A voice beside her cried, "I wish they'd hurry it up. What are we waiting for?"

           Rosario made eye contact before she responded, "For the sun to go down. I heard they're setting off fireworks of the image of the Blessed Virgin as the signal for the procession to begin."

           "Oh, okay. That makes sense. My name's Linda Kummer of the senior class choir." She extended her hands to Rosario.

           "Hi, I'm Rosario Francini, freshman. You can call me Rosie. Glad to meet you finally. I've heard so much about you." She smiled and shook Linda's hand.

           "Oh yeah? Well, I've heard about you, too. You're the famous Rosie: freshman class president, the nun's favorite pet," she said in a mocking tone.

           "Pardon me?"

           "You're the one everybody's talking about. The short timer," Linda said while looking at her from head to toes.

          "Short timer?" Rosario still looked puzzled.

          "Dahh," Linda rolled her eyes upward and proceeded to explain, "You're on way to America...Hollywood...right?"

          "Well...yes, to San Francisco, not Hollywood," she gazed at the deepening purple sky as she spoke.

          "Close enough. It's Stateside," she winked. Her straight hair and bangs framed her face, shadow hollowed her cheekbones. Linda's Eurosian features showed prominence in her light pink skin and stocky body frame.

          A rapid succession of exploding firecrackers startled Rosario and made her jump closer to Linda. They both giggled. The air hummed with the simultaneous lighting of fireworks. Rosario opened her eyes wide when small rockets took off in the night sky. A booming thunder sound gave birth to many rayed yellow dandelion flowers blossoming in the darkness. Then showers of disappearing embers followed. Sulphurous air mixed with the musky frankincense and the sweet scent of sampaguita garlands which hung around the necks of men, women, and children. Rosario inhaled deeply. Linda placed her arms around Rosario's shoulders and pointed at the last traces of the setting sun absorbed in the clouds. Rosario smiled and patted Linda's hands in acknowledgement. Little girls covered their ears when the matches were struck again, some shrieked with laughter while the little boys jumped up and down and chased dying embers. A bamboo frame with the outlined shape of Our Lady of Sorrows shone with flaming irridescent red, green, and yellow colored fires. Guitars were strummed and voices hummed. The procession moved forward.

          "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," the priest projected over the crowd.

          "Amen," the crowd answered.

          "Kyrie eleison," the priest hollered.

          "Christe eleison," Rosario and Linda responded in unison.

          "Christe, audi nos. Christe, exaudi nos. Pater de coelis, Deus, miserere nobis. Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus, Spiritus Sancte Deus, Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis." His chant cried out to the heavens.

          Upon hearing the last note, Rosario started reciting the litany of the Blessed Virgin in unison with all the other girls' voices, first in Latin, then in English, "Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis. Holy Mother of God, pray for us."

          Linda raised her voice slightly louder than Rosario's, "Mater divinae gratiae, miserere nobis. Mother of Divine Grace, have mercy on us." She looked at Rosario with exaggerated pleading voice.

          Rosario raised one of her eyebrows, a favorite gesture of Sister Eustace, the Religion teacher. Then, lifting her voice to a crescendo, she wailed in one breath, "Regina Angelorum, ora pro nobis. Queen of Angels, pray for us. Regina Patriarcharum, ora pro nobis. Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us."

          "Pray for us, pray for us," Linda chimed in between beats.

          Rosario held Linda's hand and skipped along as she chanted, "Regina Virginum, nium, ora pro nobis. Queen of Virgins, pray for us." She smiled to Linda who was making silly faces. Rosario giggled, covering her mouth with her hands.

          Sister Eustace, walking along side them, slapped Rosario and Linda's holding hands apart. "Girls, behave yourselves. One more outbursts from both of you, you'll be given the chore of cleaning up the courtyard after school." Spotting another couple of girls holding hands and swinging their arms, Sister Eustace marched to her next destination. Rosario and Linda smiled at each other, rolled their eyes up, and covered their laughter with their hands over their mouths.

          Trying to regain composure, Rosario watched the street ahead stretch before them like a highway to the sea. In the distance, the sea and the sky embraced without a seam, and in the luminous space the bright sails of small wooden boats drifted with the tide. Along the skirts of the procession, children drew rings with their sparklers, leaving red and yellow circles in the night. The sweet scent of honeysuckle hung in the humid air. Moisture laid like a protective layer on top of Rosario's yellowish skin. Palm leaves swayed with the light breeze. Walking and singing, condensed into a delicious ecstasy of vibrancy, Rosario danced on the street with Linda. They spun each other dizzy.

          Linda held the candle near Rosario's face, the candleglow illuminating the dew-like perspiration gathered on top of her nose. Her eyes, deep pools of Malaysian blood drank the light like a mirror. Linda kissed her. Rosario felt the softness of her plump lips, tasted her sweet saliva. A warm feeling crept up Rosario's belly before her own juices dampened the clinging cotton panties. She fought the urge to scratch an itch spreading between her legs. Her knees felt weak. Her mouth gasped open for air, her cheeks feverish red. The street and the commotion, everything seemed to have vanished for a moment, except for the damp air sticking to her skin. She made a gesture of joy and surprise and welcome, feeling very strange, and yet, she stayed rooted in her spot, held captive as if by a spell.

          Another girl bumped into them accidentally. Rosie opened her eyes and tried to regain balance after being shoved forward. She looked for Linda, but she was nowhere in sight. The procession moved like a river flowing towards the sea. Alone, Rosario marched along mechanically. She did not want to lose her place in the crowd. Tiny petals of white jazmin strewn from the statue carpeted the street.

          A boy playing his guitar walked up beside Rosario and strummed loudly. He waited for a reaction but none came. "Hey, Rosie. Girl, what are you doing sleepwalking?" Totoy, her grandmother's adopted son, pushed her shoulders with soft force.

          "Huh? Oh, it's you." She looked down at her shoes and watched herself crush pink and white petals on the black asphalt.

          "Oh, it's you," he said, mimicking her. "Try not to sound too disappointed." He strummed chords on his guitar as he walked beside her.

          "Don't take it personal."

          "What's the matter? Parents fighting at home again?"

          "No, it's something else." She felt her stomach in knots all of a sudden.

          Totoy quit playing and slung his guitar around his back. He motioned Rosario to step out of the processional crowd by touching her elbow and guided her to sit down on a cement seat facing the ocean.

          The singing and praying crowd continued on until they became a dull roar, the outgoing tide the new rhythm. Sweat oozed out of Rosario's skin. She gathered her hair into a bun and fanned herself with a waving motion of her right hand.

          "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you or do I guess at it all night?" His slight grin made his flat nose look more spread out in his face.

          "I don't really know what to say," she said, touching her own lips with her fingertips.

          "Hmmm." His eyes narrowed and his curly hair seemed bushier.

          Rosario stared at the waves crushing against the rocks, then as if sighing, said softly, "Linda Kummer kissed me."

          "What?"

          "You heard me." She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, her breathing rose and fell like the waves.

          "I thought I heard you say that the half-German girl kissed you." He moved his head closer to Rosario. "Did I hear right?"

          She suppressed a smile and nodded, without looking at him.

          "Look at me, Rosie. Tell me, did you kiss her back?"

          Rosario felt his brown eyes searching for something, not in what she was about to say, but from what he would find in her eyes.

          "I don't think so. Why'd you ask?" She looked away with a frown, suddenly irritated at something she could not name.

          "Rosie, listen to me. I'm fifteen now and you're barely thirteen. There are some things I know that you don't know nothing about."

          "I disagree..."

          "No, no. Don't interrupt me. I'm older than you, so trust me when I tell you that girls who kiss other girls are sick. Haven't you read that in the Bible? I thought they awarded you a First in Religion medal last year."

          The salty moisture stung Rosario's eyes. She took out a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and wiped the trailing perspiration off her face. She breathed as if her lungs were filling with water. She sighed, "Sick?"

          "Yes! They are ... because ... because they'll never have babies." He put his hands in his pocket with an air of finality.

          "What's babies got to do with a kiss? Why do I feel like I committed a sin, but I don't have a clue as to what it is?" Her voice rose to pitch bordering between hot temper and tears.

          "Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just telling you the facts of life. The Blessed Virgin married Joseph, not Mary Magdalene. Get it? You're a funny girl. I like you, cuz. Come on." He offered his open hand to her. "Let's go, if we run we'll catch up with everybody."

          She stood up from the hard seat and straightened the pleats of her skirt. "You go ahead and run after them. I feel too hot to run tonight. I'll just walk back to the church's courtyard. That's where everybody will end up anyway." She forced a smile, lips pressed hard against her teeth.

          "Okay, suit yourself. Anytime you want to talk ...I'll be around." He patted her shoulders and smiled, his white teeth flashed in the dark.

          She nodded her head like one of those dolls with eternally bobbing heads seen in the back seat window of a passing car. Rosario listened to the waves crashing against the mossy rocks, to the crickets hiding in the bushes, to the breeze caressing the coconut leaves and her moist skin, as she headed for the church courtyard.

          The courtyard brimmed with little children waiting for the blindfolded child to bust open a claypot full of candies and coins. Chorus of disappointment echoed in the walled yard when the blindfolded child swung hard but missed the target. At the front doorstep of the church stood Linda, a red bud of rose in hand.

          "Hi," Linda said in almost a whisper to the approaching Rosario.

          "Hi," Rosario responded, without looking at her.

          "I just ran off to get this for you." Linda stretched out the hand holding the rose.

          "For me?" She looked at her with girlish shyness as she held the rose to her nose and breathed in its musky sweet perfume.

          "Just for you, Rosie."

          "Why not for the Holy Virgin, instead?" She watched Linda's mouth grow a smile.

          "Because that statue doesn't respond like you." Linda pointed to the white plaster of Our Lady of Fatima. Layers of sampaguita garland hung on its neck, roses laid at its feet. Scraps of paper from blown bits and pieces of firecrackers scattered amidst the blooming gardenia nearby.

          "Please, don't talk that way. We're on the front doorstep of God's house. It's sacrilegious." She searched for ears eavesdropping on their conversation. Everyone else was busy watching the blindfolded child swinging madly at the air, searching for the claypot full of candies.

          "Sacrilegious! What are you talking about," she said with a laugh, moving closer to Rosario. Rosario stepped back in reaction.

          "My cousin, Totoy, said we're sick." She made eye contact with Linda.

          "Ah, that sounds like something he would say. You're cousin's an idiot! He told one of my friends that you're not really his cousin, so it's okay to go after you, that it's easier that way. He told my friend, he'd like to make you pregnant so that you'll send for him when you're in America." Linda breathed hard, her nostrils flaring. "He's the one that's sick. Who does he think he is, telling you we're sick. He's not a goddamned doctor. Do you feel sick?" Linda touched Rosario's forehead, feeling her temperature.

          "No, but I feel...scared of something I can't see...I feel strange...different all of a sudden. " Her damp face felt cool when a light seabreeze wisped by, her throat suddenly feeling choked, her eyes blinked moisture in.

          Linda hugged her warmly and stroked her hair. "Please, no...don't cry. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to be your friend." She held Rosario's face up and wiped her tears with her fingers.

          Rosario laughed all of a sudden, wiping her runny nose on her handkerchief. "God, sometimes, I just get this wierd feeling. She looked at Linda's eyes and continued, "Yesterday, I was running around naked, playing in the rain with my brothers and sisters. My mother hollered at me to get back in the house, she rapped my head with her knuckles, told me to dry up, get dressed, and never play in the rain without my clothes ever again. I felt so embarrassed, uncomfortable."

          "Sort of like the way you felt after I kissed you?" Linda asked, her fingers brushed the stray strands of Rosario's hair.

          "Yes," Rosario looked at her feet and said in barely a whisper, "I've never been kissed on the lips before."

          "Never? Not even by your parents?"

          Rosario shook her head no. She watched a mother carrying a toddler dressed in their Sunday's best. "I remember my Mama blowing bubbles on my tummy when I was little, my Papa pinching my cheeks until I cried. I remember Father O'Grady rocking me on his knees and kissing the top of my head. Other than that...no one really." She smiled impishly.

          "I've watched you kiss the Blessed Virgin," Linda's mouth curled into a mischievous grin.

          "Yeah, I kiss Her, Her feet, not Her lips. Not like the way you ..." Rosario blushed.

          "That makes me feel special," Linda kissed Rosario's hand. Rosario felt warm and awkward.

          Little children screamed with delight as the blindfolded child finally hit the target. Candies and coins dropped out of the busted claypot. On their hands and knees, children scrambled for as much as they could find.

          "Do you want to walk by the seashore?" Linda asked, not letting go of Rosario's hand.