“As I told Mr. Collins, the situation in Negros can be precarious for a stranger.”

     Thank you, I said, and when I saw that he was past the jamb, I closed the door in his face. It was rude but I was tired, and much taken with the idea of being tired. I slipped the chain on, flipped the card toward the bed, and went to the tub, opened the drain.

     And then I heard what he had said. Precarious for a stranger. As I told Mr. Collins.

     The elevator doors were sucking closed when I stepped out into the hall. I went back to the room, searched on the bed, found the card on the floor.

ROJAS TOURS
PERSONAL GUIDE SERVICE
TO THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

“YOUR SATISFACTION IS OUR GOAL”
“YOUR SMILE IS OUR SATISFACTION”

VIRGILIO “BEMBO” ROJAS, PROP.

     I stuck a corner of it under the telephone and turned out the lights. I tried to sleep, and maybe I did in brief fragile passages, but mostly I looked at the darkness above the bed and listened to the voices of men and women passing in the hall.

     Sometime in the night I got up and went to the window. The boulevard still had traffic. Directly below was a street corner and a traffic light. I watched it go green on the boulevard, red on the intersecting street. A taxi bucked to a stop at the light and at that moment several figures came out from along the sidewalk.

     They went up to the taxi, moving with great effort. One was hunchbacked, two walked as if they were very old; another had an arm and a stump on one side, a leg and no