Mrs. Johnson’s eyes pop wide. “I beg your pardon?” she asks in a Scarlett O’Hara accent.

“You’re going to have a boy. No question.” Auntie Bernadette smiles, pleased with herself.

“Well, actually I had the amniocentesis and the test results say it’s a girl.”

“No, the test is wrong. The baby is a boy.”

Mrs. Johnson rubs her lower back.

“I’ll get you some of my special tea. It will help with your backaches and later with labor.”

My face feels hot. Mary Kelly’s father is a doctor. They don’t believe in Chamorro potions and cures.

Mrs. Johnson smiles in a way that makes me think she doesn’t believe Auntie Bernadette. She smiles like she will get in the car with Mary Kelly later tonight and they’ll laugh at what Auntie Bernadette said.

Mary Kelly leans over toward my ear and whispers, “Want a cigarette?”

We sneak out of the room, slip into a bathroom stall, and smoke our troubles away.

Full Moon

Friday is a full-moon night, the best time to go crabbing. Around the island people head for the rivers and the beaches. With flashlights in hand, we go—Olivia, Frank, Tata, Auntie Bernadette, Roman, and me. The night air is warm and thick with mosquitoes, so we dress in long sleeves and pants.

Usually Roman is near Tata, but tonight he stays by me, showing off. He’s practiced Tata’s technique to perfection, even catching the crabs bare-handed. The rest of us wear rubber gloves. Roman steps on a crab, grabs it from behind so it won’t pinch him with its claws, pulls it out of the water, and throws it into the bucket.

“See, Isabel, you must be quick,” Roman says.

I don’t like to crab, but I like being out in the water at dark. Tonight the perfect round moon casts its white glow down on the ocean and the flashlights dance like tiny diamonds on the black water.

There are groups of two or more scattered about with buckets and sacks. Closer to the shore, Frank stands alone. I feel like I should go to him. But he’d move away and make his own space again.

Roman lifts another crab. “See, Isabel, see.”

“I need to help Olivia,” I tell him.

As I walk away, he calls out, “What happened to you?”

I turn. “What do you mean?”

“You used to be fun. Now you’re so serious … like an old lady.”

I shoot a look at him that could kill every crab in the ocean. And I walk away thinking how I have forgotten not only my mother but also the girl Roman says that I used to be.

Legend of Santa Marian Kamalen

The people of Malesso may eat crabs, but there are two special crabs we pay homage to. They’re next to Santa Marian Kamalen on Malesso’s flag.

One day, Olivia asked me about those crabs.

“They’re a reminder of a miracle,” I told her. “Over three hundred years ago a statue of Santa Marian Kamalen floated to our shores escorted by two crabs with lighted candles on their backs.”