Do you know the best way to make easy money? Here is a story.

Whenever Cristina needs or wants money, she will go to her grandmother who dotes on her very much because she is a favorite. Employed in a decent paying company and already has the economic power to buy things for herself and indulge in a few luxuries like high tech gadgets, expensive clothes, shoes and accessories, and eating out in full service restaurants, Cristina never forgets to let her grandmother pay for some of her expenses. Who should question her? She is her favorite and besides she is her grandmother. Never mind the other grandchildren. It must be her and her alone.

One will know when she needs money. She will comb her grandma’s hair or touch or hug her, which is void of sincerity actually but has to be done. She will stay in her room and talk to her about anything, taking a ride at whatever story her grandma will be telling. After all being patient has its prize.

Of course, there are times she buys pasalubong for her grandma or tokens. These, too, will be equivalent to a much larger amount of money, even ten times bigger.

Nobody does what she does in their family. It takes guts and the absence of real love and conscience.

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Last year, Dodong gave her mother a bunch of flowers as Mother’s day gift. She received it with a dry smile and a thank you. Relatives came that day last year and Dodong waited for her mother to say a word of appreciation, or a story about him. He wanted to hear ‘good words’ from his mother. Well, he thought like this because he had saved money for that special occasion. All his life he had been with his mother and had not thought of marrying and leaving her alone. All his life he dedicated to her, in servitude to her. She was the reason why he worked hard. But that day last year seemed like one of those ordinary days to his mother. The bunch of flowers was left alone on her table, unattended until the flowers and the ferns and the leaves wilted.

Then Mother’s day came again this year and they have a visitor who had not visited for a long time – her sister and her children. His sister brought three flowers for his mother. His mother’s eyes widened with glee and thanked her daughter with a bright smile for the flowers. After his sister left, “Oh, Dodong, how many years had your Ate forgotten to visit us?” his mother asked. “Four years,” he replied silently. “Four years, and it’s the first time after four years, and even before those four years, that she had given me flowers from her heart.”

“Given you flowers? How many? Three? What about the bunch of flowers I gave you last year? They did not come from the heart? How do you know if they come from the heart or not? What, are you blind, unfeeling? Have you not cared for me at all? Or noticed me and what I have been doing to you all these years? Every child of yours had left and I remained and you do not even see me!”

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Tatay was a war veteran soldier. In one of those unforgettable fights with the Japanese soldiers they had gone into, he cannot forget a friend who had managed to live after that night. He was with this friend and was busy firing his arms when he saw him holding his own intestines that had burst out of his stomach when he got hit.

Tatay’s friend managed to live years more than what was expected by holding on to his dear life and by holding his insides.

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While Rosalie was pumping the artesian well endlessly to fill her tin bucket, an old woman approached. She instantly removed the bucket while Rosalie was pumping very hard. To Rosalie’s amazement, the old woman placed her leg under the pouring water.

Rosalie noticed there were traces of fresh dirt on the old woman’s legs. They looked yellowish brown and they were small tiny lumps. They smell, too. She can’t tell if it was the old woman or the fresh dirt that smell. Suddenly, the old woman spoke, “Thanks, hija, been having loose bowel movement since this morning.”

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