Livinia was to keep his house clean, his food cooked and his bed interesting.Livinia was to keep his house clean, his food cooked and his bed interesting. Her uncle promised to give her fully half. "The way he said it, I knew he thought this was a big deal and that he usually gave me much less share of the money I earned. But I knew he had another plan, too." So she persuaded her uncle to agree -- swearing on the soul of his mother and brother -- to give her half her share now, in advance. She would give it to her mother, now, and make her mother promise to take Alicia and go live with her mother's family in Mindanao, where the uncle would not be permitted to behave in such a way. He said he did not have so much money, but he could get her that and an extra five hundred if she would come back to Manila now. A man there was willing to pay that much for some movies to be made... "I agreed. We made the movies with boys and girls my age, with grownup men and women, sometimes with all of them. They gave me something to drink and I became very active and always wanting to do it more and more. I became crazy and could not stop wanting to do it, even when it was unpleasant or hurt me." Her uncle tried to hold out on her, but she knew something by then of law and went to the producer of the movie and told him she would tell the Customs people about his films if he did not pay. To him, this money was very little and he admired her spunk. He let her watch as he ordered the money wired to her mother and had her wait while the receipt was confirmed. Then he had her uncle brought in and warned him about double-crossing his girls, that it was bad for business. and if it happened again, he would tie up her uncle and leave him for his girls to deal with. "And then -- ?" "Then I thought that my mother and sister were okay and I had no other choices with my life, so I agreed to be rented by the British man." The British man was nice enough and treated her well for the most part. He drank a lot and sometimes when he was drunk he would want her to do strange things and sometimes he insisted. |