The Job Seeker(Lourdes M. Batiles) Liway was a fresh graduate of Commerce in a remote province in the Philippines when she decided to try her luck in Manila to look for a job. Her parents had both died already, her mother five years earlier than her father who died after being hit by a truck a month before Liway’s graduation from college. She was left all alone in the world, with nothing but a college diploma to help her in life. Her relatives were all poor, and could not do anything to help her. She had P4,000 (pesos) left of the burial benefit she got from Social Security upon her father’s death (equivalent to roughly US$80 in current foreign exchange rates). He also left her their small house on a small lot in the town. However, her father also left her some P20,000 in debts so she could get back their lands. If she could not pay the P20,000, his father’s 6-hectare inheritance from his parents apparently would never be given back to her.

For three weeks, Liway applied at many establishments in Manila -- banks, government and private offices, even stores, but nothing came of her efforts. There was always some better job seeker perhaps, she thought to herself. Now, with only P1,000 left of her money, she decided she should do something about her situation, even something rash and bold. She knew that the only jobs that were available aplenty were those of a Guest Relations Officer. She was a somewhat shy girl with a provincial look, not really pretty, but attractive in a way, plus with a nice body she could be proud of. She never had a boyfriend, not even a suitor. The family’s reputation frightened off acceptable suitors because they were rumored to be Communist rebel sympathizers. She knew her father was one, but she surely was not. She had always dreamed of a “clean, good life” in Manila when she graduated from college. That meant a nice job and a good dwelling. But that seemed unreachable now, unless she did something.

Scouting around for big-enough businesses that needed Guest Relations Officers, Liway saw one on Quezon Avenue that was named “Candies.” She put on her most unconservative outfit which was supposed to be a sleeveless inner blouse and an above-the-knee skirt that she bought from a thrift store. She drank some liquor to appear daring, before presenting herself at the nightclub. The proprietor who was also the manager was a tall, stocky man in his forties with a loud voice, nicknamed Sir Raph. He welcomed her warmly, bringing her into his private office for interview.

“Have you worked as a GRO before?” Sir Raph inquired smilingly.

“No, sir. I have no experience,’’ Liway answered shyly, hoping he would see what she really meant.

“Oh,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “Did you graduate from college?” he asked next.

“Yes, sir, I finished commerce, but could not get a job,” she answered.

“Where do you live?” Sir Raph continued the interview with a creased forehead. “I came from the province, but I’m presently bedspacing in Pasay ,” she answered.

“Aren’t you conservative?” he asked Liway smilingly again, with malice written all over his face.

She replied, “Yes, sir, but I can change if I need to. My father left me a lot of debts to settle, that’s why I need money.”

He said, “Oh,” again, with a look that hinted at seeing an obvious conquest in Liway. “What can you do?” “Can you talk with men, joke with them, even flirt with them?” “Can you dance?” he asked inquisitively, looking straight into her eyes.

“Oh, yes, I can, and I’m sure I can learn more,” Liway declared assuringly but shyly again. She smiled a little remembering how hard she had feigned forwardness in the past just to attract possible suitors. Now, she felt she was feigning shyness just to earn this stranger’s approval.

“Can you dance now? Pretend that I am the customer that you have to please,” Sir Raph now asked open-mouthed, with the tip of his tongue sticking out, implying lust.

She answered, “Yes, I will, if you want me to.” Then, she danced a sultry dance in front of him, and invited him to dance with her. He did, but did some more. He touched all of her back sensually first, then went to her neck, and then lingered around her breasts. She accepted his advances resignedly, expecting that she would get them from her future customers too. And also because, she realized how much of a hungry woman she was already -- hungry for attention, for love, for intimacy, for comfort, everything other luckier women had that she never had, even probably denied because of her situation in life. And Sir Raph was the first man who ever showed such tremendous desire for her, an obscure lass from an equally obscure province, and he was a rich man at that, albeit married. They ended up on the floor torridly making love. She let him do all the turning and the tossing and the moaning, content to being the passive giver. Afterwards, he felt something wet and warm and saw blood. Sir Raph smiled and kissed her tenderly, realizing that she was a virgin.

Now very much sober, Liway remembered what her mother had said to her before she died, that the blood of a virgin-wife was what would make any man, especially someone poor like them, a proud and happy husband. Liway cried unabashedly in Sir Raph’s arms, knowing that her mother’s dreams of her had all ended with this one stupid, “brazen” act. She knew this was the last she would see of Sir Raph, having decided to herself to borrow money from him and then surreptitiously return to the province to accept her defeat. Her madness had to stop. She couldn’t let herself prostitute herself even more.

As she was sitting in the bus going back to the province, she began planning on her life if she ever became pregnant with a child. She decided she would proceed with the pregnancy and bring her child up by herself. She had no hopes left of getting back their lands anymore. But she still had the house that she could let out to students studying at the big government-owned technological college in their province. Plus, she could sell. It was a nice location that their house was at. Surely, she would find something, she said to herself. She had to. If there was really a good God that her mother had great faith in when she was still alive, and that Liway was now ready to believe in, she would make it through, she kept reassuring herself. Her mother used to say that faith was knowing that when about to step into the darkness, there were only two things that could happen: Either you’d find something solid to step on or you’d learn to fly. She wondered which was it for her.

THE END

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