Meanwhile, my father is still fixated on Seph’s siopaos. “If you’re not going to accept your sweetheart’s gift, I’ll take it,” he teases.
My cheeks immediately flush at Pa’s “sweetheart” comment. When I whisper to Pa to cut it out, he keeps teasing me to accept Seph’s siopaos and reaches for the box. But instead of his hand slipping through like it does with all solids, his fingers actually… make contact. I turn to Pa and notice how his body is less pale. It’s like his body is slowly filling in with more and more color. The white robes he’s been wearing morph and cling closer to his body so he starts looking like he’s wearing a white suit. It reminds me of when I got hooked to an IV in the hospital and saw the fluids course through the tubes. Instead of the chalk-white complexion, Pa’s hands are almost the same shade as mine.
No one else in the bakery notices that my ghost father looks like he’s been brought back to life.
18
“Do you see him now?” I ask Kayla after I pass Pa a slice of ube cake.
From my bed, Kayla squints at where Pa’s floating, then shakes her head again. “Sorry. Nothing.”
I sigh and cross out the ube cake bullet point from our list.
Ever since Pa regained the ability to hold things and his complexion turned back to pre-ghost normal, I’ve been rewinding the moment at the bakery, listing down the events that led up to Pa’s transformation. Using the trusty scientific method, I’m trying to rule out all possibilities.
My first hypothesis: If I give Pa more siopaos, then he will turn visible.
After showing him dozens of siopaos with different fillings and flavors, I used my deduction skills and moved on to other items in the Buns by Beth menu. We’ve tried pies, cakes, some more siopaos to be safe. No matter what dessert or pastry I hand to Pa, he’s still invisible.
Kayla pokes the pastry when I pass Pa a croissant. “Ma would tell Father Melvin she witnessed a miracle if she saw floating bread.”
She still can’t see Pa, so she’s been fixated on how the pastries look like they’re flying when I give them to Pa’s ghost. I tell Kayla to focus on the task at hand, and she says, “I don’t need to see Uncle Ton to know he’s there. I believe you.”
“Seeing is believing, Ky.” I then ask her again, “How about now?
“Are you sure you don’t see him?” I ask Kayla again.
Pa waves his arms in the air while Kayla rubs her eyes and concentrates. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”
I get distracted when Pa does a warrior pose. For the last few attempts, Pa’s been playing around and doing different yoga poses when I offer him the pastries.
Pa then lies horizontally and starts wiggling his whole body. “Look o, this is called the worm!”
“You seriously don’t see anything?” I check with Kayla.
“Is he doing something new?”
I groan. Why isn’t the scientific method working???
Pa stands upright and says, “Maybe we shouldn’t read too much into this.”
“No, I’m sure that had to mean something. Your body was still white before Seph gave me that siopao box.”
Kayla’s eyes widen. “I didn’t know Uncle Ton was white.”
“Notwhitewhite. Like, ghost white.”
“Like White Lady white?” Kayla asks, her eyes growing even bigger.
I sigh and distract her by asking about her fruit basket again.
When I messaged Kayla that Ma’s siopaos might’ve turned Pa’s ghost more human, she arrived at the condo with the fanciest-looking fruit basket. It’s wrapped so elaborately that there are even ribbon bows on some of the apples.
“Do you wanna try the bananas, grapes, mangoes?” Kayla twists the basket so we get a view of every angle.
“Where did you even get the basket?”
“My parents were supposed to use this for the offertory at Sunday Mass.”
