“I’m going to train him,” I said. I picked him up. He looked nervous, understanding that his life was in the balance.

“You can’t train him.”

“Why not?”

“He’s a Filipino dog. You can’t train Filipino dogs.”

“Give me three weeks.” I said. I set the dog back on the floor. “Five hundred pesos says I can train him.” What I was really saying was that Tito Iñigo wasn’t doomed, that given the advantages of an American dog, Tito Iñigo would perform equally. On some level, my aunt understood this. She knew I was frustrated by her habit of sorting all dilemmas into how things just were and how they would never be. But she also knew that this was the correct way to think.

“Fine, three weeks, no accidents,” she said. “But it’s easy money for me.” Tita Rosa grabbed my elbow and started steering me into the kitchen, leaning heavily against me. “Oh, I am forgetting,” she said, stopping. “Have you heard from Laird?”

“No. Why would I hear from Laird?”

“Remi telephoned me. Laird hasn’t come home and there’s still no word from him.”

“He wasn’t at the play. It must be the weather. Tita Dom said he was out of town.”

“He was. His plane was delayed, but it landed this morning. He didn’t show up for the flight.”

“Where was the flight from?”

“Zamboanga,” said my aunt. I helped her settle into a wicker chair. “What would he be doing in Mindanao?”

“I don’t know. Tita Dom and I saw him going into the Philippine Telegraph offices last week. Maybe they know something.”

“Why didn’t you ask him what he was doing?”

“We saw him from the window at Dad’s.” An element of the ominous had entered this narrative. Something was off—or was this just me being suspicious of Laird? I wasn’t sure. “Tell Tita Remi to call the offices of the Philippine Telegraph. Maybe Laird was on assignment.”

“I’ll give Remi’s number to you and you can fill her in.”

I really did not want to get involved, but I also knew that refusing the request of a woman in her tenth decade was unacceptable. “Let me ask some people, Tita, but I can’t promise you I’ll learn anything.”