The whole neighborhood prayed that night, but are their prayers answered? Allaine can't even eat his food because he worries too much on his mother. When It's time to sleep, he can't feel the urge to sleep.

Instead, he just watched his siblings sleep. He watched them as they snore without any care to the world.

"It must be nice to be a child..."

The only words that he could mutter. With that, he continued to watch over them. Not knowing the hell his father have gone through.

+++++

After they pedalled and pedalled, they finally reached the nearest hospital they could find. It's as if he's possessed by lightning, he immediately carried the mother towards the hospital and Antonio followed suit.

Thankfully, the hospital treated it as an emergency and immediately brought her to the emergency room. Having a sigh of relief, both Antonio and the father sat down...

"Mr. Monillas, can I ask what happened to her?"

"Antonio, you can just call me Jose. It's not like you're any older than me."

Jose Monillas, that is his name. He's already a resident of that mountain of trash before Antonio. He's the example of a guy born from trash, grew up from trash and going to die from trash.

That's why... when Allaine declared that he's going to change his life, he got a faint hope. When Jose is in his childhood days, he didn't try to change his life... instead, he just goofed around like Allaine's certain friend, Pedro.

"So, Jose? What are we going to do now? I'm sure this hospital is going to make us pay and It's not going to be a price we can pay!"

Jose clinched his teeth and clenched his fingers. It's hard for him to just decide that.

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"I have savings..."

"Savings?"

+++++

"Antonio, I'm actually working and I'm keeping it a secret from them. I have a friend who was once a trash scavenger... but he became successful in life unlike me. He became the foreman of a construction site nearby... so I begged him... to let me have a job. I begged so hard that I'm ready to bow my head."

(Before all of you get a misunderstanding, It's not culture in the Philippines to bow their heads when they're begging someone. It's the only way I know to show his determination)

In the end, Jose was treated as a special treatment and got accepted in the job immediately. In short, his family knows that he's scavenging trash but he's actually working. After hearing Jose's story, Antonio replied:

"So you do have work! I see, with that... you can now make your family eat some normal food..."

"Yeah, I can make them now. Recently, I've been bringing some decent food to my family. But I could only make them eat a decent food, I can't change their lives..."

Antonio was suddenly dumbfounded to Jose's words. He's saying that he has a work now, yet he can't change his family's life. So Antonio was left with questions...

"Jose! Why!? You have a job, right!? You can feed your family some normal food, right!? So why!?"

"It's not enough!!!"

In front of Antonio's bombarding questions... Jose just shouted those words making Antonio stop on his tracks. Jose continued to explain after he shouted...

"Having a job... doesn't mean that your life's going to be nice! My pay is not enough!"

All of their mindsets... are wrong. Jose just realized that the moment he had a job. All of them wants to work, have some money then change their lives even for a little bit. They just know that they'll get money once they worked...

But... It doesn't mean that you have work... It's going to be an easygoing life. It's actually the opposite from his normal life. Instead of walking and walking and find some trash, working to a construction site for almost a whole day would be so tiring. Tiring than his last work...

But... the difference is they're getting paid! As long as you get paid... every effort is worth it! But It's not! In the Philippines, there are various positions for construction workers. It depends on your position what your salary is. The higher position, the higher pay.

But Jose's position... is the lowest... a laborer. A labor's salary every day is between 300-400 Pesos. In a whole day of working and breaking some sweat, you got a mere 300 Pesos on your wallet. It's high enough for a guy who lives alone... but for a man who has a family... It's not enough!

Also, the difference in the energy being used is too high. Let's take example of a Grab Food Delivery Driver. Their average pays everyday amounts to 500-600 Pesos. But most of the time, they just sit in their motorcycles and wait for someone to order. Even if there are only 2 customers for the day, they still get at least 200-300 Pesos. Their salaries are not staple, but the point is... the energy being used is too low and they get almost half of what's a labor could.

This is the darkness of being a laborer... For a man with a family, a laborer's salary would be never enough.

"Wait, Jose... you said that you have savings, right!? So if you got 300 pesos for the day, you're going to get 200 pesos will be the meal and expenses for the day and the 100 pesos will..."

"Yup, It's going to my savings. Doing that everyday without any delays brought me to an amount I could never reach by trash scavenging... It's 2,500 pesos. I want to support Allaine... I want him to succeed in life. I don't want him to end up like me..."

In that moment, Antonio understood it all... that the reason Jose is so hurt to use this savings... because he's going to use this for his wife...

END OF CHAPTER 3