Luisa was pregnant! Thelma could not believe her ears. If Luisa was indeed pregnant, what now? What will they do?
"Did Herman know that you are pregnant?" Thelma asked Luisa.
"No, I want to tell it him when we already transferred here in Rotterdam. But he suddenly was gone. I could not understand it. When he said he loved me, it felt so sincere. So as when he said he will really marry me. But it is all lies, he is a liar, a liar!" and Luisa wept again.
"Luisa, please, try to forget Herman. Think about yourself. If you are pregnant, what will you do?"
"If you are me, Thelma, what will you do?"
"If I, am you?" Thelma for a moment paused in a thought then later said, "I think I will have an abortion!"
"What?" Luisa exclaimed. "An abortion?"
"Yes, because how could you work if you are high pregnant? If you keep the baby, how would it be like? We are almost half from the rest of one year that was left from our three-year contract, what I mean after eight months we faced the possibility of going back to the Philippines. Did I say possibility? No it is not possibility, it is sure. Think about it!" Thelma made it clear to Luisa the possibility of what will happen.
"Thank you, Thelma." after silent for a while Luisa said and stood up. "But I will not have an abortion. Never!"
"Luisa?"
"First of all, it's a big sin to the eyes of God. Second, what if this baby is a girl with blond hair and blue eyes?"
Thelma looked at Luisa. What in God's sake, Luisa was talking about blond hair and blue eyes, above the problems she had?
"Don't look at me like that! If it is a girl with blue eyes, the hair could be also black if it will not blond, does not matter black or blond, maybe my daughter will become Miss Universe?" and Luisa chuckled a bit. Thelma had seen already for several times the sudden changing moods of Luisa and sometimes she could not understand how Luisa did it or if the moods she has were real.
"Think about it, I will not murder a future Miss Universe? And if it is a boy, maybe he will become the President of the Philippines later?"
"Okay." Thelma gave up. "But have a good thought about what I said. Just think it over!"
"I will wait and see! Who knows what tomorrow will bring to me, who knows!"
The first night that they worked, seemed nothing wrong with Luisa. They dance the Pandanggo sa Ilaw and the Igorot Dance. After their dance, both were invited by men to sit with them in their table. Thelma was invited in a table by an older man named Cornelius that asked her to just call him Kees. Kees was a retired train machinist that was never been married.
"Never been married. Why?" Thelma asked Kees.
"I don't know." Kees answered Thelma. "But let us not talk about me. Tell me something about you and about the country where you came from."
The cozy conversation between Thelma and Kees stayed until the closing time of the club. Kees had ordered self-many ladies drinks for Thelma but most of it, it was Kees who drank it just to help her. Kees said to Thelma that he understood the way nightclubs worked. And Thelma received from Kees a generous tip of 100 guilders.
"You found a generous man in the first night working!" Luisa commented to Thelma when they were already in their apartment. She only earned from her commissions in ladies' drinks and a tip of 10 guilders.
"Yes, he gave me one hundred guilders!" Thelma agreed to what Luisa said.
"He seems a nice person!" Luisa gave her opinion about Kees.
"That's also what I am thinking. He's never been married he said."
"He has no children then, is he alone in his house?"
"Yes, but his mother is still living and is in the house of the Old People. His father was already deceased. He has two sisters and two brothers."
"You like him?"
"Yes."
"It's your chance, get hold of him. Only he was very much older than you, I think more than 40 years difference in age!" Luisa suggested to Thelma about not letting passed she thought a chance for Thelma to have a man.
"Luisa, it's not for me to decide. Besides Kees showed no intention that he have interest on me behalf friendship.' Thelma answered Luisa. "How about you, the man that asked you to his table, was he okay? What is his name?"
"I don't know, I forgot already his name." Luisa answered Thelma.
"He was not nice?"
"He was nice, but..." Luisa did not finish what she wanted to say.
"But what?" Thelma asked.
"He was not Herman!" Luisa answered and Thelma looked at her. "I cannot forget the liar! He hurt me deeply, but I cannot forget him."
"Give yourself enough time. You will forget Herman!"
"How can I forget, when inside me something from him is developing, is forming?" Luisa said, her voice was trembling and had a verge of tears in her eyes. "I cannot deny to myself that I love very much that big liar! Why he did it to me? Why? He let me believe that he loves me, that he will marry me. He just played me; I am not a toy?"
Thelma heaved a deep sigh. "Luisa, you said itself, that tomorrow will be okay. The endless tomorrow that kept coming one of it will bring you happiness. Please don't stopped believing!"
"Thelma, there's nothing I can do at this moment but to hope and to believe that indeed of so many tomorrows, one will bring me happiness. I am tired. Let sleep!"
While Thelma was already soundly sleeping, Luisa was still awake. She kept thinking about the happy moments she had with Herman, the sweet nothing he whispered on her ears, the passionate kisses that made her body warm, their intimate moments that had brought her to the clouds, to heaven, passionate moments she thought will never last, but the reality was different. Later she fell asleep while keeping mumbling to herself the word, liar, liar!
Three months past, Thelma and Kees developed a relation and they thought to get married, meaning Thelma must stop working in the club. Kees, like Gunther and Wilhelm also paid the syndicate to freed Thelma from her commitment. Thelma had seen the stability in Kees, and he was glad to be Kees wife. Luisa became a little panic and very worried when Thelma told her about Thelma to stop working.
"You will stop working? What will happen to me? I will be left alone?" Luisa asked Thelma questions after another.
"Sorry, Luisa. But Kees really wanted me to stop working!"
"I don't like it! I will be left alone, you all abandoned me!" Luisa was really panicked. "Grace, Luz, Lorna, Carla and now you!"
"You encouraged me about Kees."
"I knew! I knew! But I never expect that I will be left alone!"
Thelma was silent. She understood why Luisa was panicked. If she was Luisa, she will be panicked too. She will be left alone with nobody.
"Luisa, you also have to find somebody for you. You also must not work anymore. It is not good that you pressed your body with girdle to hide you are pregnant and that every night drinking alcohol and inhaling smoke of men that smoked cigarettes. It's not good for the baby!" Thelma said to Luisa.
"It's not that easy to find someone!" Luisa answered Thelma.
"Don't be angry to me. It is not easy to find someone because you hanged to the memory of Herman. Herman was already gone from your life. Believe me, it is good for you to forget Herman. Erase him from your life and find someone who will love you and will take care of you and your baby. Do it, Luisa. Four months more, the contract of three years will be finished, and it means, no more visa. No more visa means you get out from this country. You will return to the Philippines with nothing but a baby!"
Luisa looked at Thelma. Thelma was right. She could not find someone because she wanted only Herman. She could not stop Thelma in doing something about her life for Thelma had also the right of a good happy stable life. Then she thought she must help herself. The reality that she will be alone working in the night club made her afraid. The thought of living alone in the apartment also made her afraid. Thelma finally will stop working after one week at the end of the present month. She has one week to find someone! She said to herself then that she must do what she can to find someone!****to be continued****Remedios Dorio