Laya's Stories

Asoy Bantog and the Aswang

2011-04-29T17:31:00.001+08:00

This story is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather,

TIBURCIO PANOGOT
the original "Lolo Bucio"
from whom this story was handed down.
And to Toto, who is not afraid of the dark anymore.

Little Toto was afraid to go to the outhouse by himself after dark. The little building was located at a distance from the house and Toto would not venture out of the house and sit in the thatch-roofed and sawali-walled structure for a while for fear an aswang would come down and snatch him up and carry him away to eat him.

Thus, every time he needed to use the outhouse after nightfall, his mother or his father had to go with him, carrying a bucket of water and a flashlight, and sit outside the door till he had finished. This happened about two to three times a week, and his older brother and sisters teased him quite unmercifully about it. Mingming was thirteen, Neneng was fifteen, and Junjun was seventeen, and they considered themselves old enough to go to the outhouse at night without having someone go with them.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Toto, you’re nine years old already,” Neneng said. “You’re big enough to learn to go out on your own.”
“I’m afraid of the aswang,” Toto insisted. “If I go out, I may hear a soft voice calling kurokutokutokutok, and then she’ll come and sweep me up and fly off to eat me.”
“I’ll hang some ginger around your neck,” Mingming offered. Ginger was said to be a powerful aswang repellent.
“What if it falls off?”
“I’ll give you a copper coin to keep in your pocket, then you’ll be too heavy for her to carry,” Junjun said.
“All my pockets have holes!”
“Then we’ll just have to let the aswang carry you away,” Neneng said.
“Waaaaaaahhhh!!!!”

Lolo Bucio, having just finished weeding his vegetable garden, came inside. He asked why his youngest grandchild was crying.
“Neneng said she’ll just let the aswang carry me away,” Toto wailed.
Lolo chuckled and hung his sadok on a peg. He sat down in his favorite rattan chair and called Toto to sit beside him.
“No, the aswang couldn’t carry you away,” he said to Toto. “You are a descendant of Asoy Bantog, and he wasn’t afraid of any aswang.”
“Asoy Bantog?” Toto demanded, his eyes growing big and round.
“Yes, Asoy Bantog. He was my grandfather and your great-great-grandfather. He lived all alone in a small nipa hut on a hill called Montogawi in Iloilo during Spanish times with only his very sharp sanggut and his dog named Putot for companion.”
“His dog was named Putot, too?” Toto asked, looking down at the big black dog lying on the floor on his grandfather’s other side.
“Yes, and since his time, our family has always had a black dog and it was always named Putot. As you know, Putot means short in Ilonggo. The original Putot was a beautiful black dog with a big body and brown circles around his eyes, but he had short legs, that’s why Asoy named him that.” Lolo Bucio looked at Junjun, Neneng and Mingming, who were avidly listening. “The three of you, sit down and I will tell you a story of Asoy Bantog, who was your ancestor and mine, and who was the bravest man in the town of Pototan (Here Neneng and Mingming stifled giggles) long, long ago.”

Asoy Bantog wasn’t his real name, of course. The Spanish frailes would have had a fit if he had been christened with a name which was not the name of a saint. I suppose that he was named something like Dalmacio or Protasio to have been nicknamed Asoy. The nickname Bantog came later, when he became famous for being the bravest man in those parts. Then his name took on a different meaning, for Asoy in Ilonggo means ‘story’, and Bantog means ‘famous’. Soon people forgot his real name and became calling him Asoy Bantog because he was famous.
Asoy had two friends. One was called Imoy Bagabaga (Baga means hot coal) and the other was Imoy Madasig (Madasig means fast). Imoy Bagabaga got his nickname because he had a peculiar tummy. It was so hot that when he and his friends went on a picnic, they did not bother to light a fire at all to cook something but they just put the food on his stomach to cook. Imoy Madasig was so named because he was the fastest drinker, the fastest worker, and the fastest eater of everybody in the barrio. Asoy also had a third friend, but the friendship depended on the moon, because this friend was a woman named Mare Pungking. She was very beautiful, with dark eyes and white skin and a slim, willowy body, and she was an aswang with a pet crocodile who was called Maracung. Every time the moon became full, Mare Pungking changed into the deadliest aswang in Pototan and nearby towns, and went forth to look for food for herself and Maracung. During those times, she could not help herself if she became very hungry. She normally took care to stay away from any of her friends when she was hungry, but even then, if she could find nothing else, even the people she called her friends would do.
One night when the moon was full, Asoy Bantog, Imoy Madasig, and Imoy Bagabaga attended a wake in the iraya. They played cards for a while, then joined some friends who were passing around a jug of tuba at a table under the trees in the back yard. By midnight, the jug was empty, and their eyelids were drooping. Imoy Madasig, who had lived up to his name, had been the fastest drinker of them all. As a result, he wasn’t able to say anything more. His head fell forward on his arms on the table and by the time Asoy Bantog and Imoy Bagabaga had turned to say that perhaps they had better go home, he had already begun to snore. Imoy Bagabaga said to Asoy that they had better find a quiet corner to stretch out and sleep.
“You stay if you like,” said Asoy. “I had better be going home, I didn’t bring Putot and he’d be lonesome without me.”
“Are you crazy, Pareng Asoy?” Imoy demanded. “Look at the moon! It’s full!”
“So?”
“It’s not safe! Mare Pungking will be out, and you know she won’t recognize a friend at this time of month. Do you want to end up as supper?”
Asoy belched, chuckled, and patted the hilt of his trusty sanggut, with which he collected coconut sap for the finest tuba in Iloilo.
“Just let her try,” he said. “Well, I had better be going, Pareng Imoy, it’s quite a long walk.”
Imoy Bagabaga shook his head and clapped Asoy on the back.
“Suit yourself, Pare. As for me, I’m staying here. If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll know where to find you. I’ll just rub Maracung’s fat stomach.”
Asoy stood up from the table, swaying a bit. Then, lurching and stumbling a little, he set off down the road for Montogawi.
But he was so drunk that when he got to the part of the road that passed beside a fat clump of bamboo in the middle of the rice paddies, out of sight of the barrio, he felt as if he couldn’t take another dizzy step without a good night’s sleep. So without further ado, he just curled up in the soft grasses at the roadside and went to sleep.
Meanwhile, Mare Pungking had just started out to hunt in the form of a huge black bird. She bypassed the wake, as people were saying prayers by the hour as they kept vigil over the coffin of the deceased. Besides, she dared not carry off someone where there were enough people to hunt her. So she drifted off to search other barrios and towns for supper.
However, as luck had it, no one was out on the streets that night, and every window and door was tightly shut and latched, and fortified with ginger and garlic, fishhooks and manunggal vine besides. Mare Pungking roamed the roads and byways of four towns and all their barrios without finding a single victim.
As dawn drew near, she became so hungry she was desperate to eat anyone. As she started home to her little hut by the river, just a little distance away on the other side of Montogawi, her sharp nose smelled a person. Hungrily, she looked all around her to see if someone was unlucky enough to be wandering around the countryside that early in the morning. Finally she heard loud snores and found Asoy Bantog asleep on the roadside. With a flap of huge wings, she landed on the grasses and turned back into her human form.
“Finally! Food!” she exclaimed, her huge frightful eyes igniting red at the thought. She stood over the sleeping Asoy and examined him carefully.
“Wait a minute, it’s... Pareng Asoy!” she said softly to herself. For a minute she hesitated, her aswang instincts warring with her better nature.
But an aswang was an aswang, and a hungry aswang had to eat or go hungry till the next full moon. So in a matter of seconds, she made up her mind.
“I’m sorry, pare,” she said, “but even a friend looks delicious at this time of night. But I better make you a tigbaliw, or Pareng Imoy Bagabaga and Imoy Madasig will be sure to hunt me down with bamboo stakes should they realize you’re missing. They’ll know I’d have eaten you. Just sleep tightly and I’ll be back soon.” She studied Asoy’s sleeping form for a while then changed back into a bird and took off with mighty beats of her giant wings and a long, drawn out kurokutokutokutooook!
Unknown to her, Asoy had been awakened when she had first landed by his side.
“Abaw! And the very good aswang wants to eat ME as well! We’ll see about that!” Asoy said to himself, turned over, and went right back to sleep.
Mare Pungking meanwhile had gone to a nearby wood lot to search for a branch that would approximate Asoy’s length, size and position, for a tigbaliw could only take on the appearance of a human being if it were as much like that person as possible, right down to the position of his body. Mare Pungking intended of course to take Asoy off to her tiny hut by the river for an early breakfast, leaving the tigbaliw in his place. It would appear, of course, that Asoy had died in the night, but at least the death would not be traced to her. Mare Pungking was nothing but an intelligent and very meticulous aswang.
It irritated her no end, of course, when she returned to the place where Asoy was sleeping. Only this time, Asoy, who had been sleeping curled up on his side like a baby, was now flat on his stomach with arms and legs sprawled like calabasa stalks in a vegetable garden. Mare Pungking stared at him, then at the now useless stick she had selected with such finicky care, huffed into her breast feathers, and flew off again to find another stick.
Asoy, who had been awakened by her wing flaps, waited till they sounded far away, then he sleepily tucked his legs up under him and went back to his peaceful slumber.
Imagine, of course, Mare Pungking’s annoyance to return and find her intended victim still sleeping on his stomach, but now with his head pillowed on his arms and his buttocks in the air like a Moslem frozen in position as he was praying. She had taken such care in choosing a branch with four twigs sticking out at precisely the same angles as Asoy Bantog’s arms and legs had been! Furiously she flung the stick into a nearby rice paddy and flapped off again to hunt for another stick, wondering where on earth she’d ever find one that looked like Asoy Bantog with his buttocks in the air.
Asoy Bantog now scratched his head, rolled over, and settled back to sleep. It had been rather cramped in his last position. When Mare Pungking returned, he had both arms folded across his chest and his legs were bent like the legs of the frogs they sell on barbecue sticks in the market. Mare Pungking wanted to just thread a bamboo stake through him like one of those frogs, but Imoy Bagabaga and Imoy Madasig would do the same to him if they ever found out. Again she threw away the stick she was carrying and hastened off to find another that looked like a frog with its arms folded across its middle.
It took her the better part of an hour to find a stick with just that peculiar appearance. Pleased with herself, she flew back to her victim, only to find that Asoy had now tucked a hand under his chin, scrunched up his face as if he were having a very bad dream, twisted his legs about each other, and wrapped the other arm around his knees.
Mare Pungking wanted to scream with frustration. She would, too, if she was sure no one could hear. As an aswang’s voice is very shrill and piercing, and it sounds louder the farther away you are, it was a very distinct possibility that the whole barrio, at some distance away, would be awakened from sleep, and then where would she be?
As she hopped up and down, seething with anger hot enough to rival Imoy Bagabaga’s legendary tummy, to her amazement and great trepidation she heard a cock crow.
She stopped and listened, hoping that a sleepy cock had awakened and mistakenly thought it was morning already, and having realized its mistake, had gone sleepily back to sleep.
But no, after a few minutes the lone cock was echoed by several of its comrades, until at last all the cocks in the barrio were singing in chorus. And Mare Pungking realized that it was already morning but she had not yet had her supper.
She looked angrily down at Asoy Bantog.
“So be it then!” she finally said. “Tigbaliw or not, I will have my early breakfast.”
She changed back into her human shape and bent and hoisted Asoy over her shoulder with his head hanging down her back and her hands clutching his legs. Then, huffing and chuffing, and salivating with hunger, she made for home, calling for Maracung to come and meet her for breakfast.
But she had barely reached the portion where the stream that fed the rice fields met the river when she felt a strong sinewy hand grasp her throat. She reached up to wrench it away and in the next instance felt the cold touch of a very sharp blade of curved steel.
“As you may know, my dear kumare,” Asoy’s voice said in her ear, very silkily, “I happen to have the sharpest sanggut in four towns and then some. One very tiny wrong movement, and I might cut your throat without really meaning to, if you know what I mean.”
Mare Pungking very nearly collapsed from shock and fear. She hadn’t thought it was really possible to frighten an aswang until that moment. As it was, she dared not collapse for fear that she might really get her throat cut. She knew that sanggut; it could slice the top off a young coconut in just one swoop.
“Pa-pareng Asoy..!” she stammered. “It is you! It’s me, your kumare. Don’t you recognize me?”
“It seems, kumare, that the question should be whether YOU recognized ME,” Asoy answered, tightening his grip on the sanggut. Mare Pungking rolled her red eyes downwards in an effort to see how near the blade was.
“I, I, I,” she stammered, grasping for words.
“Yes, Kumare?”
“I was heading for home already when I recognized you. Surely I just couldn’t let my kumpare just sleep by the roadside! I, I, I was just carrying you home to save you the trouble, that’s all…”
“And took the trouble to search for just the right tigbaliw to put in my place? Tell me the truth, kumare. You were planning to have me for breakfast, weren’t you?” Asoy Bantog pressed the sanggut a little closer.
“He, he, he, Pareng Asoy, now don’t be hasty,” Mare Pungking said nervously.
Just then Maracung came slithering up, six feet in length of thick, heavy crocodile and at least a two-foot row of glistening sharp teeth. He was expecting a hearty breakfast, and his jaws snapped in annoyance to find his mistress apparently having a discussion with their intended meal.
“One wrong movement, my fine leather friend, and you or your mistress will be eating one or the other of you,” Asoy said when he spotted the crocodile.
“Maracung, stay right where you are. Don’t move,” Mare Pungking ordered. In a panic, she noticed that a thin strip of gold was beginning to seep across the sky. “Look, Pare, can we just forget the whole thing?” she begged Asoy Bantog. “If I don’t get home before the sun rises, I’ll be dust and you know it. Have mercy on me for the sake of our friendship.”
“Friendship?” Apparently Asoy was in no hurry.
“Please, Pareng Asoy! I don’t want to die! I’m weak, and scared, I haven’t even had a bite of supper, and now I won’t have it until next month! That’s why I was desperate enough to even think of eating you… I admit it! I’m sorry, please, Pareng Asoy, just let me go so I can get home in peace before the sun rises….”
Asoy Bantog took a few moments to consider.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll let you loose once you and Maracung have dropped me off at my house, since we’ll be passing by there anyway. But until then, I’m not taking this sanggut away from its present position, so you better hurry, Mare Pungking.”
“Come quick, Maracung!” Mare Pungking ordered. “I need a ride and we better hurry.” When Maracung had approached her, she carefully stepped on the back of the crocodile, still with Asoy Bantog draped around her shoulders and his sanggut at her throat. Maracung quickly pushed off, paddling his feet with all his might. The sooner he got this load off his back, the better.
They finally reached the riverbank nearest to Asoy’s little shack on Montogawi.
“Here we are, Pareng Asoy,” Mare Pungking said nervously.
Asoy slid off her back and onto his feet on the riverbank, still clutching his sanggut.
“I hope that teaches you a lesson never to even think of eating me again!” he said. “Or any of my family, for that matter!”
But Mare Pungking and her pet crocodile were already far down the river, hurrying to get home before the sun rose completely, for if an aswang who has been out hunting is caught by the sun before it has gotten home, it will catch fire and disintegrate into ashes. Normally, the sun does not hurt it except in those vulnerable instances, but the exceptional instances are fatal to it.
Mare Pungking made it up her bamboo ladder and into the safety of her little hut before the sun rose completely. Whimpering, she curled up into a ball on her papag and tried to recover from the fright and hunger. Maracung bolted for the shade under the house and buried his aching stomach in the cool dust. They both didn’t stir for a long long time. Perhaps until the next full moon.
Asoy Bantog, on the other hand, stumbled up the footpath to his own hut. Putot, who had kept vigil on the tiny porch all night, ran to meet him. Asoy patted his dog, went inside the house, stuck his bare sanggut into the tinadtad wall, and, dirty clothes, empty scabbard still on his belt, and all, he flopped on the bed and peacefully resumed his interrupted slumber.
But one thing was sure. From then on, Mare Pungking, or any other aswang for miles around for that matter, avoided Asoy Bantog on full moons. No, not even if they were dying from hunger. It just wasn’t worth it.

“So, you see,” Lolo Bucio concluded, “Asoy Bantog wasn’t afraid of the aswang. Not a bit. Not even of the crocodile. So you, his great great grandson, have nothing to fear. When it sees you, it will say to itself, oh, no, not that one! That’s Asoy’s grandson! It’s not worth it!”
Toto sighed contentedly.
“Toto Bantog, grandson of Asoy Bantog,” he murmured dreamily.
“Bantog? You? Ha! you better learn to go to the outhouse alone at night first!” Neneng sniffed.

Adriel - A Young Adult Romance

2011-03-23T12:53:00.003+08:00

My college classmates and dorm roommates will probably remember this story, and recognize a little bit of themselves. I wrote this when I was 17 years old (has it really been that long ago?) so it's very dated. The original is in longhand in a little notebook about the size of a thin paperback.

At first I thought I'd revise it to suit the present, but on second thought I'd rather keep it as it is, since it's full of references to what things were like at the time it was written.

This is for the original Shy --

Sixyl V. Balquin.

I never thought it would be In Memoriam. :(

Prologue
In which sixteen-year-old Adriel’s family moves back to the family homestead, taking her away from her friends and her boyfriend.

Chapter One
In which Adriel explores her new home.

Chapter Two
In which Adriel begins to get hints of dark secrets in the family.

Chapter Three
In which Adriel gets better acquainted.

Chapter Four
In which Adriel meets a "white lady".

Chapter Five

In which Adriel gets to know Michael a bit better.

Chapter Six

In which Adriel first sees the mysterious stranger.

Chapter Seven
In which Adriel learns why Mike and Buddy quarrelled.

Chapter Eight

In which Adriel comes face to face with the White Lady.

Chapter Nine
In which Adriel discovers something.

Chapter Ten
In which Adriel makes another discovery.

Chapter Eleven
In which a night that started out well looks like it will end in disaster.

Chapter Twelve
In which everything is finally revealed.

Epilogue

In which Adriel wraps everything up… but not quite.

Tell me if you like it!

One-sided conversation with a maya

2011-01-11T09:35:00.002+08:00

(Aurora Blvd./ Araneta Ave. Overpass, 8:00 a.m.)

Hello, little bird.
What are you doing here,
so far away from the rice paddies?

Here there is no rice for you to eat.
There are stray cats aplenty
waiting to catch and eat you;
there are stray wires to hold you
till you can't fly anymore,
then they zap you dead.
The trees here are small and stunted,
there are no tall grasses;
where will you build your nest?
How can you raise healthy nestlings?

Hello, little bird.
We are both far from the rice paddies,
you and I.
But you can still sing.

Photo by photospill on Flickr.

The ant and the eagle

2011-01-04T15:34:00.000+08:00

An ant and an eagle fell in love one day;
love conquers all, or so they say.
All went well till the eagle spied the sky
and remembered she knew how to fly--
she had never promised to stay on the ground;
although to keep the love she'd found
she had to stay, and not go far,
had to ignore that heaven had stars,
that high above, clouds floated, winds blew
that high above, other eagles flew.

The ant each day earned his daily bread
by fetching and carrying things on his head
through hard toil, uncomplaining of his lot
never thinking to aspire to what he had not,
that an eagle loved him was too good to be true,
he thought; it was a fluke, it would fall through.
He was just an ant; what did he know of the sky?
He belonged to the ground, he would not even try.

Let me fly, I will come back, the eagle said,
Stretching her wings for the flight ahead;
You belong nowhere but the sky, the ant replied;
I love you but this won't work; we tried.
The sky's your domain, to the earth I am bound;
I can't fly, and you can't stay on the ground.
But don't some ants grow wings and fly?
The eagle asked. Not I, said the ant. No, not I.

------------------------
The blog is "Laya's Stories" but I've decided to include poems and all things literary as well ^_^

Chapter Eleven: Danger!

2010-11-24T16:39:00.000+08:00

Behind Katrin, Pie was shaking. Katrin turned to look at her. Her eyes brimmed with angry tears, and her fists were clenched so hard the knuckles were white.

“Betty, I’ve never slapped anyone before, and if I didn’t know any better I’d slap you now,” she said in a trembling voice, and whirled and ran, dodging blindly through the crowd.

“Pie!” exclaimed Katrin, struggling out of her seat and almost falling over the bench. She picked herself up and ran after her friend.

She made it out of the gate without knocking anyone down, and looked down the street, to see Pie’s fleeing figure, and people turning to look at her. She also began to run, just as Pie disappeared into the shadows at the end of the street.

“Kat!” Michael caught up with her. “Where did she go?” Gasping for breath, Katrin pointed down the street.

“I’d gladly push Betty into the pool and hold her down,” she said, putting her hands on her thighs and trying to catch her breath. “She’s… grrrh.”

“Why, thank you,” said Michael, in such a tone of voice that made Katrin look at him.

“It’s hard to believe you’re cousins,” said Katrin, beginning to walk down the street again. “Pie is so nice, and she always says the right things… why does Betty always want to say bad things about other people?”

“I don’t know,” said Michael, following her. “She’s always been like that; when we were little she always used to make Pie cry.”

“I wanted to smack her,” Katrin confessed. “The first time I met her, at your house, she gave me the impression that she viewed me as a worm within five minutes of being introduced to me.”

“From all accounts, you handled her pretty well,” said Michael. “Pie told Mommy about it, that you kept your cool even when everything Betty said to you was calculated to make you mad.”

Katrin shrugged.

“Well, first of all I was a guest in your house and Mama and Papa always told us to behave whenever we were guests in somebody’s house. And secondly, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have this strange tendency to be more and more polite the more people are rude to me. I guess it’s due to Mama always telling us never to stoop to someone’s level; that just because someone’s rude to you doesn’t mean you automatically get to be rude back.”

Michael laughed suddenly.

“So that explains…” he said.

“Explains what?” Katrin looked at him suspiciously.

“Nothing,” said Michael, still laughing. By then they had reached the part where Acacia Street crossed the lane. Katrin looked both ways.

“That way,” she pointed, and began to walk in the direction of the co-op.

“I guess you’re wondering what Betty is talking about,” Michael said softly. Katrin slowed down and turned and looked at him.

“When she called you a thief?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Michael said. “I didn’t actually take anything, though. Now that I’m here, I keep kicking myself over how stupid I was to believe what my so-called friends told me.”

“Why?” Katrin asked, stopping. He also stopped.

“I made a mistake in my friends, that’s all,” Michael said. “For a moment I let them persuade me that there was nothing wrong in what they were doing because all of them were doing it. But then I’d never met people like you and your brothers.”

“Uh,” Katrin said.

“You work,” Michael said. “You work for what you have, and you help your parents with everything. You and your parents talk to one another and you don’t get mad at them. You actually listen to them; you don’t think they’re old bores who don’t know anything. You’re proud of what you are and don’t care what others think of you.”

“Er, not quite,” said Katrin, remembering how she’d agonized over not looking as good as Pie and Betty.

“And Andy actually stood up for me, even when he didn’t know me that much,” Michael said, scuffing his foot in the sand. “Eddie told me. Andy went to see the other kids and talked to them and said that he thought I was all right, and that they should at least give me a chance before they listened to whatever Betty was saying.”

Katrin smiled at that.

“That sounds like my big brother, all right,” she admitted.

“Anyway,” Michael said, and fell silent. Katrin felt awkward.

“Let’s go look for Pie,” she said instead, and they walked on.

“You think I’ll like it at your school?” Michael asked.

“Of course you will,” Katrin said.

“I hope Pie convinces the parents to let her go there too,” he said.

“Look, Mike, is that someone in the cottage?” Katrin said, as they neared the co-op.

“Looks like Pie,” said Michael, walking ahead of her.

It was Pie, wiping tears off her cheeks with her handkerchief.

“There you are,” Katrin said, climbing the one step up into the bamboo gazebo by the basketball court. “We were worried about you.”

“Kat. Mike,” Pie said. “Sorry about running out like that.”

“It’s okay,” said Katrin, sitting down beside her. “You okay now?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Pie said. “Betty is so horrible, I wish she’d go back to Manila.”

“She will in a couple of days,” said Michael, sitting down on her other side. “Meanwhile, didn’t we promise Mommy we wouldn’t let her get to us? Come on, Pie.”

“She hasn’t really had a good vacation, has she?” Katrin said. “She’s been grounded all the time; this is really the first time she’s been out of the mansion.”

“Yeah, and then everybody was all over her earlier because of how she looked,” Pie said thoughtfully. “I knew she got mad when she heard what those old women said earlier. She was going to say something then, only Mommy was glaring at her so she kept quiet.”

“Well, what can she expect?” Michael asked. “She sleeps till noon, then wants to watch TV and play music. She got mad because there weren’t any boys around worth meeting, she said, and nothing worth doing. We asked her if she wanted to go to the orchard yesterday and all she said was that it would be hot and sweaty and there would be no one there anyway.”

“Anyway, Mommy did ground her, that’s why she didn’t come along today,” Pie said. “She was really mad about being left behind and complained to Daddy that she was being left out of everything. Daddy said she should come to the wake so she could get out of the house and meet people, as long as she behaved.”

“I’ll bet she gets grounded till she goes back on that plane,” said Katrin, shaking her head. “Do you guys want to go home, or back to the wake?”

“Back there, I guess,” Pie said. “I’m okay now, Kat, really.”

There were little or no people on the road by then as they headed back to Isang’s house, as it was getting late.

“My dad will have you in jail for this! Let go of me!” The three of them heard the faint shout and exchanged glances.

“That sounds like Betty,” Michael said, just as they reached the lane leading back to Isang’s house.

“It is Betty,” Pie exclaimed, as they looked the other way into the shadowy lane, and saw the struggling figures at the far end.

Katrin could make out a thin figure with long hair struggling with two men, who were gripping her arms and hauling her down the lane.

“What are they doing! Where are they taking her?” she gasped, and began to run.

“Kat!” both Pie and Michael exclaimed. Katrin heard Michael tell his sister, “Don’t! Run back to the wake… tell them Betty’s been kidnapped. Tell them we need help. Run, Pie! Kat, wait!”

But she was already running towards the figures struggling in the shadows of the trees that lined the lane. The thoughts that went through her mind were absurd; surely this could not happen here, here in Riverside of all places where people would even bring home wandering cows and goats that they recognized as belonging to their neighbors. Where people watched over their neighbors’ houses and belongings and children as if they were their own. This was Riverside, one of the safest places on earth. Why was this happening to them?

“You don’t know who my dad is!” Betty was berating her captors. “When he catches you he will have you thrown in jail and make sure you never get out again!”

“Ah, all this is getting on my nerves,” said one of the men and clamped a hand over her mouth.

Katrin glanced around her as she ran. None of the houses on the lane showed any signs of life, though the dogs were barking. Yes, she remembered seeing Eddie’s whole family at the wake. Rona’s too. And Panyang’s. No one was home but the dogs, and people would just assume they were barking at the passersby going to the wake.

Noise, she thought. I need noise.

“Let go of her!” she screamed.

“Another one!” said one of the men holding Betty. “What is with this place!”

“I said let her go!” Katrin said.

“Geez,” said the man. “Here, hold this one for me, Boy.” He shoved Betty into the other man’s arms. Betty could not scream because the other man’s hand was covering her mouth, but she kicked and struggled and clawed.

Katrin clenched her fists and screamed in her best voice.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

And again.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Her mother had often observed that her scream could be heard in the next purok. I hope she was right, Katrin thought, drawing breath for another scream.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… pfff,” as the other man grabbed her and clamped a hand on her mouth. She bit the hand.

“Aaaaaargh!” the man screamed, nearly dropping her, and she scrambled away, but he caught her hair.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEE!” she shrieked, genuinely this time as her scalp hurt.

“Let her go!” Michael was suddenly there, hitting the man who held her hair. He cursed, and was suddenly joined by three more men.

“Bong! We have company!” one of the men said, catching Katrin and clamping a hand on her mouth.

“This one came along and started screaming!” the man called Bong said. As he turned, Kat saw his face clearly for the first time and would have gasped if she could. He was that rude laborer whom she always kept running into. “Be careful, that one bites. And then this boy came along!” He had an arm around Michael’s neck by then. “Stop struggling, boy, do you want to break your neck?” he warned.

“Ah, what’ll we do?” asked the other man.

“Let’s just go to the cottage! No one will find us there as long as we don’t make a sound! Quick now! How about the sacks?”

“Already full, though the other houses had dogs!”

“Good! Let’s go!” The man was already hauling Michael up the lane. The men holding Betty and Katrin followed.

When they stopped and dragged the young people off the lane, Katrin felt her blood run cold. It was the back entrance to the Barrios land. Were the men going to take them down to the river? Their parents would never find them; the marshlands were too broad.

She struggled again as they made her go through the wire, roughly, so that her clothes snagged on the barbs and one of her slippers fell off.

“Mmmmpf!” she cried. Suddenly, sparks burst behind her eyes. “Mama,” she thought, and then she remembered nothing more.

Chapter Ten: Bordon

2010-07-22T19:54:00.000+08:00

“You sure walk fast,” Michael said, hurrying to catch up with her.

“Just keep an eye open for them,” Katrin said. “If worse comes to worst, we can always have them paged at the lost-and-found counter.”

“Then our moms will hear,” Michael pointed out. “Let’s not make them worry unnecessarily.”

They had covered all the shops in that part of the mall when Katrin received a message from Pie.

No luck on this end; you?

None either. You think they’re still in the department store?

Maybe? We’ll try the ground floor and you try the second.

Okay.

Katrin and Michael looked at each other and headed for the nearest entrance to the department store.

“Where do you think they could be?” Katrin fretted.

“Jenny loves stuffed toys,” Michael said. “Shall we check the toy department first?”

When they reached the area filled with stuffed toys on display, the two of them broke into a run, for Katrin had already caught a glimpse of Jenny’s lacy peach-colored dress. The salesgirl was trying to make her get off of a stuffed toy tiger, which she was sitting on and hugging.

“Jenny!” Michael exclaimed.

“Kyle!” Katrin cried.

The salesgirl breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s a good thing you arrived,” she said. “She wouldn’t let it go.”

“Darling, you already have one like that at home,” said Michael, picking up his little sister.

“Yes, I know,” said Jenny. “I just missed it.”

“Come, Kyle,” said Katrin. “Mama will be worried.” She kept a firm grip on her brother’s hand while she sent Pie a message saying they had found the truants. Soon, the other three arrived, and all five of them went back into the main part of the mall. They amused the little ones at the arcade until their mothers had finished their shopping and came looking for them.

“There you are,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “I hope the little ones weren’t too much trouble?”

“Oh, no, Mommy, no trouble at all,” Pie said hastily. The five of them caught one another’s eyes and burst out laughing and wouldn’t tell their mothers why.

Soon they were in the van and headed home to Riverside. Jenny was already dozing in the front seat and Kyle, who had moved to sit beside his mother, was doing the same thing.

“Tonight’s the last night of the wake,” Mrs. Perez said out loud.

“We’re going, aren’t we, Mama?” said Katrin.

“Yes, we are,” said Mrs. Perez. “How about you, Anna?”

“We’re going, too,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “If the kids aren’t too tired?”

“We aren’t too tired,” said Pie immediately.

“See you there, then,” said Katrin.

Mr. Perez arrived home shortly after they did. After all the shopping had been put away, they had an early dinner and then piled into the tricycle and set out for the wake.

While their parents and Kyle joined the other parents and younger children inside the house, Katrin, Aian and Andy went to sit with some of their schoolmates who had already arrived and were sitting at the table they’d occupied the other night. Isang was sitting with them.

“Oh, good, you guys are here,” she said. “Mother said we might want to play Bordon later, and Andy always makes the best sentenciador.”

“Uh-oh,” said Katrin, mentally making a list of the luwas, or four-line nonsense rhymes, that she knew and composing on the spot a few more to hold in reserve.

“Whose ring are we going to use?” she asked.

“Mother said she’d lend us her ring,” said Isang. “It really is good that you came; I’m not sure I remember all the words to the song.”

“What song?” asked Pie, sliding into the seat beside Katrin. “Hey, all.” She wore a white blouse with long sleeves and a knee-length denim skirt, and had her hair tied back with a white clip.

“Hey, Pie, hey Mike,” said Isang. “Do you know how to play Bordon?”

“No-o-o… what is it?” Pie asked. “And by the way, guys, this is my cousin Betty.” All three Perezes looked around so fast that Katrin almost got whiplash. Betty indeed stood behind them, wearing a silvery shirt and another one of her denim miniskirts, and the same supercilious expression on her face. One of the boys hurriedly vacated a place on the bench so she could sit down.

“Hello, Betty,” said Isang. “Are you from Manila, too?”

“Yes,” said Betty.

“What’s Bordon, Isang?” Michael asked hastily.

“I’ll let Andy explain, since he will be the sentenciador,” said Isang. “I’ll go get your whip, Andy.”

“A whip!” Pie exclaimed.

“Don’t worry Pie, it’s not exactly a whip,” said Katrin reassuringly. While Andy explained the rules of the game, Isang went into the house and shortly came back with a towel, twisted into a soft thick rope the size of a baseball bat, which she handed to Andy.

“Oh, I see,” and Pie laughed.

“Essentially, the important thing in Bordon is being able to think up verses on the spot,” Andy explained. “I’m the sentenciador; it will be my job to pass judgment on your luwas and decide if you should be punished or not.”

“We can play after the prayers are finished,” said Isang.

“I don’t know any verses!” Pie said to Katrin.

“Just make them up!” Katrin answered.

“I’m no good at that sort of thing!”

“Just try your best! Why did your mom bring Betty?”

“Because she was griping about being left out,” Pie said. “Mommy made her promise she would behave, so that she could come along.”

Katrin took another look at Betty.

“She doesn’t look like she’s going to,” she said. “Behave, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Pie said. “Mike said exactly the same thing.”

Katrin saw her mother beckoning from the doorway, so she excused herself from the group and got up and went to her. The prayers had ended, and the women inside the house were talking. She looked around for her father and saw him at another table outside, talking with Mr. Nolasco and the other men of the purok.

Her mother was sitting beside a couple of old women wearing flowered cotton dusters and wrapped in shawls. Katrin politely took their hands and touched them to her forehead.

“Ah, this is your Katrin already, Margarita? How big she’s grown,” said one of the old woman.

“Yes, practically a young woman already,” the other one agreed, peering at Katrin. “So pretty, too.”

“Kat, was that Betty I saw at your table?” Mrs. Perez asked in a low voice.

“Yes, Mama; Aunt Anna had to bring her along,” said Katrin, sitting down beside her mother. She looked across the room at Mrs. Nolasco, who was sitting beside Isang’s mother and listening to something she was saying.

“Mind you be nice to her, now,” said Mrs. Perez.

“Mama! I am always nice. You mean to say I still have to be nice even when Betty is trying to wallop me?” Katrin said indignantly. “Besides, this isn’t her house.”

“Yes, but you are both still guests here,” said her mother, “and even though Betty doesn’t seem to know how to behave as such, you do, and so you will behave as one, which means you will be nice. Do you understand me, Kat?”

Katrin pouted. “Yes, Mama.”

“And please get Kyle’s hat and jacket from Andy when you go out again.”

“Okay, Mama.”

Mrs. Nolasco saw Katrin and beckoned, so she crossed the room.

“Kat, would you please tell Pie, Mike and Betty to come here?” she asked.

“Okay, Aunt Anna,” said Katrin. She went to the coffin to pay her respects before going out again.

“Pie, your mom wants the three of you to go inside,” she said once she’d reached the table again. By that time there were around a dozen young people there, crowded on the benches around the table.

“I think I’ll stay out here,” said Betty. “I don’t like to look at coffins.”

“No, Betty,” said Pie. “Mommy said you should go.” She pulled her cousin up out of her seat on the bench. “Come on. Mike?”

Katrin collected Kyle’s hat and jacket from the table in front of Andy and followed the Nolascos, Pie pulling the reluctant Betty who was balking at going into the house. She stopped to deliver what her mother requested and watched the other three cross the room to Mrs. Nolasco.

“My, whose daughter is that?” the old woman sitting beside her mother exclaimed.

“That skirt is so short it looks like it will uncover her soul!” said the other one.

“Not to mention she’ll catch her death of cold in that. Here, somebody, give her a shawl.”

“Is that Anna’s daughter?” asked the other old woman. “She looks as if she will get blown away by the wind. Doesn’t she eat anything? After all, they are rich, aren’t they?”

“No, Iyay Noring, the other one is Anna’s daughter,” Mrs. Perez said gently. “That girl is her husband’s niece.”

“Oh, I see. What’s Anna’s daughter’s name? Pretty girl!” said the old woman. “She knows how to dress properly, why doesn’t the other one?”

From the set of her shoulders, Katrin was sure Betty had heard every word.

“Lola Noring, they come from Manila,” she said hastily. “That’s how many girls dress there.”

“Mind you never go there then, Katrin,” said the old woman. “That boy is Anna’s son? A fine-looking boy. Looks just like his grandfather when he was younger.”

“Indeed,” said the other old woman, and they fell into reminiscences of the times when they were young. Katrin excused herself and went outside again. Threading her way around the long tables, which had now gotten very crowded, she headed back towards their own table at the edge of the yard. The gates to the yard had been propped open, and people were arriving and leaving all the time.

Halfway there, she stumbled and saw that someone’s legs were sticking out into the way. A man was sitting on a bench, half-leaning against a post, with his eyes closed. He didn’t even move when Kat stumbled, or take his legs away. Katrin recognized the rude laborer who had been at the orchard. Sitting on the bench beside him, playing cards with some of her schoolmates’ older brothers and uncles, were the other men who had been with him the day before.

Katrin, more careful now, went on to their table and slid onto the bench between Aian and Eddie. The table was full of young people by then, crowded on the benches and some of them even sitting on the table. Others stood behind them. Everyone was talking and laughing, and some of the boys were playing tong-its again.

Soon Pie, Michael and Betty came back as well, just as Andy announced that they would start the game. Isang gave him a golden ring.

“Take care of that, it’s my mother’s,” she said.

“Everyone in the game on the benches,” Andy said, handing the ring to Katrin. “Who knows the words? Let’s start.”

Cuerdas de la bordon ang singsing papanawon… they began the simple game that involved the passing of the ring from hand to hand until suddenly Andy brought his towel whip crashing down on the planks of the table and everybody froze.

“The ring!” Andy demanded, and the girl sitting across from Katrin opened her hand to reveal the small gold circle.

“The one who has the ring must pay a tribute!” Andy declared.

“Love is like
a lollipop,
bata mal-am (young and old)
makadilap (can lick it),” the girl declared to much laughter and applause, and Andy hit the table again with his whip.

“Bitooooor!” he declared, and the game was on again. This time the one who got caught wasn’t fast enough with his rhyme, and Andy “sentenced” him to sing for the group.

“Sa sulod sang kasing-kasing (Inside the heart)
may ara sing waling-waling (there is an orchid)
wala sing makalingling (no one can peek at it)
kung indi akon darling (except my darling),” was Aian’s offering when he got caught with the ring, to loud cheers from the boys and shouts of “who is it?” from the girls.

“Ako’y tutula (I shall say a poem)
Mahabang-mahaba (It will be very long)
ako’y uupo (I shall sit down)
tapos na po (for it is finished),” another boy said, earning jeers and objections from the crowd, which was settled by Andy’s “Bitooooooor!” accompanied by a whack on the table.

The game was really underway, with Katrin sorting out the rhymes in her mind to hold them ready in case she got the ring, when suddenly there was a commotion at the table at the far end of the yard. The song stopped as everyone looked around to see what was happening.

“My wallet! It’s gone!” a man declared, standing up from a table. He began looking beneath the table and behind him, in case it may have fallen out. This also made other men reach for their back pockets to check their own wallets.

“Mine is gone too!” another exclaimed.

The yard was suddenly full of people crawling around under tables and looking on the ground. The women came to the door to see what was the matter.

“What happened?” asked Isang’s mother.

“My wallet is gone!” said the man who had first complained.

“I can’t find my cellphone as well!” another man said suddenly. “It was just here on the table beside me, and now it’s gone!”

Katrin was suddenly aware of Betty at the far end of the table, slowly turning her head to look at her cousin with a cold smile.

“It didn’t take you too long to get up to your old tricks again, huh, Mike?” she asked in a voice that carried over the hush that had fallen over their group.

Chapter Nine: Lost!

2010-07-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

Katrin, Pie and the boys handed out plates and spoons to the long line of harvesters who filed past the table to get food. They refilled serving bowls and platters and saw to it that everyone had his or her fill and that no one was left out.

Katrin saw the man they’d seen near the Barrios house. He was sitting on a log under one of the trees, along with about five other men who seemed to be his friends. They were talking as they ate, and occasionally burst into loud laughter.

The dog Bantay wandered around the yard, sniffing. Most of the time he stayed near the table, watching people get food from it with his ears perked and his tongue lolling, but sometimes he walked among the people sitting in the yard, most of whom knew him and threw him an occasional tidbit or piece of bone. When he got near to the group of men that sat a little apart, though, his ears went back and his hackles rose.

“Kat, your dog’s growling,” said Pie, who had finally been told by Mrs. Perez to take a break and was sitting on a bench beside Michael and Kyle, eating.

“Oh!” Katrin hurried across to intercept Bantay, who was advancing on the group of men, growling menacingly. The men, who had noticed him, had stood up and were backing away. “Bantay, here. Come here.”

“You guys been eating too much asucena?” another man called. “You know they say a dog can smell it if you eat one of them.” Other people laughed.

Katrin reached the dog, who stopped and looked up at her uncertainly.

“Go back to the house,” she said, pointing with her finger in that direction. Bantay growled some more at the men, then slunk off to the house, glancing at Katrin every now and then.

Katrin got some food and joined Pie and their brothers. The harvesters had by then finished eating and were going to the table to return their plates before going back to the orchard. After the young people finished eating, they helped to wash the dishes while the women cleared the table and put away the leftovers.

“You know, I forgot to ask where Betty is now,” Katrin said to Pie as they took the washbasins full of dishes into the house and left them on the table to dry.

“She sleeps till noon, usually,” Pie said. “She’d just have woken up and is probably yelling at Lita about her breakfast.”

“Oh well,” Katrin said. “You guys want to go to the wake again tonight, or wait till the last night?”

“What?” asked her mother, who had come in and overheard her. “Aren’t you tired yet, Kat, without wanting to go to the wake tonight?”

“We-e-ell,” Katrin said. “Oh well, let’s see. With luck, I might get so tired today I’d be glad to see my bed by eight o’clock.”

“You might at that,” her mother agreed. “Pie, I didn’t know you could wash dishes.”

“Of course I do, Aunt Marge,” Pie said. “Mommy said just because you have money doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn how to wash dishes.”

“Sounds like Anna, all right,” Mrs. Perez said, laughing. “And your cousin, why didn’t she come with you?”

“I don’t think harvesting mangoes is really Betty’s thing, Mama,” Katrin said.

“It isn’t,” Pie affirmed.

“Well, I supposed it isn’t, at that,” said Mrs. Perez.

“I like it though,” said Pie.

“Let’s go back to the orchard then,” said Katrin.

By four o’clock, all twenty-four of the Barrios trees had been harvested, and the harvesters were bringing in their baskets to be counted and weighed, and collect their pay from Mr. Perez. The three boys, helped by Eddie, brought the big, heavy baskets to the storage shed where they were to be kept until they were sold.

“Well, it looks like a pretty good harvest,” said Mr. Perez. “Although it boggles the mind why that group of strong young laborers could harvest only three kaings full between the lot of them. Looks like they harvested only one tree or something.”

“At least they harvested one tree,” said Mrs. Perez, coming to look at the mangoes. “I’ll be going out tomorrow to see who will buy them, and there’s always Market Day.”

When everything had been put away and everyone had been paid, Mr. Perez closed the gate to the orchard, and Katrin, Pie, and the boys went back to the house. Everything was already tidy, and the pots and pans and dishes were all in their proper places. Mrs. Perez had given out the leftovers to the women who had helped with the cooking.

“Whew,” said Katrin, sinking into a chair and letting Whitney climb up into her lap. “I may not be up to going to the wake tonight, after all.”

“Me neither,” Pie agreed, patting Bantay, who sat beside her chair and thumped his tail vigorously. “It was fun though,” she added.

“Hey, you two,” Michael said, coming over to sit on the arm of his sister’s chair. “Mommy just texted me. She’s going to Marbel tomorrow and wants to know if you would want to come along.”

Katrin’s eyes sparkled. Pie took out her own cellphone.

“Why, Mommy texted me too, I just didn’t notice it,” she said. “She says she’s going to the parlor, and then to look at the Notre Dame, and then maybe we could go malling. She says to ask Aunt Marge as well if she wants to come and bring Kyle.”

“I’m sure Mama will let you go, Kat,” Andy said. “We’ve something else to do tomorrow.”

“But it would be fun if all of you came along, Andy,” Pie said. “We could all fit in the van.”

“Shopping, ugh,” said Aian, and Katrin threw a pillow at him.

“Shopping where?” asked his mother, coming into the house with a couple of baskets. Kyle, trailing her, also held a basket.

Pie told her what Mrs. Nolasco had said.

“Oh, how good of your mother, Pie,” Mrs. Perez said. “I was planning to go to Marbel myself tomorrow to see who would want to buy some of the mangoes.”

“I guess that means yes, Mama?” asked Katrin, throwing her hands high. “Yay!”

“So I’ll tell her we’re all going, Aunt Marge?” Michael asked.

Aian and Andy stared at him.

“We’re all going?” Aian asked.

“We are?” Andy asked.

“Well, what were you going to do tomorrow?” Michael asked them.

Aian shrugged.

“Go fishing, work in the garden… shoot some hoops?” he answered.

“As opposed to going malling, eating at a restaurant, maybe play video games in the arcade? There is an arcade, I would suppose?”

“Yeah, there are arcades in the malls at Marbel,” Andy said.

“Yeah well if you put it like that…” Aian said.

“They should be twins,” Katrin observed, and was hit in the face by a pillow.

“Children, children,” Mrs. Perez said. “It is all right with me that we all go… there’s just one problem. Who will stay at home and guard the house?”

“Er… that was what I thought, Mama,” said Andy.

“Bantay can guard the house,” Katrin said. “And we can always let the geese out of the pen.”

“Yeah, the hard part is getting them to go back in again,” Aian said.

“Let’s ask your father,” Mrs. Perez said.

“Oh, all of you just go,” was Mr. Perez’s answer. “The house should be safe enough if you lock it up and let the animals loose in the yard. I don’t see that anyone would be foolish enough to tangle with a dog and an angry gander, turkey, rooster and drake.”

Katrin sighed.

“It’s because of these horrible thefts,” she said. “We didn’t used to worry about leaving the house alone like this, we just up and went.”

“Let’s just hope the robbers will get caught soon,” said her mother.

Katrin, Pie, Andy and Aian exchanged glances.

“Well, we must be going, Aunt Marge,” Michael said. “We will tell Mommy we’re all set for tomorrow.”

“I’ll text you the details, Kat,” said Pie.

“And here,” said Mrs. Perez. “Bring these to your mom.” She gave them each a basket. “Mangoes, the first of the harvest, and vegetables from the garden.”

“Wow, thanks, Auntie!” Pie exclaimed.

“Thanks, Aunt Marge,” Michael said. “We’ll be going now.”

“We’ll see you to the gate,” said Katrin.

After seeing Michael and Pie walk off up the road, Katrin dashed back into the house and up to her room. She was busy hauling out the contents of her closet when Aian stuck his head around the doorjamb.

“Oho!” he exclaimed. “What is this?”

His mother, coming up the stairs with some newly washed and folded clothes, saw him and looked into Katrin’s room as well.

“What’s the matter, Kat?” she asked.

“I don’t know what to wear tomorrow, Mama.”

“We’re only going to the mall,” Aian pointed out.

“Exactly,” Katrin said. “I can’t very well wear my old ratty clothes there, can I?”

“Your jeans will do,” said her mother. “And maybe a nice blouse. Where’s the pink-checked one you got for Christmas?”

“Erk, that one looks like I’m going to do a debate in it,” Katrin said, rumpling her hair.

“Just wear your pink t-shirt,” Aian said.

She stuck out her tongue at him.

“Here, let me through, Aian,” said Mrs. Perez, and Aian moved aside to let his mother go into the room. She sat down on the bed, put down the clothes she was carrying, and began to look through her daughter’s clothes.

“It’s just so hard,” Katrin complained. “Pie always looks like she stepped out of a magazine or a TV show, and Betty looks like she should be in one, a TV show I mean, and that’s just their stay-at-home clothes. I always end up looking like a beggar beside them.”

“Not quite a beggar, darling,” said her mother. “These are the clothes you’ve always worn; has anyone ever called you a beggar while you were wearing them?”

“Well, no… but I end up feeling like one, Mama.”

“Let’s see,” said Mrs. Perez, holding up a blue t-shirt. “What’s wrong with this one?”

“Nothing’s really wrong with it,” Katrin said. “It’s just that, oh, I think what I put on is nice, and then I go with Pie, and suddenly I realize it’s not nice enough.”

“Go away and shut the door, Aian,” said their mother.

“Aw,” said Aian, but did as he was told.

“So you suddenly thought that nothing you have is good enough, is that it, Kat?” asked Mrs. Perez. “You have to understand that Pie and Betty come from a different place. You know that the clothes you have are perfectly all right for Sto. Nino.”

“I know, Mama. But I still feel… inferior, somehow.”

“Come here, darling. Clothes are not always the best way to measure a person, you know that! It’s what you are that is really important. And what you are, what Katrin Marie Leysa Perez is, is as good as anyone else can ever be. Do you understand me, Kat?”

“Uh huh,” Katrin said. “Thanks, Mama. But what am I to wear tomorrow?”

Mrs. Perez looked through the pile of clothes again and held up a soft pink peasant blouse with puffed sleeves and ribbons at the high waist.

“Have you forgotten you had this, darling? And you can wear capris with it, and your sandals.”

“Oh, I forgot I had that! Thank goodness for Aunt Clara,” said Katrin, taking the blouse from her mother. It had been a gift from Mrs. Perez’s sister, who worked in America, last Christmas.

“I’ve not forgotten how you kicked and screamed about it last Christmas,” her mother observed with a smile; Katrin had previously balked about wearing something so girly-girl.

“Eeeeh,” Katrin said sheepishly. “Now I’m glad she did send it to me.”

“You can have your picture taken in it and send it to her,” her mother suggested. “She will be very happy about it.”

“I will, Mama. I know Pie’s cellphone has a camera; I can ask her tomorrow to take a picture of me and we can e-mail it to Aunt Clara.” Katrin jumped off the bed and went to rummage among her pants and skirts. “Don’t I have black capris in here somewhere?”

“Yes, you do, darling. I distinctly recall washing and ironing them a few times,” Mrs. Perez said, laughing. “Choose the plain ones with lace hems, they will go very well with this blouse.”

‘Ah, here,” said Katrin, emerging in triumph with the sought-for item.

“Give them here and I’ll iron them for you,” said her mother. “If you’ll set the table downstairs.”

“Okay, Mama.” Katrin gave her mother a hug. “And thanks!”

She received Pie’s text message after dinner, asking if it was okay for them to leave at around nine in the morning.

Mama says it’s okay, she replied.

Great! Pie answered. See you all tomorrow!

Katrin gradually became aware of her mother’s voice calling her.

“Kat, wake up, it’s seven o’clock!”

“Mrrrrrr…” she said, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow.

“Kat! We’re leaving at nine, remember?”

Katrin suddenly remembered, and came awake immediately. She stretched and jumped out of bed.

“Coming!” she called.

They had to rush through the chores after breakfast—feeding the animals, washing the dishes, tidying up. Katrin looked at the clock, groaned, grabbed her towel, and dashed for the bathroom. She was nearly finished with her bath by the time Andy knocked on the door and told her to hurry up.

She was dressed and wrestling with her hair by the time her mother knocked on her door to tell her that it was nearly nine o’clock.

“I can’t do a thing with it, Mama,” she complained. “Why oh why does my hair have to be so curly?”

“Here, give me that,” said her mother, taking the comb. “Just leave most of it down, and tie the upper part back with a scrunchie so it doesn’t get into your eyes. See? And don’t you have a pink scrunchie with ribbons on it?”

Katrin dredged the scrunchie out of a box in the drawer of her table. By the time Mrs. Perez had fixed her hair, and she had spritzed herself with cologne, Andy called up the stairs that the Nolascos’ van was already waiting at the gate. Katrin hastily stepped into her pink sandals and fixed the straps, grabbed up a little bag that contained her purse and cellphone, and clattered downstairs after her mother.

“Morning, Aunt Anna,” Katrin said, climbing into the van.

“Morning, Kat,” said Mrs. Nolasco, turning to look at them from where she sat beside their family driver, Manong Erning. “My, don’t you look lovely today.”

“Mama, can I sit up front with Aunt Anna and Jenny?” Kyle asked. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

“Please, Auntie Marge?” Jenny piped up. “Please, Mommy?”

“All right with me,” said Mrs. Nolasco.

“Oh, all right then. Just be good,” said Mrs. Perez.

“Yay!” said Kyle, getting out and climbing up into the front seat.

“We’ll sit with you, Auntie Marge,” said Pie, letting Mrs. Perez climb in and take the seat behind the driver, and Kat followed her. The boys, meanwhile, piled into the back seat, and they were off!

The drive to Marbel, which was really officially named Koronadal City, took less than an hour, and in the last part, the highway went up into some mountains and emerged on a lookout, and there spread out below them was Marbel. The van went swooping down, down, down Skyline Drive and emerged on Alunan Avenue, where it entered the gates of the Notre Dame of Siena.

“It looks nice,” Pie said tentatively as they got out. “But it’s so far away!”

“We’re just going to ask, Pie,” said her mother. “We’ll see if you can both enroll here.”

Pie shrugged, and her expression looked mutinous. Katrin looked at Michael. He looked worried.

“Do you want us to go with you, Anna?” Mrs. Perez asked.

“No, it’s all right,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “Pie, do you want to come along? Mike?”

“No, Mommy, I’d rather wait here,” said Pie. Michael looked at his sister, then decided to go with his mother and Jenny.

“It’s a pretty school,” said Katrin. “I was here once, last year, when they hosted a contest. I was just not used to be around so many nuns, though.”

“Oh, I am,” said Pie. “The schools I’ve been to were all run by nuns.”

“You must all have been very good,” said Mrs. Perez.

“Er, no, Aunt Marge, Betty went to the same school I did,” said Pie, rolling her eyes. “Actually, I think I’d like to go to a public school for a change. The public schools in Manila, most of them are said to be awful. But the way Kat talks about their school, it sounds all right.”

“It is,” all three Perezes said in unison, and laughed at one another.

Mrs. Nolasco was soon back, carrying a folder with the school logo on it, which she gave to Pie. She looked displeased over something. Michael, trailing them, had a guarded expression on his face. He again climbed in back with the other boys.

“Where should we go next?” asked Mrs. Nolasco, getting into the front seat with Jenny.

“If you’d drop me and Kyle off at the market, Anna,” said Mrs. Perez, “I intend to look for some buyers for these mangoes.” She indicated the basket she carried.

“Of course, Marge,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “May we go with you, or we’ll just wait for you in the van?”

“I’ll go with you, Mama,” said Andy, and so he got out of the van to help their mother when they got to the market.

“Did you look through the folder, Pie?” asked Mrs. Nolasco, turning around to look at her daughter.

“Yes, Mommy.”

“It’s a good school.”

“Yes, Mommy, but,” said Pie, putting the folder aside. “I really want to go to Kat’s school.”

Katrin kept silent. On one hand, she was proud of her school and would be happy if Pie went to school there; on the other hand, she thought Pie was lucky that her family could afford to send her to a private school.

“That’s where I’ll probably end up anyway,” Michael commented acerbically from the back seat, and both Katrin and Pie turned to look at him.

“Oh, Mike, they didn’t,” Pie said.

“Mike, we’ll talk more about this later when we get home,” said Mrs. Nolasco.

“Didn’t what?”Aian asked, frowning.

Michael shrugged.

“You still have about a month to decide, anyway, Pie,” said Mrs. Nolasco, looking worried. “Just promise me you’ll consider this very carefully.”

“Yes, Mommy. I’ll think about it,” said Pie.

Mrs. Perez, Kyle and Andy soon came back looking happy, as they had taken orders for more than half of the mangoes.

“I’m sure the fruit vendors in our market can buy most of what’s left, and I can sell the rest on Market Day,” said Mrs. Perez, climbing back into the van. “Well then, I can arrange to have those mangoes delivered tomorrow. Where are we off to now?”

Mrs. Nolasco looked at her wristwatch.

“Lunch!” she declared. “Anyone know a good place?”

“Well, all the old places have closed except Celema’s,” said Mrs. Perez dubiously. “But there are fast food outlets at the malls, like Jollibee…”

“Jollibee?” exclaimed Kyle, brightening at once.

“Is Jollibee all right with all of you?” asked Mrs. Nolasco.

“Yes!” Katrin, Aian and Andy chorused, and Pie laughed. Even Michael looked amused.

They ended up at Fit Mart Mall, since it was the biggest of the malls in the city, and all of them ordered chickenjoy at Jollibee, just to see, as Katrin said, if it was really as “crispilicious” as the ads on TV said.

After lunch, which was capped with chocolate fudge sundaes for all of them, Mrs. Nolasco said she had some shopping to do. All three older boys declined and opted to go to the arcade, so she bore Mrs. Perez, the girls, and the two younger children off to the department store.

After they had gone through the clothes sections, and their mothers seemed to be headed for the houseware and linens section, the two girls excused themselves and went off to look for their brothers in the arcade.

They found the three boys trying to shoot some hoops in the basketball game, to the mingled cheers and derision of other young people around them.

“Figures,” Katrin said, shaking her head. “Even here they still found a way to practice.” She and Pie sat down on an available bench, cupped their chins in their hands, and cheered the boys on. Finally, the game ended and the boys joined them.

“I need something to drink,” Aian declared, so all five of them went off to look for a vendor of fruit juices or softdrinks. They finally found a stall that sold glasses of cold pineapple juice, bought some, and found a place to sit.

“So, Mike,” said Aian. “What did you mean, what you said earlier?”

“Yes, Mike, what did the people at Siena say?” Pie asked.

Michael shrugged. He looked at the faces all looking at him, waiting for him to say something.

“You know,” he said. “They were okay with you enrolling, but not so enthusiastic about me. When Mommy started to plead with the principal and mention donations, I said I wanted to go out in the hall. I mean, it kind of makes me feel… funny that my parents would have to plead with a school to let me enroll. So I told Mom I’d rather go to the public school than have her do that again.”

“I bet our principal would accept you,” Andy said. “So you won’t have to worry about that at least. And we’d be there in the same school.”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t be there if Mom and Dad go on with making me go to Siena,” Pie said glumly. “No matter how pretty a school it is, I wouldn’t be happy there.”

“Aw, Pie,” said Katrin, patting her on the shoulder.

Just then Pie’s cellphone sounded, and she pulled it out to look at the message and turned pale.

“What is it, Pie?” asked Katrin at once. Pie gave her the cellphone for her to read for herself.

We may take a while here; take care of Kyle and Jenny.

“But they aren’t with us!” Katrin exclaimed.

“They don’t seem to be with our mothers either,” said Pie. Both girls stared at each other.

“Oh no,” Pie moaned. “They thought we brought them with us. Oh lord.”

“We better look for them,” said Michael. “Jenny can be very stubborn sometimes.”

“But how?” Pie asked.

“Look, let’s split up and keep in touch by cell phone,” said Katrin. “One group go that way and the other group that way.”

“But only you and Pie have cellphones,” Aian pointed out.

“I guess we’ll have to split up then,” said Pie. “Why don’t I go with you and Andy and Kat go with Mike? That way they each have an older sibling in the group? Jenny might panic if she doesn’t see one of us.”

“Okay,” said Aian. “Come on then, we’ll go this way and you guys go that way?”

“Okay,” said Katrin, heading off in the direction indicated.

Chapter Eight: Malicious Rumors

2010-07-22T19:44:00.001+08:00

Pie? How are you? What has happened? Katrin stared at the text message for a long while before sending it. It was only nine o’clock in the evening, but she was already in her room. The two boys had agreed to stay downstairs until their parents arrived. She had gone up to her room and had turned off the light, but switched on the rarely used night light on the table beside her bed.

It was a long time before Pie answered. Katrin was already in her malong and was trying to fall asleep when the cellphone vibrated.

I’m okay. Mommy was really angry at Betty, and wanted Daddy to send her back to Manila.

Will she be leaving then?

No such luck. Daddy told her that since she’d come for a week, she could stay the week, but she would have to behave, and he’d tell her parents about her behavior.

Argh. One whole week of Betty?

You said it. Can I move in with you, do you think?

You know you’re always welcome here, Pie. How is Michael, BTW?

Again Pie took a long time answering. Katrin could almost imagine her staring at her cellphone and thinking of answers.

Moody as usual. Look, Kat, I hope you didn’t take seriously what Betty said. It wasn’t like that at all.

Why, Pie? What really happened?

Long story. I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Okay… did your parents go to the wake?

Oh, yes, with Jenny. Betty wanted to go along, but Daddy banished her to her room. She’s to stay in there till tomorrow. One good thing is, he says I don’t have to hang around to entertain her.

LOL, good. Okay. See you tomorrow then. Good night, Pie.

Night, Kat.

Katrin put the cellphone down on the table, turned on her side and fell asleep.

Coming downstairs early the next morning, Katrin found her mother nursing a cup of coffee in the kitchen and looking worried.

“Morning, Mama,” she said, getting herself a mug of Milo.

“Morning, dear,” her mother said.

“How was the wake last night?”

“There were a lot of people,” her mother said absently. She looked at her daughter for a long while. Katrin came to the table and sat down beside her mother.

“Kat, I overheard some of the young people talking last night. There was a bunch of them at the next table; one of them was Eddie’s sister Ella. She said something about Michael Nolasco.”

Katrin stared at her mother, and put her mug down quickly.

“Ella was telling the others that Michael had been kicked out of school in Manila for being a thief.”

Katrin closed her eyes and said a word she had never uttered before. Her mother didn’t reprimand her.

“I don’t know where she got that idea, Kat. It’s a good thing the Nolascos didn’t hear her. If that rumor gets to other people, though, it could be dangerous.”

“I know where she got it, Mama.” Katrin told her mother about Betty.

Her mother looked at her.

“I met that child last night,” she said. “She was polite enough.”

“Good thing,” Katrin said. “She was perfectly horrid to me. I expect Aunt Anna gave her a tongue-lashing.”

“Betty’s parents are in Hong Kong for a week, that’s why Betty is here,” her mother explained. “She has nowhere else to go since her other relatives are either living abroad or away for the summer.”

“You’d think she’d be nicer, then,” Katrin said.

“Hush, Kat,” her mother said

"None of her cousins like her, Mama."

"You think Betty doesn't know it? How would you feel if none of your cousins liked you?"

"But I wouldn't do anything to make them not like me, Mama," Katrin said.
Her mother laughed.
"So you think Betty is doing things to deliberately make her cousins not like her?"
"Well, she made them all mad at her for some reason or another. Pie even asked me if she could stay with us till Betty goes home."
Mrs. Perez patted her daughter's arm.
"Betty just has her own problems, I suppose. How would you feel if your dad and I went away on vacation for a week and left you alone?"
"But I wouldn't be alone, I'd have Andy and Aian," Katrin said. "Even if you took Kyle with you, that would be because he's the youngest. And anyway, we know you'd bring us with you if you could." She thought for a minute. "But Betty doesn't have anyone else to keep her company and her parents could have brought her with them but they didn't."
"Exactly, Kat."
"So maybe she's mad at them but because they're not here she's mad at us?"
"I knew I was raising an intelligent child." Her mother smiled at her and gave her a hug. "Don't let Betty get you too mad, okay?"
"Yes, Mama."
At that moment her father, still in his house clothes, came into the house wiping at the grease spots on his hands.
"I think another cup of coffee would be in order, Mama," he said, and Mrs. Perez got up to make him one while he went over to kiss his daughter. "Morning, baby."
"Morning, Papa." Katrin looked at the clock on the wall. "You're not going to the office today?"
"No, Kat. Mango harvest starts today. I expect there are already people at the orchard, so I better hurry and get over there."
"Yay! I better tell Pie, then. She wants to see." Katrin clapped her hands. Mr. Perez looked at his wife. She looked back at him.
"I better go cook then," Mrs. Perez said. "Kat, I need you to help me."
"Can't I text Pie first, so she can come over?"
"All right. I'll go get vegetables from the garden. And go see if the boys are already awake; I need them to get some rice from the bodega."
"Okay." Katrin drained her mug, took her cellphone from her pocket, and wandered off in the direction of the stairs.

Thirty minutes later, Katrin was chopping vegetables on the kitchen table while the boys dug a fire pit in the back yard and maneuvered hollow blocks and rocks around it. A couple of tricycles arrived, and Kyle opened the gate to let them into the yard. They parked beneath the trees in the back yard and disgorged two of Katrin's schoolmates and their families. The mothers immediately went to help Katrin and Mrs. Perez while their husbands and children went to join Mr. Perez, who was bringing out baskets and nets from the storage shed. He then opened the gate into the Barrios orchard, and everyone went through to join the harvesters who had come in by the shortcut. Many of them were people from Riverside and the nearby Purok Pioneer; some of them were laborers from the rice mill who wanted to earn some extra cash.
"We didn't think to check the storage shed," Aian whispered as he carried a pail full of rice to his sister at the sink.
"Why?" Katrin asked, measuring out the rice into the huge pot they had borrowed for the occasion.
"Andy and I found that one of the sacks had been opened and part of it had been taken away. Some of it had spilled on the ground. You know that when we open a new sack, Mama fills the container we use for the house and sews the sack up again. The sack that had been opened was just tied with a piece of string."
"Papa will be mad when he finds out."
"He doesn't know yet. He's too busy at the orchard."
"Kat! Is the rice ready? Aian, if it's ready, take it out to Andy to cook," Mrs. Perez said.
"Coming right up," Katrin said, pouring water into the pot and measuring with her hands. "Over to you, bro."

"Help me get this outside, will you. It weighs a ton," Aian said, lifting the pot off the counter. Katrin obligingly caught the other side of the pot handle and, balancing the pot between them, the twins carefully carried it out of the kitchen, almost bumping into the Nolascos, who were just about to enter the door.

"Let me get that for you," Michael said, taking Katrin's side of the handle immediately. "Where are you taking this, Aian?"

"Over there to Andy," Aian said, "And let's hurry."

"Hey, Kat," Pie said.

"Hey, Pie, come on in. Let's leave the boys to the dirty work," Katrin said, gesturing her inside.

Today, Pie wore blue stretch capris and a blue t-shirt, and had her hair up in a twist secured by a blue lacquered chopstick with dangling blue transparent beads. Katrin looked down at her own clothes, a loose white shirt over green cargo shorts, and grimaced-- even when she'd already taken a bath before knuckling down to work, the front of her shirt was already covered with spots of water, grease, and vegetable juices.
"Good morning, Aunt Marge," Pie said as she came in, stopping short at the sight of many people filling the kitchen.
"Come in, come in, Pie," Mrs. Perez called. "Don't be shy."
"Can I help?" Pie asked. Katrin looked at her in surprise.
"It's okay, Pie, you don't have to," she began.
"I can at least slice vegetables, Kat," Pie said. "Tiya Cora lets me help when I hang around in the kitchen, you know." She slid onto the end of the bench beside Mrs. Perez.
"Here, Kat, get something to cover Pie's clothes with," Mrs. Perez said, but Katrin was already headed for the stairs. She came back almost immediately with a cheesecloth apron and a sheepish look.
"I knew I'd find some use for my home economics projects eventually," she said, helping Pie to put it on.
"You mean you made this, Kat?"
"Had to, Pie. It was our last requirement in home ec."
"Ooooh. I wish we had projects like this," Pie said, sitting back down again and taking the knife Mrs. Perez handed her.
It was eleven o'clock by the time they'd finished chopping and preparing all the ingredients for the harvesters' lunch. Katrin and Pie then helped to haul the ingredients outside to the boys to cook over the fire pits. The women and girls who'd helped with the ingredients now also took over the cooking.
"Mama, do you need us for anything else, or can Pie and I go to the orchard now?" Katrin asked.
"Us, too?" Aian added at once.
"Oh, run along, girls, we can cope. Boys, you can go after you get the big table out of the house and put it here under the trees," said Mrs. Perez. "Kat, mind you keep an eye on Kyle if he's not with your father."
"Yes, Mama," Katrin said. "Come on, Pie, I'll change my shirt and you can take off that apron."
Inside Katrin's room, she took the apron Pie handed her and draped it on the side of the laundry basket.
"You said you'd tell me the truth about what Betty was saying yesterday," she said. "Spill." She opened the door of the aparador and hunted for a fresh shirt.
"Well..." Pie heaved a sigh. "I suppose I should've told you about it sooner at least... but well, it really is Mike's secret to tell, you know? He once remarked that if anyone here ever knew about it, it would rake everything up all over again, and that if Daddy had to go and take him away from all his friends in Manila because of it, he wished it'd be worth it."
"But then Betty brought up the subject anyway," Katrin said, pulling out a yellow blouse that she hadn't worn very often because it was too "girly girl" for her.
"Yeah," Pie said. "So. We talked it over last night, and he said we'd better just tell you the whole story, since it was out anyway."
"So," Katrin said, changing her shirt, "What really did happen?" She purposefully kept her back to Pie so she wouldn't have a chance to see the pain on her friend's face.
"This is all based on what Mike told us, of course," said Pie, "but, well. And I could kill Betty yesterday... part of it was really her fault anyway, but her parents wouldn't believe it of her."
"Why?" Katrin asked.
"Because those guys were her friends. She just introduced them to Mike."
"Okay, you've got me confused," Katrin said, tossing her dirty shirt into the laundry basket and going over to sit beside her friend. "Start at the beginning and tell me who, what, where and why."
"Okay." Pie took a deep breath and told Katrin that apparently, Michael's friends at his old school had been daring one another to do crazy things. It had begun with cutting classes and skipping school, and had progressed to playing pranks on people. As the group got bigger though, they had become more daring, until one day they dared one another to shoplift from a store inside a mall.
"Only they got caught," Pie explained. "The way Mike tells it though, he hadn't really taken anything. He was still looking at the display, because he had been thinking that he didn't want to do it. Before he knew it, one of the store's security men was holding a friend of his by the arm. And since the store security had seen them all come in together, he also got grabbed and taken to the manager's office along with the others."
"And...?" Katrin asked.
"The security guard couldn't find anything on him, though, and Daddy was able to talk to the store manager about it and convinced him to let Mike go. Mike's friends all got mad at him, though, because they thought he'd tattled on them to save himself. And it was all over the school the next day, their parents got called to the rector's office and everything, and it was a huge scandal."

“So what happened?” Katrin asked. “Did they get expelled?”

“Strangely, no,” Pie said slowly. “I heard that some of them were the sons of government officials and military officers. None of them got expelled.”

“But the school told Daddy that maybe he should put Mike in another school the next year.”

“But that’s unfair!” Katrin said.

Pie shrugged.

“The other boys ignored him after that. Rumors began spreading that Mike was the mastermind, that he was just clever enough not to get caught. Then one week there were some unexplained thefts in the school. One girl complained that her gold necklace was missing.”

“They found the necklace in Mike’s bag. So my brother really got kicked out of school for good.”

“And you know what’s the worst thing about it, Kat?” Pie clenched her fists. “The girl was the sister of one of those boys. Mike had a crush on her. She was also a friend of Betty’s.”

“Oh, Pie.” Katrin stared at her friend, then hugged her.

“So I was just so happy to move here, far away from them. Why did Betty have to come along and spoil everything?”

“It’ll only be for a week, Pie, and almost two days have passed,” Katrin said comfortingly. “And today we have mangoes to harvest, so let’s go!”

Pie smiled tremulously and stood up from the bed.

The two girls found, when they left the house, that the boys were waiting for them outside the kitchen door.

“What took you so long?” Aian complained. “Oooooh, Katkat changed! Did you stop and preen, sis? That would be a miracle.”

“Shut up, anchovy-brains,” said Katrin, bopping him on the head.

“Wow! I didn’t know anchovies were good at math!” was the retort as Aian danced away from his sister’s hand.

“Shut up!”

“You wouldn’t think they were twins, would you?” Andy observed fondly, picking up baskets from the shed and distributing them among the group.

His brother and sister glared at him in tandem.

“Yup, twins all right,” Andy declared, running through the gate with both his siblings in pursuit, leaving the Nolascos to follow the three of them, laughing.

“Ate Pie!” Kyle came running to meet them, his baseball cap turned backward on his head. “Kuya Mike! You’re here!” He looked at his three older siblings running around chasing each other. “What happened to them?”

Pie laughed.

“Are you going to teach us to pick mangoes, Kyle?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s not hard to do,” the little boy answered. “Mainly some of us just stand under the tree with nets and others go up in the tree to shake the branches and pick the fruit.” He pointed towards the nearest tree, where such a process was underway. “See? Can you climb trees, Kuya Mike?”

‘I’m sorry, Kyle, I’ve never tried,” Michael said. “There weren’t that many trees for climbing in Manila.”

“Awwwwww,” said Kyle. “I can climb! Wanna see?”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” said his father, who arrived in time to hear his last remark. “You’ll stay here on the ground where I can see you. Aren’t you supposed to be my assistant?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Hello, Mike, Pie,” said Mr. Perez. “Here, try some mangoes. The Barrios mangoes have really good fruit, if I do say so myself. Now where have my other children gone… ah there you are Andy. My baskets?”

“Here, Papa,” Andy said, quickly collaring his younger siblings and snatching the empty baskets they were trying to overturn over one another’s heads. Shaking his head at his offspring’s antics, Mr. Perez took the baskets and went off to replenish the steadily diminishing pile of empties underneath the center-most mango tree in the orchard.

“There’s Eddie,” Aian said, noticing their friend taking a drink from a jug beneath one of the mango trees.

“Ah, good,” said Andy, and went to join him. After an earnest conversation, he looked back and waved at Aian and Michael to come over.

“Well, there’s that,” Katrin said, taking Pie’s arm. “If there’s anyone they’ll listen to, it’s Andy. He didn’t get himself elected class president for eight years running for no reason.”

“You’re so good, Kat,” Pie said.

“Ah, come on Pie,” Katrin said, looking away. “What are friends for? And speaking of friends, come on, I’ll show you the Barrios house. It’s over here.”

The house the Barrios family had once lived in was surrounded by a hedge, so that no one in the orchard would notice it if they didn’t know it was there. It was a two-story, half-hollow block, half-wooden house with wooden jalousies in its windows, both upper and lower. The windows were all protected with decorative iron grilles as well, so that no one could get in even if they removed the windows from their frames. The doors were of heavy lumber and were all not only locked, but chained and padlocked shut as well.

“No one can get in without making noise loud enough to be heard over at our house,” said Katrin to Pie in satisfaction.

“Why did they leave? The Barrioses,” Pie said.

“Shy’s grandmother got sick,” Katrin explained. “She needed someone to help care for her, and Shy’s aunt and uncle were abroad. So Shy’s mom had to go help take care of her, and since she couldn’t leave her family, they all just moved back there.”

“Oh,” Pie said. “You must miss her a lot.”

“Yeah,” Katrin said. “Shy’s always been there for as long as I could remember. We were best friends and classmates from kindergarten to grade five, till they moved away. It’s still hard, because she’s always been there next door, and then suddenly she wasn’t. She writes at least once a month, though, so we still keep in touch.”

“Lucky you, Kat,” Pie said. “Friendships like that are hard to find.”

“Oh yes, Lucky Me Pancit Canton,” retorted Katrin. “After all, I had Shy, and now you. Come on, let’s go back there and see if we can cadge any mangoes.”

The two girls walked back around the house and emerged from behind the hedge. They unexpectedly came upon a man walking in their direction.

“Oh!” Katrin exclaimed. Taking a closer look, she saw that the man was one of the rice mill laborers who had hired on to help pick mangoes.

The man also looked taken aback to see them.

“Manong, this part of the property is off limits,” Katrin said.

The man glared at her.

“Oh, yeah? So why are you here, missy?”

“Because my father is the caretaker of this property, and people are supposed to stay only in the orchard,” Katrin pointed out. “So please go back there.”

The man still looked sullen.

“I was looking for a place to pee,” he said. “Can’t even do that?”

“You can, but you can’t go where you’re not supposed to,” Katrin answered, although her face was red.

“Yeah, yeah,” the man said, pushing past her. He stopped and glared at the two girls.

“What’s the matter, are you gonna watch?” he asked. The two girls fled.

“That was embarrassing,” Katrin said to Pie as they joined the pickers.

“He wasn’t a very nice man,” Pie said and frowned.

Just then one of the women who had been helping with the cooking came to the gate and called, “Lunch is ready!” Murmurs of appreciation came from the workers, who put down what they were doing to go over to the Perez house for lunch.

Chapter Seven: An Unexpected Guest

2010-07-22T19:38:00.002+08:00

“It’s too far-fetched an idea,” Andy said. “It was a firefly.”

“No, it didn’t look like one,” Katrin argued. “It looked like a flame from a candle or a kerosene lamp.”

“The cottage doesn’t even look occupied,” Aian pointed out.

“It’s locked, how would you know?” Pie countered.

The four of them were in the gazebo on the pond, that being far enough away from the house and too far away for anyone to overhear unless they were out in the open on the shores of the pond itself.

Katrin had returned from her bath in a white t-shirt that said “PSYSC – Philippine Society of Youth Science Club” and denim shorts, and with her hair in two braids. By mutual consent the four of them had adjourned to the gazebo with a basketful of fruit and a pitcher of buko juice, and were now discussing Katrin’s theory.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Katrin pointed out.

“That being?” Andy asked.

“No, Kat,” Aian said.

“You haven’t heard yet what I was going to say,” Katrin protested.

“We are not going to break into the cottage!” Aian said, and his sister gave him an injured look.

“We can always watch for the light again,” she pointed out, “and go see what it really is.”

Pie shuddered.

“I don’t want to go there at night!” she declared.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Pie,” Katrin said. “But someone else has got to.”

“And I know it won’t be you either, scaredy-cat,” Aian jeered.

“Watch who you’re calling a scaredy-cat, Kristian Mark,” Katrin retorted. “So if you don’t want to investigate the light at night, why don’t we just go back there now and try to see what is inside that cottage?”

Aian yawned.

“No can do, sis,” he said. “We’ve already been there today, and besides, it’s three-forty-five and we’re to meet Mike and Toffee and Eddie at four, remember?”

“Oh, you,” said Katrin, stamping her foot, but Pie just laughed.

“You could always come back to the house with me and we could use the pool, and then you can go home with the boys after their practice is over,” she said.

“But I haven’t got a swimsuit,” said Katrin. “Will shorts and a t-shirt be okay?”

“Sure,” said Pie.

“Argh,” said Aian. “Now she gets to go swimming without us.” Katrin stuck her tongue out at him.

When the two girls arrived at the mansion, however, they were met by Mrs. Nolasco who had another girl in tow.

“Pie dear, look who’s come to stay with us for a few days!” she said.

“Oh no,” Pie muttered. “It’s my cousin Betty.”

Betty looked to be a little older than Pie and Katrin, and was wearing a denim miniskirt and a silver t-shirt with hot-pink hearts all over it. Mrs. Nolasco introduced Katrin, whom Betty gave a dismissive once-over before turning to Pie and saying, “But you must be bored out of your mind! Never mind, I’m here now. I’ll keep you company.”

Katrin’s hackles had gone up at the expression on Betty’s face, but then she caught sight of Mrs. Nolasco’s face, looking slightly nauseated.

“Pie, why don’t you go upstairs and show Betty her room?” she told her daughter. “Come and talk to me, Kat. How was the wake last night?”

Katrin, still clutching the plastic bag containing the change of clothes she’d brought, caught Pie’s beseeching look as the latter obligingly led her cousin towards the stairs and followed Mrs. Nolasco to the garden.

“My husband’s niece,” Mrs. Nolasco told her. “We didn’t even know she was coming until my brother-in-law called last night to say that we should fetch her at the airport this morning, and we had to set out for General Santos City at an ungodly hour just to meet the plane on time. I’m sorry for her rude manners.”

“It’s okay, Aunt Anna,” Katrin said.

“To tell the truth, none of my children can stand her,” and Mrs. Nolasco made a face. “It’s just that she’s still their cousin, and my in-laws will start to make noises about family obligations and the like and… What I’m trying to say is that I hope you won’t let Betty spoil your friendship with Pie.”

“Of course not, Aunt Anna.”

“Good, Katrin. You’re such a good child.” Mrs. Nolasco smiled at her.

Pie came flying out of the house with a petulant face, which Katrin had never seen her wear before.

“She wanted airconditioning and her own private bathroom,” Pie told her mother, “and asked why she couldn’t sleep in my room as well. I swear, Mommy, I might be able to endure her around during the day, but to have her in my room as well… I might as well move to Katrin’s for a week, if Aunt Margie will let me.”

“Of course she would,” Katrin said.

“But Pie, darling, you can’t,” Mrs. Nolasco said. “I know you’re very much annoyed over this, but you have to stay here, or else we’ll never hear the rest of it from your aunt Beth.”

“Even then, Mommy, don’t expect me to stay and keep her company. Katrin and I had our own plans for this week, especially as it will be the fiesta soon.” Pie caught sight of her mother’s face. “Oh no, don’t tell me I have to take her to the fiesta too, Mommy!”

“Pie, you know you will have to or your father will be angry at you. Even if Betty arrived unexpectedly, she is still a guest and we have to treat her like one, do you understand?”

“Yes, Mommy,” Pie said, although she grimaced. “Kat and I were planning to go for a swim, that’s why we came back here.”

“Of course. I’ll have Lita bring you some merienda at the poolside. By the way, have you seen your brother?”

“He’s probably out on the basketball court, as Kat’s brothers have invited him to join their team for the fiesta league next week.”

“Ah, I see. It’s good that he’s finally making some friends. I’ll have Lita check and bring them some merienda as well.”

“Okay, come on, Kat, let’s go swimming!” Pie said.

Both girls had changed their clothes and were in the swimming pool when Betty came around the corner of the house and saw them. She came to the pool’s edge and sat on a chair. Looking pointedly at Katrin’s white t-shirt and brown shorts, she said, “Don’t you even have a bathing suit? I’m surprised Aunt Anna let you in there wearing those.”

“No,” Katrin said, “I don’t have a bathing suit. We don’t wear those here.”

“Really, Kat?” Pie looked down at the tankini she was wearing. “I guess I’ll have to buy some shorts then.”

“Oh, Pie, you know it’s all right. Besides, it’s your pool and you’re used to wearing a bathing suit and you already have one.”

“What?” Betty laughed. “How backward this place is, really.” She realized that both Katrin and Pie were staring at her, and although Katrin was striving hard to keep her face expressionless, she was not quite succeeding.

“I think I’ll join you,” Betty said. “I would really like a swim.” She got up and sauntered back to the house.

Pie groaned.

“Sometimes I’d like to drown her,” she said.

“Don’t,” Katrin advised. “You’ll get me wanting to do the same thing too.” Both girls looked at each other and laughed.

They were racing each other doing laps across the pool when Betty came back in a little white smocked sundress, flip-flops, and huge sunglasses. She sat down in a chair and peeled off the dress to reveal her bathing suit, flowered spandex shorts and a matching bikini halter top. Katrin averted her eyes quickly, and Pie laughed and splashed water at her.

“A pity it’s wasted on us,” Pie whispered maliciously, and both of them laughed again.

Lita came out of the house with two glasses of pineapple juice and sandwiches, and stopped when she saw Betty.

“Oh, good, merienda,” Betty said. “Just put it over here.” She pointed at the table beside her.

Lita did so and looked at Pie.

“I’ll bring you another glass, Pie,” she said and went away. Betty was already drinking from one of the glasses.

“Really, your maid is slow, Pie,” she said. “Imagine her forgetting to bring a glass for you, of all people.”

“That’s my glass you’re drinking from, actually,” Pie muttered to herself, but only said, “Well, I expect they couldn’t all fit on the tray.”

“Still,” Betty said. “Tsk, tsk.”

Both girls came out of the pool when Lita arrived with more food, and sat down at the other side of the table. Pie handed Katrin a plate with a sandwich, snatching it away just when Betty reached for it, having finished her own.

“It looks like Tiya Cora made her tuna spread for us,” Pie said. “You simply must try it, Kat, she is really proud of that recipe.”

“Oh, Tiya Cora is here too?” Betty made a face.

“Where else would she be?” Pie stared at her cousin again.

“I don’t know, with her own family, maybe? Why doesn’t she just go stay with them instead of have to sponge off you?”

“She isn’t sponging off of us, she cooks for us,” Pie said.

“Yes, and gets everything free and even gets paid for it,” Betty said.

“We couldn’t get along without Tiya Cora,” was all Pie said, before turning back to Katrin. “Isn’t it good?”

“Yummy,” Katrin nodded.

Betty stared at her.

“And just where did you come from?” she asked Katrin, who was chewing, and hastily swallowed.

“I live just down the road,” she answered, quickly taking a sip of juice.

Betty waited until she had taken another bite before saying, “So which one of those shacks we passed earlier is yours?”

Pie glared at her cousin.

This time, Katrin took her time chewing before answering pleasantly, “Oh, you wouldn’t have passed it.” And to Pie, “I really should ask Tiya Cora how to make this. It’s really good.”

“Katrin’s mother was Mommy’s best friend when they were children,” Pie informed her cousin.

“Oh, really?” Betty studied Katrin again. “I wouldn’t have guessed. But then Aunt Anna lived here once, didn’t she? That’s why Uncle Luis bought this house?”

Katrin laughed and put down her sandwich.

“Uncle Luis didn’t need to buy this house. It’s Aunt Anna’s,” she told Betty. “It belonged to her family and it’s where she was born and grew up.”

Betty looked taken aback by the news. Just then Lita returned with the other helper, Rina, carrying more trays.

“The boys decided to join you after practice,” she told the girls.

Pie and Katrin looked at each other.

“Uh-oh,” Pie said, getting up. But the five boys were already coming down the path, laughing and joking with one another.

Michael stopped short when he saw his cousin. His face went blank. The four other boys were wide-eyed; Katrin stifled the urge to throw something at her brothers’ heads.

‘Why, hello there, Mike,” Betty said.

“Betty. When did you arrive?”

“Your parents fetched me from the airport this morning,” said Betty, standing up. Aian, Andy, Eddie and Toffee hastily looked elsewhere, while Betty looked them all over coolly.

“And where did you get your little friends?” she asked. “But I forgot. You always did make friends fast. A pity you never choose the right sort, right, Michael?”

“Betty, you’re going too far,” Pie said.

“Why? Haven’t you told your friends the real reason you moved here, Pie? To get Michael away from his friends in Manila? To let people forget what he really is… a thief and a hoodlum?”

Katrin gasped. The other boys were staring at Michael, who stood there immobile. The basketball he still held in his hand fell on the concrete with a loud bounce and was automatically caught by Aian.

“Betty!”

They all turned at the sound of Mrs. Nolasco’s voice.

“I want to talk to you. Now.”

“Mommy is calling you,” Pie said. She picked the dress up off the arm of the chair and handed it to her cousin. Betty smirked at her and walked off.

“I guess we had better go,” Andy said. “This doesn’t look like a good time. Come on, Kat. Thanks for letting us practice here, Mike, Pie.”

Katrin looked at Pie and picked up her plastic bag.

“Text me later, okay?” she said, and Pie nodded.

As the five young people walked slowly down the lane after the mansion gates had closed behind them, Katrin wondered how such a beautiful afternoon could have ended so badly. Aian kicked at a stone. Andy brooded.

Toffee broke the silence.

“I can’t believe it,” he said.

“What a cousin they have,” Aian said. “I don’t blame them for moving here.”

“Michael a thief?” Eddie shook his head. He and Toffee exchanged glances.

“Come to think of it, the robberies started after they moved here,” Toffee mused.

“Now let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Katrin began.

“Let’s face it, Kat, what do we really know about them?” Aian said. “We’ve known them only for a few days after all.”

“Even then you really haven’t any proof except what that Betty said, and she’s a real pain,” Katrin pointed out. “She had it in for me the moment she saw me and I wasn’t even doing anything to her.”

“I don’t know. I’ll think about it,” Toffee said. They had reached Riverside Road and stood there looking indecisive.

“Yeah, me too,” Eddie said. “See you tomorrow, Andy, Aian.”

The three Perezes watched their friends walk down the road. With a sigh, Katrin followed her brothers home.

“What’s gotten into the three of you?” their mother asked over dinner, when the three of them were strangely quiet.

“It was kind of a long day, Mama,” Andy said.

“Yeah,” Aian echoed.

“Well, you do know your father and I are taking Kyle to the wake tonight. We’ll be back before midnight. Be sure to lock up, you hear? If you hear any strange noises, turn on the lights outside but don’t leave the house. Call us on the cellphone instead. All right?”

“Yes, Mama,” Katrin said.

“I’m going to the wake!” Kyle said gleefully. “I’m staying up late!”

“Yes, you are,” and Katrin pinched his nose.

“We’re going by for your Aunt Anna and Uncle Luis after dinner,” her mother said.

“They have a guest,” Katrin said.

“Really? Who?” her mother asked.

“A cousin of Pie’s from Manila. Her name’s Betty and she’s simply awful, Mama.”

“Katrin!” her mother scolded.

“Well, she was, Mama. She kept asking me all sorts of rude questions and kept telling Pie she didn’t have to put up with me anymore.”

“Oh darling, maybe you just misunderstood. Their ways are different from ours, you know,” Mrs. Perez said. “Maybe she was just jealous of you for being Pie’s friend.”

“I don’t know, Mama. She was really awful. Pie was really embarrassed.”

“Well, I haven’t heard anything from your Aunt Anna, so we’ll just go over and fetch them anyway,” her mother said. “And maybe they’ll bring Betty to the wake.”

“Everybody there would be wanting to shove her into the coffin,” Katrin muttered.

“Kat!” Her mother’s voice was reproving.

“I’m sorry, Mama.”

“Mind you wash the dishes and feed the animals,” said her mother before taking herself and Kyle off to the bedroom to change.

Katrin scraped the dishes and mixed the scraps with rice and water, dividing them between the bowls for Whitney and Bantay and setting the bowls outside the back door. Aian and Andy went around the house, checking to make sure everything was shut and barred. By the time she had finished the dishes and was scouring the pots and pans with rice hull ash, her parents were setting out for the wake, with Kyle bundled up securely against the night wind and the dew.

“Lock the gate and the door,” her father said. “I’ll bring the spare keys. Mind, now.”

The boys went out to close and lock the gate after the tricycle, and when they returned, they called the cat inside and locked both doors as well. Katrin shook her head. Even the locks and the bars seemed to offer no protection. She could hear the reassuring tap-tap of Bantay’s tail against the back door as he settled down for the night, and wished they had more dogs.

The three of them sat in the sala, but no one was in the mood to watch any TV. Andy leafed through a magazine, and Aian looked at the ceiling. Katrin busied herself with stroking Whitney, who had climbed into her lap and curled up, purring.

When she looked up, both her brothers were staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Well?” Aian said.

“Well, what?”

“For the record, I don’t believe Michael is the robber,” Andy said. “He might have been a thief in Manila…”

“…we don’t know that for sure,” Katrin interposed hotly.

“Let me finish, Kat. Even if he were a thief in Manila, I don’t believe he’s the robber.”

“For one thing,” Aian added, “he doesn’t know Riverside that well. I don’t believe he’d go out and steal random things as soon as he got here. Unless he’s a, one of those what do you call them… kleto, kletpo…”

“Kleptomaniacs,” Kat supplied.

“Yeah, that. The ones who steal because they can’t help themselves.”

“For another thing,” Aian added, “He was with us when we saw that strange light, and the way into the thicket looks like it was there long before the Nolascos ever arrived here.”

“Uh, that’s assuming the cottage and the light are even related to the robberies,” Andy pointed out.

“Well,” said Aian. “Lastly, Bantay took a chunk out of the robber and Michael doesn’t have any strange wounds on him that we could see.”

Katrin let out a sigh of relief.

“That makes me feel better,” she said. “I don’t think Toffee and Eddie are so sure though.”

“That’s a problem,” Andy said. “Once they even mention it to anyone, Michael will be in trouble.”

Katrin stared at her oldest brother in horror.

“We have to do something,” she said.

“Yeah, but what?” Aian said.

“I’ll have to talk to Toffee and Eddie,” Andy said.

Chapter Six: A Strange Light

2010-07-22T19:34:00.002+08:00

Katrin arrived at the foot of the stone steps that afternoon just as Pie was running down them. As usual, Pie wore a minidress and leggings, but she had rubber flip-flops on her feet instead of sandals. A small purse on a cord was slung diagonally from right shoulder to left hip.

“Nice outfit, but we’re only going to the market,” Katrin said, admiring the red-dotted white tunic with cap sleeves, a dropped waist, and a ruffled hem over red leggings. She herself wore knee-length faded denim shorts and a faded pink t-shirt, and flip-flops.

“In Manila, this is what I wore when I went out of the house,” said Pie. “Is it too dressy?”

“Oh,” said Kat. “Never mind then, let’s go.”

They waited for a tricycle at the corner of Riverside and Acacia. Fortunately for them, Manong Tino came by and gave them a lift. After picking up and dropping off several passengers along the way, he finally dropped off the two girls at the nearest entrance to the market.

“What time are you going home?” he asked.

“It’s okay, Manong, we’ll just poke around,” Katrin said. “If we don’t see you when we’re ready to go home we’ll just take another tricycle.”

“Okay. I’ll be at the terminal for Riverside,” he said.

“Mama’s errand first,” said Katrin, leading Pie towards her favorite school supply store.

“What are we buying?” Pie asked.

“Something to make a wreath with,” said Katrin.

“Oh… right! Mommy said we were going to a wake tonight.”

“Yup,” said Katrin. “In which case you better wear something more sober than red.”

“Okay…” Pie said, and watched as Katrin picked out a roll of cartolina, a roll of cellophane, several rolls of crepe paper in white and purple, a length of white ribbon, a pentel pen, staple wire, and scotch tape.

“Who is going to make the wreath?” Pie asked as the shop owner rang up the sale.

“Mama and the boys and me, of course,” said Katrin. “Aian usually does the lettering. Mama and I make the roses, and Andy does the stapling.”

“Can I watch?” Pie asked.

“If you come over early after supper instead of waiting for us at your gate, why not?” Katrin said, and Pie clapped her hands.

They left the school supplies store laden with bundles, and headed into the market.

“When you said market, I thought it would be one whole building but this is different,” Pie said. The Sto. Nino Public Market, instead of consisting of many stalls under one roof, was made up of separate rows of buildings in four main sections, divided by two main thoroughfares that crossed each other in the center of the market.

“Yup,” said Katrin. “This is the part with the carenderias and beauty parlors and dressmakers, and there’s the dried fish shops and the fruit vendors and the banana-q vendors. Over there across the street are the general merchandise shops and boutiques. Behind those are the meat vendors and the vegetables. Over there are the fish vendors. There are the rice stores, agricultural supplies stores, video rental shops, pawnshops and travel agents, and the ukay-ukay stalls.”

“Oooh, ukay-ukay! Can we go see?” Pie said at once.

“In a minute. I’ve got some people I want you to meet,” said Katrin, leading her off to meet those of her classmates and batchmates whose families had stores in the market. Everyone asked Pie if she was enrolling in the Public, and looked disappointed when Pie answered that she hadn’t decided yet.

“Hey Kat!” Someone hailed her when they passed the meat stands.

“Oh, hello, Tito Sabas,” Katrin said. “Hi, Cherry and Leo.”

“Your mother asked me last week to reserve some beef bones and meat for her the next time I butchered a cow,” he said, “and we just did one this morning. I’ll send her order with you, if that’s all right?”

“Thanks, Tito Sabas. Would you mind if I came back for it later, before we go home?” Katrin said. “Pie and I still have to go somewhere.” She introduced Pie.

“Oh! Anna’s daughter? Welcome to Sto. Nino,” the butcher said. “Your mother and Katrin’s mother and I were classmates in elementary school.”

As they left the meat section and headed for the ukay-ukay, Pie said to Katrin, “Do you really know everybody in the market?”

“Oh, not everybody,” Katrin said. “It’s just that their children are our schoolmates, and Mama sells vegetables and fruit here every Market Day. People are telling her she ought to get a regular stall, but she has too much to do and can’t really keep a stall open every day of the week. So yeah, most people here know her.”

Pie gasped at the piles of old clothes all jumbled up on low bamboo papags in the ukay-ukay section. Pieces of cardboard tied to strings above each pile advertised the prices. Pie caught one and held it steady so she could read what it said.

“Twenty pesos each,” she read. “Are they serious?”

“Yup!” said Katrin. “Oh, look, that blue shirt looks good…”

“I can’t believe it,” said Pie, diving into a pile of dresses and skirts. “Even ukay-ukay costs double this in Manila. Of course, they put them on hangers on racks there, but… these are quite nice!”

Thirty minutes and more bundles later, the two girls left the ukay-ukay section.

“I am beginning to love this place very much,” Pie declared. “Where are we off to next?”

“Have you ever eaten La Paz batchoy before?” Katrin asked.

“Uh… once? Mommy ordered it in a restaurant, but I didn’t like it, it was sweet,” Pie said.

“You might just change your mind. Come on,” said Katrin, leading her to a carenderia, one of many that had a sign outside saying “Batchoy, Halo-halo, Short Orders.”

Pie looked skeptical, but Katrin said, “Come on, Pie, it’s practically our national food. It’s the only snack you can be sure of getting anywhere here. And it’s authentic, I promise.”

The La Paz batchoy came in little bowls with an egg floating on top amidst the leeks, chicharon bits, and fried garlic. It was accompanied by two pieces of pandesal on a plate.

“Mmmm,” said Katrin, inhaling deeply before digging in. “Come on, Pie, try it.”

Pie took a cautious sip.

“It tastes different!” she said, and began eating in earnest.

“Told you,” and Katrin grinned. “By the way, it tastes good if you dip some pandesal in it.”

Replete, the two girls poked around the market some more, then went to get the meat from Tito Sabas and headed for the place where the tricycles headed for Riverside usually parked.

“Tino just left with a full load,” one of the drivers told Katrin when they saw her.

“It’s okay, Manong Totong, we’ll just take the next one.” Again, Katrin introduced Pie.

“So they’ll know who you are and where to drop you off if they get you as a passenger,” Katrin explained to Pie once they were seated in the front seat of the tricycle.

Indeed, Manong Totong stopped at the foot of the stairs without being told.

“See you later, okay?” Pie told Katrin, handing Manong Totong some money. “For both of us,” she said. “I insist, Kat. I had so much fun!” And off she went up the stairs with her bundles, humming.

“Pretty girl,” Manong Totong said as he started the tricycle again. “Looks like her mother. Nice manners, too. Well, here you are, Kat.” He stopped the tricycle at the Perez gate.

“Thanks!” Kat disembarked with her parcels, and being careful to keep the meat separate from the paper supplies, went in.

“Ah, good, Sabas remembered my meat,” her mother said, taking the package from Katrin. “I must remember to stop by and pay him the next time I’m there. After this rice is cooked, we’ll have dinner and then we’ll make the wreath.”

Pie and Michael arrived when they were halfway through the wreath. Pie immediately came over to Katrin’s side and began watching as Katrin shaped crepe paper into roses, sealing the stems with scotch tape. Mrs. Perez had left off making roses and was instead arranging the finished ones around the piece of cartolina to form a wreath. Andy was stapling down the ones she finished arranging. At the table, Aian was carefully printing the words “Condolence from the Perez family” on the white ribbon, with his father looking on. Michael sat down in the chair farthest from the group and watched silently.

“Can I try?” Pie said eagerly, and Katrin gave her a piece of white crepe paper to practice on.

“You fold it like this, then you roll, making sure the edges flare like rose petals,” Katrin said, “and then you keep tucking and folding all of it around the end that you will make into the stem, and after three turns, you cut off the end and tuck the raw edge in like this, and roll the end around the stem, and tape it… and you’re done!”

Pie critically appraised the lopsided thing she had managed to roll.

“How do I keep it from falling apart!” she said.

“Keep pinching the stem together, don’t make it a loose one,” Katrin said. “Keep it nice and tight… see? There, you’ve got it.”

“Yay!” Pie said, clapping her hands. She pitched in to make more roses until the wreath was done. Aian then stretched the ribbon diagonally across the center of the wreath and fixed it in place. Andy covered the whole thing with cellophane pulled evenly and tightly over the whole thing, stapling it at intervals around the edges... and the homemade wreath was done.

"Have you two had dinner?" Mrs. Perez asked Pie and Michael.

"Yes, Tita," said Pie.

"And remembered to bring jackets? It's cold outside at night."

"Yes, Tita."

"Ah, Mama, don't fuss," Kat said good-naturedly, coming down the stairs with jackets and baseball caps in hand. She tossed a jacket and a cap to each of her brothers, put her own jacket and cap on, and patted her pocket for her little coin purse. "I'm ready to go," she said.

Mrs. Perez handed Andy the wreath, Aian a flashlight, and Katrin a white envelope with the words "Condolence from the Perez family" written on it.

"Mind you give that to Isang's mother when you get there," she told Katrin.

"Yes, Mama."

They walked to Riverside, taking the long way, since Andy deemed the shortcut hard to negotiate in the dark. He didn't add that he was afraid they might meet the robbers on the way, but Katrin knew that was on his mind. So they took Riverside Road. Pie and Katrin walked ahead with Aian, and Andy and a still-taciturn Michael brought up the rear.

Aian swung the flashlight in circles, making Katrin want to take it from him and use it to bop him on the head.

"Bro, my eyes hurt just trying to follow the beam," she complained and he stopped.

The trees made hulking shadows over their heads, and frogs and crickets complained in the tall grasses at the sides of the road. The night air was cool and fresh, and Katrin breathed in deeply.

"Is it far?" Pie asked.

"A way down Acacia Street and up another lane," said Aian. "Scared, Pie?"

"Not really," she answered. "It's just that all this... silence seems so weird. I'm still getting used to not hearing a lot of vehicles pass by all the time."

"One of the best parts, though, is waking up to birdsong in the morning," Aian told her.

"Well... yeah," said Pie. "And all that fresh air."

"What do you think, Michael?" Katrin turned around and walked backward. "How is Riverside treating you so far?"

She could not tell in the dim light, but she thought he looked startled to have been asked.

"It's okay, I guess," he finally answered.

"It speaks!" the irrepressible Aian couldn't stop himself from commenting, and Katrin kicked him in the shins. "Owww! Sis!"

"Behave," Katrin said. "Bro."

"Behaving, behaving," Aian grumbled. "But seriously, Mike, I wish you'd speak up. Otherwise I'd think I had B.O. or something."

Katrin thought Michael actually grinned at that.

"Nothing much to say, I guess," he said.

"You play basketball?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"We need teammates for the fiesta games next week. You available?"

There was a pause, then Michael shrugged.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Great!" said Andy. "We'll probably see the other guys at the wake tonight, and talk about practice times and such. Okay with you?"

"Okay. Yeah."

Katrin went back to her original place beside Pie, who was shaking her head.

"What's up?" she asked, but Pie just shrugged and smiled.

When they reached the corner of Riverside Road and Acacia Street, they saw other people, all headed the same way. A group of Andy’s batchmates hailed them, and fell in with them. The Perezes introduced the Nolascos, and so all talking to one another, it wasn’t long before they reached the house of their schoolmate Isang, set among the rice fields at the end of a lane off Acacia Street. There were several long tables set up in the front yard, under a temporary tent made of canvas stretched over a frame made of whole bamboo poles. The front door and windows of the house were all open, affording a glimpse of the mahogany-colored coffin inside, its lid up to display names of immediate family members written on narrow ribbons affixed to the lining. Crepe paper wreaths and fresh flowers surrounded the coffin, and at its head was a tall candelabrum illuminating the small placard from the funeral home, containing the name and dates of birth and death of the deceased, as well as the date, time and place of the funeral.

A low, harmonic chant emanated from within the house; the prayers for the repose of the soul of the deceased were not over yet. These prayers were usually done by the older women of the place, with the help of the local catechists. The men were all outside, playing cards and mahjong. The young people congregated at a vacant table, and someone broke out some board games for them to play.

Isang, a small pale girl with shoulder-length straight black hair, came out of the house with pitchers of orange juice and platters of biscuits. She put the tray on her schoolmates’ table and thanked them for coming to the wake. Again, Katrin introduced the Nolascos, and Isang said, “Oh, you just moved here recently? Thank you so much for coming.”

Pie murmured something and Isang smiled wanly at them all.

“If you need anything, just call me,” she said and went back to the house.

When they heard the prayers winding up, Andy, Aian, and Katrin, with Michael and Pie in tow, went to the house as well. Isang’s mother came to the door to see the catechists out, and saw them.

“Good evening, Andy, Aian, Katrin,” she said.

“Good evening, Tita,” they said politely, and introduced the two Nolascos. Andy held up the wreath.

“Where shall I put this, Tita?” he asked.

“Come in, come in,” said Isang’s mother, taking the wreath. The young people went to the coffin to pay their last respects. The old woman looked shrunken and small inside her lace dress. Katrin looked at the placard.

“Eighty-three,” she said to Andy. “Whew, that’s old.”

“At least she’s resting now,” said Andy.

Isang’s mother echoed much the same thing when she joined them in front of the coffin.

“At least Nanay lived a long and fruitful life,” she said. “I told Isang not to be sad, as her Lola is happy in heaven now.”

Katrin remembered the envelope, and took it from her pocket and gave it to Isang’s mother.

“Thank you, Kat, and thank your mother and father for me. Would you like to inscribe it in the book yourself? It’s on the stand,” she said, pointing at the metal stand underneath the placard. A small white notebook there listed the names of people who gave abuloy, and Katrin took the ballpen provided and added “Perez family” to the list.

“Mama and Papa will probably be here tomorrow night,” she said to Isang’s mother. “They just sent us ahead so we can stay home with Kyle tomorrow. We daren’t leave the house alone at night anymore.”

“That’s right, the robbers were at your house last night, weren’t they?” said Isang’s mother. “I suppose that’s one good thing about a wake, there are many people around, so the robbers can’t get near the house.”

The five of them left the house and went back to the table where the other young people were playing Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly at one end of the table, and cards at the other end.

“What are you playing?” Katrin asked, stepping over the narrow bench and sitting down. She beckoned Pie to sit beside her.

“Tong-its,” Toffee said. “Wanna play, Kat? Pie?”

“I don’t know how to play tong-its,” said Pie, shaking her head.

“Deal me in,” said Katrin. “You can sit and watch me, Pie.”

Aian stood behind them, shaking his head.

“Pie, my sister sure is a bad influence, isn’t she?” he said.

“Oh, shut up Ian, it isn’t as if I really gamble,” said Katrin, taking up the cards dealt her and sorting them.

Andy and Michael also came over to their end of the table and sat down.

“Hey, Toffee. Mike can play on our team,” Andy said.

“Great!” Toffee said. “Practice at the co-op tomorrow afternoon around four?”

“Sure!” said Andy. “But won’t it be crowded at that time?”

“We can practice at our house,” Michael said suddenly.

“You have a basketball court at your house?” Toffee stared at him.

“Oh, for goodness sake, Tof, they even have a swimming pool at their house,” said Katrin.

“No kidding?” Toffee asked Michael.

“No kidding,” Michael said.

“Duuuude.” Toffee stared at him longer. “So we really can practice at your house?”

“Yeah, sure,” Michael shrugged. “Not much fun playing alone.”

“Dude, you rock,” Toffee said. “Hey, Eddie. Eddie, I see you, get over here, meet our new teammate.”

“Toffee, start the game already,” Katrin said patiently.

“What? Oh, right.” Toffee hastily picked up his cards.

By eleven o’clock, both Nolascos had attracted a welcoming crowd of young people, so that it was hard for them to leave. Katrin had to remind them that they still had a long walk home.

“Four o’clock, at the corner of Riverside and Acacia tomorrow, right?” Toffee said to Michael as they were leaving.

“Right!” Michael said.

“Everybody is so nice here,” said Pie as they walked back down the lane to Acacia Street. ‘Brrr. It’s gotten cold, though.”

“I think it’s going to rain,” said Andy, looking up. “Can’t see the stars.”

“What if an aswang came swooping down?” Aian asked, dodging the kick his twin sister aimed at his shins.

“A-a-aswang?” Pie quavered.

“Ah, don’t be a scaredy-cat, Pie,” her brother said. “There aren’t any.”

“You’re in the provinces now, Mike my boy,” said Aian. “Anything can happen. Who knows, maybe there’s a bagat at the crossroads up ahead?”

“Aian, stop it,” said Katrin.

“What’s a… ba-ba-bagat?” Pie asked.

“It’s a spectre that haunts crossroads,” said Andy. “Sometimes it appears as a ball of fire, or as a floating coffin, or even just a floating lighted candle with no one at all holding it.”

“Eeeee. I don’t want to see one,” Pie declared, clutching Katrin’s arm so hard the latter yelped. She kept her eyes averted as they reached the crossroads and entered Riverside Road.

“Nearly there,” Katrin told her.

“I’d be scared to death if I ever saw a bagat,” Pie said. “Imagine, a lighted candle floating in the air all by itself. What would it look like?”

Katrin happened to glance into the thicket at the side of the road, and she stopped and stared.

“L-l-like t-t-that?” she asked.

“Nice try, Kat,” said Aian, glancing wryly where his sister was looking. He stopped short.

What looked like a little flame was moving in the thicket, fading from view then reappearing. It was too bright for a firefly, too dim and flickery orange for a flashlight.

Katrin was not sure which of them moved first, but she found herself running down the road as if the devil were at her heels. It didn’t help that Aian had a grip on her arm and was towing her along. Pie had clutched Katrin’s arm in a death grip and was being towed along in her wake.

They stopped to catch their breath at the turnoff to the mansion, where the Nolascos left them.

“T-t-text me when you get home,” Katrin said to Pie, whose teeth were chattering almost as much as her own.

“Y-y-yes,” said Pie. “N-n-night!”

The moment the Nolascos left, the three Perezes exchanged glances and ran home as fast as they could.

Chapter Five: Robbers!

2010-07-22T19:33:00.000+08:00

They heard the noise even before they reached their home gate.

“The geese!” Mrs. Perez gasped. Even at that distance, they couldn’t mistake the loud angry honks of the gander. Andy jumped off the backride of the tricycle and ran to open the gate. Aian and Katrin were tumbling out of the tricycle even before Mr. Perez had cut the motor.

Bantay, like a shadow, came running to meet them from the direction of the poultry yard, his tail wagging furiously. He was not barking.

“Bad boy! Were you teasing the geese?” Katrin reproved. He whined and sank his head on his front legs, then deposited something at her feet. She shone her cellphone flashlight on the ground. “Papa, look!”

Mr. Perez picked up the scrap of wet denim.

“Looks like Bantay lived up to his name after all,” he said. “Someone must have a sore backside.”

“Good boy!” Katrin petted the dog, and Bantay licked her hand.

Aian and Andy came back from the poultry yard.

“Papa, looks like someone tried to get in there,” Andy said. “The lock on top is open, and the gate is a bit ajar, but the chain held. Good thing the gap wasn’t big enough for any of the geese to slip through. The gander is very angry.” The gate to the poultry yard was secured both by a padlock and chain in the middle and a figure-eight loop of wire that was dropped over the end of the gate and the fence-post.

“The roosters, too, and the drake,” Aian said. “All the hens, ducks and geese were fluttering around, but they are calming down now. I think Bantay and the gander frightened off the thieves.”

“I always said that gander was as good as a dog in its own right,” Mr. Perez said. “Since it is my week to be out in the field starting tomorrow, I’ll go and buy some lights before I go to work and we’ll put them in the yard. If only there were some way to catch those thieves!”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Perez was putting some scraps in a bowl. She put it on the ground beside the door. “Here you go, Bantay. Good dog!” she said. “Now everybody in the house before you catch your death of cold.”

Back in her bedroom, Katrin changed into her sleeping clothes, a matching tank top and shorts, and put her dress in the laundry basket beside her aparador or closet. The room had once been Andy’s when he was younger and the twins were still small enough to sleep in their parents’ room. When Mrs. Perez got pregnant with Kyle, Mr. Perez had had a room added on to their ground floor, off the sala, and had given Katrin the smaller room and the boys the larger room on the second floor. The room was only half as big as Pie’s, of course, and it had room for a single bamboo bed, a small study table and chair, the aparador, and some overhead shelves where Katrin kept books and her old toys. The wooden floor was worn smooth with age, and there wasn’t even a rug, except for a small mat by the door where she could wipe her feet coming in from the bath.

The ruffled yellow curtains framing her window was made of a cheap printed cotton, but Katrin had always loved its geometric design. She didn’t have a sleep-rite mattress like Pie did, but she did have a foam mattress on her bed, covered with a cheesecloth bedsheet printed with a monochrome green paisley design, part of a set her mother had bought cheaply in the market. The pillowcases were part of the same set. Her double-size malong –in that, at least, her mother bought the more expensive, bigger ones—was folded neatly on her pillow. The tube-shaped piece of cloth had replaced the one Katrin had been using since early childhood, after she finally kicked it to pieces a couple of years ago. It was the only kind of blanket she ever used.

Katrin checked that her windows, which were really wooden casements with panes made of tin sheets, were shut and barred, before turning out the light and getting into bed. She looked at her cellphone, which she had laid on the table beside her bed, and reached for it.

Pie, the robbers were here tonight, she texted. I think Bantay bit one in the backside.

Pie must not have been asleep yet, for the phone showed an incoming message even before she put it down.

What? You don’t say, Kat. Was anything taken?

I’m not sure, but it looks like there wasn’t any. We’ll find out in the morning. Well, good night. See ya tomorrow.

Goodnight! See you!

Katrin woke up to the sound of hammering. She opened one eye and looked balefully at her cellphone. It was eight-thirty in the morning. Yawning, she got out of bed and opened her window, which looked out over the front garden. No one was in sight, so she rubbed her eyes, made her bed, and went downstairs with her cellphone, which she laid carefully on the cabinet beside her mother’s bric-a-brac.

Her mother wasn’t in the kitchen, so she went outside. Andy and Aian had cobbled together their yard lights, with the help of Riverside’s resident electrician, Boyet. They put a makeshift shade, made of a sheet of tin shaped into a cone, on a light bulb, to which a long wire was attached. The shade and the bulb were then attached to a piece of a two-by-four. Andy was now hammering one of the two-by-fours to the trunk of a tree overlooking the poultry yard.

“You sure we got enough wire?” he called to Boyet.

“And then some,” Boyet called back. “When you finish putting those up I’ll start connecting the switches.”

Kyle sat on a bench, watching and occasionally scratching behind the ears of Bantay, who sat at his feet.

“Where’s Mama?” Katrin asked.

“At the co-op,” said Kyle.

“Oh,” said Katrin.

“I want some Milo,” said Kyle.

“Okay, come on and we’ll fix you some,” said Katrin.

Mrs. Perez had left sunny-side-up eggs, sausages, fried dried fish, and rice under the plastic dome on the table. Beside the dome sat their black cat, Whitney, purring like a motor. Katrin scratched him behind the ears.

“Hungry, Whit?” she asked. The cat’s green eyes slitted in contentment. He was one of those rare cats who could sit beside a plate of food on the table and not steal a morsel for itself, for which Mrs. Perez and Katrin were most grateful.

Katrin scooped out the Milo, milk and sugar into two mugs and added teaspoons and hot water. She gave one a few stirs and gave it to Kyle.

“Have you had breakfast yet?” she asked.

“No, Mama said she’d be back soon,” he answered, and went outside with his mug. Katrin looked in the refrigerator and saw a block of Dari Crème. She licked her lips and washed her hands.

She opened the loaf of bread sitting on top of the refrigerator and took out a slice, which she placed before the cat on the table. Whitney sniffed at it, meowed, and looked at her unblinkingly. Katrin laughed.

“Couldn’t fool you, huh?” she said, taking the piece of bread and stripping off the brown crust around the slice. She gave the crusts to Bantay, who was sitting in the doorway, his tongue lolling, looking hopeful. She then put the crustless slice in front of Whitney again, and this time he bent his head and nibbled at it.

Katrin then took out two slices of bread and slathered one lavishly with Dari Crème. Taking this makeshift sandwich and her mug of Milo outside, she sat down beside Kyle.

“Torturer,” Aian accused. “You know we haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Sorry!” Katrin said. “But breakfast is waiting, once you finished that.”

“Aian was telling me that you had the robbers here last night,” said Boyet to Katrin.

“Yeah, but Bantay and the gander scared them away,” Katrin said.

“Luckily for you!” Boyet said. “There’s talk in the purok center about starting a ronda at night to keep these robbers away. We have to talk to the barangay officials though.”

“Ah, so that’s why Mama went to the co-op,” said Katrin, enlightened; her mother was the Purok secretary.

“That, and the fact that the co-op was missing some things after Manang Betya finished tallying and inventorying things yesterday,” said Boyet.

“Oh, no!” said Katrin. The co-op had been organized by her father about five years before, and her mother was also its current secretary. Almost all the families in the purok had invested in it, patronized it, and took turns helping to run it. For three out of those five years Manang Betya ran it, and had never suffered so much as a stolen piece of candy. It sold everything from softdrinks to cooking oil to bread and rice, and was everybody’s pride and joy, especially when they received their annual dividends every Christmas.

Andy finished putting the light bulbs in trees around the yard, and even in the gazebo on the pond, and began stringing out the wire. All of it led under the roof of the house and to a series of switches on the wall between the kitchen and the sala, where Boyet was doing complicated things with the wires.

“I hope this doesn’t blow our fuses,” Andy muttered.

“What do you take me for?” Boyet said. “Okay, boys, go look if the switches work.” He put on the switch cover and began tightening screws, then flipped switches.

“They work,” Aian called. “I only hope that if we do turn them on the poultry won’t think it’s already morning.”

Their mother came home just as the boys and Boyet were cleaning up. She took off her wide-brimmed straw hat and hung it on a hook by the door, and put her purse on top of the refrigerator.

“I took your Aunt Anna to meet the purok officials, so they’d know someone was living in the mansion now,” she said to Katrin. “And I hope the barangay officials approve of us setting a ronda at night. Manang Betya was distressed over losing a case full of beer, a can of kerosene, and her slippers, all of which were often left just outside the co-op door.”

“Everybody leaves things outside their houses even at night,” said Katrin thoughtfully. “We figure that no one will take them, as long as they’re in our yards, or obviously aren’t trash.”

“Which is why having these robberies around here are so bad for us,” Mrs. Perez said. “We’ve always trusted our neighbors. Now everybody is angry, and I won’t be surprised if people started accusing one another soon.”

“It can’t be anyone from here,” Katrin said. “Boyet, are there any new people in the purok?”

“Aside from the Nolascos? Who aren’t exactly new, since the Seromines family has owned that mansion like forever,” said Boyet. “There are always the laborers at the rice mill, of course, and the carpenters who are building the Dungcas’ new house.”

“Most of those are local boys anyway,” Mrs. Perez pointed out. “Still, I guess everybody will be looking suspiciously at strangers from now on. Shall we go have breakfast? I’m starved.”

“Kat, you’re going to town this afternoon with Pie?” Mrs. Perez asked after breakfast. “I need some crepe paper and ribbon and cartolina for a funeral wreath. Isang’s grandmother died yesterday afternoon, and the wake begins tonight.”

“Oh,” said Katrin. Isang was another of her batchmates. “Okay, Mama. When are we going there?”

“You and the boys can go tonight, of course, after we finish the wreath,” said Mrs. Perez. “Your Aunt Anna says you can stop by for Pie and Michael, if you promise to come home at eleven.”

“All right, Mama.”

“And in case you forgot, our fiesta is next week. Eddie and Toffee have been asking if Aian and Andy will play basketball on their team, and the other girls have been asking if you were going to be a fiesta princess.”

“Awk,” was all Katrin said to this last.

“I said perhaps when you were already in fourth year,” said Mrs. Perez, laughing.

“Yeah, maybe Pie will have brainwashed her into wearing skirts by then,” Andy muttered, and Katrin kicked him under the table.

Mrs. Perez missed this, as she went out to do the laundry, and Katrin and Aian cleared the table and washed the dishes.

“I wonder who we can get on the team,” Aian said out loud as he wiped the table. “With Toffee and Eddie we’re only four, and we need one more and at least two subs.”

“Why not ask Michael Nolasco?” Katrin suggested. Aian made a face.

“Him?” Aian said. “He was positively rude to us last night.”

“Why? What did he say to you?” Katrin asked.

“Nothing. He completely ignored us!” Aian said, aggrieved.

“So that’s why you left him and went to talk with Mama and Aunt Anna!” Katrin said. “I saw you from the window when Pie and I were going upstairs.”

“Got it in one, sis. I can’t think how such a sweet girl as Pie could have him for a brother.”

“I can’t think how such a sweet girl like me could have you for a brother, either,” Katrin said with a straight face, and Aian snapped the rag he was holding at her.

Chapter Four: An Invasion of Thieves

2010-07-22T19:31:00.000+08:00

"Katrin, would you go to the co-op for me?" Mrs. Perez asked. "I am so forgetful. I was at the market the other day yet I forgot to buy cooking oil. Here's the bottle and the money."
"Wait, I'm coming too," said Aian, who was lurking around the kitchen. Their mother gave him a questioning look, but nodded, and Aian took his baseball cap off a hook by the door and put it on. The twins went out the kitchen door.
"Why don't we take the shortcut through the Barrios land? After all, it's nearer," Aian suggested.
"Hmph, you just want to see the cottage for yourself. Mama needs this cooking oil at once," Katrin said.
"But it's a nearer route, Kat, we'll be there and back in the same time it would take if we just took the road," Aian said, pulling her in the direction of the orchard.

Getting into the thicket was easier now that Katrin knew the route. Aian went round the little cottage, trying to peek through cracks in the walls and windows, but the inside was too dim for him to make out any details. He glared at the padlock.
"One thing's for sure, Kat," he said, "this padlock was put here after the Barrioses had left. I know Tito Alex didn't lock this up; he figured it would just fall to pieces anyway and said as much."
"Maybe Papa put that there?" Katrin said, the idea having just occurred to her. "In that case we don't have to worry about it... no one else could get in there."
Aian looked at her.
"You want to ask him?"
Katrin bared her teeth at him and he laughed.
"Come on," he said, taking the bottle. "We still have to get to the store."
Katrin followed him back through the thicket. Just before she stepped through the gap, her foot kicked something and she looked down. It was a shiny beer bottle cap.
"I swear, sis, you can be so slow sometimes," Aian complained.
"Am not, too," said Katrin as they walked back into the mango orchard. She took a few steps ahead of him. "In fact... race you to the opposite fence!" she said and ran.
"Aargh!" said Aian, but he gripped the bottle tightly and ran after her.
Katrin reached the barbed-wire fence on the other side of the orchard a few moments before Aian did. Laughing and gasping for breath, she stuck out her tongue at him.
"Who's a slowpoke now, bro?" she asked.
"No fair, I was carrying the bottle and I was scared it would fall," he said.
"Excuses, excuses," said Katrin, climbing through a broken place in the wire then waiting for him to climb through. The two emerged into a lane with houses on both sides. At the end, they could see the co-op store beside the basketball court.

"Heard we have new neighbors," said the woman who managed the store, as she took the bottle and the money.
"Yes, we do, Manang Betya," Katrin said.
"Did they buy the Mansion from the Seromines family?" Manang Betya asked, sticking a funnel into the bottle and refilling it from a gallon tank of cooking oil in the corner.
"No, Manang Betya, their mother is a Seromines," said Katrin.
"You don't mean to say! Which one? Dolores?"
"No, Manang Betya... Tita Anna."
"Anna! That's right, she was your mother's best friend when they were small. Well, well. Anna Seromines is back."
"Yes, Manang Betya. Only she's a Nolasco now. And she's got a daughter my age too!" Katrin couldn't help grinning as she spoke.
"Oh! Good for you, then, Kat. It must have been lonely since Shy moved away, huh?"
"Kat! Aian!" Someone hailed them, and the twins turned to see two of their schoolmates, who had been playing basketball on the court in front of the co-op and had stopped upon seeing them.
"Hey, Eddie! Toffee!" Aian said. "How are you?" The boys came over and punched Aian in the arm playfully, the way all boys and even men greeted one another, and Aian smacked them on the back in return.
"Fine, bro," Toffee said. "Fine," Eddie echoed, "except that someone robbed our house last night!"
"What! Robbed your house!" Katrin exclaimed. "We passed by there earlier." Eddie's house was the last house but one on the lane the twins had taken earlier, before it reached the Barrios property.
"Yes," Manang Betya said. "Tenang (that was Eddie's mother's name) was here earlier, cursing the thieves. Eddie here had forgotten his radio cassette and left it on their front porch, along with his new shoes, and this morning they were gone."
"Well," Eddie said, scratching his head, "Manang Betya, it was our house and our porch! No one in Riverside is a thief, surely!"
"Scary!" Toffee agreed. "I'm putting the dog outside at night, too. That way no one can get into our yard."
"Unless the thieves steal your dog for pulutan!" Katrin said jokingly.
"God forbid! I'd never rest till I tracked them down!" Toffee was fond of his pet dog, a big brown shaggy askal named Tagpi.
"Funny thing is, Rick complained the other day that his clothes had been stolen from their clothesline," said Manang Betya, rubbing her chin musingly. Rick was another one of Katrin and Aian's schoolmates.
"Knowing Rick, he's just misplaced them," Katrin pointed out. Rick was notorious for misplacing things.
"Not his clothes," Manang Betya said, laughing. "His mother had a fit, as she had just finished laundering them an hour or so before."
"Well, that's different," Aian said. Where Rick was untidy, his mother was obsessed with keeping things tidy.
"Manang Betya, another beer grande please," said one of their neighbors, who had been drinking with his buddies in the small bamboo gazebo between the co-op and the basketball court. Manang Betya fetched it and gave it to him.
"Hm, gotta put more bottles in the ref," said Manang Betya, going to the door of the co-op. "Oh, that's strange."
"What is it, Manang?" Aian asked.
"I could've sworn I still had two cases of beer left. Now there's only one," she answered, bringing several bottles of beer into the store and putting them into the refrigerator.
"Maybe you just miscounted, Manang Betya, you're getting old," Eddie teased her.
"Who's getting old? Off with you, Eddie Ferrer!" she indignantly said. "I haven't made a mistake in inventory here yet, your parents would have my hides if I did!" She got out her logbook and began tallying things.
"Well, we have to be off," said Katrin, taking the bottle of cooking oil. "Bye, everyone."

"Why are we having these thefts all of a sudden?" Aian wondered out loud as they walked back up the lane with the cooking oil.
"Yeah, it's weird," Katrin said. "I can't remember anything like this happening before. There are no robbers in Riverside, are there?"
"Who knows? Maybe they're not from Riverside. Maybe they're from other places. We're near a ford in the river... who knows if people have crossed over from the other bank?" Aian said.
"If they're from the other side... why do it now? Why didn't they do it before? that ford has always been there," Katrin argued, climbing back through the barbed wire as Aian held the strands apart for her. She then did the same for him.
"Maybe it's someone new," she speculated as they crossed the mango orchard. "Someone who has just come to this place."
"Hrm," said Aian. "Possible, sis. But are there any new people in Riverside?"
"Of course there are, there's bound to be," Katrin said. "The Nolascos, for one, are new."
Aian laughed.
"I hope you're not suggesting that the Nolascos are thieves," he said. "That's our mother's best friend you're talking about."
"Not to mention that they're rich," Katrin said. "Oh, well. There has got to be strangers around. People in Riverside simply don't steal from one another."
"Just the same," Aian said, "we should tell Papa and Mama. And make sure that we don't leave anything outside the house at night that's likely to be stolen."
"Yeah," Katrin agreed.
"And the Nolascos, too," Aian suddenly said. "They've got a lot more steal-able things than we have."
"Oh, Lord, yeah," Katrin said. "But talk about timing, we're going there for dinner tonight, aren't we? Oh no, what to wear?"
"Wear?" Aian said blankly.
"Don't tell me you are going to show up for dinner, in a mansion, wearing your shorts and white sando?" And Katrin pulled at the hem of the last-mentioned garment, a loose sleeveless racerback top.
Aian blushed suddenly.
"'Course not," he said quickly, opening the gate in the wall for her. "Come on, Mama will be wondering where we are."

Their mother, who had one eye on the clock and the other on the door, immediately took the cooking oil from them the moment they entered the kitchen and began to saute garlic, onions and tomatoes. A delicious smell filled the kitchen. Aian and Katrin sat at the table, sniffing the air hungrily, and told her about the thefts.
"Oh, goodness me, whatever is this world getting to?" Mrs. Perez exclaimed as she cooked. "This is not the big city where people steal clothes right off the clothesline! I must remember to tell Anna about this later. You children did remember we are going to have dinner at the mansion, right?"
"Uh, Mama," Aian began.
"Yes, Aian? And stop that, why are you two jostling each other?"
"Eh," Aian said. "Mama. Are we supposed to wear, er, anything special?"
His mother stopped and stared at him.
"I suppose jeans and a clean shirt will do. But for the love of God, Aian, not what you are wearing right now, if you don't want to shame your parents."
"Yes, Mama."
"And wear a dress, Kat," Mrs. Perez continued, which wiped the grin building on Katrin's face.
"Aw, Mama! If the boys get to wear jeans, why can't I?"
"Because girls always look better in dresses? Pie wears dresses."
"Not on this girl," Kat muttered. Since early childhood, she always had to be dragged and threatened, kicking and screaming, before she would put on a dress.
"The pink dress, Mama?" Aian asked, earning an elbow in the side from his sister.
"No, it's too dressy," Mrs. Perez said. "The one with the maroon roses, perhaps, Kat. And your red thong sandals."
Katrin buried her face in her hands. Where she had actually been looking forward to going to the Mansion again, she now dreaded it.
"And put your hair in a ponytail," said her mother.
"Rrrr," said Katrin, and did not add anything more.

"Kat, hurry up, Mama says!" Aian knocked at his sister's door that evening.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Katrin looked at herself in the mirror again. She was wearing the cream-colored sundress with maroon roses. It was round-necked and sleeveless, and had a garterized waistline. She had put her hair up in a ponytail secured with a red scrunchie, and the red thong sandals. "I hope this doesn't look too overdone," she muttered at her reflection and opened the door.
Aian was wearing blue jeans, a blue-and-gray t-shirt she recognized as one of his favorites, and Islander sandals. Behind him, Andy was similarly attired except that his t-shirt was red-and-white.

Even Kyle wore a presentable t-shirt with a Spiderman logo on it, and his good denim shorts and Islander sandals. Mr. and Mrs. Perez wore what Katrin called their go-to-town clothes; her father wore a white t-shirt with a snarling tiger on the front and blue jeans, and her mother wore a round-necked brown blouse, khaki capris, and sandals like Katrin’s own. They all piled into the tricycle, which Mr. Perez drove.

Katrin tugged uneasily at the waist of her dress.

“Stop fidgeting, Kat,” her mother said.

“Mama, I think this dress makes me look fat!” she said.

“No, it doesn’t, dear,” her mother said. “Just ask your father.”

“Papa, does my dress make me look fat?”

“Of course not, dear. Now where’s that turn… alley oop, there it is.” The tricycle turned off Riverside Road and onto a narrow lane that climbed the hill. The gates of the mansion swung open as they approached, and they went through and parked the tricycle in a cemented courtyard.

A girl came out to meet them and led them up a stone walk which Kat realized ended at the terrace overlooking the garden where she’d been on her previous visit.

“Ah, here they are!” Mrs. Nolasco exclaimed, coming forward to greet them and make introductions. She wore a simple maroon-colored dress and sandals. Mr. Nolasco, a tall, thin, nice-looking man with spectacles, wearing a white polo shirt and slacks under a white apron with the words “Daddy Cook” smiled at them from behind the barbecue grill he’d set up on the lawn. He was busy fanning some coals. Laid out on a small table beside the grill were fish, skewered meat, and even hotdogs for grilling. Michael was helping him and Jenny was watching them. Katrin looked around for Pie.

“I thought as it seemed such a lovely night we’d have dinner on the terrace,” said Mrs. Nolasco, and for the first time Kat noticed the long table set up along one end of the terrace. It was spread with a green tablecloth. Pie was setting out the dishes and directing the maid where to put the bowls she was holding.

“The fruit juice goes there and there,” Pie was saying. “Thank you, Lita, the salad goes there. Hey Kat!” Pie had spotted Katrin and now came towards her.

Katrin breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Pie was also wearing a dress, a little sleeveless, button-down, belted denim number. She had put up her straight hair into a messy bun held by a red clamp, revealing her earrings,two dangling big red plastic circles. She also wore two big red plastic bangles on each arm, and what looked like dainty blue-and-white plastic sandals.

“I like your outfit!” Katrin said, feeling positively dowdy.

‘Thanks!” Pie said. ‘I like yours too! It suits you!”

“Thanks!” Katrin said in return. Remembering her manners, she added, “Uh… can I help or anything?”

“It’s okay, I’ve got it covered,” Pie said. “If you’ll just leave a space for Daddy’s barbecue, Lita? There. Thank you. Mom, is the table okay now, do you think? I want to show Kat the house.”

“It’s all right dear, you and Kat go on,” Mrs. Nolasco said from where she was sitting beside Katrin’s mother. Mr. Perez and the boys had gone to join Mr. Nolasco at the grill and the two fathers were talking about something.

Pie led Katrin through the sliding doors that stood open, but that otherwise served to separate the terrace from the living room. Old photographs hung on the wall; newer ones stood on a cabinet. A huge oil painting of a rural landscape covered another wall. Huge blue-and-white porcelain jars stood in corners, behind a comfortably-stuffed dark-blue sofa and matching chairs and ottomans. A low table in the middle held a fishbowl full of rainbow-colored marbles on top of a lace runner, and the rack beneath it held glossy magazines.

Katrin went to look at the old photographs on the wall, walking across the wooden floor covered with a wide rug with huge flowers on it.

“Those are our great-grandparents,” Pie said of a faded sepia-toned photograph of a middle-aged couple, the man in a barong tagalog and the woman in a panuelo over a filmy Maria Clara blouse and with a lace veil over her hair. “And there’s my grandparents,” she pointed out a couple in more modern garb. “There’s Mom when she was our age.”

“She looks just like you, Pie!” Katrin observed, looking closely at the photograph of a girl in a psychedelic-print minidress and mules.

“Doesn’t she? Isn’t it uncanny?” Pie agreed. “Come on, here’s the kitchen. This is Tiya Cora, who cooks for us. She’s really our aunt because she’s Daddy’s cousin and she came with us all the way from Manila. Tiya, this is my friend Kat.”

“Hello, hello.” Tiya Cora was cheerfully plump, and wore an apron over a loose t-shirt and a long full skirt. “My kare-kare is almost ready. Would you like a taste?” She bustled around the large, well-lit kitchen.

Katrin looked at Pie dubiously, then took a cautious sip from the spoonful of what looked like golden-brown sauce that Tiya Cora was holding out to her. Her eyes widened.

‘Mmm, that’s very good!” she exclaimed. ‘But… does it really have peanuts in it?”

“You mean you’ve never tasted kare-kare before?” Pie asked in surprise. “It’s Tiya Cora’s specialty, and Daddy’s favorite.” Katrin nodded vigorously.

‘It tastes even better with bagoong alamang, and you are going to have it for dinner tonight,” Tiya Cora told her.

“Yes, we are!” Pie affirmed, pulling at Katrin. “Come on Kat, I’ll show you the rest of the house.” Katrin thanked Tiya Cora and followed Pie out.

Pie showed Katrin the library, which held a lot of books, a computer, and a corner that was, she said, her dad’s office when he was at home. There was also a family room, with a complete home entertainment system. Jenny’s toys were there too, and sports equipment and board games. Off the family room was the swimming pool on its own terrace, surrounded by tall hedges.

“You are all welcome to come swim, of course,” said Pie. She then led Katrin up a wide flight of stairs that had a landing halfway up before turning and continuing to the next floor. There was even a window seat in the window on the landing, and when Katrin went to this and looked out, she could see the terrace and everyone on it.

Her father and Mr. Nolasco were still talking, and both were smiling. Kyle and Jenny were having a discussion over a rubber ball. Aian and Andy had left the grill and gone to talk with their mother and Mrs. Nolasco, and Michael was alone at the grill, fanning furiously.

Pie pointed out the closed door to her parents’ room, and Jenny’s nursery next to it, and Michael’s beyond that. Then she opened the door to her room.

“Oh, Pie! You’re so lucky!” Kat exclaimed. Pie’s bedroom was easily twice the size of her own, and everything in it was color-coordinated, from the cream-colored curtains sprigged with tiny pink flowers and green leaves, to the bedspread and pillowcases in the same pattern on the queen-sized bed. Pie also had a window seat that served as a bookcase at the same time. A white closet with flowers stenciled on it and a matching chest of drawers stood against the wall, and a full-length oval mirror on its stand was in a corner. Near the window was a little white study table and a chair, and on the table was a laptop computer with its top down.

“It looks like a room in a magazine or on TV!” Katrin said. ‘It’s so pretty.”

“Thank you!” Pie said. “I picked out the colors and the furniture, and Mom helped me decorate.”

There was a knock on the door, and a girl called, “Miss Pie, your mother says dinner will be ready soon.”

“Thank you, Lita. We’ll be right there!” Pie answered. “Let’s go, Kat.”

Pie sat next to Katrin at dinner. The table was full of good things to eat. Aside from Tiya Cora’s kare-kare and the grilled fish and meat, there was afritada and adobo, and seaweed salad as well as a salad made from radishes, tomatoes and dried anchovies. There was also leche flan, fruit salad, and something that Pie called “buko pandan” that was tasty and refreshing.

“Mmmm,” said Aian, who was on the other side of Katrin. “This is good!”

“I’m glad you like it, Aian,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “More kare-kare?”

“Yes please!”

Across from Aian, Andy was also tucking in, while at the same time keeping an eye on Kyle who sat next to him.

The parents were talking about their children and how they were doing in school.

“I’m lucky, Anna,” Mrs. Perez said. “Andy and the twins are all in the honor roll at their school. Kyle also got honors in kindergarten and he will be in grade one this June.”

“Pie is also an honor student at her school,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “Jenny too.” Katrin suddenly noticed that Michael was not looking at anyone else but at his plate. He was not even eating.

“They must have gone to really good schools in Manila,” said Mr. Perez. “I hope it is not too hard on them to move here?”

The Nolascos exchanged swift glances, with the exception of Michael, who was still very interested in his plate. Pie was looking oddly at her brother, Katrin realized.

“It isn’t really, Tito,” Pie said quickly into the silence that was beginning to form. “Of course it was kind of sad, because I’ve lived in Manila all my life, but it is also exciting, moving here and meeting new friends.”

“We hope you like it here,” said Aian, smiling at her across his sister. “Of course, it’s very different from what you’re used to…”

“I’ll learn, I’ll learn,” said Pie. “And of course I have to work more on my Ilonggo. Mommy says people could sell me and I wouldn’t even know it.”

“We won’t sell you, Ate Pie,” Kyle promised.

“Thank you, Kyle,” Pie said. “You might sell the brat sitting beside you though, if she gets too naughty.”

“I’m not a brat!” Jenny denied indignantly. “You wouldn’t sell me, would you, Kyle?”

“Of course not!” Kyle assured her.

“So where are you sending them to school in June, Anna, Luis?” Mrs. Perez asked. “We do have Notre Dame schools here...”

“Ah, if she sends them to the local Notre Dame, she’d do better sending them to the Public,” Mr. Perez said. “It has a good track record.” He turned to Mr. Nolasco.

“Public schools in Manila are the absolute pits,” Mr. Nolasco said. “The students are even fighting one another on campus.”

“What do you expect of an overcongested place?” Mr. Perez said. “Public schools here are different though. Although if you want to send them to Notre Dame of Siena or Notre Dame University in Marbel, those are good schools as well.”

“Why, what happened to the Notre Dame for Girls and Notre Dame for Boys?” asked Mrs. Nolasco.

“That’s right, you went to the Girls, didn’t you?” said Mrs. Perez. “The Girls became Siena, and the Boys became the University High School, and they’ve both gone co-ed now.”

“Oh!” Mrs. Nolasco laughed. “When I think of the hard times the nuns and priests had, just trying to keep order, and trying to keep us from venturing on one another’s part of the campus… it’s funny.”

“I suppose they just went with the times,” said Mr. Nolasco. “Pie, do you want to go to the Notre Dame? She used to go to St. Scholastica,” he told the Perezes.

“It’ll mean you have to get up at five in the morning so you can be there at seven-thirty,” her mother said. “When I remember what a hard time Mama had getting me out of bed in the morning…”

Both Pie and Jenny groaned.

“I hate getting up so early!” Pie muttered to Katrin.

“How about Michael? Where does he want to go to school? I suppose you’ll send him to the University High School?” asked Mrs. Perez.

“Mike? Do you want to go to the University High School?” Mr. Nolasco asked his son, who was still staring at his plate.

“Wherever,” he said in a low voice.

“He used to go to San Agustino,” Mrs. Nolasco said, almost too brightly, Katrin thought.

“Ah. The University High School is a good school,” Mrs. Perez said to Michael. “You might like it there. Andy, Kat and Aian go to the Public, of course. The tuition fees at Siena and the University are a little too high for us. Besides, it is very far. This way, we can just send the tricycle for them or they can just walk home if they want.”

“I can walk home from school!” Kyle pronounced proudly.

“It’s almost two kilometers!” said Mrs. Nolasco, horrified.

“I fetched him with the tricycle when he was in kindergarten, of course,” said Mrs. Perez. “Or one of the older children fetches him after class. But even Grade One children from Riverside often walk home, in a group of course. Katrin, Aian and Andy all walked home when they were in elementary school; I just met them at the corner of Riverside Road and Acacia Street.”

“Wow,” Pie said to Katrin. “Mom would never let us do that in Manila. We had to wait at the school lobby for someone to fetch us in the car.”

“You only get fetched here if you live in another barrio, because that’s too far to walk,” Katrin answered. “Or if your family has a tricycle. We only bought our tricycle a couple of years ago, so mostly we just walked. Besides, it’s fun when there are a lot of you.”

“I think I want to go to your school, Kat!” Pie exclaimed.

“What, Pie?” her mother said, having overheard.

“I said I want to go to the Public and walk home with Kat, Aian and Andy,” said Pie.

“But…” her father said. “You’d get to meet a lot of other young people at the Notre Dame who could help you later on, when you graduate and find work. Think of the advantages. It’s not as if we can’t afford it.”

“The right kind of people, you mean to say, Daddy?” Pie said. “Sometimes just because people go to private schools doesn’t mean they’re good people, right?”

“We’ll discuss this later, Pie,” her father said. Katrin, who had been watching keenly, didn’t miss the warning glance he threw at Michael. It was the kind of glare their own father gave them when he wanted them to stay where they were and be quiet.

Now what could that mean? She asked herself.

“You simply have got to try the buko pandan,” Mrs. Nolasco said desperately.

“It looks good, Tita Anna,” Andy said.

“Here, Andy, try some.” She heaped the green cubes and young coconut strips in a small bowl, ladled the milky juice over them, and passed the bowl to Andy.

“It is good!” said Andy after tasting it. The conversation once again moved to food, and Katrin could have sworn that everyone breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

After dinner, they all sat around on the terrace for a while before the Perezes said goodbye.

“It’s been such a lovely dinner,” Mrs. Perez said to Mr. and Mrs. Nolasco. “Thank you so much for having us over.”

“Our pleasure,” said Mr. Nolasco. “Besides, Anna told me so much about you that I am glad I finally met you and your family.”

“You have to come over and have dinner with us one of these days, of course,” said Mrs. Perez. “I’m afraid it won’t be too fancy, but we’ll be glad to have you.”

“Actually, Margie cooks the best pochero in Sto. Nino,” Mr. Perez said.

“Thank you, we will,” said Mr. Nolasco. “And Carlos, we simply have to discuss more how to make the best of those fields that Anna has. You think an orchard will be feasible?”

“Depends,” said Mr. Perez. “Well, I’m always home on weekends, here’s my cellphone number in case you want to give me a call.”

Pie and Katrin were also exchanging cellphone numbers, as there were no telephones in Riverside yet.

“You want to go to the market with me tomorrow afternoon?” Katrin asked Pie.

“What will we do there?”

“Nothing much, I guess. Hang out, eat some batchoy, see if anyone I know is around. I’ll introduce you to some of our classmates.”

“Sure!” Pie said. “What time?”

“Around three? Text me and I’ll meet you at the foot of the steps.”

“Okay,” Pie said. “But don’t any of your classmates live in Riverside?”

“Classmates, no, but we do have batchmates and schoolmates. And speaking of which, make sure your gates and doors are locked at night. The houses of some of our schoolmates got robbed recently.”

“Robbed?” Pie exclaimed so loudly that her parents heard her.

“What? Robbed?” Mrs. Nolasco exclaimed. So Katrin had to explain all over again.

“That’s strange,” said Mrs. Nolasco. “I can’t remember anyone being robbed in Riverside before. Do you, Marge?”

“Me neither,” said Mrs. Perez.

“Don’t worry about it, Nando makes sure all the gates and doors are locked before he goes to bed,” said Mr. Nolasco. “Besides, it’d be hard for anyone to escape from here once they’re discovered, as the whole place is well-lit.”

“Speaking of which, we better go back to our own house before it also gets robbed,” said Mr. Perez. Katrin, Andy, Aian and Kyle thanked the Nolascos for their hospitality and followed their parents back to the tricycle.

Chapter Three: Strange Things

2010-07-22T19:30:00.000+08:00

Aian waited patiently while Katrin helped Pie pick off all the little burrs.

‘They’re ruining your pretty dress,” Katrin lamented.

“Ah, don’t feel bad, Kat,” Pie said, patting her skirt down to make sure it was amorseco-free. “It isn’t an expensive one anyway, and look, the snags barely show.”

Finally they got back to the house. Jenny welcomed her sister back by jumping into her arms, shrieking happily. While Andy took the basket of fruit to their mother, Aian nudged his twin.

“There aren’t any amorseco in our orchard,” he whispered.

“There aren’t? You’re sure?” Kat asked.

“They don’t like the shade much, dummy,” Aian said. “In the Barrios orchard there’s plenty of sunshine.”

“Watch who you’re calling a dummy, lunkhead,” Katrin said.

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with going over there,” Aian said. ‘We were in and out of there all the time when Shy and Junjun’s family used to live there, and anyway they asked us to keep an eye on the place while they were gone.”

“Well, you know Papa,” Katrin said.

“So you did go over there!” Aian said and Katrin groaned.

Just then, the Nolasco car pulled up in front of the gate, and Pie and Jenny had to say their goodbyes. As Katrin walked them to the gate, she saw Mrs. Nolasco get out of the car. At the same time, Katrin’s mother came hurrying out of the house after them.

“Pie,” said Mrs. Perez, holding out a basket, “Here are some fresh vegetables and fruits for your mother.” Then she looked up and saw Mrs. Nolasco and her mouth opened, but Mrs. Nolasco spoke first.

“Oh, my, can it be… Margie? Margie Leysa?”

“Anna? I can’t believe it… is that you, Anna Seromines?”

Katrin and Pie looked on in bemusement while their mothers hugged each other.

“It is you! You’re back for good?” Mrs. Perez asked Mrs. Nolasco. “When Pie said she lived at the Mansion I thought someone had bought the place.”

‘Luis, my husband, wanted our children to grow up in the province,” Mrs. Nolasco said. “So that’s why I was thinking that Katrin looked so familiar, Margie. She looks like you! Oh, we have a lot to talk about!”

“We do!” Mrs. Perez agreed. “Won’t you come in and meet my husband?” But Katrin’s father, drawn by the number of people at his front gate, was already coming out of the house. He shook hands with Mrs. Nolasco.

Katrin and Pie looked at each other and shrugged as their parents talked. The car motor, which had been idling, was switched off and Katrin saw the car window go down.

‘Mike!” Mrs. Nolasco called. “Come out for a moment.”

Slowly the car window opened and Katrin saw the boy she’d briefly glimpsed at the Mansion step out reluctantly. He was taller than Andy or Aian, and had straight dark hair with brown highlights. His eyes were also dark brown, and had the quality of looking through a person as if she wasn’t there, or so it seemed to Kat. At the moment, he wore an annoyed look, which he quickly erased as he approached his mother.

“This is our oldest, Michael,” Mrs. Nolasco said to Katrin’s parents. Jenny ran to him, and he swung her up into his arms without a pause. The parents exchanged the usual platitudes about their children.

“At least he behaved,” Katrin heard Pie mutter under her breath.

“What did you say, Pie?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Pie said. “Look at the parents carry on. Isn’t it weird, to find out our mothers were good friends long ago?”

“Well, they both did grow up here after all,” Katrin said. She heard Mrs. Nolasco invite all of them over to the Mansion.

“Of course you are all always welcome!” she said. “Do you remember, Marge, we used to run in and out of each other’s houses all the time? Your mom used to make the best lugaw in the purok and I always made sure to arrive at merienda time in hopes of getting a bowl or two.”

“Yes, and I always thought it so weird that you liked lugaw so much,” said Mrs. Perez, laughing.

“What’s so special about lugaw?” Pie asked Katrin. “It’s just rice porridge.”

“Ours rarely has rice, just sticky rice balls, sweet potato, ube, saba bananas and sago, with coconut milk,” Katrin said.

“Are we talking about the same thing here?” Pie laughed. “You’re describing ginataan.”

“Well, that’s our lugaw,” Katrin said. “I think I’ll ask Mama to cook some soon, so you can taste it.”

“You must all come over tomorrow night and we can all have dinner,” Mrs. Nolasco was saying. “No, I insist, Marge.”

“Well, if you put it that way, Anna…” said Mrs. Perez.

Finally, the Nolascos said goodbye, with Pie telling Katrin, “Just text me, okay!” The Perezes stood at their gate waving till the car drove off.

Andy went off to chop some wood, and Aian and Katrin fed the animals and looked for eggs.

“She’s really pretty, isn’t she?” Aian said wistfully.

“Who?” Katrin asked, feeling around in a nest for eggs.

“Bea Alonzo? No, Pie Nolasco, who do you think I was talking about?”

"Now see what you've done... you almost made me drop the egg!" Katrin carefully drew it from the nest and laid it in the basket. Aian was right, though, she thought. Pie was really pretty with her small heart-shaped face, straight brown hair, and chinky dark eyes that always seemed to be smiling.
"Hnh," Aian said, absent-mindedly catching a rooster that seemed bent on pecking them, and subduing it. "It's not as if I have a crush on her on anything, I just think she's pretty."
"Yeah, right, bro," said Katrin, looking for more eggs.
"So where'd you get to this afternoon?" Aian asked brightly.
"Oh, Pie wanted to see the orchard," Katrin said off-handedly, "so I showed it to her. She loves mangoes." She could practically see the gears ticking in her twin brother's head as he processed this information. Aian, like their older brother Andy, was an intelligent boy. While Katrin could hold her own in literature and art, Aian was good at science and math, which was what made the Perez twins such a formidable pair in class.

Speaking of which... Katrin thought things over and opened her mouth.
"Uh, bro, remember Tiyo Berting's cottage?" she asked.
Aian looked at her.
"The one that used to be on the other side of the wall?" he asked.
"It's still there," Katrin said.
"Huh?" Aian said, and she told him where she and Pie had been.

"You and Pie went there? Are you crazy? There could have been snakes in there!" Aian exclaimed. "What if Pie got bitten by one?"

"I like that! You got worried about Pie but not about your own sister!" Katrin huffed.

"Well, you're from here and she's not," Aian answered. "Although, you really should've known better, sis."

They finished gathering the eggs and walked back to the house.

"Although something was weird," Katrin said thoughtfully.

"What?" Aian said.

"It looks like someone's been there recently. Not Pie and me, you lunkhead. But there was a way in that we hadn't seen at once. And the cottage was locked."

When Aian started to say something about it at supper, Katrin kicked him under the table, and he pretended to have choked on something. Andy, however, was not fooled. He lay in wait for the twins as they came upstairs, still hotly debating on whether to tell their parents or not.

"But you know Papa is the official caretaker of the place! He should know that someone's been trespassing!" Aian argued.

"We don't know that for sure!" Katrin said. "Who knows, that way in has been there all along?"

"With the Barrioses away for two years now? Unless you think Tiyo Berting came back because he missed his old cottage?"

"Still," Katrin said.

"Still what, Katrin Marie?" Andy asked from behind them, causing both twins to jump at least a foot in the air and come down hard on the wooden floor, and their mother to call, "Tone it down, up there!" from the sala where she was watching TV along with their father and Kyle.

"Ooops," Aian said.

Andy collared his siblings and pulled them into his and Aian's room.

"Would you two mind telling me what's going on?" he asked.

The twins exchanged glances.

"Are you telling him or shall I?" Aian asked.
"Whatever," Katrin said, and let him speak, butting in at times to expound on something.
Andy glared at her after Aian finished his narrative.
"You know you should've told Papa about it," he said.
"It's not important enough to bother Papa about," Katrin said. "Besides, who knows? Someone could have been there, but could already have left a long time ago."
"I still don't like it," Andy said. "I'll be keeping an eye on that place from now on. And you two stop keeping secrets from me."
"Yeah right, Big Brother," Katrin said, dashing for the door and into her own room before her big brother could do something such as throw a pillow at her.

Chapter Two: An Unexpected Find

2010-07-22T19:28:00.002+08:00

The next day, Katrin helped her mother with the chores and got them done in record time. She had bathed and dressed and was combing her hair when she heard a sound most unfamiliar to Riverside Road. A car was coming up the road and stopping in front of their gate. Bantay had left his post beside the door and was now barking furiously. When Katrin saw that Pie and Jenny were getting out of the car, she ran out to open the gate for them. Both girls wore matching pink sundresses, sandals and headbands.

"Here you are!" she exclaimed. "Come in, come in." She looked past them at the car. The window rolled down and a boy's voice said, "I'll be back for you later, Pie, just text me, okay?"

"Oh, no, you needn't bother, we can bring them home," Katrin said, but the window was already closing and the car backing around to make a turn.

"Michael just wanted to practice driving," Pie explained. "so Mom made him bring us here." Kyle had come out of the house and he and Jenny were petting Bantay.

Katrin then brought Pie and Jenny in to meet her mother and her father, who was at home because it was Saturday.

"I'll show them the garden," she said, "and maybe we can have merienda by the pond."

"A pond! Does it have fish?" Jenny clapped her hands.

"Yes, it has fish!" Kyle said proudly.

Just then Aian and Andy came into the house, and the basketball that Aian had been carrying fell to the floor with a loud bounce.

"Your mouth, bro. It's gaping," Katrin whispered as she walked by him. She then introduced her two brothers to Pie and was pleasantly gratified to see both boys make a fuss over their guests.

Katrin and the boys showed Pie and Jenny around the gardens and the orchard. They finally ended up at the fish pond, where the boys and their father had recently built a small gazebo at the end of a short bamboo bridge. Andy and Aian went to get refreshments from the house, while Katrin tried to amuse Pie and Jenny by pointing out the fishes that came to the surface of the waters.

"There's carp, and puyo, and gourami," she pointed out. "And that's tilapia. And there's catfish, and see that big old mudfish in the shallows? No one's been able to catch him yet, though Andy has vowed to dredge the pond."

Jenny danced around.

"Can we fish? The way they do in the movies?" she asked.

"Jenny!" Pie scolded.

"The boys are probably going fishing later," Katrin said. "Meanwhile, Jenny, take care not to fall in the water or you might catch a cold." And she saw to it that Pie kept a firm grip on the back of her little sister's dress at all times.

"This is really pretty," Pie said. "It's sunny, and there's a breeze, and the air is so clean--- there's no dust or smoke. And there's the river over there, beyond the coconut grove..."

"And down the banks and beyond the meadows a bit," Katrin supplied, laughing, for they would have to go down the steep bank and cross wide, marshy meadows before they could get to the waters of the Allah River.

"That, too," Pie said, laughing in turn. "What's beyond that wall, Kat?" And she pointed in another direction.

"Beyond that? Corn fields," Kat said. "Behind that part of the wall, there's a forested part, then the mango orchard, and beyond that the Barrios house. There's a little gate in there, actually-- but no one's been through there for a long time, ever since the Barrioses left, as we usually just took the road." And Katrin looked sad for a while, as she and Alexsyl had used that gate frequently when they were little, to get to one another's homes without having to walk on the road.

"How cute!" Pie exclaimed. "I hope we can go there later? I want to see the mango orchard."

"Well, maybe," Katrin said, and was saved from having to say anything more as her brothers arrived with a tray of native delicacies, sliced fresh melon, and buko juice. Later, Andy and Aian obliged the two little ones by getting their fishing poles. Both then sat on the wooden bridge, their feet dangling over the water, each with a child beside him, grasping a pole and waiting for a bite.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Jenny shrieked when Aian's line got a bite and began to bob. "We got a fish! We got a fish!" And Aian hauled in a decent-sized tilapia.

"We got one, too!" Kyle cried, not to be outdone, as Andy also reeled in a tilapia.

"Andy, we're just going into the orchard," Katrin told her oldest brother. "Come on, Pie!"

"Mama thought she heard some avocados fall earlier," Andy called after her. "Best take a basket!" Katrin made a face at him, but she went to the storage shed behind the house and took a basket before leading Pie to the orchard.

"We're going to look for fallen fruit," she told Pie. "If they fell only today, they're still good. We'll pick up only the good ones, of course."

Pie wrinkled her nose as they passed by the pigpen and the fenced-in yards where the Perezes kept their chickens, ducks and geese. The gander honked loudly and ran at the fence when they passed by, and Pie instinctively ran away.

"That's one mean gander! He's scary!" Pie said.

"Yes, but he can't get out anyway," Katrin told her. "And no thief would dare go in there with him on guard. He's better even than Bantay, sometimes."

Leaves and twigs crunched under their feet as they entered the orchard. Katrin spied the fallen avocadoes almost at once, and put them into the basket, along with some santol fruits. Pie entered into the activity and began to look for fruits as well. She kept asking Katrin, "Is this good?"

As they went over the ground, the two girls drew nearer to the wall that separated the Perez property from that of the absent Barrioses. They finally found the gate, half-hidden by tall weeds. It was made of iron grilles, closed and barred, with a twist of wire securing the hasp. Katrin undid this and pulled back the bolt, wincing when it screeched loudly. She eased the gate open as far as she could and motioned to Pie to go through. Then she followed.

Unlike the Perez fruit orchard, where the trees grew closer together so that the whole area was shady and cool, the mango trees in the Barrios orchard were spaced farther apart to accommodate their spreading crowns, so that the two girls walked alternately in sunshine and shadow. Pie's eyes shone when she saw the mango fruits that hung from the branches, slowly ripening.

"Mangoes," she breathed.

"Papa says they will be good for harvesting soon," Katrin told her.

"You're so lucky, Kat. Mangoes are my absolute favorite fruit on earth," Pie said, twirling around in the sunshine. "Hey, what's over there?"

Katrin turned to see where she was pointing. At the edge of the orchard, beside the wall, there was a thicket of kakawate trees. It was the only jungly part of the orchard.

"Oh... that," she said. "I don't know. I guess that's always been there for as long as I could remember, we just didn't pay it any attention."

“You mean you’ve never looked there?” Pie asked in astonishment.

Katrin looked at her, then walked dubiously toward the thicket. A faint, half-forgotten memory clicked inside her head.

“You know what, Pie, I really had forgotten this was here,” she said. ‘It’s been years since Shy left and I don’t know… I didn’t really have much call to come over here anymore I guess.”

“Forgot what was there?” Pie echoed. “Why? What’s in there?’

“Aw, it’s probably falling apart by now anyway,” Katrin said, poking a kakawate root with her foot.

“Katrin Perez, I swear, if you don’t tell me what you’re talking about…” Pie began, but Katrin was already pushing her way between the branches of the thicket. “Wait!” Pie exclaimed and plunged hastily after her friend.

After fighting with kakawate branches and roots in their path, the two girls finally emerged into the clear space at the heart of the thicket.

Pie stared at the little green cottage, the sunshine filtering through the branches sheltering it and making patterns on its roof and walls.

“Oh,” she said. ‘That.”

Pie walked around the little house. It was not a nipa hut at all, as it was not built of bamboo like the other huts its size in the barrio, but of thick wooden planks. The green paint had long since flaked off, although parts of it still showed in places. The windows as well as the small banggera, were protected by wooden grilles. The whole house was elevated on posts, and plainly had a wooden floor. Despite Katrin’s expectations, it was actually in pretty good shape for a structure that had been abandoned for so long.

‘Whose is it?” Pie asked.

“The caretaker of the orchard used to live here,” Katrin said. “He was one of Shy’s uncles… I remember he always gave my brothers and me a basket of mangoes or other fruits each time we came here. He got married, though, and moved away, and Shy’s father decided not to hire another caretaker. Instead, we all just helped in the orchard.”

“Who’s Shy? You keep mentioning her,” Pie said.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot, you didn’t know her. Shy Barrios. She was my best friend, but they moved away two years ago.”

‘Oh. I see,” Pie said. After a while she added, “Hey, do you think we can get in?”

“It should be open, I think,” Katrin said, heading for the cottage’s front door, which faced Riverside Road.

“You know, if we cleaned this place up and cut away some of the branches, it would be a nice place to hang out,” Pie said, going around the cottage again.

“You know we can’t do that, Pie…” Katrin trailed off as she reached the door and put out a hand to open it. She just as quickly withdrew her hand and stared.

‘What’s the matter, Kat? You’ve gone silent all of a sudden,” Pie called.

“I can’t believe this. It’s locked!” said Katrin, staring at the Yale padlock that secured the hasp of the door. ‘Hey Pie! Where are you? Don’t go running off, be careful where you step, okay? There might be…”

“…Kat!” Pie suddenly exclaimed.

“…snakes!” Katrin yelped, startled.

“Snakes…?!” Pie queried in alarm. “Where?”

“You startled me! I thought you’d seen one!” Katrin said, walking around the cottage to join her.

“I haven’t, but look!” Pie pointed to the part of the thicket near the wall that separated the two properties.

“We went to all that trouble… and all along there was a way in!” Katrin said. Indeed there was a gap in the thicket, facing the wall, and a well-beaten path leading out. She and Pie followed it beside the wall until they pushed aside a low-hanging branch and emerged again in the mango orchard, not ten feet away from the gate.

“Kaaaaaat! Piiiiiiie! Where are you?” Katrin suddenly heard Aian’s voice, faintly calling. She and Pie looked at each other and headed back through the gate. She had just finished twisting the wire back around the hasp and was picking up the basket when Aian found them.

“There you both are!” he said. “Pie, Jenny is panicking because she couldn’t find you.” He fell into step beside them as they headed back towards the house, and took the basket. Peering into it, he said, ‘Hnh. Is this all you found? You were gone so long I’d have thought you would have filled this basket and then some.”

“Tell the trees to drop more fruits then,” said Katrin, cuffing him amiably.

“And, Pie, did you know you’ve got amorseco on your skirt?” Aian said

Chapter One: A Boring Summer?

2010-07-22T18:48:00.003+08:00

“I'm bored,” thirteen-year-old Katrin Perez said out loud. She was washing the breakfast dishes in the kitchen sink and there was no one to hear her. Her little brother was playing with his toys in the living room. Her father had gone to work, and her mother was selling vegetables at the market with the help of her two other brothers. Katrin was left at home to do the household chores.

“If only there were other girls living nearby!” she said. Their little house was situated in a charming spot, near the riverbank in Purok Riverside, Sto. Niño, South Cotabato, but oh, they did not have any nearby neighbors. Katrin wished that the Barrioses, whose daughter Alexsyl had been her closest friend in elementary school, had not moved away two years before. The Barrios family had lived in the house closest to the Perezes, a house that now stood empty and lonely.

“The neighborhood is full of houses, all abandoned,” Katrin remarked to nobody in particular. There was another nearby house, one that she and her brothers used to pretend was a haunted house, as it stood by itself on a little knoll a little way up the road. It was a big house, built in the old Spanish style, and people in Purok Riverside called it “the Mansion.” One of the old people in Riverside said that it had belonged to a rich family with a tragic history. Katrin and her brothers had wanted to explore the mansion and were expressly forbidden to do so by their parents.

Her cellphone's message tone sounded. It was her mother, reminding her to pick the remaining vegetables while it was still early, and one of her brothers would be home later to fetch them. Sighing, Katrin finished the dishes and put them on the rack to drip-dry.

“I want to come, too!” exclaimed seven-year-old Kyle, when he saw Katrin put on a wide-brimmed straw hat and pick up a basket. So Katrin got his own hat and led him out of the house. The black dog that had been lying down beside the door with its head in its paws thumped its tail and stood up and followed them.

Katrin and Kyle went to the vegetable gardens that stretched out over their wide back yard. Here, ampalaya climbed trellises, along with squash and jicama and beans. Eggplants hung like purple jewels, and sweet potato carpeted the ground. There were also tomatoes and peanuts in their own plots.

Katrin picked eggplants first, admonishing Kyle and the dog, Bantay, when they would chase each other through the garden. Bantay went back to his post beside the door, and Katrin taught Kyle to choose what fruits to pick. Then she looked through the ampalayas, string beans, and snap beans. Red, orange and yellow tomatoes went into Kyle's little basket, which he carried proudly back to the bench beside the back door when it got full. Lastly, Katrin chose and picked five plump squashes, which her mother would sell either by the piece or by the slice at the market.

The two of them had almost finished tying the eggplants, ampalaya and beans into little bundles when the family tricycle raced into the front yard, driven by one of their neighbors, Manong Tino, since none of Katrin's brothers were actually old enough to drive. Katrin's twin brother Aian was in the tricycle.

"How's the market?" asked Katrin as she put the bundles of vegetables into a basket. Kyle helped Manong Tino and Aian load the baskets into the tricycle.

"Lots of people," and Aian grinned. The two of them looked very much alike, with unruly black hair, expressive golden-brown eyes, and golden skin, except that Aian had a more aquiline nose than his sister. Both were also at the moment wearing baggy denim shorts, loose white t-shirts, and flip-flops. "Saw some of our classmates. That Rodin Reyes asked after you."

"Shut up, Aian." Rodin was one of the boys who were always following Katrin around at school, trying to get her attention.

"Shall I give him your regards?" Aian asked, and Katrin threw one of the squashes at him, with effort. "Ouch! Easy there, sis. Luckily I caught it, else you'll have wasted over twenty pesos."

"If you didn't catch it, it would have been your fault, egghead," said Katrin and made a face at him. "So. Has Almie Santos been by? She texted me this morning asking if we were going to be at the market today. I told her I wouldn't but you would be."

"Aw, Kat." Almie had a crush on Aian.

"So she has been by! I hope she bought a lot of vegetables," Katrin couldn't resist teasing her twin.

"Oh, she did. Told Mama we were classmates, too, and Mama gave her a discount."

"Gee, we should have more girls crushing on you then, bro... then we'd sell all our vegetables."

"Aw, shut up, Kat." Aian finished loading the baskets of vegetables and got into the tricycle as Manong Tino revved the motor. "Well, we're off!"

Katrin looked at the clock in the sala. It was ten o'clock, and she settled Kyle in front of the TV to watch cartoons while she loaded the day's laundry into the washing machine. These were the ordinary everyday clothes; the ones with stubborn stains she left for her mother to deal with later. She made a face at the whirling clothes. She and her brothers had finished getting their grades and year-end requirements from school the previous day, and today, Friday, Market Day, was officially their first day of summer. But while her brothers were at the market, here she was, slaving away at the household chores.

By the time she had finished hanging the laundry up to dry on the backyard clothesline, it was already eleven-thirty and Kyle was asking for something to eat. They had the fried fish that their mother had left them for lunch, then Katrin tried to settle Kyle down for a nap. She finally succeeded in making him lie down when she promised him they'd go to the barangay cooperative store for merienda when he woke up.

It was such a warm, drowsy summer afternoon that Katrin nodded off to sleep herself. She was awakened some time later by Kyle, asking about merienda. So she got her hat, her wallet, and Kyle's hat, closed up the house, took her little brother by the hand, and set off on the long walk to the purok center, where the co-op store stood beside the purok basketball court.

It was nice walking down Riverside Road, as there were tall trees along both sides of the road, which ran high in some places as the road cut through a hillside. Up ahead, Katrin and Kyle could see the houses in the main purok, and the corner where Riverside Road met Acacia Street.

Suddenly they heard frenzied barking, and a little brown dog ran out into the road. Katrin immediately swung Kyle up into her arms.

Then she saw the little girl running after the dog. She was dressed in a pretty little pink sundress and pink sandals, and had her hair up in two ponytails with pink ribbons.

"Robin!" she scolded. "Bad dog! Come back here!"

Kat looked along the way the little girl had come from and realized that the wide stone steps that led up the hillside were those that led to the mansion.

The dog, Robin, was now running around Katrin, still barking, and she kept turning around, trying to keep facing it in case it suddenly decided to bite her.

The little girl came running up to them.

"Robin! Leave them alone!" she said, and grasped the brown collar Katrin had not seen hidden in the dog's fur. To Katrin, the little girl said, "I'm sorry! He won't bite you-- he doesn't bite. He just got away from me." She looked to be about Kyle's age, with dancing dark eyes, an impish little face, and long straight black hair.

A voice called "Jenny! where are you!" Soon a girl about Kat's own age, dressed in a spaghetti-strap top and leggings, the kind that Kat saw other girls wearing on TV, came running down the steps. "There you are!" she called. "Hi! I'm sorry, did our bad dog frighten you? I'm Pia Nolasco and this is my sister Jenny."

Kyle now wriggled, asking to be put down, and Katrin put him down-- he was getting heavy-- and bemusedly shook Pia's hand.

"I'm Katrin Perez, and this is my brother Kyle. I've never seen you around here before, and we've lived here forever," she said. "Are you visiting people around here?"

Pia laughed.

"Please call me Pie, and may I call you Kat? We just moved in," she gestured up the hill, "yesterday."

"Yesterday! Where did you live before you came here?" Katrin asked in surprise. Kyle, meanwhile, walked over to talk to Jenny and pet the little brown dog.

"Manila," Pie answered. "Mommy's family used to live here a long time ago, before I was born, but then they moved to Manila and that was where she met Daddy. And now because my-- because Daddy wanted to live in the province, they decided to bring us back here to Mommy's old house." She pointed towards the mansion.

"Wow," Katrin said. "That old house has been empty for as long as I could remember. We live down the road, the last house before you get to the river. Please do come and visit us sometime."

"Sure!" Pie said. "And won't you come in and have merienda with us? I was going to call Jenny in for merienda anyway."

"Oh, no, we couldn't impose on you," Katrin said hastily. "Kyle and I were on our way to the purok center.. to buy merienda."

"They have a swimming pool, Ate!" Kyle said in awestruck tones, after Jenny whispered something to him. "A swimming pool of their very own!"

"I'm bringing Kyle home to see the swimming pool," Jenny announced. "Come, Robin." And she led the way back up the steps to the mansion. Kyle looked at his sister, then followed his new friend. Exchanging amused glances, the two older sisters followed them.

A pretty woman was standing in the garden at the top of the steps, looking around her. "Where could they be?" she asked.

"Mommy!" Jenny ran to her and hugged her around the knees. "This is Kyle. I want him to see the swimming pool. Come, Kyle. It's around back."

"Jenny! We are going to have merienda!" her mother called after her.

"In a minute!" And Jenny was off with Kyle in tow.

"Michael! Go with Jenny!" Mrs. Nolasco called, and a boy about the age of Katrin's oldest brother Andy came out of the house and went after the two little ones.

"Mom, this is Katrin Perez. She's Kyle's sister. They were passing by in the road when Robin got out," and Pie told her mother what had happened.

"Maring, we are going to have guests with us for merienda," Mrs. Nolasco told the woman who was carrying a pitcher of iced tea out of the house and putting it on a table in the garden.

"Yes, madam," Maring answered before going back in.

"Don't worry about your little brother," Mrs. Nolasco told Katrin with a smile, handing her a glass of iced tea. "They will be perfectly safe with Jenny's older brother Michael. I hope you like spaghetti, my dear?"

Katrin sat down in a garden chair with a sigh of contentment and accepted a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce and plenty of cheese, and two slices of toasted bread with butter.

"This is so yummy," she declared. "Mmmm!"

"Mommy made it!" Pie said as she helped herself to the spaghetti.

"Thank you, Katrin. Speaking of mothers... I hope yours won't be worried..?" Mrs. Nolasco said.

"Oh, Mama and my brothers are at the market. They sell our vegetables there every Market Day," Katrin said. "Of course when we're at school she takes Kyle with her, but now that school's out, she left him with me."

"Fresh vegatables!" Mrs. Nolasco exclaimed. "Oh, how wonderful! Those are so hard to get in the city."

Katrin explained that sometimes the neighbors even came all the way to their house to buy and pick their own vegetables from the Perez garden.

"Fruits, too, when they are in season," she said. "Papa is just waiting for the watermelons and melons to ripen, maybe next week. And there are some lacatan and saba bananas in the orchard, too, just waiting to ripen. And we have santol, and avocado, and suha, although Papa despairs of our lanzones tree, for it looks like it doesn't want to bear any fruits."

"Mangoes, too?" Pie asked eagerly.

"Well, the mango orchard really belongs to the Barrioses-- see that empty house up the road, before you get to ours? So I don't count the mangoes as ours, really. But when the Barrioses moved away, they told Papa that we could harvest the mangoes when they ripened, because otherwise they'd just be wasted. So yes, we have mangoes when they're in season, although I think Papa sends the money to the Barrioses whenever we are able to sell the fruit."

"Mangoes are my favorite fruit!" and Pie's eyes sparkled.

"I'll bring over the first of the season," Katrin promised, and Pie clapped her hands happily.

"Wow! Spaghetti! Is it someone's birthday?" Kyle exclaimed when he and Jenny came back to the garden. Mrs. Nolasco just laughed and gave him a plate.

"Where's Michael?" she asked Jenny.

"He went to his room. Says he doesn't want merienda," Jenny answered, already forking up her spaghetti.

Mrs. Nolasco sighed and shook her head.

"Shall I fetch him, Mom?" Pie asked.

"No, he'll come down when he gets hungry," her mother said and turned to Katrin. "So where do you go to school, Kat?"

"Sto. Nino National High School. I'll be in Second Year this June," Katrin said proudly. "Where will Pie be going to school, Ma'am?"

"Please, call me Tita Anna," said Mrs. Nolasco. "I went to the Notre Dame of Marbel for Girls many years ago... it's the Notre Dame of Siena now, isn't it? Pie still hasn't made up her mind if she wants to go there, though."'

"Oh, the one in Marbel," Katrin said, referring to the capital city of the province. "It's a good school, yeah. They beat us in last year's science fair, when they teamed up with the Notre Dame of Marbel University. But we trumped them in the Quiz Bee, anyway. We're just a public school, but we aren't that backward, if I do say so myself. And I love my teachers," she declared loyally. "Next year maybe they'll choose me to be one of the delegates to the FHP. That'll be fun."

"FHP?" Pie asked. She and her mother exchanged glances.
"Future Homemakers of the Philippines," Kat said. "It lasts for a week and there are all sorts of contests, from sewing to cooking to dancing. But of course, the Notre Dame of Siena is a very good school," she repeated. "I'm just loyal to my alma mater, that's all." And they all laughed.

Just then something buzzed in the pocket of Kat's shorts, and she jumped, then pulled out her cellphone. It was a text from her mother, saying that they were on their way home.

"I guess we better be on our way home too," she said to Mrs. Nolasco. "Thank you for the delicious merienda, Tita."

"When will you come back?" Jenny demanded.

"Tell you what, Jenny, why don't you and your Ate Pie come over to our house tomorrow? If it's okay with Tita, of course," and Katrin looked to Mrs. Nolasco for approval.

"Yes, of course," Mrs. Nolasco said at once. She and Pie and Jenny waved goodbye from the top of the stone steps as Katrin and Kyle went down them.

A tricycle was coming up the road as Katrin and Kyle emerged from the mansion steps. It came to a stop and Katrin realized it was their own tricycle, driven by Manong Tino, and with her mother and Aian and Andy in it.

"Mama!" Kyle eagerly scrambled in to hug his mother, and Aian vacated the seat beside her for Katrin and went to the back to sit beside Andy.

"Where did you come from?" Mrs. Perez asked, and Kyle told her about his new friends. Katrin met her mother's questioning glance and grinned.

"Simply put, Mama, we have new neighbors," she said.

"Oh! New neighbors! Well!" her mother said. "I suppose your Papa and I will have to pay them a visit sometime, then."

"I asked Pie and Jenny to come over tomorrow, if that's okay, Mama?"

"Of course it is, dear," and Mrs. Perez was pleasantly surprised when Katrin flung her arms around her neck and gave her a hug. "What was that for?"

Katrin grinned.

"This summer just got a lot better," she said.