Baby Jesus Pawn Shop by Lucia Orth

Author:Lucia Orth
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1579622518

Rue took another sip of the slightly chilled champagne from the souvenir crystal glass. Marcos had ordered one for each foreign guest. From the diplomatic section in the Quirino Grandstand she could see across Luneta Plaza. From all parts of Manila, a city already so hot in the June monsoon season that it seemed to cook in its own juices, the people arrived. They poured from the blue Metro buses and took their ten pesos in payment for their services.

For his first inauguration in twelve years, Marcos’ Minister of Information and the generals assured him of a turnout of one million. If they rounded up only half of the squatters in the city of six million they would succeed. Meanwhile, the cronies and diplomats arrived by car and assembled in the Quirino Grandstand.

She hated these official embassy events, these vast orchestrated productions, but Trace had insisted. It’ll be a show, trust me, he’d said. Her work got her out of many of these performances. She felt her bare shoulders absorb the sun’s heat as if she were made of stone. Trace wore his formal morning clothes. He looked elegant. Wear something white and cool, he’d told her.

“Will Marcos make it through this term?” the Australian ambassador, who stood a few rows behind them, called to Trace.

“We’ll be lucky if he lasts through the morning,” Trace said.

There were rumors that a second operation, to replace a kidney, had failed. Marcos’ grown son, the son of his long-time mistress who lived in Greenhills, Manila, had donated this one.

Waiters hovered around them with trays of drinks and food, skewered meats, melting pastries. She reached for a delicious smelling satay.

“I wouldn’t, the embassy doctor calls it hepatitis on a stick,” Trace warned.

She drew her hand back.

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