One day. It says, Filipino. Pinay To a new citizen, work meant many places and many ways: factories and hotels, waiter and cook. Then he would tell Tony what happened that day, repeating part of the dream. As a menial in a hospital in Cook Country, all day he handled filth and gore. Maybe they’ve already arrived. Other dances followed, accompanied by songs and live with the sounds of life and death in the old country; I go rot natives in G-strings walking down a mountainside; peasants climbing up a hill on a rainy day; neighbors moving a house, their sturdy legs showing under a moving roof; a distant gong sounding off a summons either to a feast for a wake. Let me be your guide. But tonight, let’s go to the theater together, ha?”
“I’ll try,” Tony answered. He came home smelling of surgical soap and disinfectant.
