Chapter 1 – The Girl at Sundown
The first time Marco saw her was from the porch, stepping out to catch the breeze after a sweltering day. A girl in a plain white shirt and shorts walked barefoot along the sand, hugging herself as the tide crept in. She never looked up.
The second time was from the roof deck, where Marco liked to sprawl in a chair while the lamps flickered to life above him. There she was again, at the same hour, her steady steps tracing the shoreline like it was her private ritual.
The third time, his kite had tangled in a coconut tree while his cousins laughed and tugged at the string. Marco looked up—and saw her again, walking. Always at sundown. She glanced in his direction for the briefest moment, then turned away, leaving him with a hollow thump in his chest.
“Suplada,” he muttered, though he couldn’t stop following her with his eyes until the dusk swallowed her.
That night, Marco thought of asking his lola. But he didn’t. “Baka tuksuhin ako”,(She might tease me) he thought. So he kept quiet. And from the roof deck of The Blue House, as the lamps burned like beacons across Manila Bay, Marco stayed awake, waiting, watching the shoreline.
