THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO NAVELS

The story begins with Connie Escobar, daughter of a politician and a famous beauty, visiting
Pepe Monson, a horse doctor, in Hong Kong for a consultation because she has TWO NAVELS. She
wanted him to remove her other navel through a surgical operation because if she will be going to give
birth, where would the other umbilical cord be connected? In addition, she does not want to become a
freak when she has to undress for her husband. She said she is 30 years old and has just been married
hours ago. Then, she told Pepe about a story from her childhood. When she was a child, she thought
that everybody has two navels but when she discovered her doll, Minnie, has only one, she threw it into
the pond. Then she told Pepe that her mother is also in Hong Kong. Pepe talked to Senora Concha Vidal
and discovered from her that Connie was lying – that she is not 30 years old, only 18; that she was not
married a morning just before she came to consult him, but a year ago; that she has only ONE navel.
Senora de Vidal also told Pepe that she forced Connie to marry Macho Escobar because Connie was
upset about the rumor that her father, Manolo Vidal, spends the public fund to send his children to
school. Because Connie was just forced to marry to a man she really does not love, Senora Concha told
Pepe that Connie was chasing a bandleader named Paco Texeira, that’s why she is now in Hong Kong.
She and Macho followed Connie in Hong Kong they can bring her back to the Philippines. Macho’s
reason in taking her back is to avoid humiliation for her politician father by creating a scandal because it
is election times in the Philippines. Pepe told Senora de Vidal that Paco is married to Mary and that he
and Paco are gradeschool friends. After talking to Senora de Vidal, Pepe went to the Texeira’s.

Pepe learned from his conversation with the Texeiras that Paco had been to Manila playing
with his band. From Manila, Paco had sent letters to Mary about Senora de Vidal. Senora de Vidal and
Paco had a good time together and they were interested in each other’s countries – Hong Kong and
Philippines. One day, when Paco was waiting for Senora Concha in her house, he found Connie and from
that moment on he started wanting Connie. Connie had watched Paco perform in the clubs until one
night, there were people fighting and someone had got shot. Because Connie was shocked, Paco
comforted her. Until some weeks, Paco drove Connie to his hotel, knowing that Connie also liked him.
He was about to rape Connie, not knowing her background. They only had a savage fight like wild
beasts. After 2 days, Paco went back to Hong Kong. Pepe states that both Connie and Senora de Vidal
have an evil hold on him and he knows that he will go running to them when they call him. But he does
not call it love. Pepe also realized both his father and Paco have a similar traumatized look after they
came back from the Philippines. Pepe’s father could not answer most of Paco’s questions since he came
back to Hong Kong from Manila. All he said while he is in his room was “Dust and crabs.. dust and crabs..
dust and crabs..”.

Meanwhile, in the art shop of Rita Lopez and Helen Silva, Rita received a call from Pepe. Rita is
Pepe’s wife and Helen is a friend. Pepe called Rita to invite her for a dinner with Paco and Mary to a club
in Tovarich. In Tovarich, they met Pete Alfonso, a bandleader who is seeking a pianist and a singer. Paco
applied and got hired. The next important thing that happened was that Pepe found Connie Escobar
naked inside the club and talked to her for he knows Connie needs him, with a promise to Rita that he
would just do it with a couple of minutes. After a short talk with Connie, Pepe went back to Rita and told
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her and the rest of the group to go home without him so he can help Connie in her problem, which
made Rita get angry.

Connie had driven her car so fast that made Pepe to cry “stop!” Then Connie told Pepe why she
was driving so fast because she feels like she’s running away. She related it to a story where she ran
away from school, not because of her father whipping her – a lie told by Concha to Pepe, but because
she was ashamed that her father was an abortionist. Then Pepe advised Connie to ask advise to her
brother, Tony, at the convent, but Connie instead wanted to go in her hotel. However, when Connie
went to her room in the hotel, she rushed back to Pepe telling him that Macho, her husband, is inside
and she does not want to see him. She told Pepe that Macho has other girls and one of them is her
mother, Concha de Vidal. Paco learned from her that she found out the love letters of Macho and her
mother. Because of this, Pepe helped Connie to go away from her hotel by letting her sleep in Rita’s
place, which made Rita even angrier. Connie asked Pepe to tell Macho that she was sick and does not
want to see him, which Pepe agreed to do. Macho, however, stopped Pepe when he was leaving his
room and told Pepe the story of their marriage and that he knew Connie knew of his past affair with her
mother because of the letters, but he insisted it was over and done with. Macho also mentioned that his
father died and he has to take care of their hacienda. When Pepe went home, just before daylight when
Rita awoke, they did not find Connie in the sofa. She was gone.

It was a Chinese New Year in Hong Kong and Paco Monson and his band were performing in
Tovarich. In the convent of St. Andrew, Connie, as per Pepe’s advice, sought help from Father Tony
Monson about the explanation of her two navels. She says she is grateful and horrified at the same time
of her state. Father Tony did not believe her and advised her to see an older priest instead so she would
realize that she’s only delusional. However, she went away without consulting Father Prior. Meanwhile,
Senora de Vidal, visited St. Rita’s Shop and fortunately saw Father Tony there. She told him that all
Connie was saying are lies, but Father Tony, when asked if he finds the problem silly, replied that it was
serious. Finally, she told him about the reason why she married Macho off to Connie. It was because she
hated Connie for preventing her from running off with Macho for she has a responsibility to Connie who
was still a child. Moreover, she told Father Tony that Connie really thinks that all the time Connie still
loved her, she was already planning to destroy her daughter, but this was urgently stopped by Father
Monson.

Later that night, Concha was remembering the time when she was fifteen, when she first met her first
husband, Esteban Borromeo – a handsome boy, a good painter, an activist. She married him but was
widowed by his death. And then she met the abortionist, Dr. Manolo Vidal, after seeking help because
she got pregnant by an effete writer and does not want to embarrass her father. After the abortion, she
turned to religion with equal passion she displayed with earlier love affairs. But before she committed
herself to God, Manolo Vidal came back into her life to court her, and later married her. On the other
hand, The Monson brothers found Connie in their apartment and relayed the information that Macho
wants to start from scratch with Connie wherever she might want to go as long as they are together. She
insists that the knowledge of her two navels will scare him away. The Monson brothers think that she is
 THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO NAVELS
using the delusion of having two navels in order to feel unique and disengage from her problematic life
including an excuse for not confronting Macho about being her mother's former lover. She wants to be
safe so she retreats from a fully lived life. The Monson brothers want her to reengage in her life in order
to live a full, free, responsible life of her own choosing. Then, she wants the Monson brothers to confirm
or refute her two navel delusion once and for all by stripping and letting them see for themselves
whether or not she has two navels. Father Tony left Pepe to refute her two navel delusion which Pepe
hesitantly complied to.

When Pepe discovered that Connie really had only one navel, her delusional world broke apart. Connie
proceeded to do what he wanted to do – TO RUN AWAY – first toward the monastery. On her way, she
remembered her bitter past and saw hallucinations of her family’s destruction.

The flashbacks started when Connie was 5 years old. She went to a carnival and wanted her doll, Minnie,
to see Biliken, the carnival god. Because the young Connie is such a spoiled brat, she wanted to have
Biliken at home even going to the extent that she threw Minnie away and have to lie that it was stolen
from her just to convince her mother to get Biliken for her. When she was 11, Connie was able to
possess Biliken since Mr. Vidal considers Biliken to represent happy memories during the beginning of
WWII before the war destroyed this joyous past. This was also the time when her mother had become
so cold to her after returning home from Hong Kong. Her mother had left Manila without an
explanation, the same with Macho Escobar, her mother’s friend. With her mother’s coldness, Connie
converted her attention to Biliken idol which was kept in the orchard so that she can have a friend to be
together with. When she became 14 years old, Connie was evacuated because the war was coming to
Manila. At 15 years old, after the war, Connie and her family returned to their ruined house. She found
Biliken in the orchard and was horrified seeing Biliken having two black holes at her stomach, making it
look like two navels. Seeing the horrifying Biliken, Connie realized that her childhood was nothing as she
thought it was – that it never was happy. She sees her past as horrible when she associated it with the
love affair of Macho and her mother in the past that made her to be like that horrible monster. After her
honeymoon with Macho, Connie discovered the love letters, which made her to seek Biliken, though she
did not know how she had got there when she came.

In the final chapter, Kikay Valero, since she knows all the Filipinos in town, had the obligation to report
to Concha about Connie’s death and to comfort Tony for his father’s sudden demise. Macho, showing
his love for Connie, looked for her body during a storm. Concha, on the other hand, hides in the
shadows of her room but did not mourn for her daughter for she does not consider herself guilty of her
death. The Monson brothers think the real reason that Concha refuses to feel guilt is because she wants
to continue to live with a semblance of normality by continuing to dress up as though nothing has
happened. Meanwhile, Tony felt guilty over Connie’s death because he had pushed her to seek the
truth. He quitted his priesthood so he could not destroy other Connie’s. Rita, on t he contrary, grew mad
at Father Tony’s decision of quitting as a priest just because of Connie’s death. She even grew angrier
when she found out that Connie is not dead and has eloped with Paco because she knows Mary will be
 THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO NAVELS
suffering too if she knows about it. This revelation was written by Connie in her letter to Pepe before she
went off with Paco.

In the final moments before her car flew off the cliff, Connie was able to escape and this escape made
her desire of a life well-lived. By throwing her mother's handbag, she also threw the influence her
mother has over her. Instead of going to the monastery, as advised by Father Tony himself, Connie went
to celebratethe living in the city, and when she did not know where she would go, Connie ended up in
the Monson’s apartment. There, she met Dr. Monson and asked forgiveness for betraying the past. Dr.
Monson also asked forgiveness for not living in the present. After this reconciliation of the past, Connie
felt saved and free, while Dr. Monson died in this encounter with a smile on his face because he has
already reconciled with the present. After her visit with Dr. Monson, Connie bumped into Paco and fell
to his embrace. He recognized that Connie was the haunted girl he feared and had fought with but now
he sees Connie’s face as Mary’s and remembers Mary’s face as the one haunted. They decided to go to
Macao and then leave their partners behind. While Rita objected to this, Father Tony believes Connie
did the right thing. Another soul must sacrifice for one soul to be free. She chose Paco to leave her
delusion caused by Macho and Concha’s love affair. She needs to do the wrong thing to save herself. She
can find redemption through sinning, for "without sin there can be no repentance---and, therefore, no
upheaval for transfiguration or growth of the spirit." Pepe told Tony that they helped Connie have a
courage to live though they do not yet know the outcome of her new found freedom will be the key to
her salvation or damnation.

At the end, Macho shot Concha then himself and they both died.