Micah padded out barefoot onto the terrace, shivering a little. The morning was still cold although it was summer, and the chill cut through the thin t-shirt and terrycloth shorts she wore. She wrapped her hands gratefully around the towel wrapped around her mug of hot coffee. As early as she'd gotten up today, Manang Norma was awake and puttering around in the kitchen when she came downstairs, and had insisted on pouring her a cup of hot coffee.

Manang Norma was a surprise. Her letter had been written in spiky script, with antiquated spelling. Micah had thought she might be younger, but she was pushing sixty, a retired school teacher who had been a cousin of her mother's.

"Micah? It's Micah, isn't it?" she'd asked, hurrying outside with her glasses askew when the tricycle had stopped before the front gate. "We thought you weren't coming until the weekend!"

"I know, Manang Norma!" Micah had answered, putting down her backpack and submitting to a hug. "But Daddy had an important business conference in Cebu and I decided to come along for the ride then come straight here. Since you didn't give us a phone number, we couldn't call you about the change in plans."

By then they'd attracted attention and neighbors and passersby stopped to look at them.

"Yes, this is her, this is Caridad's daughter," Manang Norma had announced to all of them. "She's vacationing here for a while. Tino! Tino!" She pronounced this last like the word for "sane," making Micah struggle to keep a straight face.

Manong Tino was Manang Norma's husband, who had been building a bonfire of fallen leaves in the backyard. He was tubby and unkempt, in contrast to Manang Norma who was slim and impeccable in a matching sleeveless blouse and culottes with a batik pattern, but both beamed at her with good will. They'd grown up with her mother, and Caridad Pedroso had trusted them to live in her parents' house and take care of her property after her parents died. They'd gone on taking care of the place not knowing Caridad herself had died, and it was only after Manang Norma had sent her a letter asking why she had not written in a long time that Micah had found out her mother had a house and some land in the province.

Micah had been pleasantly surprised by the house-- she had expected a hut or cottage of some sort because of the location. But this was easily one of the biggest houses in the barrio, set in the middle of a wide lot that had lots of space for a flower garden in front, vegetable gardens on both sides, and a wide yard in the back, with an animal pen and a small orchard down at the end. The house itself was simple, wide-windowed, with a hollow-block ground floor and a wooden upper floor. There was a wide cement terrace in front, easily the same size as the living room and big enough to throw a party on; it was enclosed with low cement balustrades wide enough to lie on. Three wide, shallow steps led down to the garden-- her grandmother's, Manang Norma had said.

They'd given her her mother's old room at the front of the house overlooking the terrace. From the wide windows with sliding panels, she could see the garden and the street. It was the windows that made her cry, all of a sudden-- they were so much like her mother, whose first requirement for a house was that it had windows big enough to let in the sunshine and fresh air. Now she knew why.

Manang Norma had told her to rest after her journey, but she'd been so keyed up at finally being here that she'd wandered around the house poking into everything-- her grandparents' photos on the walls, an old photo of her mother, the bathroom (which was kind of dark and dismal, she'd have to do something about that), the storeroom, the kitchen where Manang Norma was busy cooking many things that smelled good.

She'd refused Micah's offer to help, and chased her out saying she'd work faster alone. She gave Micah an old rubber slipper instead, and told her to go to the backyard and give it to Manong Tino since he'd forgotten it. Scratching her head at the mental image of Manong Tino wearing only one slipper, and wondering why he'd wear something that already had a chunk chopped off at the back, Micah had done as she was told.

Manong Tino had thanked her and showed her the new ducklings and chicks, and the pigs, which he told her they'd bought with the money her mother had sent over the years. "We don't really need that much money," he explained. "We can grow what we eat right here in the yard and on the farm, and sell what's left over. The pigs were the only big expense, but when they get big enough we can keep what we need and sell the rest of the meat, and that lets us buy another pig to take care of. We rarely even go out of the barrio, only to buy what we can't grow like salt, sugar and clothes."

The ducks and chickens came running up when they saw someone approach the fence. Manong Tino gave her a scoop of rice and let her feed them, and she amused herself watching the ducklings and chicks for a while.

Then the acrid smell of something burning reached her, making her cough, and she looked around to see Manong Tino heaping more leaves on the bonfire. He held the old slipper in his hand-- another chunk had been hacked off.

She looked down at his feet-- he was wearing a pair of slippers.

"Just a little precaution," he said. "We don't know what might be lurking."

Manang Norma also burned a piece of the slipper in the old-fashioned wood-burning stove that night after supper, "to keep away any unwanted presence," she explained. Micah wanted to keep the windows open to let in the fresh air, but Manang Norma closed and barred all the windows in her room, explaining that the insects would come in and anyway it got a bit cold at night.

* * *

"Micah! Why are you standing there without any slippers on?" Manang Norma's voice broke into her musings. "That cement's deathly cold!" Micah tried to explain that she liked to go barefoot inside the house, but Manang Norma insisted she put on a pair of felt slippers that looked new.

"Just like your mother!" she scolded. "Caridad also liked to go barefoot indoors. She and that..." she stopped.

"That what, Manang?"

"Never mind. What do you want for breakfast? We have pork chops, eggs, sausage, fish, dried fish..."

"Whatever you feel like cooking, Manang," Micah said. "I'm not picky. And you really don't need to hurry because of me, I take too long to wake up. I'll just sit here and drink coffee and enjoy the garden."

And she proceeded to do just that. sitting on the terrace railing watching the rising sun deepen and brighten the colors of the leaves and flowers, until Manang Norma called her to breakfast. 

After breakfast, she began to fidget. She opened her netbook and found that she couldn't connect to the Internet. Her cellphone was uncharacteristically quiet-- it had no signal as well.

"There's no signal in the barrio," Manang Norma explained. "That's why almost no one has a cellphone. There aren't any cellsites nearby enough. They say you can catch a signal up on the hill, but it comes and goes. 

Manang Norma had a TV, but it could pick up only one channel, and not very well at that. So she didn't use it much, preferring to tune in the radio to her favorite soaps which were in the local language.  After getting a headache from listening to something she didn't understand, Micah went out to find Manong Tino, but he was pruning some shrubs.

By  three o'clock, she had already had lunch, taken a bath, washed and conditioned her hair, and even done her nails, which was something she did only when she was very, very bored. She was ready to scream. Finally she packed her netbook and mp3 player into her messenger bag, put on her sneakers, and went out.

Manang Norma collared her at the front door, asking where she was going.

"You said there was a hill, Manang?"

"Yes, why?"

"Could you tell me how to get there?"

"What are you going to do there?"

"I need to use my cellphone."

"I'll come with you, just wait a bit."

"No, you don't need to, Manang, really, I'm perfectly fine on my own. You might get bored, and you might have other things to do here. I'll be fine, really."

She finally persuaded Manang Norma to let her go alone, but not before getting a fresh slice of ginger pinned inside her shirt.

"And don't you dare take it off," was the admonition. "No matter what you do, be home before dark."

"Yes, Manang..."

And she was finally free to go, smiling at people who greeted her on the street, although they looked at her a bit curiously.

Finally, here was the hill, rising behind the barrio-- she saw it at once when she got to the last house on their street. Part of it was being quarried, but the machinery was deserted. Manang Norma had said there was a path to the top, and she looked for it as she drew nearer. The hill wasn't really that high-- the cliffs on the side being quarried were about twice and a half as high as the steam shovel that stood idle at their foot. The side not being quarried was a lopsided, although rather steep grassy slope dotted with trees. And here, finally, was the way up, a narrow track cut into the hillside. She began to climb.

Halfway up, she began to wish she'd worked out. Her calves and thighs were aching, and she was pouring sweat although it was a cloudy day.

"Ugh! Eww de sweat!" she said out loud, huffing and puffing. "Just-- a --- few--- more--- steps---"

The top of the hill was fairly flat, and mostly covered with tall talahib grass, except for a clearing around a lone camachile tree beside a rickety hut that was really no more than a thatched roof and a bamboo-slat floor supported by four bamboo posts. She could see a good portion of the countryside. Was that group of houses over there the barrio? But it was too small, and besides, she'd come from the other direction...

The phone in her pocket began to vibrate, and she unbuttoned the flap and pulled it out. She amused herself for a while  by reading her message backlog from her friends and her father, but when she tried to send a message declining an invitation to an event and explaining that she was out of town, the message kept failing. When she looked at the signal meter, she realized that the signal was intermittent, and began running around trying to get her message sent.

****

Daniel was on the path that led over the hill, moving swiftly amidst the talahib, when he heard a soft muttering that rose and fell as if pleadingly. Brow furrowed, he slowed down and followed the sound, his nostrils flaring as he caught a familiar scent. Could it be--? He reached the edge of the talahib and peeked out, and suddenly felt his mood lift.

He'd been in a foul mood that morning, when he came back from the farm only to find that Dorian, who had promised not to go with their cousins when they asked him, and who had pleaded that he was not feeling well when Daniel tried to bring him along to help, had in fact done the latter in order to break the former. Nor had the boy been in at lunchtime-- Daniel knew why, he himself had no appetite but forced himself to fill a plate and eat everything on it. When the boy had not returned by late afternoon, he'd decided to go out in search so as to bring Dorian back before dark. It was sheer luck that brought him to the hilltop, since he would have gone around the hill with less effort, but he'd thought Dorian might be hiding there.

Daniel laughed to himself as he saw the girl running around on top of the hill, waving something in her hand. Faint curses and exhortations reached his ears.

"Come on come on come on send, darn you-- why don't you send you evil thing-- send now send now send now-- grrrh, send now! Gah! Ooooomph, send send send send--- sent! Yes!"

She sat down on the grass-- collapsed would be a better word-- and laughed in glee.

"Yes, Jin-ho baby, I knew you wouldn't fail me," she said, looking at what she held, which Daniel supposed was a cell phone. "Let's see if Bidam does the same." She opened the bag slung across her body and took out something the size of a large book, opened that and set it up on her lap, and pressed something. She then reached again into the bag and stuck something the size of a cigarette lighter onto the side of the thing  that looked like a book.

"Yes! Signal!" she chortled and began pressing around inside the book. Daniel realized it was a small laptop computer.

"Argh, broadband, you evil thing, why do you fluctuate on me," she said, glaring at the laptop. "You mean I'm going to have to survive for many days without the internet? I'm going to die! Don't be cruel!"

He laughed even more at this-- she'd die if her laptop didn't do what she wanted it to do? She had some weird ideas about dying!

The wind blowing across the hilltop suddenly changed direction, blowing the now-familiar smell of her directly into his nostrils. And with it, another familiar, unwelcome smell. He frowned, sniffed deeply, and began scanning the landscape. There. Movement. Across from him, on the other side. His eyes sharpened. If Ramon thought he could get away with this in broad daylight...

****

Micah's thighs were already beginning to itch, from the grass and the unaccustomed exertion, and with a sigh, she carried her netbook over to the hut and put it on the floor, then sat before it Indian-style.

"Well," she said out loud. "One of the good things about this place is the fresh air. But it still has no internet. How on earth am I to update my blogs and upload stuff? And my Farmville crops, my virtual pets, they'll die!"

Suddenly two weeks seemed very long.

"Maybe I could fast-track stuff?" she asked herself. "Can't Manang Norma and Manong Tino go on the way they do now? It's Mama's house-- I really don't want to sell it if she grew up in it. Maybe Daddy will let me fix it up a bit-- that bathroom, for one, I can't live with it for long. Then we could use it as a rest house." She envisioned herself telling her friends grandly that she was going off a bit to her vacation rest house in the province, and giggled.

"I guess I have to call Daddy," she decided. "Maybe have some stuff done while I'm here-- surely it can't take very long to have that bathroom tiled and put in better lights? It'll be a fun project. Then I'll take the two old people shopping."

"Operation Renovation! Yes!" she cried, flinging her arms out wide and giggling to herself.

She looked back at her laptop.

"Well, as long as you're open," she said, and clicked on Plants vs. Zombies.

She'd finally gotten her plants lined up to her satisfaction and sat back to let them decimate the advancing lines of zombies, when she heard a rustling in the talahib and looked up.

A man was standing there, looking at her.

He looked ordinary enough in a nondescript gray t-shirt and tattered jeans. Shaggy hair almost covered his piercing dark eyes; a strange smile played on his lips as he just stood there and stared at her.

Micah blinked. The man was still there. Staring at her. Unblinkingly.

"Uh-- hi?" she said.

He didn't answer. He just went on staring. Micah exited her game and closed the netbook, talking all the while.

"I'm sorry," she said. "If I'm not supposed to be here, just say so and I'll go-- is this hut yours?"

Still no answer.

She slid the netbook into her bag and tossed the rest of her stuff in with it. 

"Okay then," she said. "Sorry to have disturbed you. I like this place. It's very nice. I'll be going now..."

She was watching him out of the corner of her eye and could have sworn he didn't move. When she looked up, however, he was standing beside the hut, with only an expanse of bamboo floor between them.

"Oh, my," she exclaimed, trying to keep her voice steady. "You gave me a start. There's no need to scare me away, really-- I'm leaving now."

"There you are!" someone said. At first she thought the man had finally spoken, for it was a male voice, but he still had not opened his mouth. Instead he turned his head very slowly to look to the side...

****

She recognized him at once. Daniel saw it in her eyes, in the way her mouth fell open just a bit then shut quickly, in the way she let out her breath slowly as he approached. The scent of her fear began to fade, although he didn't know why it should.

He looked at his cousin, who was glaring at him resentfully. 

"I was looking for you, Ramon," Daniel said. "I thought Dorian was with you."

"He's not," Ramon answered.

Both of them heard her mutter in Filipino, "So he does talk! What does he go around scaring people for?" Before Ramon could speak first, however, Daniel answered her, "Yes, he does. And we meet again."

"I knew it was you. From yesterday," she said, scrambling down out of the hut and stamping her feet-- to shake off the pins and needles, Daniel guessed. "I wasn't sure though-- you ran off so fast."

"I was in a bit of a hurry," he said. Was she grinning at him? She was!

"I thought you were," she answered. She was really quick on the uptake, he thought-- she'd even gotten the upper hand over Ramon by speaking first.

She'd descended to the ground on his other side, so that he now stood between her  and his cousin. He heard Ramon snarl  and turned to look at him, holding his eyes.

"Stay off and don't do anything stupid," he dismissed the younger man, in their language, since she could not understand it.

"She's mine," Ramon snarled back. "I saw her first. Even if you're the head, you can't just butt in like that."

"Do you really want to cross me, dear cousin? As to that-- I saw her first. Yesterday. So your so-called claim is negated."

"At the market? When you so obligingly caught her?" Ramon stopped when he caught sight of the feral glint in his cousin's eye.

"Be off," Daniel ordered him. And again, in Filipino, "Don't you have anything else to do, cousin?"

"All right." Ramon glared at him one more time before turning and leaving.

"Thank you," she said from behind him. He thought normal people would have fled silently while his back was turned, but she was still standing there. 

"That's the second time in as many days that you've rescued me," she added.

"As to the first, it was my fault for bumping into you," he pointed out. "As to the second-- has no one ever told you you shouldn't be wandering off alone?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"This is the province," she pointed out. "I didn't even get in trouble in the city, and I've lived there all my life. Why is everybody telling me not to go off alone? I can take care of myself."

"Listen, city girl," he said. "It doesn't matter where you are-- if you go wandering off to places you know nothing about, you don't know what will happen to you."

She snorted and scowled, not even deigning to answer, and walked off towards the path leading down. He could still smell Ramon's presence, so he sighed and fell into step just a pace behind her. Just to see her safely down, he told himself.

"And stop following me. It makes my nape itch," she said without even turning around.

"I'm just making sure you get back safely," he said, catching up to her as she reached the top of the path. "It's nearly sunset."

"Feh. There are weekends when I've just woken up at this hour," she said, curling her lip and starting downhill. She had pretty little teeth, although some of them were a bit crooked. "That's when I go out and meet some friends for dinner or an event or to go to the cinema."

"Not here," he said. "No one here goes out at night."

"No one? Surely you have dances-- fiestas-- stuff like that?"

"Sometimes," he said. "But not always. It's not safe to go out at night-- has no one ever told you that? You never know just what you might meet in the darkness-- perhaps it will be something that will eat you."

That made her laugh.

"I know how to handle dogs," she said. "Mosquitoes, too."

"There are worse things than those," he said, not laughing.

"Like your scary cousin?"

"So he did scare you. That's why you shouldn't go wandering off alone, especially toward nightfall. He's not the only scary thing around."

She shrugged.

"Are all city girls like you?" Daniel was getting uneasy. Ramon's presence was still strong, and he thought he felt Dorian's presence, but it went by very fast. Ramon's brother Braulio was also out there, somewhere. He hoped the fact that he was there would make it clear that they were not to touch the girl.

The girl in question did not answer him; she merely laughed. It was easier to go down than to go up, and they were nearly at the quarry. The hill was between them and the setting sun, but Daniel guessed from the reddened sky that night would soon fall. He wished she would hurry home.

"Strange," she mused. "Something doesn't seem right..."

He suddenly felt Ramon's presence wink out-- his cousin had abruptly left. 

Moments later, something screamed.

Micah shivered. The scream was eerie and went on and on-- as if the screamer had received the shock of her life and couldn't stop shrilling. She could not tell where it came from.

When she turned to her companion, he was gone. The scream stopped as if the screamer had suddenly run out of air. Night fell abruptly, as if the heavens had clapped a dark lid on the world. A chill wind came up. Micah shivered, and ran back up the road to the barrio.

As she passed the first house on the edge of the barrio, its lights just beginning to flicker into existence, she realized what had felt different earlier. As if switched on, the cicadas and other night insects burst into full chorus, serenading her as she ran past. She didn't stop running until she reached her mother's house and Manang Norma waiting anxiously at the doorway. It wasn't until she was safe inside the house that she realized she hadn't even remembered to ask his name.

----------------------------

Note: Vocabulary

Manang - (ma-nang) literally "older sister," Visayan honorific used to address older women not old enough to be your grandmother. See "manong."

Barrio - In the Philippines, used to refer to a rural village, where it is interchangeable with "barangay."