One Road, Six Ways

One Road, Six Ways - Part 2

That night, the parents of Luisa could not sleep. Norma and Tomas were talking about their daughter Luisa and about the big amount that their daughter needed in order to go abroad to work as a cultural dancer.

"Twenty five thousand? Where will we get that money?" Tomas asked his wife.

"That's what I am thinking. If we cannot have that money, Luisa cannot go abroad, then we can also forget the chance to have a good life. Luisa could help us with the study of her brothers and sisters."

"It's a very big amount."

"What Luisa needed for her three months training maybe I can borrow more money from Mrs. David." Norma said. Mrs. David was where Norma worked as a laundry woman. Everyday she went to Mrs. David house, to wash the laundry of the family for two hundred pesos pay a day. Norma had already taken an advanced pay for six months when their younger son must be taken to the hospital. "The problem is if Mrs. David will still lend money to me. I had not yet paid the six months advanced I had borrowed from her."

"We must do our best to have the money Luisa needed for her placement fee, because if she really can go abroad to work, we also can breathe from hardship in life. Luisa is a good girl, she really will help us. I knew that those who went abroad earned good money." Tomas said.

"Yes, take Mrs. David. They have a good life because her husband worked abroad. I think her husband worked in Saudi Arabia. He sent big amount to Mrs. David every month." Norma agreed to what her husband said. 

"The husband of Mrs. David is an engineer! Of course he will earned a lot." Tomas argued a little with what his wife said about earning a lot of money.

"Even people who went abroad to work as domestic helpers, built houses for their family and paid the studies of their children." Norma continued dreaming.

"I really wanted that our first child will be a professional, a teacher. Luisa is intelligent, a waste if she cannot finish a profession." 

"Nothing we can do, Tomas. We have seven children. We both were not educated. I am a laundry woman and you earned money only by collecting empty bottles. Luisa is the only hope we have. She had already the chance to work abroad. We must have the money for her placement fee."

"How?"

"I am thinking to sell the earing and the necklace I inherited from my mother."

"Those jewelries are very important to you. It's from your mother. You said it already passed many generations. Besides it's not enough for the amount Luisa needed". Tomas answered his wife.

"I knew. Those jewelries are for Luisa. But we really needed the money. My mother and my ancestors will not become angry because it will be disposed for the sake of our children, for their future. If we this chance let gone by, our children will be the same as we are, poor, uneducated. If Luisa can go abroad everything will change. Luisa is our hope!"

"You can try to talk to Mrs. David."

"Yes, I hope Mrs. David will help us!"

LUISA was very surprised. Norma handed her an amount, enough for her three months training and also for her passport and for the fake birth certificate and high school diploma.

"Where did you get this, Inay?" Surprised Luisa asked her mother. Inay means mother in the Philippine language, the Tagalog.

"I sold my jewelries to Mrs. David!" Norma answered her daughter.

"The earring and the necklace you promised to give to me when I will be eighteen?"

"Yes."

"It's from the ancestors!"