Jon felt like a giant trap had closed in on him. He remained standing by the staircase where Dante left him for a full minute before coming back fully to his senses. If the gardener gave the calling card to Dante, who knows what else the gardener told him. Jon searched his memory and tried to recall what he said to the gardener. Did he sound desperate? Did his words betray his own thoughts about Dante?Jon shook his head in despair. Even if the gardener did not repeat their conversation, the calling card itself would be a telltale sign of his desperation to escape the island. Why else would he give it to the gardener with instructions to call Fernan and Lisa?Aside from this, Dante listened to his call as he talked to Lisa and Vicky. This meant that Dante wanted to hear for himself what the people on the other side of the call were saying. He obviously wanted to stop people from looking for Jon in the next seven days. At the same time, this meant that Dante already knew what Jon was up

He first heard the sound of heavy breathing and wondered who it was who would breathe so close to his ears. He realized that it was his own breathing when he observed it to be in rhythm with the movement of his chest. He forced more air in and felt the life-giving oxygen enter his lungs, then quickly expelled it when the air was spent. He wondered where he was and tried to lift his eyelids. The room that he saw in the dim light seemed familiar and he tried to see more of it by moving his eyes around. He saw light streaming in from the outline of the door and somehow expected a shadowy figure with red eyes emerge from the darkness. He waited, but no dark figure appeared.Blinking his eyes, he tried to peer into the darkness and saw the faint shapes of furniture all around him. Not the dungeon that he expected himself to be, but a furnished room with a carpeted floor and decorated walls. His limbs felt heavy as he tried to sit up from where he lay. He realized that he was on a soft bed,

"Ms. Flora and Ms. Eva?" It was the recruitment officer. The two women whose names were called stood up and were immediately ushered inside. The interviewer gestured for the two women to sit down in front of him and opened his mouth to speak. "My name is Pablo and I am looking for two housemaids who will be staying in at my master's house." "The two of you were selected. Congratulations!" The recruitment officer suddenly interjected and smiled widely as she clapped her hands enthusiastically. Pablo stared at the recruitment officer who realized that she had spoken out of turn and walked backwards to the far corner of the room where she stayed for the duration of the interview. "As I was saying..." Pablo resumed speaking, his disdain at being interrupted evident on his face. "...I have selected both of you to serve at my master's house. You will receive food and lodgings as well as very attractive salaries, more than what you were receiving at your previous employment. In return, you

“Surprise!” Flora held her hand against her breast as she felt her heart skip a beat. She had just switched on the lights when her daughter jumped from behind their battered sofa to surprise her. With her mind still occupied with thoughts of an unknown future, Flora was extremely jumpy.“Oh, help!“ cried Flora to all the saints, her face briefly displaying her fright before beaming into a smile when she recognized that it was her daughter who jumped at her. Flora lowered herself to hug Nadi who was only too happy at scaring her mother out of her wits.Flora kissed her daughter and let herself be pulled towards the sofa. She saw her friend Perlita standing up from where she hid with Nadi behind the furniture. Perlita, as always, had her necklace of synthetic pearls hanging around her neck and wore her sarong over a white shirt. She greeted Flora, gently pressing her cheek against hers and joined her at the sofa.“So which one of you thought about scaring me to death?” Flora asked her d

Very early morning before dawn, Flora finally closed the door of the house that had been her shelter for many years. She had a lot of fond memories of the house, having lived in it for so long, but she also remembered painful experiences that she endured while living there – the death of her mother as well as the news of her husband’s unfaithfulness.It was a small one-storey house made of light materials with just two rooms. It had a small backyard that used to have cages for chickens that her mother raised when she was still living but was replaced with fighting roosters by her husband, Tunying. There was a vegetable garden that Flora tended from which she would pick tomatoes, bitter gourd and horseradish to augment the food that she bought from the market. Flora hoped that the next tenants would tend the garden and take care of the house as well as she and her mother did. When Flora got married, her husband had come to live with her in the house. She had returned from Malen a few y