FOR the five Filipinas sitting by the table, the time was so long, seemed it became slow motion. They were so afraid, and they do not know what to do, their eyes were focused to the door where the Greek came out dragging Luz. They were very anxious waiting for Luz, Nena, and Dimitri to come back. Nobody talked to each other, just anxiously waiting.
Later, they saw Nena coming in when the door opened. No Luz, no Dimitri! Nena came to them and spoke.
"Come, you all can go home now!" Nena said to her fellow Filipinas.
"Luz, where is Luz?" a very worried Carla asked Nena.
"She's outside with Dimitri. They were now in the Van waiting." Nena said.
The girls all stand up and Nena guided them until to the parking lot where the Van was and inside the Van, Dimitri and Luz were waiting. Luz was crying.
"Okay, I come back to my group and we will wait Dimitri to come back to fetch us! Dimitri, please bring them safe home." Nena asked Dimitri to bring the Filipinas safe back to their apartment.
"Don't worry." and Dimitri started the car when all the girls already were seated and have fastened their seatbelt. When the car drove away, Nena heaved a deep sigh and came back inside the club.
Until they were back to their apartment nobody talked. Inside the car the only noise can be heard was the silent crying of Luz as she continued to sniff and wiped her nose that started to water at the same with her tears. The girls saw that Luz was savagely beaten. Her face was already swollen, and her burst lips was bleeding.
"Use this tissue paper and just pressed hard against your lips so that the bleeding will stop!" Carla handed to Luz a tissue paper. Luz accepted it and pressed her lips so that the bleeding will stop.
When they stepped out the car, Dimitri said to Grace. "Be careful!"
Grace did not answer.
Inside their room, the girls were around Luz. They were very eager to knew what the Greek had done to her.
"Luz, maybe you need a doctor!" the girls were very worried.
"I don't like it here. I will go home. I will come back to the Philippines!" Luz said still tears streaming down her cheek, she pities herself.
Nobody talked. They were silent.
"You cannot come back to the Philippines! Not yet, we have a three-year contract!" Lorna later said.
"I cannot do what they wanted me to do. They can kill me, but I will not do it! I am not a prostitute! I will never sell my body, my honour" Luz said firmly.
S I L E N C E
"I think we all have to do it, to dance topless!" after a while Thelma broke the silence.
"We will work as a Hostess, a costumer entertainer!" Grace said.
"They cannot do it to us. Our contract was that we will only dance as a Cultural dancer." Lorna gave her opinion.
"If they force us, we can protest! We are a group. We are six persons!" from Luisa.
"What you must say is that we can do nothing! All of you had seen what happened? Did we do something? No, because we cannot do nothing! We were here in another country; we don't know where to go!" Carla said.
"And what do you mean by that? That we must work like the other Filipinas? We are not prostituting?" Thelma raised her voice upon hearing what Carla said.
"Will you please lower your voice? If the other Filipinas were already there in their room, they will hear what you said!" Carla asked Thelma to lower her voice.
"Well, it's true what Thelma said. We are not the same with those girls!" Luisa agreed to what Thelma said.
"Listened to yourself when talking about others. We could not judge people just like that?" Carla said.
"We are not judging them; we only said the truth! What they were doing was so shameful! What they were doing reflected to us as a Filipina!" Thelma answered Carla.
"Maybe, but does it not occurred to all of you that they only did what they do because there's nothing they can do about it? Holding fast on a sharp knife just to survive! We have that saying, isn't it?" nobody said a word upon hearing what Carla said. "Those Filipinas were nice to us; you all must remember that."
"Okay!" Luisa said at the same time shrugging her shoulders. "If those people will force us to work like the other Filipinas, what will we do then? Can we do something about it?"
"NO! You can do nothing!" when the group asked about it, the answer of Nena was a big no. All the twelve girls were in the living room talking about what happened to Luz. They just finished their dinner, a lunch-supper at the same time.
"We can do nothing. What do you mean?" Carla asked.
"What I mean is that whatever those people wanted you to do you have to do it!" Nena answered Carla.
"Something is wrong then. Our contract was that we only must dance as Cultural dancers. They cannot force us to do another work?" Grace said.
"I only advice all of you, that you have to do what they wanted if you don't like something will happen to you. Just dance with the music!" Nena said and her group nodded their head agreeing what she said.
"Why, what will happen to us?" Lorna asked.
"Everything depends on one's luck! But if you will not take care, maybe will happen to any one of us here what happened to the six Filipinas in Lanarca." Nena continued talking.
"What happened to the six Filipinas in Lanarca?" Thelma asked.
"Like you, like us, like everybody who are here now, those Filipinas were also brought here from the Philippines as Cultural dancers. There were talks that those Filipinas were so hard-headed in fighting for their rights that's why they were killed!" Nena said.
"My GOD!" Grace exclaimed. The rest of the girls said no words but in their face one can read fear.
"I am telling about this not to make all of you afraid. But that story was the talk for a quite of time, I even had one costumer asked me if it is true, I only answered I knew nothing, I don't know!" Nena continued.
"Who killed them?" Lorna asked.
"Nobody knew. It was horrifying story. They said that the girls were robbed, raped, and then murdered. Robbers did it. Some say, it was the syndicate because they will not do what was told to them, they must do. One Filipina was pushed away through the window and fall and died. One was hanged in the bathroom, two were strangled and another two were stabbed to death!"
"Why was such thing not brought as news in the Philippines?" Luz asked, she refused to believe the story. "Maybe it was only an invented story to make the rest of the Filipinas afraid."
"It's for yourself if you believe it or not. But all Filipina residence here knew about it."
"Residence? They have a residence permit to stay here?"
"They were married to Greeks."
All the girls engaged themselves in talking.
"Many Filipinas married Greeks?" asked Grace that seemed interested about the topic of marrying a Greek.
"There's a lot!"
"Cyprus is a beautiful island. The people were nice and helpful. I am only telling the story of the six Filipinas so that you all will take care yourself. Who knew what will be our fate here far away from the Philippines? All of you must use your brain. Whatever will happen to you here in Cyprus try to accept or just take it with a grain of salt." Nena said.
"Whatever will happen, just take it with a grain of salt. What will happen then?" Luisa asked.
"Whether you like it or not, you have to do the same work we have. A hostess in the club eventually became a prosty!" Carol in the group of Nena bluntly answered Luisa.
The girls in the group of Carla were silent. They understand very good what Carol said. The word prosty was short cut for the word prostitute!
"Not me! Never!" suddenly with a firmed word, Luz said. "I will never do it!"
"Well, you decide by yourself! Each one of us have the liberty of how we must handle our life."
"Yes, and at this moment, I know how I will handle my life. Never I will degrade myself and my family by doing what those people wanted. I decide now to go back to the Philippines!" Luz seemed hard about her decision to go back to the Philippines.
"If that's your decision, do it soon, but do you know that before you can do that, you have to pay a lot to the syndicate." Nena said.
"Pay a lot to the syndicate?"
"Yes, your fare, everything they had spent plus fifty percent above it!"
The group of Carla looked at each other, and then all their eyes to Luz. If what Nena said was true, how much money Luz must pay back to the syndicate and the question is, can Luz pay? ****to be continued**** Remedios Dorio