What is a list of characters in the story Maternity Leave by LIgaya Victorio Reyes?

Answer 1

Maternity Leave

Ligaya Victorio-Reyes

Lucia sat uncomfortably; twisting the hem of her jacket out of seam, curling wisps of damp hair framed her face, softening the look of age which thirty-eight weary years had stumped upon it. The others looked at hyer, niticingthis look, seeing her truly in one of those rare they thought, too old for that.

"I've just come from the doctor's."Lucia announced in a colorless voice.

The rest knew what was coming, but they all set up, politely at attention.

"I'm going to have another baby," Lucia added.

Ester, in whose living room they had gathered to hear Lucia's account of her trip to the doctor's office, drew the folds of her housecoat closer about her. Her smooth fair face framed by curling ringlets seemed like a child's in the dusk, and the shade care which had swiftly crossed it at Lucia's tired face and into the dining room, where her four-year-old Lita sat eating merienda.

Rosenda, beside Ester, slapped a print-covered thigh softly with the palm of one hand. Her wide bitter mouth curved yet more bitterly into a smile. Every child in Grade Four knew that smile and feared it. Thank heaven, she was thinking, I have in children to raise, no maternity leave to worry about. She looked at Lucia, pitying her in the only way she knew, and that was with a tinge of contempt.

Luz, the youngest and only unmarried woman in the group, clucked her tongue sympathetically. Her face, narrow but attractive, was rendered almost arresting by a couple of smooth plait wound around her head, coronet-fashion. I should congratulate her, she thought, babies are so cute. But here I am sympathizing with her.

She had not known Lucia very long-the latter was on maternity leave when Luz came to the school to teach. But she saw this older woman often, here at ester's home where Luz boarded, at school where she visited with the teachers, taking afternoon walks with her three babies. Luz liked this slightly dowdy woman with the gentle face, was attracted to her babies who all looked so healthy. She had speculated about her age, as unmarried woman would matrons. When Lucia finally returned to teach Luz greeted as an old friend. Now, after only a month of work Lucia had to worry about maternity leave, begin to plan once more without the little amount which she earned and seemed to need badly. It was a shame.

"Is the doctor sure?" Ester shifted one leg, disturbing the silence and the sculptured look into which they had all sunk for a long moment.

"I have less than a half year to wait for my time," Lucia said.

Luz looked at Rosenda, stopping her words with the horrified understanding in her eyes. Ester and Lucia looked, too, but only a reluctant agreement was in their glances.

"You know what Bibby did," Rosenda addressed Luz, almost defiantly.

Yes, Luz knew what Bibby did. Bibby taught in the room next to her's. Luz knew the near craziness which had possessed Bibby earlier that year. She came to school half-fainting with nausea, sick with uncertainty. She had scanned the daily papers for civil service examination results prayerfully, hoping that her name would appear one day under the heading of those who passed. All her talks, scared talk most of the time was of what she would do when she attained permanency in the school. She planned expenses which a raise would allow her. She drove herself neurotic with hoping that her recent examinations would save her from getting ousted from service if and when she finally decided to have the children. Luz was present when Bibby received the letter notifying her of her failure. Great was her shocked disappointment. It was as though Bibby had turned her insides completely out. Then she went on "sick leave." Mentioning an "internal disturbance" to those who inquired about her absence. She had hovered perilously close to death for a time, paying Nature's penalty to the limit.

Luz remembered Bibby's husband, another teacher in the school. She remembered his evasive accounts of Bibby's illness, his talk of "tumors" and "complications" and the smiles with which the others covered up his lies. It had seemed to Luz too much to pay for Bibby's measly fifty pesos a month.

"But Bibby was constitutionally sound in spite of her frailty," Ester's words cut through Luz' thoughts. "Lucia here, with that organic idiosyncrasy my husband had wondered about, will not have a chance if she ever attempted anything drastic."

"Yes, I wouldn't have." Lucia admitted dully.

"Well," Luz felt herself laughing foolishly, "you'll just have to grin and bear it."

"How could I?" Lucia lifted helpless hands. "I told you there was no warning nothing. And with my third baby only six months old, how could I tell. . ."

"I suppose you'll just have to go through with it," Ester said without encouragement.

Luz felt herself growing more and more remote. These thought of going through with it without joy, only with resignation. She thought of the others who had received news like this. Here there was none of the others cheerful bantering that usually accompanied such announcements, none of the blushing admissions and whispered consultations about layettes and physiological symptoms. There was only this naked regret, this dismal counting of months, the plotting and planning's which seemed to her so unnatural in women. There was the hushed rebellion against maternity leaves, the unvoiced need for salaries which, small as they were, could spell the difference between comfort and worry. And there was the careful wording of certificates of childbirth, the constant fear of the penalty which a date, hastily scribbled, could call down on an already frightened head.

She remembered the others who had been "punished". Their stories were told over and over, as warnings to those teachers who dared have children in the middle of semesters. There was a Mrs. Castro who had taught for eleven years but had the misfortune to have her first child just taught for eleven years but had the misfortune to have her first child just as the new regulations about maternity leave came into effect. She was still out of the service, not allowed to come back even after the scheduled four months after childbirth because she failed to apply for leave one week sooner than she did.

And there was Rosing, a cousin of Ester's who married in her late thirties and was anxious to have a child. She practically lived at the doctor's clinic, asking questions and treasuring answers which would insure her safe motherhood. She too, had worried about reinstatement; for all that she was a regular teacher, and a model at that. But the doctors could not be sure about her case, could not furnish her with dates and data with which to fill her application for leave, explaining away their vagueness with the platitudes like "It's as unpredictable as death." Her husband, then school principal, decided to be on the safe side and advised her to stay away from the work for the rest of the first semester and the rest of the school year. The baby arrived just as her leave was expiring. So she had to apply for extended leave. Matters would have turned out all right, if her husband had not met with an accident and left her with the baby barely provided for, and an extended leave without pay. Now she has serving out her term, a prisoner of worry, praying for that time when she could go back to work and earn her seventy pesos per month.

And there were others -laying, cheating and forging certificates in order to evade "punishment" for having children. There were those, of course, who had babies and cared not whether they ever taught or not, but these were the exception rather than the rule.

Luz returned to the present with a jerk, for Ester rose and turned on the light. Lucia rose too and gathered her bags and plan books together. Her heavy figure sagged with weariness. The other looked at her, helplessly silent.

"It's a shame!" Luz exploded. "What's wrong with heaving babies if one is lawfully wedded? Babies are so cute." Then she blushed, because she remembered the idealistic conversations about homes and children which she and someone had held through blissful hours.

Rosenda looked at her and smile drily. "If you are a teacher, and married to another teacher, you should think thrice before you have babies in a hurry," she said in her bitter voice. "Two times sixty is better than sixty, and baby can be an awful expense."

"But babies are so nice," Luz insisted dreamily.

"Yes," Ester laughed shortly, "if you can feed them the best brand of ilk, should nature deny you an inexpensive kind, feed them Orange Juice every day of six months, and keep them on a steady ration of eggs, potatoes, and two kinds of vegetables, so their flesh and their bones and their teeth might grow the way the physiology book say they should. Vitamins are mighty expensive; you know when one is on maternity leave."

Answer 2

"Maternity Leave" by Ligaya Victorio Reyes features a couple named Ana and Ramon who are reflecting on their impending parenthood. Ana is the pregnant wife, and Ramon is the husband who's trying to make sense of their situation. The story focuses on their emotional journey as they grapple with the challenges of impending parenthood.

Answer 3

The main character Lucia just got her pregnancy confirmed at the doctors. Her and a friend discuss the pros and cons of having the child.