I shake my head. “You only said that shestole your heart.”
“See?” Pa says, likethatcovered the whole story. “I told you.”
“You left out all the details, Pa.”
“It all feels so long ago now…” He takes a deep breath and chuckles. “But being here makes me remember. Hard to get talaga ang mama mo. Your grandparents were strict, so I had to court her for a long time. You can tell how much a fisherman wants a fish based on how far he’s willing to swim.”
I pause, trying to follow his proverb. “… So Ma was your fish?”
He nods. “My whole allowance, I spent it all buying the siopaos Beth would sell outside the school gate. I would buy her siopaos, then give them back to her as a gift,” he reminisces, and smiles. “I even asked your ma to prom during our Battle of the Bands. Played our favorite Mariah song.
“I was so happy when she was allowed to go to prom.” He takes a moment and gazes around the gym. “The dance was right here.”
Pa’s story gets interrupted when the Saint Agnes bell rings through the gym. Everyone rises to their feet and heads toward the classrooms. While I would rather stay here and catch up with Pa, he’s already asking where we should go for our first class.
“This looks different,” he says when I lead him to the other side of campus.
“It’s the new senior high building,” I explain. “I think they started construction right after Achi graduated.”
As I merge with the rest of the class through the entrance, I somehow lose Pa in the crowd. When I look back, he’s hovering and stuck outside. He attempts to walk in again and his body keeps bouncing back.
I quickly backpedal and pat the doorframe in case there’s another way to get in. “You were able to enter the other buildings just fine.”
“Maybe the new buildings have some secret ghost repellent.”
Hold on. Is that it?
Pa is able to walk through walls and enter places like the condo, the Saint Agnes gym, and Martha Toyota. The spots he struggled with have been the new airport terminal, the new mall, the new Saint Agnes building—places he had never been to before.
The few students left around us start sprinting when the second morning bell rings.
“Superstar, you’re going to be late.”
“What about you?”
His eyes smile at me from the other side of the door. “I’ll be fine,” he insists. “I can roam around, rest back home. If you need me, you can leave a message at theghostoffice.” He chuckles. “Gets? It sounds like post office!”
My feet still don’t budge no matter how many jokes Pa tells me. Nothing he says can distract me from the very real possibility that he might disappear when I leave him.
“Don’t worry too much,” Pa says, as if reading my mind. “Malay mo, Nika. I’ll be staying longer than you think.”
…
Did he say he wasstaying?
Could that happen?
Could Pa actually stay?
13
Upon further reflection, I think some higher being was guiding me in picking which classes to skip. God guided me to skip those other nine chemistry classes since he knew that attending thetenthwould provide me with crucial information.
While Ms. Abad passes out worksheets for conducting our investigative project, she gives a refresher on the scientific method.
“Throughout history, the scientific method has helped the greatest minds answer life’s biggest questions,” she lectures. “Ever wondered why something is the way that it is? Why does something work a certain way?”
I look down at the worksheet on my desk.
