Roman attends the public junior high school with Teresita in Inarajan. It’s not cheap to go to my school, St. Cletus, but my father is a good fisherman. Roman’s father isn’t. He’s not good at much of anything except making tuba and drinking too much beer.

When Roman isn’t fishing, he practices casting his rod in the front yard, repairs his net, or helps his mother. Tata says Roman is righting the lazy ways of his father.

Teresita

Hours go by and not one customer; only Roman and Auntie Bernadette visit me in the cabana.

Teresita hasn’t stopped by yet, but I should know, the chickens come first. She wants to be the best cockfighter on the island, more famous than Lorenzo, king of the cockfighters. She lives with her auntie and uncle and helps her uncle with his chickens, training and feeding them.

Around three o’clock, Teresita arrives and I feel a warmth surround me like a blanket on a cool night. It’s the way I felt yesterday when I returned to Malesso.

Teresita’s hands roll into fists. Her jaw locked, she paces back and forth like her chickens. “That stupid uncle of mine! He lost more money last night at the Dededo dome. He never closes the pen when his chickens fight.”

Teresita shakes her head when she tells me this. She believes when someone’s chicken fights, he is guaranteed to lose if he doesn’t close the cage door. She also believes people shouldn’t sleep, eat, or sweep around the chickens at a cockfight.

Teresita is superstitious, but maybe she knows what she’s talking about because her chickens always win when she challenges the boys to secret fights. It’s illegal to have cockfights without a license. Even the mayor must get permission from the governor to hold them during fiesta. Once he forgot and Tata said there was hell to pay.

Teresita acts like she could not care less that her mother is addicted to ice and lives in another village with a boyfriend. Her long black hair sweeps the ground as she walks. The boys used to pull her hair when we were younger. Now the boys tell Teresita how pretty her hair is and ask her to promise to never cut it. That’s why most days Teresita wears her hair in a ponytail or twists it into a bun on top of her head. Except during cockfights with the boys. She always wears her hair down then.

Not once does Teresita say, “Isabel, it’s good to have you back home.” Or, “How did you keep from going crazy at your cranky old auntie’s house?” It’s as if she forgot I ever left. That’s okay, though. Teresita makes the sun sink fast and before I know it, Tata will return with fish and I can close the store.

Lorenzo, King of the Cockfighters

Tata returns home early, a couple of hours before the sun sets. He says it’s okay if I go with Teresita to buy a hot dog down at the pier.