The conversation lingered and at each word spoken, Sal feared they’d ask more. 

“What is your name again, child?”

Full name? Or a nickname? To give a nickname is impolite. Her full name? No one’s ever had a middle name like her among these people. They must think it strange. Her surname? No. Not a word.

“Sal-”

“Alright, Sal.”

The woman slapped her thigh, “It’s getting late. Mosquitoes are already feasting on my feet. Let’s have dinner inside.”

Lea rose to her feet, “ Oh no, Ma’am.”

“We have room inside and extra mats, for guests you see.”

“ Do you often have visitors from outside the island?” LEa asked.

“ Oh, very rare, once in a blue moon rare. Few even know this island exists. Although sometimes, we get people from outside the capital, but you could count them in one hand.”

The man chimed in, “ The last time those chaps from the census or whatever they’re called, came here, was years, heck, a decade ago.”

The woman glared at the man. He in turn, replied, “ Adeng might appreciate people from the office showing up.”

“ Anyway, enough about that,” she turned to Lea. “ The people who come here do so to stay. One did come and leave, perhaps to take care of business.” The woman looked far into her tea in silence. A familiar look crossed her face, one Sal saw from the maid once. “ Anyway, point is, you need to stay the night for awhile. It’s dangerous at night. The river is dark and the water rises.” 

They poured into the hut and Ro carried her inside. It was a wide space with bamboo floors. A few rooms at the back. Sal almost forgot about Inie’s mother and even Inie herself. Inie’s mother, that frail woman, came out to greet them despite the protests of that one woman Sal has not seen before. The man’s cousin who he mentioned offered to stay with them to help around the house. 

Lea only sat on her seat. She was not any more different than when she was at the Hospicio. Her gaze only followed the woman yet her feet were poised in front of her even as she crouched, ready to rise. But she did not.

Before dinner. Lea asked Ro to help him make a splinter for Sal’s leg. The boatman provided them with sticks and cloth they could use. Ro held Sal’s feet while Lea positioned the sticks around it.

“ You must be good at this.” The man said to them from where he sat on the window.

Ro raised his arms before he pointed at Lea. “ No, not me. I’m great, but I’m just the greatest assistant. Lea’s the fix-it girl with this stuff. The medicine gal. I know one or two about fixing a wound but she does it like no other.”

Lea shushed him and tried to grab his hand to keep supporting Sal’s feet, but Ro was faster.

Ro paid no heed and held his hands high in the air. “ Oh, she’s the best. A medical assistant to a doctor in the North at ten? At ten years old, I was hanging from trees, hiding from my dad’s lashing. “

“I’d tie your mouth before I get to tie this splinter, Sgr. Constable.” Lea whispered to Ro before turning to the couple. “ He was exaggerating. I was only the errand girl. Fetching water and stuff.”

“Alright, if that’s what you say.”

“Believe me,” Ro said but what he’s about to say was cut off by Lea grabbing his arm back to hoist it on Sal’s feet.

“Forgive us, little lady.” Ro said.

It was nothing. Sal rather liked these pictures. Come dinner time, Sal was able to walk a little. She stayed quiet as the couple, Ro, LEa, and the boatman talked. She counted the laughters and the times Ro would bring up his adventures with catching a great fish barehanded. She counted the plants Lea said she tasted in the soup.

Before they stood up from the table, Inie’s mother set aside a cup of soup and walked towards a room.

“ Let me do it.” The man’s cousin said.

“ I can do it.” She limped but tripped on her feet. Soup spilled on the floor. 

“Look what you’ve done!” The cousin yelled. Inie’s mother recoiled at one corner, she bent on her knees and picked at the pieces spilled on the bamboo floor. 

The cousin shoved her hand away, “ I’ll do it. You’ll hurt yourself.” She spit her words.

“ Rilyang.” The woman called from her seat. Only then did the cousin stop. She approached her cousin and picked up a rag to clean the mess.

LEa gritted her teeth and rose from her seat. She came to Inie’s mother, held her by the arms and let Inie’s mother to pull herself to feet.

The boatman spoke amidst the mess. “ Inie just ate a few minutes ago.”

A singular glare came from the cousin and the woman gave a sigh.

The cousin, despite her silence, yelled so much with how she looked at them. It was brief, but Sal knew she would not want to be impolite to this person.

“Does she have enough water?” Lea asked out of the blue. “ Your daughter, Madam?” She turned to Inie’s mother.

The cousin scoffed while Inie’s mother only stared, bewildered.

At that, Lea checked the room where Inie stayed and fetched water. 

The movements came so natural and swift that Sal forgot to make her deliberations. Perhaps, Lea would always be swift like that without a hard thought to her actions, like a bee flying on instinct. How could one decipher instinct? Sal knew Inie first, and try as she might, she admitted she marvelled and also jealous at Lea’s quick reactions to the events.

Sal steered clear of immersing in conversations across the house, preferring to melt with the corners. It allowed her to listen to every whispered word and the silent sighs around the house. 

Deep in the night, when the constable and the man snored and the others were deep in slumber, Sal spied the woman and the cousin outside on the porch. Sal dragged her numb feet to the window.

“ We have two sick people in the house. And you’re bringing in more.” The cousin’s voice gritted a whisper.

The woman replied, “This is the biggest hut here. Even half the village can fit here.” 

“ It’s not the space.” The cousin tapped a finger on the table. “ It’s the people.”

“ You don’t like them, I know. But we can’t always be hostile to people from outside. I know she’s a -” The woman stopped. Sal would’ve wanted to hear more.

“ It’s that braided girl. I know in my gut she’ll be trouble. Have you seen her? She’s an arrogant girl.”

“ She fetched water for Inie.”

“ Which was my job.”

“ Extra help would be nice.”

“HOw long are they staying?”

“ I don’t know. As long as they should.”

“ A week?”

The cousin stood on the far edge of the porch, making her voice even harder to hear, but Sal pressed on.

“ I can bear the constable being around, He’s just a less louder version of my cousin and the other greenie. She’s dumb, but the braided one’s a prick.”

 The woman advanced on the cousin, “ Cursing out visitors in this house? You wouldn’t want Aldo knowing it, I’m telling you.”

The cousin closed the distance between them. “ No, don’t” Her voice went even softer. “ Alright.”

___#___

The day after, when everyone was asleep still, LEa approached the woman who was already up cooking on the kitchen. 

Sal scooted closer to the window from where she knelt. Lea fanned the stove whilst the woman chopped vegetables. When the work winded down, the woman invited LEa to sit on the bench.

They had small talk. Sal amost caught herself falling asleep until Lea spoke. “ If I may, I’d like to leave.”

The woman sat and looked at her.

Lea continued, “ Make no mistake. I appreciate the welcome and everything but I’d hate to burden you any further.”

“If this is about my husband’s cousin, I can talk to her. She’ll listen to me and to my husband.”

“ No need, Madam. “ Lea held two hands in front of her. “ I saw the villagers. They’d visit and I would only be in the way.” 

Lea never bothered being in someone’s way. Sal imagined she would have said something else, like how the villagers are stupid or something to that effect. 

The woman looked straight at Lea. “ I’ll be blunt with you. I know what you are. Rumors are the bread and butter of everyone here, such a small town after all. I let you in on our kitchen and hold the food we will put into our mouths because you especially came here for us. Inie’s been sick for some time. It is hard for us, do we have any right to choose who gets to help us?”

“ No.”Lea responded with a small look at the woman, “ I promise I won’t let you down.”