He realized that; yet something that would not be denied beckoned imperiously, and he followed on. It was so easy to forget up there, away from the prying eyes of the world, so easy and so poignantly” sweet. The beloved woman, he standing close to her, the shadows around, enfolding, “Up here I find—something—” He and Julia Salas stood looking out into the quiet night. Sensing unwanted intensity, she laughed, ‘woman-like, asking, “Amusement?” “No; youth—its spirit—” “Are you so old?” “And heart's desire.” ‘Was he becoming a poet, or is there a poet lurking in the heart of every man? 6. What does this tell about the character of Esperanza? Do you know someone like her? 7. poignant - suggesting a feeling of regret or sadiness8. elusive difficult to catch orto remember 9. Do you think Alfredo wi face several cons for behaving as he 10, saunter - to walk in a Jaxed manner “Down there,” he had continued, his voice somewhat indistinct, “the road is too broad, too trodden by feet, t00 barren of mystery.” “Down there” beyond the ancient tamarinds lay the road, upturned to ‘the stars. In the darkness the fireflies glimmered, while an errant breeze strayed in from somewhere, bringing, elusive’, faraway sounds as of voices in a dream. ““Mystery—” she answered lightly, “that is so brief—" “Not in “Not in you.” some,” quickly. “You have known me a few ‘weeks; so the mystery.” “I could study you all my life and still not find it.” "So long?” “J should like to.” ‘Those six weeks were now so swift-seeming in the memory, yet had they been so deep in the living, so charged with compelling power and sweetness. Because neither the past nor the future had relevance or ‘meaning, he lived only the present, day by day, lived it intensely, with such a willful shutting out of fact as astounded him in his calmer ‘moments.’ Just before Holy Week, Don Julian invited the judge and his family to spend Sunday afternoon at Tanda where he had a coconut plantation and a house on the beach. Carmen also came with her four ene children. She and Dofia Adeis ar most of the time indoors dies the preparation of the mericnties= discussing the likeable al of their husbands—how Vicente was so absorbed in that he would not even take Sime to accompany her on this w father; how Dofta Adela’s Diss was the most absentminded of == sometimes going out without = collar, or with unmatched socies == After the merienda, Dos Sates sauntered"® off with the show him what a thrivi coconut looked like—"pleam leaves, close set, rich green” the children, convoyed by Julia Sse found unending entertaii the rippling sand left by the <= tide. They were far down, walls at the edge of the water, indissns outlined against the gray of the es curving beach. Alfredo left his perch o= bamboo ladder of the ho followed. Here were her fo narrow, arched. He laughed at hime for his black canvas footwear he removed forthwith and tosse up on dry sand. ‘When he came up, she fit then smiled with frank pleasure “Thope you are enjoying this, said with a questioning inflection “Very much, It looks like hom me, except that we do not have sv lovely beach.”ergetic a spent irecting da and dities men’s is farms ime off it to her Dionisio of men. out hi cks n Julian udge to } young enty of —while ja Salas, nent in ‘ebbing valking stinctly the out- on the se and tsteps, himself which ed high ushed, re, nis,” he ion, ome to such a There was a breeze from the water. It blew the hair away from her forehead, and whipped the tucked- up skirt around her straight, slender figure. In the picture was something of eager freedom as of wings poised in ‘light. The gitl had grace, distinction. Her face was not notably pretty; yet she had a tantalizing charm, all the more compelling because it was an inner quality, an achievement of the spirit. The lure was there, of naturalness, of an alert vitality of mind and body, of a thoughtful, sunny temper, and of a piquant" perverseness which is sauce to charm, “The afternoon has seemed very short, hasn't it?” Then, “This, I think, is the last time—we can visit.” “The last? Why?” “Oh, you will be too busy perhaps.” He noted an evasive quality in the answer. “Do I seem especially industrious to you?” “If you are, you never look it.” “Not perspiring or breathless, as a busy man ought to be.” “Bur” “Always unhurried, too unhurried, and calm.” She smiled to herself. “I wish that were true,” he said after a meditative pause. She waited. “A man is happier if he is, as you say, calm and placid.” “Like a carabao in a mud pool,” she retorted perversely “Who? I?” “Oh, no!” “You said Iam calm and placid.” “That is what I think.” “| used to think so too. Shows how little we know ourselves.” Tt was strange to him that he could be wooing thus: with tone and look and covert phrase. “I should like to see your home town.” “There is nothing to see—little crooked streets, yunut roofs with ferns growing on them, and sometimes squashes.” ‘That was the background. It made her seem less detached, less unrelated, yet withal more distant, as if that background claimed her and excluded him. “Nothing? There is you.” “Oh, me? But I am here.” “Twill not go, of course, until you are there.” “Will you come? You will find it dull. There isn’t even one American there!” 11. piquant - having a pleasant or exciting quality 12, What does this imply about the characters of Alfredo and Julia? 13, What does this information suggest about Julia's social class?“Well—Americans are rather essential to my entertainment.” She laughed. “We live on Calle Luz, a little street with trees.” “Could I find that?” “If you don't ask for Miss del Valle,” she smiled teasingly. “Tl inquire about—” “What?” “The house of the prettiest girl in the town.” “There is where you will lose your way.” Then she turned serious. “Now, that is not quite sincere.” “Tt is,” he averred slowly, but ‘emphatically. “Tthought you, at least, would not say such things.” “Pretty-pretty—a foolish word! But there is none other more handy. I did not mean that quite—” “Are you withdrawing the compliment?” “Re-enforcing it, maybe. Something is pretty when it pleases the eye—itis more than that when—” “If it saddens?” she interrupted hastily. “Exactly.” “It must be ugly.” “Always?” Toward the west, the sunlight & on the dimming waters in a broat glinting streamer of crimsoned goie “No, of course you are right.” “Why did you say this is last time?” he asked quietly as thes tured back. “Lam going home.” ‘The end of an impossible dream “When?” after a long silence “Tomorrow. I received a lene from Father and Mother yesteré=: They want me to spend Holy ‘Week at home.” ‘She seemed to be waiting for bie to speak. “That is why I said this is last time.” “Can't I come to say good-bye “Oh, you don’t need to!” “No, but I want to.” here is no time.” The golden streamer w=: withdrawing, shortening, until © looked no more than a pool far == at the rim of the world. Stillness = vibrant quiet that affects the senses = does solemn harmony; a peace thx is not contentment but a cessation =light lay | broad -d gold ght.” s is the as they dream! nce. a letter sterday | Holy for him ; was intil it away ness, a nses as ce that tion of, umult when all violence of feeling ones down to the wistful serenity of egret. She turned and looked into s face, in her dark eyes a ghost of sunset sadness. “Home seems so far from here, This is almost like another life.” “L know. This is Elsewhere, and yet strange enough, I cannot get rid of the old things.” “Old things?” “Oh, old things, mistakes, encumbrances, old baggage.” He said * lightly, unwilling to mar the hour. He walked close, his hand sometimes touching hers for one whirling second. Don Julian's nasal summons came to them on the wind. Alfredo gripped the soft hand so near his own, At his touch, the girl turned her face away, but he heard her voice say very low, “Good-bye.” 1 Alfredo Salazar turned to the right where, farther on, the road broadened and entered the heart of the town— heart of Chinese stores sheltered under low-hung roofs, of indolent drug stores and tailor shops, of dingy shoe-repairing establishments, and a cluttered goldsmith’s cubbyhole where consumptive bent over a magnifying, lens; heart of old brick-roofed houses with quaint hand-and-ball knockers on the door; heart of grass-grown plaza reposeful with trees, of ancient church and convento, now circled by swallows gliding in flight as smooth and soft as the afternoon itself, Into the quickly deepening twilight, the voice of the biggest of the church bells kept ringing its insistent summons. Flocking came the devout with their long wax candles, young women in vivid apparel (for this was Holy Thursday and the Lord was still alive), older women in sober black skirts. Came too the young men in droves, elbowing each other under the falisay tree near the church door. The gaily decked rice-paper lanterns were again on display while from the windows of the older houses hung colored glass globes, heirlooms from a day when grasspith wicks floating in coconut oil were the chief lighting device. Soon a double row of lights ‘emerged from the church and uncoiled down the length of the street like a huge jewelled band studded with glittering clusters where the saints’ platforms were. Above the measured ‘music rose the untutored voices of the choir, steeped in incense and the acrid fumes of burning wax. ‘The sight of Esperanza and her mother sedately pacing behind Our Lady of Sorrows suddenly destroyed the illusion of continuity and broke up those lines of light into component individuals. Esperanza stiffened self consciously, tried to look unaware, and could not. ‘The line moved on. Suddenly, Alfredo’s slow blood began to beat violently, irregularly.15, What is the mood of the 16. Do you think Julia is sincere in offering her congratulations? A girl was coming down the line—a girl that was striking, and vividly alive, the woman that could cause violent commotion in his heart, yet had no place in the completed ordering of his life." Her glance of abstracted devotion fell on him and came to a brief stop. The line kept moving on, wending, its circuitous route away from the church and then back again, where, according to the old proverb, all processions end. At last Our Lady of Sorrows entered the church, and with her the priest and the choir, whose voices now echoed from the arched ceiling, The bells rang the close of the procession. ‘A round orange moon, “huge asa winnowing basket,” rose lazily into a clear sky, whitening the iron roofs and dimming the lanterns at the windows. Along the still densely shadowed streets the young women with their rear guard of males loitered and, maybe, took the longest way home. Toward the end of the row of Chinese stores, he caught up with Julia Salas. The crowd had dispersed into the side streets, leaving Calle Real to those who lived farther out, It was past eight, and Esperanza would be expecting him in a little while: yet the thought did not hurry him as he said “Good evening” and fell into step with the girl. “Thad been thinking all this time that you had gone,” he said in a voice that was both excited and troubled “No, my sister asked me to s= until they are ready to go.” “Oh, is the Judge going?” “Yes.” ‘The provincial docket had bese cleared, and Judge del Valle had bese assigned elsewhere. As lawyer—ant as lover—Alfredo had found that om long before. “Mr. Salazar,” she broke into fe silence, “I wish to congratulate you" Her tone told him that she iat learned, at last. That was inevitabiie “For what?” “For your approaching wedding Some explanation was due be: surely. Yet what could he say th ‘would not offend? “I should have offeres congratulations long before, but yew know mere visitors are slow abs getting the news,” she continued.* He listened not so much to wise she said as to the nuances in her He heard nothing to enlighten hix except that she had reverted to the formal tones of early acquaintanc: No revelation there; simply the © voice—cool, almost detached from personality, flexible and vibr suggesting potentialities of song “Are weddings interesting you?” he finally brought out quiets “When they are of friends, yesto sta d been r—and hat out nto bis 2 you. ne had itable iding, ue her, yy that fered ut you about od. > what “voice n him, to the tance. he old I from brant, ie ng to sietly. yes. “Would you come if I asked you?” “When is it going to be?” “May,” he replied briefly, after a ‘ong pause, “May is the month of happiness they say," she said, with what seemed to him a shade of irony. “They say,” slowly, indifferently. ‘Would you come?” “Why not?” “No reason. I am just asking, Then you will?” “If you will ask me,” she said with disdain, “Then I ask you.” “Then I will be there.” ‘The gravel road lay before them; atthe road’s end the lighted windows of the house on the hill. There swept over the spirit of Alfredo Salazar a longing so keen that it was pain, a wish that, that house were his, that all the bewilderments of the present were not, and that this woman by his side were his long wedded wife, returning with him to the peace of home. “Julita,” he said in his slow, thoughtful manner, “did you ever have to choose between something you wanted to do and something you had to do?” “Not “I thought maybe you had had that experience; then you could understand a man who was in such a situation.” “You are fortunate,” he pursued when she did not answer. “Is—is this man sure of what he should do?” “I don’t know, Julita. Perhaps not. But there is a point where a thing, escapes us and rushes downward of its own weight, dragging us along. Then it is foolish to ask whether one will or will not, because it no longer depends on him.” “But then why—why—" her mufiled voice came. “Oh, what do I know? That is his problem after all.” “Doesn't it—interest you?” “Why must it? I—I have to say good-bye, Mr. Salazar; we are at the house.” Without lifting her eyes she quickly turned and walked away. Had the final word been said? He wondered. It had. Yet a feeble flutter of hope trembled in his mind though set against that hope were three years of engagement, a very near wedding, perfect understanding between the parents, his own conscience, and Esperanza _herself—Esperanza waiting, Esperanza no longer young, Esperanza the efficient, the literal- minded, the intensely acquisitive He looked attentively at her where she sat on the sofa, appraisingly, andwere eae eee oe 17, Based on this description of Esperanza, how is she different from Julia? 18, What is Esperanza trying to imply by telling this story? 168 with a kind of aversion which he tried to control She was one of those fortunate ‘women who have the gift of uniformly acceptable appearance. She never surprised one with unexpected homeliness nor with startling reserves of beauty.” At home, in church, on the street, she was always herself, a woman past first bloom, light and clear of complexion, spare of arms and of breast, with a slight convexity to thin throat; a woman dressed with self-conscious care, even elegance; a woman distinctly not average. She was pursuing an indignant relation about something or other, something about Calixta, their note- cartier, Alfredo perceived, so he merely halflistened, understanding imperfectly. At a pause he drawled out to fill in the gap: “Well, what of it?” The remark sounded ruder than he had intended. She is not married to him,” Esperanza insisted in her thin, nervously pitched voice. “Besides, she should have thought of us. Nanay practically brought her up. We never thought she would turn out bad.”"* ‘What had Calixta done? Homely, middle-aged Calixta? “You are very positive about her badness,” he commented dryly. Esperanza was always positive. “But do you approve?” “Of what?” “What she did.” “No,” indifferently “well?” He was suddenly impelled by a desire to disturb the unvexed orthodoxy of her mind, “All I say = that itis not necessarily wicked.” “Why shouldn't it be? You tallies like an—immoral man. I did nee know that your ideas were like t “My ideas?” he retorted, goade= by a deep, accumulated exasperation “The only test I wish to apply conduct is the test of fairness. Am I injuring anybody? No? Then I a= justified in my conscience. I am righ Living with a man to whom she is === married—is that it? It may be wrong and again it may not.” “She has injured us. She was ungrateful.” Her voice was tight wit resentment. “The trouble with you, Esperanm isthat you are—” he stopped, appalice by the passion in his voice. “Why do you get angry? I de not understand you at all! I think ® know why you have been indifferes: to me lately. Iam not blind, or see and hear what pethaps some == trying to keep from me.” The bloot surged into his very eyes and bs hearing sharpened to points of acot pain, What would she say next? “Why don't you speak out franks before it is too late? You need nee think of me and of what people wil say.” Her voice trembled, Alfred sot remer before. WI will they n when lon; aimost on “Yes, Stidently “one tries Sghts—bu be fairt Do easy, “Wha with repr aay shortc ae many sae out Sed a ma Did s semark th Ber, or Sslia Sala As# he boa seling © Espeeis nos wrong, ht with eranza ppalled 7 I do think I ifferent deaf, I me are ‘blood nd his f acute ? frankly ed not le will Allfedo was suffering as he could t remember ever having suffered sefore, What people will say—what wil they not say? What don’t they say when long engagements are broken simost on the eve of the wedding.” “Yes,” he said hesitatingly, Siidently, asif merely thinking aloud, one tries to be fait—according to his ghts—but it is hard. One would like o be fair to one's self first. But that is 0 easy, one does not dare—" “What do you mean?” she asked with repressed violence. “Whatever nay shortcomings, and no doubt they are many in your eyes, I have never gone out of my way, of my place, to nd a man.” Did she mean by this irrelevant remark thatit was he who had sought her; or was that a covert attack on julia Salas? “Esperanza—” a desperate plea ay in his stumbling words. “If you suppose I—” Yet how could a mere man word such a plea? “If you mean you want to take back your word, if you are tired of — why don't you tell me you are tired of me?” she burst out in a storm of ‘weeping that left him completely shamed and unnerved. ‘The last word had been said. m1 ‘As Alfredo Salazar leaned against the boat rail to watch the evening settling over the lake, he wondered if Esperanza would attribute any significance to this trip of his. He was supposed to be in Sta. Cruz whither the case of the People of the Philippine Islands vs. Belina et al had kept him, and there he would have been if Brigida Samuy had not been so important to the defense. He had to find that elusive old woman. ‘That the search was leading him to that particular lake town which was Julia Salas’ home should not disturb him unduly. Yet he was disturbed toa degree utterly out of proportion to the prosaicalness of his errand. That inner tumult was no surprise to him; in the last eight years he had become used to such occasional storms. He had long, realized that he could not forget Julia Salas. Still, he had tried to be content and not to remember too much. The climber of mountains who has known, the back-break, the lonesomeness, and the chill, finds a certain restfulness in level paths made easy to his feet. He looks up sometimes from the valley where settles the dusk of evening, but he knows he must not heed the radiant beckoning. Maybe, in time, he would cease even to look up. He was not unhappy in his marriage. He felt no rebellion: only the calm of capitulation to what he recognized as irresistible forces of circumstance and of character. His life had simply ordered itself; no more struggles, no more stirring up of emotions that got a man nowhere. From his capacity of complete detachment he derived a strange solace. The essential himself, the himself that had its being in the core of his thought, would, he reflected, always be free and alone. When claims encroached too insistently, 19. Do you think Alfredo will break his engagement with Esperanza?’ 20, capitulation - an acceptance of defeatst does this tell you fine character of Sess wsgubrious - serious and as sometimes they did, he retreated into the inner fastness, and from that vantage he saw things and people around him as remote and alien, as incidents that did not matter." At such times did Esperanza feel baffled and helpless; he was gentle, even tender, but immeasurably far away, beyond her reach. Lights were springing into life on the shore. That was the town, a little up-tilted town nestling in the dark greenness of the groves. A smubcrested belfry stood beside the ancient church. On the outskirts the evening smudges glowed red through the sinuous mists of smoke that rose and lost themselves in the purple shadows of the hills. ‘There was a young moon which grew slowly luminous as the coral tints in the sky yielded to the darker blues of evening ‘The vessel approached the landing quietly trailing a wake of long golden ripples on the dark water. Peculiar hill inflections came to his ears from the crowd assembled to meet the boat— slow, singing cadences, characteristic of the Laguna lake-shore speech From where he stood he could not distinguish faces, so he had no way of knowing whether the presidente was there to meet him or not. Just then a voice shouted, “Is the abogado there? Abogado!” What abogado?” someone irately asked. That must be the presidente, he thought, and went down to the landing. It was a policeman, a tall post marked individual. The presidente nas left with Brigida Samuy—Tandane “Binday”—that noon for Santa Crs Sefior Salazar’s second letter bat arrived late, but the wife had reas and said, “Go and meet the abosai and invite him to our house.” Ho Alfredo Salazar courteous J ie bac declined the invitation. He me sleep on board since the boat wos: |) nforgs leave at four the next morning anyw= | = earl So the presidente had received his &= |) sense ¢ letter? Alfredo did not know bec: = othe that official had not sent an answ= |) marrie “Yes,” the policeman replied, “bur = |) mflecte could not write because we heard = axregre ‘Tandang Binday was in San Antone |) =xvoli so we went there to find her.” aware ieeiew San Antonio was up in the f a Good man, the presidente! He, must do something for him. Ie not every day that one met wit willingness to help. Eight o'clock, lugubri tolled from the bell tower, found! boat settled into a somnolent quis. A cot had been brought out ant spread for him, but it was too bam to be inviting at that hour. It was ame early to sleep: he would walk aroumt the town. His heart beat faster 2s ie picked his way to shore over the rae made fast to sundry piles driven sm Se the water, rhe x How peaceful the town wall (simon Here and there a little tienda was Si ene = open, its dim light issuing forloraiy |) we an through the single window whist | Geese served as counter. An occasion |) tiet 1 couple sauntered by, the womext:I pock: fente had andang ta Cruz ter had 1 read i abogad teously would t would anyway his first because answer “but he ard that Antonio he hills Alfredo, Tt was ith such ously und the t qui mut an 00 bare was too around er as he the rafts ven into n was’ was still srlornly which asional omen's chinelas making scraping sounds. From a distance came the shrill voices of children playing games on the street—tubigan perhaps, or “hawk- and-chicken.” The thought of Julia Salas in that quiet place filled him with a pitying sadness. How would life seem now if he had married Julia Salas? Had he meant anything to her? That unforgettable red-and-gold afternoon. nearly April haunted him with a sense of incompleteness as restless as other unlaid ghosts. She had not married—why? Faithfulness, he reflected, was not a conscious effort at regretful memory. It was something. unvolitional, maybe a recurrent awareness of irreplaceability. Irrelevant trifles—a cool wind on his forehead, far-away sounds as of voices in a dream—at times moved him to an oddly irresistible impulse to listen as to an insistent, unfinished prayer.”* ‘A few inquiries led him toa certain little tree-ceilinged street where the young moon wove indistinct filigrees of fight and shadow. In the gardens the cotton tree threw its angular shadow athwart the low stone wall; and in the cool, stilly midnight the cock's first call rose in tall, soaring jets of sound, Calle Luz. Somehow or other, he had known that he would find her house because she would surely be sitting at the window. Where else, before bedtime on a moonlit night? The house was low and the light in the sala behind her threw her head into unmistakable relief. He sensed rather than saw her start of vivid surprise. Good evening,” he said, raising his hat. “Good evening. Oh! Are you in town?” “On some little business,” he answered with a feeling of painful constraint, “Won't you come up?” He considered. His vague plans had not included this, But Julia Salas had left the window, calling to her mother as she did so. After a while, someone came downstairs with a lighted candle to open the door. At Jast—he was shaking her hand. She had not changed much—a little less slender, not so eagerly alive, yet something had gone He missed it, sitting opposite her, looking thoughtfully into her fine dark eyes, She asked him about the home town, about this and that, in a sober, somewhat meditative tone. He conversed with increasing ease, though with a growing wonder that he should be there at all. He could not take his eyes from her face. What had she lost? Or was the loss his? He felt an impersonal curiosity creeping into his gaze. The girl must have noticed, for her cheek darkened in a blush. Gently —was it experimentally? — he pressed her hand at parting; but his, own felt undisturbed and emotionless. Did she still care? The answer to the question hardly interested him. ‘The young moon had set, and from the uninviting cot he could see one half of a star-studded sky. 23, Why do you think did Alfredo choose to marry Esperanza over Julia?So that was all over. still in their appointed places the heavens, Tuwa Why, why had he obstinately fanuvu E clung to that dream from the weariness An immense sadness as of I |< nopsis ai of actuality? And now more actuality invaded his spirit, a vast homesick== hhad robbed him of the dream. for some immutable refuge of heart far away where faded ga Taras 24, Did Alfedo’s character Soall these years—since when?— bloom again, and where live 0= © |. calls his change by theend of the he had been seeing the light of dead unchanging freshness, the dear, Sem 1 that the story stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly loves of vanished youth. essage: he is he Maide etries to di « she forest wvever, is cis the he e activate | headdress ddesses mez blade a shield an sh of light Cawkawanj sing there esgutan bird catch the f egutan with megutan tell sow of his he want iding celet bring the g ake their sh space. Upon an swaang is sits on a wan pet eantime, ‘Som afar an be arrival ¢ Penayangan ong Man eng Manoes in Floss kness f the rdens on in dead Tuwaang Attends a Wedding (Manuvu Epic) Synopsis and Translation by E. Arsenio Manuel Tuwaang, after finishing some work, calls his aunt aside and informs her that the wind has brought him a ‘message: he is to attend the wedding of the Maiden of Mo: nawon. The aunt tries to dissuade him from going, for she foresees trouble. Tuwaang, however, is determined to go. He picks the heart-shaped basket that can activate the lightning, puts on his headdress and the costume made by goddesses, arms himself with a Jong blade and dagger, and takes his shield and spear. He rides on a flash of lightning and arrives at the Kawkawangan grassland. While resting there a while, he hears a gungutan bird crowing. He decides to catch the fowl, but soon sees the -gungutan with a daggerlike spur. The -gungutan tells Tawaang he came to know of his coming in a dream and that he wants to go with him to the wedding celebration. Tuwaang agrees to bring the gungutan along. The two shake their shoulders and are carried into space. Upon arriving at Mo: nawon, Tuwaang is admitted into the hall. He sits on a golden stool while the gungutan perches on a crossbeam Meantime, enchanting sounds from afar and flowering trees signal the arrival of the Young Man of Panayangan, Other gallants—the Young Man of Liwanon and the Young Man of the Rising Sun—arrive. Finally, the groom, the Young Man of Sakadna, arrives with a hundred followers. He haughtily asks the house owner to clean the house “of dirt,” implying the people in the house who do not count. To this insult, Tawaang, answers there are “red leaves,” i.e., heroes, in the house." Preliminaries of the wedding ceremony start. The (bridewealth consisting of articles and wrapped food to be paid for by the groom’s kinsmen) are offered one by one, until only the two most costly remain. One is given the value of an ancient gong with ten bosses and nine relief-rings, the other is redeemable only by a golden guitar and a golden flute. The groom confesses his inability to redeem these articles. ‘Tuwaang saves the groom from the embarrassing predicament by taking his place: through his magic breath he produces a more ancient gong, which is accepted by the bride's party. He also produces the golden flute and golden guitar. savakan The bride is now asked to come out of her room and serve the guests some betel chew?. She commands her betel box to serve everyone. Magically, the betel box obeys, with the betel chew jumping into the mouths of the guests. After two betel chews leap into the groom’s mouth, the betel box moves on to Tuwaang, before whom it stops altogether. Tuwaang brushes it 2 What do you think will happen because of this ‘The betel nut comes the Arec Asian cultures u betel chew as as for tobacco. 1734, ‘What makes Tuwaang, distinct from the other Does the story remind you of something you have already read or watched? away, but the box does not budge. The bride decides to sit beside Tuwaang.* The groom blushes; he is shamed. He decides to fight Tuwaang. He ‘goes down the house and challenges ‘Tuwaang to come down to the yard. After the bride unrolls and combs ‘Tuwaang's hair, Tuwaang goes down to fight. The gungutan, meanwhile, has been fighting the groom’s men and has slain a number of them until only six gallants remain, Tuwaang and the _gungutan engage the six gallants, Finally, only Tuwaang and the Young Man of Sakadna are left moving about. Tawaang is thrown against a boulder, which turns inn dust. Trees get bent and topr ‘Tuwaang gets hold of his foe, throw him down so hard that he sinks ism the earth. The Young Man of Sakasine surfaces quickly and confrom ‘Tuwaang once more. Tuwaa turn is thrust into the earth and sai into the Underworld. There he taliss® ‘Tuwaha’, god of the Underworld, we tells him the secret of overcoming i foe. Tuwaang surfaces and summon: the golden flute in which the Yous ‘Man of Sakadna keeps his life. Accompanied by the gumgssme Tuwaang takes the bride home = Kuaman, where he rules forever:into topple throws aks into Sakadna nfronts rang in ad sinks talks to 1d, who Philippine Women and the Vote by Trinidad F. Legarda Never wilt peace and human mature meet Till free and equal man and woman greet —Shelley The time seems to be most opportune for a dispassionate iscussion of the question of woman saffrage in order to bring home to our people the reasons why we believe the ballot can be safely entrusted into the sands of the Filipino women. The complexion of the new egislature is very apparentlypro- suffrage. We are lucky to count among our lawmakers a considerable number of progressive and broad-minded men who are heartily in accord with our aspirations, and rightly so. For woman, suffrage isa just and honorable cause, and the reasonableness of our demand 's its best recommendation. ‘We have been accused of being lukewarm on the subject of woman saffrage just because we have made no visible agitation for the fulfillment of our aspirations. This attitude, it seems come, is the best proof for our capacity to exercise the suffrage. We believe in our cause but we do not believe that ‘o attain our end we have to resort to violent and drastic methods which would only reflect upon ourselves. We are of the conviction that good manners and soft words will bring the most difficult things to pass. In the words of George Washington, we will not allow our campaign to exceed a decent warmth but will submit our sentiments quietly, knowing full well that a dictatorial manner, though it may carry conviction, always arouses resentment.! We are arraying ourselves not as foes of men but as friends, demanding not an empire but friendship and equality, and wishing to reign not over ‘men, but over ourselves, 1am fully aware that in this cause some of our worst foes are found within our own sex.? But I am aware that some of our best friends are to be found among the men. I am not deluding myself into the belief that our women are solid for suffrage. What I do know is once they are shown the justness and the reasonableness of our demand, they will most naturally side with us, for Euripides has rightly said that woman is woman's natural ally. Even granting that among our women there are more who are opposed to it than those favoring it, it is still to our advantage, for we can then say with Chesterton, “To be in the weakest ‘camp is to be in the strongest school.” A woman, above the accident of her sex, is, first of all a human being. Like every human being she is potentially heir to every human Do you agree with this statement? ‘Why do you think did the author mention this?3. ‘Why do you think did the author mention this? faculty and achievement. As attested to by eminent psychologists, there is no male and female mind anymore than there is a male and female lung or liver. Sex is merely a division of gender, not of intellect or capacity.’ Equality knows no difference of sex. The law of equal freedom necessarily applies to the whole race, female as well as male. As Plato said, “Bither sex alone is but half itself.” ‘The human race, like the human body, can advance only by the joint motion of its limbs, The citizens of this country are Filipinos and women form one-half of our population. Our nation is created, not by one sex alone, but jointly by men and women. If it is to be presumed that the right of suffrage inheres in men solely because they are part of the “people,” the same right also inheres in women simply and solely because they are part of the people. ‘We are classed as citizens of this country. We help in our country’s struggle for economic freedom and for political liberty just as much as men do, There is no campaign, no demonstration, no undertaking for the ‘motion and the welfare of our country that we have not gladly shared in with ‘our men. Yet when election day comes around, a discrimination is set up against us just because we are women. ‘And we are unwittingly classed among the minas, criminals, and lunatics of this country! But while the child will become a man and a voter, the lunatic may be cured, and the criminal may be pardoned, no amount of wisdom, ‘no age, no peculiar fitness, no) service rendered, however effort, can remove from » extraordinary disability b sex. This is contrary to natural and to the most enlightened philosophy. It is manifestly = exclude one-half of our political influence, because hhas as many interests to as man, and she is quite cap caring for her rights. In the Victor Hugo: “She who bears burden ought to have half the: Half of the human race is dep= equality and it must be given ‘The “natural right” of 2 to vote is just as clear as that of and rests on the same ground. she is called on to obey the ought to have a voice in makin We all admit that womes created to be the mothers of ‘This is an unequivocal fact bear the world. Women make = souls of litle children are delicate and tender things, ane forever the shadow that firs ‘upon them, and that is the or at best a woman's. The that we ask for is, in the wont Carrie Chapmat Catt, one wisi hope to make worthy of the be= highest womanhood by insistine honesty and nobility in our ps by providing that a mother is 2 mother when she is also a citine ‘To be more practical, are less concerned than men in & clean streets, decent sewers, milk, good schools, charities p administered, hospitals ps2 proper footing? Yet we cannot have to do with any of these things Swthout taking part in politics, pure d simple, “Not one whit of glory ould I withdraw,” said Henry Ward ‘her, “from the picture of the er in her home where we are power to teach her children largely .ds upon the influences that ound the household.‘ Every true ‘an woman is bound to have a ought for the village, the country, state, the nation, Said Theodore Roosevelt, “ ieve in the rights of the women sst as much as I do in those of men 4, indeed, a little more... . She ‘en do the best work in her home if “Se has healthy outside interests and ‘sccupations in addition”, “Neither ‘tI believe that the evil effects to the Some and to the family and to the ‘omantiness of woman would follow ‘woman suffrage, which its opponents seophesy,” said Robert Erskine Ely. “On the contrary, political duties and scivileges will have an educational sefluence upon women from which sbeir homes and the children will ecatly benefit.” The majority of women will aiways be homemakers in spite of woman suffrage. As an old Hindu sroverb says, “A hundred men make ss encampment, One woman makes = home.” Yet in the words of John sight, “Yes, yes, itis all very well, but one just law is worth a million soup ‘ctchens.” Surely, the duties of the home, specially in these times of labor MTL) saving devices and new discoveries, are not so rigorous as to prevent the ‘most domestic of women from leaving, her fireside once every three years or so to record her vote! Women will become more satisfactory friends and helpmates of men when they have learned self- reliance by depending on themselves, self-protection by protecting themselves, self-reverence and self- control and the courage of their convictions by freely and openly sharing on equal terms with men in the responsibilities of the government. “There can be no real marriage worthy of the name and a help to civilization save on a basis of political, social, and economic equality.” says Jesse Lynch Williams. ‘The most flimsy argument against ‘woman suffrage is that it will mark the end of chivalry and destroy the woman linen of our women. Some men say that a great many ‘women will not wish to vote because they will think it is not “lady-like”, or whatever the proper term may be. Are there a great many men who abstain from politics because they think it ‘ungentlemanly? ‘Suppose the majority of women do not wish to vote—is that a reason for depriving one woman, who is taxed, of her equal representation? Our opponents are dreadfully exercised for fear the vote will ‘unsex women. They say we are too delicate—women are such “fragile flowers”—yet men get these delicate blossoms to undertake at the lowest Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? Can you think of a ‘counterargument for this?possible wages the intolerable toil of the rope-walk, Women make bricks, girls are driven, when not driven to something worse, to being scullions and boarding-house slaves. Women are graciously permitted to sweat in factories and over other people’s washing when they should be caring for their babies. Still others of these fragile flowers work on the roads, make bridges, build houses, and plough the fields to keep alive. Yet a vote in their hands would soil them and destroy their womanliness! It is alleged that women are already represented by men. When was the choice made? “If I am told they are virtually represented,” said George William Curtis, “I reply with James Otis that no such phrase as virtual representation is known in law or constitution.” The pronouncement that women are represented by their husbands is entirely inadequate. It is fortunate for those who have husbands to represent them but unfortunate for the great number of unmarried women and widows who may still need representation at the polls. And brothers and fathers may answer the last summons before their women folk, and thus leave a family wholly unrepresented in the machinery of our government. The American colonies were said to be represented in the British Parliament but the colonies were content with such representation: “Neither are women contented =) be represented by men,” says Ja Freeman Clarke. What can be m to the point than the old defense of republics, “Taxation withow: representation is tyranny?” A frequent argument againe woman suffrage is that since woe cannot become soldiers, they ousie not to vote: in other words, am behind every vote there must bullet ready to defend it. Always some woman risks life whenever a soldier is born i the world. “For years,” desc Lucy Stone, “she does picket by his cradle, Later on, she is quartermaster and gathers his rat And when that boy grows to be ‘man, shalll he say to his mother. you want to vote, you must first = and kill somebody?’ That is a cow argument.” There are many arguments again ‘woman suffrage, but no reasons. T™ ‘more we interrogate common se= the less reason we find for exclu ‘women from political existence. Letus then exclaim with Abr Lincoln. “Let us have faith that makes might, and in that faith let = to the end dare to do our duties as understand them.”UNIT 4: Anticipating Challenges 1 yi = 7 5 6 v/ 8 9 New Year's Eve by Edgar B. Maranan How Rosang Taba Won A Race by Dean Francis Alfar Rekindling by Glenn Vincent Kintanar Atanacio Of Pixels and Power by Scott Lee Chua Restructuring Idealism by Katrina G. Gomez The World is an Apple by Alberto S. Florentino Except the Truth by F. Sionil Jose Bread of Salt by N.V.M. Gonzalez Speech of President Corazon Aquino during the Joint Session of the US. Congress, September 18, 1986New Year’s Eve by Edgar B. Maranan 1 Feverish at midwinter . Nothing, nothing but fog of sadness, ten thousand miles from home. There, carols warm up nights, paper lanterns foreground December’ s brilliant stars. ‘Years hence, I shut out the powder smoke of celebration. Deaf to the demon-chasing bombs, long for the brittle pop of crackers long ago. Carolers amidst cold pine air warmed up lungs as, out of tune, they jingled fuzzy lyrics 1. What place is the persona for a pittance, right up to Three Kings’ night." talking about? 2 Hours before the parting of the years, take a ride downtown to Intramuros, past Commonwealth straddled by the slums where windows flutter with wind-whipped rags and hand-down clothes, the week's washing in public taps, the spawn in joyless frolic. 3 The walled city is a ghost town where robes and epaulets ruled, their spirits living on in showcase mansions and museums, in retro diners and curio stops, all closed today. ‘Would they have closed that day a black-clad figure faced the morning sky, his back to a brace 2. Who jis the “black-clad of muskets, his face towards the rising sun?” figure” referred to inthis stanza? a Calesas idle on the cobblestone, till one rumbles past me, its crap catcher swinging behind the horse, the driver all alone, homeward with not much fare today. Tricyles rankle, cold, unwanted, on their sidewalk ranks. I see one with children cramped inside the cab, the driver retching on the bars, zigzagging in his course. I stride past tattooed ‘men, bare-chested, in grimy cut-offs, fetus-sleeping on cardboard mats.5 Athwart facades, a sari-sari stand displays a wealth of tins and styrofoam, spirit shelves of rum beer gin and Coke, a brandy for just one day of wages plus fireworks on the sly: so many ways to cheer the parting of the years, or part unhappy souls from lives grown old upon such native ground Imeet a man at the Luneta, not far from where the hero stands with overcoat, the bullet holes unseen, only his aura of nationhood serene, the pride of race. He holds a book more potent than sacred writ. But the other man holds a stick with twiggy hands, rousing what nourishment for his flesh remains ‘among the rubbish on this hallowed land.’ 6 ‘On Quiapo bridge, a hologram of humanity crouches on the bridge's rise, holding forth an opaque plastic can, his lower body draped with a piece of rag and stiffened shroud, as from beneath him flows a stench mark of earthly spot. With tangled hair, a face begrimed with dust, he mumbles for the plink of outstretched love.‘ 7 Rockets, voices greet the parting of the years then everything is spent. Explosions taper off, sputter, pick up again for a minute or two, are taken over by the tired tooting of feathered trumpets, the final banging of empty cans Somewhere are louder blasts we cannot hear ‘men of good and evil lose not only limbs while the god of time sets back to zero our hoary human dreams.° 5 How would you compare the man and the hero? What image comes to mind as you read this How is this stanza significant to the whole