It still was dim and quiet inside the show-restaurant in the Pistang Pilipino. Melba's story was not over yet. "Mr. Takano resumed his daily routine to come to Sakura almost every evening exactly like before, according to mama Lisa. And as…

"One more time, Mr. Takano surprised me very much: Much more than the offer I've been talking about." Melba continued. "That happened in the evening he finally came back to Sakura. ..I couldn't believe for a while what was happening to me.…

Melba remained silent for a while. Uttering no word, I kept gazing at her face. "I had been mulling over my stepfather's attitude this way or that. But they no longer mattered, did they?" Melba slowly resumed her story, carefully selecting…

There still were no other people than Melba and I in the show-restaurant. "On my first day off..," continued Melba. "Well, how can I describe that almost-three-hour bus ride to my hometown? ..That was indeed extraordinary, at any rate. Tha…

A young couple of a slender, medium-height, white man and a short Filipina came into the show-restaurant, hand in hand, cheerfully laughing. From his hair-do, suntan and the muscles in his arms and chest, I guessed the man in a green polo …

Melba and I were in chairs near the stage of the show-restaurant in which no one else was present. Despite a few large windows, it was rather dim inside the restaurant because of the tall, leafy trees surrounding the building. And affected…

The next day, I was on a street, casting my eyes at the letters in black and red on the back of Melba’s tee shirt, which read ‘I ♥ NINOY!" The former Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. had been assassinated in August the previous year. So it ha…

I was somehow finished with a half plate of the pansit Canton. Fortunately to me, Melba had not asked me any more questions during the meal. And that had given me back some composure. I had come to think, ‘She must be in love with Takano-s…

The dormitory simply consisted of one big bedroom, which apparently had been remodeled from its original structure of two rooms, and a kitchenette. Girls were divided into two groups: One, chatting loud in the bedroom while listening to ra…

It was after 3:30 a.m. already. The air outside Sakura’s building was still very damp. Few people were seen on the street right and left. Across the street, a taxi was waiting for Lisa who, in a simple white T-shirt and blue jeans, was no …

Takano-san left Sakura for his hotel -Ermita Apartment Inn- a little after midnight. I did not insist too many times that he should take a taxi on the way back since the hotel was in fact in a walking distance from the saloon and he strong…

Thank goodness, mama Lisa finally returned to our table. “Hey, what are you guys doing? Is this somebody’s funeral or what?" Lisa slapped Takano-san’s shoulder. “How many times do I have to tell you, Takano-san? ‘You shouldn’t recall your …

Takano-san was my first customer in that evening. And it was the very day I began working at the Karaoke Saloon Sakura again after giving birth to my second daughter -Yuki- in my hometown in Bulacan Province about one year earlier. Still b…

I attempted to explain to Takano-san what kind of danger was awaiting him, where in Metro Manila. It did not take much time for me, however, to realize it was way too late. He had already visited virtually all the places I picked up to war…

“Nothing, I’ve been just wandering about Metro Manila, instead, perhaps, looking for..." Takano-san hesitated in the middle of his answer. And then his hesitation turned into a sudden wry smile. “Well, looking for ’something'. ...Though I …