Trash

Raphael says that the story gets serious now. As Gardo predicted, four vans of police come to Behala that night; the officers search everyone’s homes and they arrest Raphael. It’s hard for Raphael to tell this part, but nobody else can. The police drag Raphael to a car. Gardo yells and tries to yank Raphael away, but his uncles hold him back. The car pulls away while Gardo and Raphael’s auntie scream. Raphael rocks back and forth, feeling his world fall out from under him. Raphael sobs and he claims that he didn’t do anything wrong. The policemen reply that they know but they keep driving anyway. Even though Rat has the wallet, Raphael resolves to say nothing. The boys know about José Angelico—there’s “a fight beginning.”

The police car pulls into the station and goes underground while police dogs bark. Raphael wets himself out of fear. The officers pull him out of the car under bright lights and they carry him into a cell containing only a concrete bench. Seconds later, a policeman came in to comfort Raphael, who throws up all over himself and cries for his auntie like he’s never cried before. Suddenly, a man comes in and has Raphael hauled upstairs and placed in a room marked “six.” A tired man explains that Raphael is in Ermita Police Station and he asks about the bag. Raphael tries to speak, but nothing comes out. Eventually he squeaks out that he doesn’t know anything about a bag.

The tired man says that this won’t end until Raphael gives them the bag. Shaking, Raphael knocks over a glass of water. Playing “a terrified, foolish child,” he swears he’s never found one but that he did find 1,100 pesos. The police knew he’d been lying about something—they ask about the money, and Raphael lied, saying he found it alone “by belt number four.” Suddenly, Raphael is knocked to the floor; his face splits open and his mouth fills with blood. The police haul Raphael up to the chair by his hair as he screams that he was with Gardo. The police slap Raphael’s bleeding, snotty face and they ask what the money was in. Thinking fast, Raphael says that it was in an electricity bill.

The tired man fires repeated questions at Raphael: he asks how “trash like you” can read (Gardo and Raphael’s auntie taught him), how much money he found (1,100 pesos), and where the bag was (there was no bag). The man lunges at Raphael’s neck, pinning him to the wall. Raphael soils himself and he screams that he didn’t find a bag. The police hang Raphael out of the window by his ankle, where all Raphael can see is a stone floor far below. Later, Gardo and Rat ask if Raphael came close to confessing, but he says that some deep part of him couldn’t—he just kept saying no. The officers pull Raphael back in and he fell to his knees, begging and repeating that he doesn’t know anything. Somehow, he knows now that he got the strength from José Angelico.

The tired man twists Raphael’s arm behind him and says that they could break all of Raphael’s bones—starting with his arm—and drag Raphael to a “special place” for “garbage” like him. Then they could put Raphael’s body in a sack in the trash. The tired man asks Raphael if that’s what he wants. Unable to speak, Raphael blinks and waits for a snap—but none comes. Again, the man asks where the bag was and Raphael sobs, saying that he doesn’t know anything about a bag. Looking more tired, the man sizes up Raphael’s soiled body, as if deciding on its value. Eventually, the tired man says, “Get him out.” Before Raphael knows it, he’s out on the street and running as fast as his wobbly legs can go. He is free and—unlike José Angelico—alive.