When the Elephants Dance (16 page)

My brother looked at the fish my father held up.

“Tay
, you will get my clothes for Aling Lumina’s dirty,” Roger said, scowling in disgust. He made a big circle around my father and hurried down the hall to his room.

My father handed Octavia the rest of the fish.
“Oo ngâ anó,”
he exclaimed. Oh, yes. “Get dressed for Aling Lumina’s party, Roman,” he ordered as he rushed off to get ready.

In the hallway, I saw my grandfather. He stood at the doorway of his room as I passed. I did not look at him. I felt his eyes on me, stronger than the day before. I could feel his disapproval lashing me with every step I took. I chose not to meet his gaze. I gloried instead in the memory of my father’s short compliments. I had brought home a prize catch. I felt like a man. I shoved my chest forward as I walked by. I must have been a real sight, my chest like a small twig, thrust forward against the wind that was my grandfather’s eyes.

A
LING
L
UMINA’S PARTY
was in full swing when we arrived. My brother’s friends were milling about the front of the house. They were talking to a group of young girls, and Roger went straight to them, like an arrow shot out of our car.

“Behave yourself tonight, Roman, ha?” my father warned. “Not like the last time.” He and my mother disappeared in embraces and loud greetings.

“I will,” I answered, but they were too far away to hear. I walked up the stairs slowly, with my hands in my pocket.

“Hi, Roman. Hello, Roman,” the girls from my brother’s group called out to me.

I inclined my head. They giggled, and I saw my brother put away his comb.

I went inside and found my friend Eduardo Rosales near the punch bowl. He was nearly as tall as me, but narrow in the shoulders, long in the arms, and short waisted. I looked around the room. It was filled with teens. Everyone was huddled in their safe little circles. I felt a mad urge to take this girl and that boy from their safe circles and mix them up. The same way I wished to throw my American football against my mother’s imported china plates during dinner.

The sky when I looked out the window, past the swaying leaves of yellow acacia and palm trees, was a watered-down blue. As if the oil had separated from the color in the bottle and all the ink had spilled out. Clouds drifted eastward,
tinted coral by the fading sun. The others eyed me suspiciously, the older boys trying to look tough yet having to look up past my shoulders. They were wearing dress shirts and ties, or the traditional
barong tagalogs
made of fine pineapple thread. I came with a shirt but no tie, and Father had berated me the entire way. I held my jacket tucked under my arm.

“Another boring night,” I said to Eduardo. I was about to walk out of the room when I saw Aurora Martinez, Mang Minno’s youngest daughter, walk in. My brother and his friends jostled one another, sneaking glances her way. They looked like a bunch of fools talking in poses they had obviously practiced at home.

Eduardo grinned stupidly. “You will never guess what I just heard.”

He waited for me to ask what it was. I gave him a look.

“I overheard Aurora Martinez wants you to ask her to dance.”

I scowled. “She never even looks my way.” I chanced a glance in her direction.

“Well, you know what they say: When someone likes you, they avoid you even more.”

“She must be in love with me, then,” I said wryly. “Anyways, where did you hear this?” I tried to hide the hope in my voice.

“Her friends Theresa and Felicita.”

I looked at Eduardo, encouraged, “Yes?”

“Yes.” He shrugged. “She said she thought you were dangerous.”

“Dangerous, and she likes that?”

“Remember that time you ran off to visit those caves in Cavite without telling your mother?”

“And all the police were searching for my kidnapper?”

“And the time you dove off the top of that waterfall and split the back of your head like a broken water trough?”

I looked over at Aurora, standing near the punch table surrounded by her friends. She didn’t seem particularly interested in what they were saying. I looked back at Eduardo. He shrugged again, but this time with a grin.

“Okay,” I said.

“You’re going to ask her to dance?” Eduardo grabbed my elbow.

I pulled his fingers off me. “I’m just going over to see what’s going on.”

As I approached the table, Aurora’s friends began sneaking glances at me, and to my surprise they scattered and left Aurora standing alone. She turned immediately and picked up a plate. I excused myself and did the same.

“Hello, Aurora,” I said, studying the food.

“Hi, Roman.” She spooned some rice onto her plate.

We stood surveying the rest of the table. Finally she spoke again. “Did you just get here?”

“Yes, but I am probably going to leave soon. I was thinking of borrowing Aling Lumina’s boat.” I don’t know how I even thought of that, except that perhaps I was trying my best to seem wild. I wasn’t even sure if Aling Lumina had a boat.

“Don’t you like the music?” she asked, looking down at her shoes.

“Would you like some lechón?” I asked, impaling a crispy piece of roasted pig.

“Yes, please.” She lifted her plate, and I placed several pieces onto the blue-and-yellow china.

I reached for her wrist as she pulled her plate away. “Here, let me put some sarsa on it,” I offered, ladling the thick spicy sauce over the pork.

We became nervous from the contact. We studied the table again. I saw that one of the large fish I had caught had already been grilled and sliced open. It was presented on an oblong plate with red sauce and onions, garnished with green and red bell peppers. I took my fork and reached for a piece. I dropped the fork. The eye had moved.

“What was that?” Aurora asked, picking up my fork from the table. It still had a piece of fish attached to it.

I looked at her. “Did you see it, too?”

“See what? I meant, why did you drop the fork?” She placed the silver delicately on my plate and speared a piece of fish for herself.

I winced and took a step back, waiting.

“Would you like some sauce, Roman?”

I couldn’t speak. I shook my head. She frowned, smiling unsurely She closed her eyes. “Mmm, taste the fish, Roman. It is wonderful. Did you truly catch this yourself?”

I raised the fork to my mouth, all the while expecting the white meat to move. It did not, and I decided I must have been imagining it. I put the morsel in my mouth; the taste was fresh, the sweetness took your breath away. I swallowed. “This is good,” I said to her. Then, suddenly, my mouth began to burn, worse than the time I had eaten an entire bag of chili peppers. My eyes watered, and I looked around in a panic, then grabbed the large spoon in the punch bowl and drank from it.

Aurora laughed. “What are you doing?”

I couldn’t answer her. Suddenly her image blurred and I could see water all around me. I shook my head. Aurora appeared before me, concern on her face.

“Roman?”

“It is nothing,” I began, but another image blocked hers out, this time stronger. I saw the sky the same color as the ocean. There was no horizon to separate the two. It was dusk, and the water was silver blue. I heard laughter, a man’s laughter. I saw a man running in terror toward the water, away from someone, from me. I shook my head.

“Roman, are you all right?” Aurora put a hand to my shoulder.

The image disappeared at her touch. I took an unsteady breath. My whole body was shaking. “Do you want to dance?” I blurted.

“Yes,” she said.

I took her hand and walked out onto the dance floor. My brother and his friends stopped talking the minute we walked past. I couldn’t help but smile, but I was still shaken.

I placed my hand stiffly on her waist and almost jumped at the softness of it.

“Roman, you’re shaking,” she said.

“You smell like flowers,” I told her.

“Thank you. You smell like …” She paused. “Fish.”

I looked at her in surprise and we both started laughing. I could feel Roger glaring at me from the sidelines.

“Did you want to borrow Aling Lumina’s boat to go fishing tonight?” she asked excitedly. “I think that would be great fun. Would you take me?”

“Of course,” I answered before I could stop the words from swimming out of my mouth.

“When, when shall we go?”

“After the next dance? I need time to look for the boat.”

“Fine, let me just gather my things.” She rushed off as soon as the song ended. Her girlfriends were waiting, and they surrounded her like a harem, laughing and chattering away.

I walked past my brother, who called out to me. I went straight to Eduardo. He was stupid with excitement.

“Oh, my God, you really did it, Roman. You are king of the mountains. You are the head carabao.”

“Something’s wrong. I ate the fish and I heard laughter.”

“What?” Eduardo asked.

“Mang Minno, I heard his voice. He was laughing.”

“The old fisherman? But how do you know what he sounds like?” Eduardo was staring at me.

“She wants to go for a boat ride. She thinks I want to go fishing in the dark.”

Eduardo looked at me as if I were crazy. Our parents would have convulsions if we left the party. It was just not done. “What do you mean? Why would she think that?”

“Because I told her. Does Aling Lumina have a boat?” I asked, hoping she did not.

“Let us go and see.” Eduardo wrinkled his brow in agitation. I blinked at him. That was one of the things about Eduardo. He never questioned the stupidity of my requests, just helped me to achieve them.

“All right.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and followed him out. I glanced back at the table of food, but the fish sat properly on its plate.

T
HE NIGHT WAS
hot, with the scent of jasmine. The orange moon sat low above the ocean, a ball of fire smoldering against the black. The water lapped softly against the dock. Behind us, the gay lanterns of the house flickered, music played, and laughter filtered out to us.

There was a
bangkâ
, bouncing gracefully, anchored to the pier by a loosely knotted rope. The waves lifted and placed it, carried, then gently nudged the pier with its bow, in a soft drumbeat. I placed a foot in the small rowboat. The music stopped, and the water below pushed against the pressure of my shoe. I looked at Eduardo.

“Your father will be angry … no, furious. He will want to send you away to a private school. It will be so private that the students themselves will have trouble finding it. You’ll be in purgatory, the kind Mrs. de Leon lectures about, with the souls walking around with no memories, always trying to find their thoughts. The souls that starve, with plenty of food, only when they eat it, it is not enough. Never enough—”

“Eduardo …” I brought him back to me. “We are not going anywhere. I will hide the boat. We will say Aling Lumina does not have one.”

“Oh …” Eduardo’s face crumpled, and he breathed a deep sigh. I could feel his eyes willing me to change my mind, to force him to go on this adventure. I would not meet his stare. I had made a promise to myself to behave, to try to win my father’s affection the way Roger did.

I stepped into the boat. The inside was filmed with seawater, and my foot did not catch immediately, but the water took to my new shoes quickly enough. “Father will love this,” I mumbled. “Eduardo, throw me the rope.”

There were two sets of oars, still wet. They slid sideways and thumped
against each other. I thought to hide the boat among some tall weeds, when Aurora called out to us.

“Wonderful, you have found a boat. I think it will fit the five of us. What do you think?” They skipped over to the dock.

I pursed my lips together and made an effort to turn up the corners. “Let’s go.” I held out a hand to Aurora. Eduardo turned to help Felicita and Maria Consuelo, but I had already shoved the little boat away. The girls screamed, nearly falling into the water. Eduardo and the girls watched us from the pier, half smiles pasted on their faces, unsure if I would return for them.

“Too many people!” I shouted back.

Aurora sat with her mouth open. I was ready to toss her over if she complained, but to my surprise, she began to laugh. “I have always wanted to do that.”

I began to row, and as I cleared the pier, I saw my brother standing solitary on the pier, watching us in the dark. Aurora looked at me. I shook my head in silent answer. No, of course I would not go back for Roger. He would only nag me the entire way. “Let him tell if he wants,” I said loud enough for Roger to hear.

The air caught a chill as we drifted farther from shore, and you could see a soft mist swirling just above the warm waters. I took my coat and put it around her.

She shook her head and offered me my coat back. “I like the breeze. And I want to help you row.”

I took the coat, and my hand brushed hers. I felt myself smile in the dark. I could smell her fragrance, light and flirtatious. Her black hair reflected the moonlight. I felt a bottomlessness to my stomach. She reached past me for the second set of oars. When she bent over to pick them up, her face brushed near mine and I swallowed hard. My eyes could not break free of her gaze. Her eyes were dark pools of ink. Her lower lip was full and pink, like the flesh of a grapefruit. I longed to taste it.

Aurora’s brow lifted in consternation. “We have forgotten our fishing nets.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I answered, breaking free of her spell and feeling like a fool. “The ride itself will be enjoyable.”

She did not seem to notice, but the water propelled us forward as if it had a specific destination in mind. We went down a ways, following the smooth lines of the shore.

“Or, well, maybe we can use this basket,” I said to my own surprise, for I did not remember seeing the large basket when we had first stepped in.

“Perfect.” She clapped her hands. “Where was it hidden?”

I tried for an explanation, but I could not help staring at the basket in wonder. Aurora didn’t seem to require an answer. Her face was smudged from the dirty oars, but she wasn’t concerned.

“Look at the houses,” she breathed. The houses were small golden lanterns that dotted the darkness. “We should stop.” She pushed her hair back distractedly. “Where is the basket, Roman?”