There was a different air that stirred as people rose to meet a new day. An air of freedom, free from worry and uncertainty, lifted the veil of gloom that clouded people's lives. There was a distinct lilt as people went about rebuilding their lives - at least in Binmaley and the nearby towns while war continued furiously elsewhere.
Yamashita's northern forces were well entrenched in the Cordilleras. Corregidor was yet to be taken, Manila has yet to be liberated, prisoners of war in the prison camps at Cabanatuan, O'Donnell and at UST still have to be rescued. Pockets of Japanese resistance existed everywhere; the Japanese code of Bushido forbade surrender and fanatical Japanese made suicide charges while shouting "Banzai!"
The technicians and mechanics operating a motor pool and a communications facility in Calaocan grew tired of food served at mess halls and asked Flora to cook for them. She now had a daughter, Muriel, born on May 5, 1944 - a chubby girl with curly locks, dimples on her cheeks and chinky eyes like her father's which disappeared in slits when she giggled.
The Americans gave her sugar, coffee, butter, lard, milk, bread, cheese, corned beef, sausages, whole slabs of ham and pork. She had never seen so much food. She served crabs, shrimps, prawns which were either steamed or cooked in coconut milk. She also offered steamed oysters, fish cooked with lemon sauce and butter. She also served bacon and eggs (fried, scrambled or poached), ham, corned beef with eggs and fried rice. Occasionally, she offered stewed beef.
Her clientele grew and she put up additional tables and chairs and pretty soon had a small joint. She was able to obtain a few cases of beer and a dozen bottles of whiskey which Bernabe stacked in a corner. Gorio helped in the kitchen.
Warren, a master sergeant from Alabama, lent her a gramophone with a stack of 75 rpm records. He would linger at the bar after duty and drink beer by his lonesome. Another brought a shortwave radio, a brown box with round dials powered by a truck battery and picked up news from overseas including Tokyo Rose trumpeting fake claims of Japanese victory. Country music, orchestra selections from Glenn Miller, marches from Souza livened her bar which was provided with electricity by technicians who strung a line connected to the motor pool, where Warren was chief mechanic.
Warren was a blue-eyed man with a long nose and a prominent chin. He was lanky and wore baggy trousers and olive green shirts which clung to his pale skin. He was a loner but took kindly to Bernabe and the family, especially to Muriel whom he often carried in his arms. He would not talk about his life; he was a lonely man. Bernabe and Flora did not prod him, didn't even ask his surname. He was simply Warren, a friend. He would take Gorio on short rides in his service jeep and watch other servicemen play softball on a leveled rice field, stripped to the waist and shouting themselves hoarse.
One day, a serviceman who was very drunk reeled into the bar demanding whiskey. Flora could have served him all the whiskey she had but she did not want trouble with the MP's. She was doing good business, had stacks of Navy linen, woolen blankets, a large pressure cooker, a freezer filled with food, a few dollars and cents.
- "Whiskey, give me a bottle!"
- “No, no more whiskey. I bring you coffee, okay?”
- “I don’t want a lousy coffee. Whiskey!”
The serviceman grabbed her wrist which she wrenched from his grasp.
- “Please leave."
- "Goddamn Filipinos, we liberated you!”
Livid with anger, she screamed, "Leave. Get out!"
From a nearby table another serviceman rose and said softly, “get out of here." Tony Cruz, from New Mexico, another friend of the family approached the unruly drunk who overturned a table and a chair. Tony whipped out a switch blade and shouted, "I said, get out of here! Git!" The drunk suddenly sobered and reeled out of the bar, his tail between his legs.
Shortly after the incident, Flora closed her joint.
