EVEN THE GRASS BLEEDS
by
NORBERT MERCADO
Also by Norbert Mercado
NOVELS
72 Hours in Moscow
Cambodia's Children of Sorrow
The Children of Mars
I Don't Need A Throne
The Korean War
The Last Romanov
BOOKS IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE SERIES
In The Shadow Of The Roman Empire
Farewell Darkness!
The Roman Governor of Judaea
BOOKS IN THE MORNING GLORY SERIES
Morning Glory
Love Is Beautiful
Prepare For Eternity
Dulce Extranjera
BOOKS IN THE ENSOMO SERIES
Pilgrims To Jerusalem
The Burning Of The Fields
A Year Without Summer
Oh, Jerusalem!
Goodbye Babylon!
BOOKS IN THE SANGKHLABURI SERIES
The Bridge
The Divide
The Union
For more information on Norbert Mercado, visit
https://norbertomercado.blogspot.com
EVEN THE GRASS BLEEDS
Norbert Mercado
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Except in cases of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012
All rights reserved. This book is sold, subject to the condition that is shall not, by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
ISBN: 978-1-476-12985-3
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VERSION: 2017-05-04-0215
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Final Chapter
Dedication
References
A Historical Novelist For Peace
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. . . CHAPTER . . .
1
The three pink roses in her hand were as fresh as the flowers newly-plucked by a gardener early in the morning.
Daniel bought them for her in a flower shop near Baguio market.
“Will you still give me flowers when we are old?” Rose asked, wanting the assurance of a perennial love.
Daniel smiled. He looked at her, and said, “Until my last breath…”
They were seated on the grass, facing each other. Dahlia flowers bloomed near them, witnesses to an unspoiled, young love.
The place was Burnham Park in Baguio City. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, the last Friday of June 29, 1990.
“What time will you leave for Manila on Thursday?” Daniel asked her.
Rose smelled the scent of the flowers after which she was named. “At six o’clock in the morning. I should be in the airport by two o’clock in the afternoon,” she replied, referring to the international airport in Manila.
“What time is your flight?”
“Seven o’clock. I want to be there early.”
Daniel looked at the grass with sadness. He didn’t know what to ask next.
“Happy graduation in advance,” Rose said, smiling. “I hope I’ll be here by then.”
Daniel nodded, still looking at the grass.
“But if I can’t, just remember that I’m happy when you’re happy…” she said, her eyes expressing tenderness of a first love.
Daniel was in his fifth year in Civil Engineering at the University of Baguio. He was scheduled to graduate at the end of the school year.
Rose, a graduate of a secretarial course from the same university, met him when they were both in their first year.
She finished her course after two years, and decided to go to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper five months after graduation. It was her aunt, Sally Abobo, who had been working in the British Crown Colony since 1984, who looked for an employer for her.
“Times move so fast…” Daniel said, observing a boy riding a bicycle. “Ten years ago, I was just like him…”
Rose glanced at and watched the boy who was enjoying his ride.
“Sometimes, I want to be as young as that boy again…” Daniel said with a wry smile.
“Why?” Rose asked, surprised.
“The world is his. He has no problems.”
Rose looked at the face of the young man dearest to her heart.
“Is something troubling you?” she asked him.
“Just feeling the academic pressure… And now, you will be leaving,” he answered.
“It won’t take too long. I’ll be back in two years time. Remember when I first left for Hong Kong? You were so sad then. I was too. But we quickly overcame the sadness. It wasn’t long before I was back with you,” Rose said, trying to cheer him up.
Daniel looked at her eyes. He could discern her loneliness through those eyes, though she bravely tried to hide it. “Yes… But you’re leaving me again,” he said.
“Daniel, I hope I can get a job with a reasonable salary here. But you know I can’t. How much does a secretary earn here? From 1,500 to maybe 2,000 pesos. In Hong Kong, we earn HK $2,500 a month – that’s more than 7,000 pesos. You know I’m the breadwinner in my family. Nanay is sickly. Boy is only in his fourth year in high school. Tina is only in her first year in high school. I wish I could work in Baguio, but even if I could find a job here, the salary would just be enough for me,” she said.
Daniel nodded. “Yes… I understand…”
“Let’s be patient. Soon, you’ll be an engineer and you may no longer need me. By that time, other women might have entered your life,” Rose teased him.
“You know that won’t happen. Kung gusto mo, pakasal tayo agad pagbalik mo. Graduate na ako noon.”
(“If you want, we could get married as soon as you return. I would have graduated by then.”)
Rose smiled again. “Talaga?” she asked, kidding. “Huwag… mahirap mapasubo agad. Mahirap magpamilya ngayon.”
(“Really?” “No… it’s hard to make immediate commitments. It’s difficult to marry and start a family at this time.)
“I know, but with God’s help, I’m sure we can manage,” Daniel said.
“I’ll ask you a question. Pero wag ka magagalit,” Rose said.
(“But don’t get mad,”)
“Bakit naman ako magagalit. What is it?” Daniel was curious.
(“Why would I get mad?”)
“Suppose, I’ll marry you five years from now. Will you agree to it?” she asked, smiling.
Daniel was surprised. “Hah? Ang tagal naman! Huwag naman! Baka hindi ako makatagal!”
(“What? That long! C’mon, not that long. I might not be able to wait!”)
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Rose turned serious. “Nangako kasi ako kay itay, bago s’ya nalagutan ng hininga. Ang sabi ko sa kanya sa ospital, kahit anong mangyari, tutulungan kong makatapos si Boy at si Tina ng college… It was a vow. I don’t want to fail in my vow to him.”
(“I made a promise to my father, before he breathed his last. I told him, while we were in the hospital, that no matter what happens, I will help Boy and Tina finish college…”)
Daniel could not say anything. He just listened to Rose.
“Have you ever promised anything to a person who was dying?”
Daniel shook his head.
Rose had graduated from the Baguio City High School as valedictorian of her class when her father, Captain Anacleto Afable, PA (Philippine Army), was ambushed in Sagada, Mountain Province, together with his troop, by the New People’s Army (NPA).
. . .
Her father was then travelling in an army jeep from Bontoc to Sagada, together with four army soldiers, when a group of NPAs ambushed them on a narrow curve five kilometers away from Sagada Proper (the main town). The four soldiers who were with her father were killed on the spot.
Captain Afable was wounded in the stomach. When the NPA’s approached them, he pretended to be dead.
The communist rebels quickly left the ambush site after they burned the jeep and confiscated the soldier’s rifles.
A passenger jeep happened to pass by a few minutes after the rebels left.
Captain Afable shouted for help. He was immediately brought to the Sagada clinic for treatment.
That same day, he was airlifted by an army chopper to Baguio City.
He was operated on in Baguio General Hospital.
It was a struggle for life, even after the bullets were removed from his body. He lost so much blood between the moment of the ambush and the time of his operation.
His family was still able to talk to him in his final hour.
Captain Afable asked his eldest daughter to take care of her mother, brother, and youngest sister.
He asked Rose to help send them to college. Rose nodded, tears falling, her life fading like a flickering light at that moment.
It was her pledge to a dying man.
And it was because of her vow that she decided to just take a two-year secretarial course after high school. She wanted to work immediately so she could send her brother and sister to college.
. . .
“How deep and pure is your love for me?” she waited for Daniel’s reply.
He could only look at her.
“Is your love willing to sacrifice?” she asked him as she held his hand. “Love, true love, is willing to sacrifice… If your love is really pure, and true, and honest, then I can say that I am still fortunate despite my early sorrows. But if the love you offer is selfish, if it cannot give until it bleeds, let it reveal itself now… I can drink the tears of misfortune.”
He was speechless. He didn’t know what to say.
“Is it pure?” she asked him again.
Daniel slowly nodded. Rose smiled at him. “I love you, and I will love you until the last moment of my life…” she gave him that assurance.
He was her first love. “I will always remember you in my loneliness. Next to the Lord, you are my source of inspiration and strength,” she said with all the earnestness she could muster.
They had been sweethearts for three years.
She met Daniel when she was in her first year at the University of Baguio.
Daniel was also in his first year in the same university.
She responded to his love after ten months of courtship.
“If your love disappears, I will muse over its memory until I meet the Lord face-to-face,” she said.
Then she leaned on his shoulder, longing to feel in her soul the tenderness of his love.
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. . . CHAPTER . . .
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