Gray Resurrection Read Online Free

San Miguel beers, his neighbours and a table full of pulutan ,
drinking-food to soak up the alcohol.  Grant had always been one to drink
first and eat later, but he had slipped comfortably into the habit of picking
at the array of small dishes throughout a drinking session.  Popular
dishes included Sisig , which consisted of ground pigs’ ear and liver,
and Tokwa’t Baboy , toasted tofu and boiled ham in garlic-flavoured soy
sauce.  Alma had become famous with the local men for her generous
servings, and there was never an empty chair on card night at the Grant
household.
    Grant hugged Alma from behind as she
washed the rice in a large pan to get rid of the starch.  He stood a good
eighteen inches taller than her, and had to stoop to kiss her affectionately on
the neck.  He then checked the supply of San Miguel and saw that he was
down to less than a crate, so he grabbed a five-hundred Peso note and headed
towards the door.
    “Just gonna get some more beer,” he told
her, and got a smile in reply.
    Like many Filipinas, Alma didn’t drink;
they tended to leave that to the Filipino men.  She enjoyed the card
evenings immensely, though, as it meant the wives would join their husbands in
the house.  The men would sit out in the garden while the ladies spent the
evening inside, usually doing cross-stitch while sharing the weeks’ gossip.
    Grant returned from the local shop
within five minutes, his arms straining under the weight of two crates of San
Miguel.  The beers went into the drinks fridge, which he’d bought specifically
for Saturday nights, and then he headed to the bathroom to have a shower.
    The guests began arriving just after
eight that evening, with Mr. Lee the first as always.
    “Sam, how are you?  How’s
business?”
    “Booming,” Grant said.  “How’s the
Lee empire coming along?”
    Albert Lee had a string of shops in all
the major malls dotted throughout Manila, and seemed to open a new one every
time they met.  “I’m meeting with two companies next week.  If either
of them can provide a suitable delivery service I will be in a position to sign
up to your website.”
    Grant was happy at the news, but it
reminded him that he had to make arrangements for his office manager, Alfredo,
to take over for a fortnight.  He also had to break the news to Alma, but
thought it best to wait until they were alone.
    The evening began well, with each of the
five guests doing their best to outdo each other in the business stakes. 
One would announce that he had secured a new contract with a major supplier,
and another would trump that with an international order.  The banter was
light-hearted, but Grant wondered if they would put so much effort into their
work if they didn’t have their Saturday night bragging rights to look forward
to.
    Grant himself wasn’t one for getting
into pissing contests, no matter how good-natured, so he settled for soaking up
information about the current trading conditions.  He just learned of a
new competitor in the online market who had been canvassing his friends when
the need to pee grabbed him, so he excused himself and made his way to the CR,
or Comfort Room, the Filipino term for the toilet.  On his way past the
living room he saw Alma in tears, being comforted by her friends.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, taking a seat
next to her, but Alma was too consumed with grief to answer.
    “Her brother died today,” a friend
said.  “She just got a phone call from her mother.”
    Grant wrapped his arms around Alma and
hugged her tight.  He knew she had a brother and a much younger sister as
she was always talking about them, and was always sending a few Pesos home to
help them out.  She was so proud of her brother for being near the top of
his class despite his poor background, and now that bright light had been
extinguished.
    “How did it happen?” Grant asked her
friends in a hushed voice, but all he got was shrugs in response.  He
wasn’t about to push