The night breeze blew colder when the boy’s face became clear. 

It was Oleon. He sat still on the chair, shoulders slumped like the bored child forced to watch on the side. She stopped herself from calling out to him. 

“Ate?” 

It still sounded strange yet warming to hear. She approached a few steps. He looked different, with the way his loose clothes hung on him. Silence reigned for awhile. 

Sal mustered the words to start a conversation. “Why are you outside at this hour? Aren’t you afraid of the dark?” She waited for a response. He seemed surprised. Mayhap, it was not the right word to say. 

“I’m not a child anymore, ate. Besides” He cleared his throat.”The night breeze is good for my health said the-” he paused. “Who said so?” 

“I just did.” Oleon replied. He held a hand to his chest and talked ever so slowly. It was too slow to Sal’s liking. 

“Are you tired?” Sal asked. She squatted on the grass in front of the teen. 

He shook his head then paused. 

“I’m fine really.” he insisted. 

She angled to look at the boy’s face from below, but he averted his gaze. 

“Ate” 

“I have dirt on my face?” 

“No, I mean just.” 

Sal sat on the cool grass, letting its leaves wrap around her bare feet and the dew on her dusty soles. 

“I’m not a child anymore. I can manage.” 

“Not afraid of frogs anymore too?” Sal held a mound on her hand, perhaps she could see his face light up in surprise like how he did those years ago so
she held one to his face.    

“There are no frogs in this grass, Ate.” the boy deadpanned. He sighed, “You should be going. The Signor might see you.” 

Sal curled up onto herself, the question again thrown back at her. “Do you hate me?” 

“I don’t want you to leave but -” he looked around the perimeter of the gate and asked with a whisper. “Please do not tell the Signor I am here.” 

“How could I?” Sal assured him. 

He paused, “He must be looking for you now.” 

She looked into his eyes, how they reflected the same uncertainty back at her. Suddenly, Sal was not sure that the Signor was not there. She looked around her. 

The ride took her back to the Casa. Sal thought at least that much but her hands and feet fell frozen at the thought. The sounds of the night alone warmed her ears. No tapping of a cane at earshot. Yet, the feeling of being watched and surveilled hounded her. 

“Ate?” the teen’s voice trembled. “Did you?” He coughed and wheezed and coughed again. He did not stop coughing as if air was being pulled out of his lungs. The boy fell from his chair. 

Sal stood, paralyzed by doubts. How has she not noticed this earlier? She knelt to help but the boy waved her away. 

A man rushed from the Casa and gave her brother the support she could not give. The man rubbed Oleon’s back and instructed him to breathe. It was a gentle voice, the voice that lured her in. “Quick! Help me get him to his room,” the man ordered. 

And like that, Sal found herself by Ren’s side again and she was melting like paste. 

He led them inside a Casa teeming with people not unlike those in the Hospicio. Sal stood outside of the door where Oleon was laid as Ren spoke comforting and assuring words to her brother and transacted with the caretakers in the place. 

“He will be fine.” Ren told her as he went out.  

Sal stayed on her spot. 

“An extreme case of a coughing fit. It happens from time to time. Probably from a sensitivity to certain elements.” 

“Has he always been sick?” 

Ren nodded. 

Sal wracked her mind, replayed the scenes over for any track or a sign of the sickness surfacing. The paleness, the boniness. Perhaps, she too thought him well and healthy like the Signor insisted he was. 

Ren took the panuelo off her shoulders and rested his hand in them.” It is quite warm inside.” 

Sal’s stomach turned as the man led her through the corridor to the main sala, held her and assisted her by the arm. 

Sal bristled at the sheer openness and exposure of the space. The sala was not as wide as she thought but there were no walls and every corridor can be seen. Worst still, nurses would pass by. 

Ren edged his hand from her shoulder to her hand. Sal shivered. 

“Cold?” 

No. She was not cold. How could he confuse his warmth? She buried her face in her hands.”The Signor might-- 

“Hush!” He held a finger to her lips. 

Sal thought her limbs had turned to liquid. The pool of needles in her stomach turned and she saw black. 

“We do not talk of sad things here. Right now, you are in a happy place.” 

Sal has always marveled at the easiness in the smile in his face and how his features all seemed so delicate and gentle like she was
staring at the face of a prized statue that was brought to life in flesh. She was awed at his knowledge of plants and birds. He was like a gentle sparrow,
untethered to the earth. And for not only once, she considered jumping with him. 

Everything, everyone around her seemed to disappear in a blob like blur. The lights around the sala seemed too bright. Almost as if
she’s being in a stage in front of many people watched by too many eyes. And the longer she stayed beside him, the more the feeling of being pulled by an
invisible force stayed. She was too acutely aware of his presence.  

“ Oh! My apologies.” Ren interjected. He was talking to the few nurses who had passed by. 

“My! Our angel is now a man.” One of the nurses remarked. 

Sal watched Ren put a shy smile as he apologized for the intrusion and engaged the other nurses with talk before asking her to go
outside. 

Sal need not be led by hand, for her body seems to obey him by instinct. They settled in the balcony on the far side of the Casa. Long swaths of small boxes, villages, and houses, stretched on the other side as far as the horizon could reach. Sal would have ran from one side of the balcony to the other, but Ren was by his side. Of course, she had to stay by his side. 

“You see that place? That is the Poblacion of Solpione . There on the right would be Agbaknang. Just outside this blue line over here is Gran Baum after Nan Baum, you cross over to the next district.” 

“Calare?” The words spilled over before she could stop herself. 

Ren paused before speaking. “Well, you will not see Calare from here.” 

Sal stretched her hand towards the horizon. Almost being pulled by a force she swore could almost tip her over the edge of the balcony
and pull her under, making her fall. Maybe she’d swim over the darkness, and when she wakes, she will find herself in a neat bed with less scratchier
sheets. She stared at the darkness below, until a male face screamed at her. Sal pulled back. It must really be true that darkness makes
you see things. 

“When I was little, I was afraid of the dark, so the Signor kept me inside a dark room. To overcome the fear, he said.” Sal clutched her
skirt. “ But the strange thing is, as the darkness got too familiar and I began to see a bit of the objects around me, I was still scared.” She spied a glance
at the man. “For I knew the Signor was still outside that door.” 

Ren would understand. Ren would not laugh at her. He would never be upset at her. Right? 

“Calare is a long, long way from here. Calare is a long, long way from the Hospicio.” He took her by the hand.” You are a freed bird, my
Sal.” 

His hands were warm, yet Sal flinched. How could she? No other man would stare at her like this man does. Yet, when he tried to touch
her cheek, all she could notice was how big his hands were that they could almost devour her face. Sal thought it silly, her silly, ugly face. 

“I am ugly. I am cursed.” Sal hid her face in her hands. 

The other man simply tore her hands away from her face and held her by the shoulders as he implored her to look at him. His bright-hazel
eyes shone even brighter at the slight light from the Casa spilling to the balcony. Bright eyes so beautiful and unique which were unlike hers, like a
rare kind of disease. Green like a mold in a polished wooden floor of mahogany.  

“It does not matter.” 

“But the Signor-” 

“ You matter to me, and that’s all that is important.” The man embraced her tight as he knelt a bit by the level that he could reach her
ears. He whispered in a low conspiratorial voice, “Consider the Signor gone for he will not bother you again. Right at this moment, he is not in Calare but
rather a jail in Gran Gapoz and if all goes well, he’ll stay there for good.” 

That very same night, Ren took her to the old house.